First day of school

Yes, I have not been doing any "proper" work until today. For the past 3 weeks, I have been going in to school but surfing the internet or trying to study Japanese during working hours. Today was D-day.

I had to give a short self-introduction during the school assembly this morning. It was a little intimidating, getting up on stage and looking down at the few hundred pairs of eyes. But anyway, that went smoothly without a hitch. A sweet Japanese teacher complimented me on my "nice speech" (but they'll never say bad stuff to you anyway) and I got some friendly hellos from students. In case you're wondering, yes, I did my self-introduction in English.

My school is supposed to be one of the top schools in Niigata prefecture and the students are supposed to have a better command of the English language than compared to other Japanese high school students. The girls at my school wear the longest skirts I've seen on Japanese high school girls ever! Their skirts actually reach their knees!! But being geeks doesn't mean that they do not leave their long hair untied and wear make-up like other Japanese high schoolgirls.

Then I had 2 classes in the afternoon. They were both with year 1 (15 year old) students. I had to conduct them solo because the Japanese English teacher, whom I was supposed to team-teach with, was attending some seminar. Anyway, the classes went ok. I enjoyed the first class coz the students were a lively, responsive bunch. The second class was a bit more dull coz the students were less interactive.

Oh, and its quite funny to see students bowing (actually bowing! Upper body almost 90 deg bent! The last time I properly bowed to teachers was probably in primary school) to me as I was cycling to leave school. And they were polite enough to cross the road before overtaking me on their bikes so it isn't so obvious that I was being overtaken by hordes of students. Really sensitive of them...