Back To Work

Monday 2nd April

Back to work today! Woke up at 7:00am, had udon for breakfast, got some coffee and lunch from Lawson, and arrived at school. First job today was downloading the 3rd and 4th grade digital teaching materials onto the classroom laptops. The computers in the 3rd and 4th grade classrooms are a lot faster. Spent the rest of the day continuing to sort out cards and tidy things up. Got off work early again at 15:30 and went home and did some laundry.

Tuesday 3rd April

Woke up at 7:15am, had rice for breakfast, got coffee and lunch from Lawson again, and arrived at school. Spent the first hour of the morning finishing up the last of the little cards, and then moved onto checking that all the materials needed for the first few weeks of lessons were all there. I also started on making a crossword puzzle for the English board, and also printing the class photos I took at the end of last term for the board. It was actually pretty nice today because the other teachers were all in the big staff meeting, so it was just me and the other “non-teacher” staff in an empty staffroom. Got to talk a lot with the librarian and caretaker, it was really nice getting to know them more! Since I’ve been here for a while, I feel like I’m finally getting to know the staff a bit more personally (not always just school stuff). The staff meeting stretched past 3 hours (!!!) and then the teachers were finally able to come out for lunch. Lunch was also very nice – the conversation was a lot more free flowing. Maybe the teachers are just more open during holidays? Lunchtimes when school is in session are definitely not so fun and open. The teachers did their desk switch around 14:30, and it was interesting because I thought they would move their stuff to their new desks, but they were actually all shifting their actual desks around, so that was fun to watch. I guess it’s easier to just move the whole desk with everything on it, rather than having to pack all your files and computer and stuff. Got off work at the normal time of 16:00 since I actually had some work to do towards the end of the day.

Went home to drop off some stuff and get my hard drive, then headed back out again to a supermarket near an ALT friend’s place. She took me to this local fruit store that she always goes to that’s SUPER CHEAP (by Japanese standards, so it’s like normal fruit prices in NZ almost) that I’ve been meaning to go to for a long time, but just never seem to find the time to actually drive out that way. Got some apples, golden apples (first time seeing these for me! We only have red and green apples in NZ!) and strawberries (!!!), then we drove to another ALT friend’s house for movie night – Lord of the Rings all the way!

Wednesday 4th April

Woke up at 7:15am, had rice for breakfast, moved my summer tires into the car boot so I could get them changed after school today, bought lunch from Lawson, and then drove to school. Our tea-lady had brought a big box of strawberries to share with us all again! They were all so perfect and sweet. Our school is really lucky to have her, cause I heard from another ALT that their tea-lady also has a strawberry farm, but she brings her strawberries to sell, and not just give away for free! Started off my work day with making all the name tags for the classes, and that actually managed to fill the whole day for me, because I had to cut and retie all the strings cause they’re too long (the nametag always ended up hanging just under the desk so that I couldn't see the kids’ names). At 9:00am I tried to call the Gunma Traffic Centre to book the appointment for changing my drivers license over to the Japanese one, and I finally got through (after calling multiple times) at 10:30am to book an appointment for May 21st! I was told that you aren’t allowed to select your appointment time by another ALT, but I was allowed to choose thankfully, and got a Monday which makes it easier for me to take leave since I don't have classes on Monday afternoons. So glad I managed to get a booking though! The line was truly insanely busy. Got off work at 16:00 and went to Autobacs to get my engine oil changed and also book an appointment to get my tires changed.