countdown to the school festival

Taught several more classes last week, with variations on the self-intro lesson I already described, or time spent checking students' English speeches. There's a speech contest near the end of September, and everybody is getting ready! I think it's even more fun when I edit a stack of them at my desk in the teachers' room, because I can spend time really sussing out what they're trying to say. I look at it like a puzzle (and sometimes, it really, really is).

Have also been pushing through with the ESS (English club) kids. Some of their drawings look really good (particularly because they seem to have foisted off most of the actual drawing on this one artistic girl Nao, while everybody else just colors). We're getting down to the wire, though, and there's still several things to get done! If they haven't finished the pictures when we meet this afternoon, there might be trouble.

Some friends and I were going to make a little pilgrimage to the beach on Saturday, but it was raining pretty much everywhere within several hours' drive. So we convened at Good Bar on Friday night to rework our plans, and settled on going into Kameoka for bowling et cetera.

The mini-trip was much fun. The group was myself, Nelis, Tim, Brad, Yuki, and Yuki's nice friend Tan. We even ran into Kristin at the train station, so that the entire foreign population of Sonobe (read: five people) just so happened to be standing on the same platform at the same time. Tim dodged out to do some shopping while we bowled, with I and Yuki on one lane, versus the remaining three on another. Though my first game was miserable, I earned the title of 'Most Improved,' while Yuki was the all around MVP. (Followed closely by Brad and Tan, who are also pretty good.)

Then we got purikura and played around in a nearby arcade, where Tim rejoined the gang. Games were played, and we stopped in at the bookstore for a mo, and then we had to get back to Sonobe, because Yuki had an appointment to keep. We did go get dinner, though, at a good little restaurant by the station that I hadn't previously known about. Half of the menu is Korean food! I am excited to go eat chichimi sometime...

Even though it was medium early, we all went home after dinner. I can only attest for myself, but I was feeling pretty tired, for whatever reason.

Yesterday (Sunday), I was productive around the house. I did some laundry (including bed linens), the dishes, unclogged my shower, sorted through (and trashed some of) the precariously large stacks of paper I've acquired since my arrival, vacuumed the living room and my bedroom, took out the trash, and just generally straightened up. I felt like such a good kid by the end of the day, and my bedroom looks soooo much cleaner now! It's nice to sleep in.

Today is back to school, and back to work! One more intro lesson, and some work with the ESS kids this afternoon. In between, I'm also trying to keep tabs on Hurricane Gustav - hope everything turns out okay!