Weid...

I was walking to the grocery to pick up lunch this morning and I saw a car...accident? It wasn't really an accident, but it was very strange. See, there is this odd building set up. There is a small road that leads to the front of the apartment building. Next to the road is a raised parking lot. It's about 2 feet higher than the road. If you can visualize that, horay, if not...whatever. :-P Anyways, apparently someone had pulled too far forward and his car was hanging over the little ledge. IT was one of the very little cars so it was kinda cute and the poor wheel was just hanging over the edge. Im suprised the car didn't topple over! Anyways, it was weird. I wanted to get a picture, but the embarassed driver was there and I didn't want to make it worse. When I came back from the store, they had gotten the car un-stuck so everything was fine.


Speaking of cars! This is the car that James got for me to drive to Kisuki and back. It's the yellow tag type which means really really thin! I feel like I'm a giant when I am sitting in it. It starts to shake and the engine gets really loud if I go about 60 kph. Heh. Cute! It's a 4wd car though, and it's interesting how it feels differently. I can definitly tell its 4w instead of just front wheel, which is the only thing I have ever driven before. I will try to get a picture of me standing by it so you can see a frame of reference!

Now! More pictures that I thought you might find interesting. They are really crappy because they are camera phone pictures. I also took them quickly because people were thinking I was insane. Anyways, this is a ricefield that has been harvested by hand. This is one of the methods of drying out the rice...stalks? The rice grains have already been 'threshed'out.




The train ride was really interesting because we went through so big rural areas and there were rice fields upon rice fields that were being harvested. Some had machines, some were cutting the rice by hand. It was really cool to see the little old ladies in their bonnets and little old men working in the field. In case you didn't know, its really the old folks who care for the fields. I don't know why. Its just what they do.

Classes are going well. This entire weeks classes went well. Even my poopy seniors were not SO awful to me this week. Of course, I have assigned them a project that they are having to plan for in class. That helps with getting them to do things. I had my sophmores do a small dialogue project and they did better than I expected. So that was cool. And I only had one 6th grade class this week due to sports day being on Saturday. And class went well. My kids, they like me!

Speaking of good news, I have some! First of all, I last week the office lady ran up to me and handed me an envelope. Inside was my "paycheck" for the month of August. It was my normal salary...yet I didn't go to class even once. Woo! I love being a salaried employee! It's so cool! Even MORE cool is I found out how highschool in Japan works.

Now remember, having to teach the seniors is the one really really crappy part of my week. I REALLY dislike them. They are rude, noisy and make it really hard to get anything done. The worst part, is that I can't discipline them! Though I have gotten to the point where I am going to make one student stand outside next time he's so disruptive!! Anyways, back to my happy news. Seniors take their year-end finals in January! That means, they don't have class after January for the rest of the school year. They are given time to study for college entrance exams. They don't have to come to school if they don't want to. There are optional classes, but they get no extra credit for those classes! Woo! That means, come January, my classes are going to get a LOT better. Only the students who want to learn english will come and the rest will leave me alone. Hooray! And the best part? My salary will remain what it is thanks to being a 'salaried employee' and I don't get paid by the hour. Hooray!

Good news, right? Hooray!

Anyways, thats really all that is going on right now. Chris's computer has been sent back to America because all the service shops in Japan refuse to even look at it since it's an american coputer. I understand, but it's really really inconvinient AND it cost us a bundle to get the computer sent to America. Stupid customs tax. :-( Hopefully it will get fixed quickly.

I hope you guys had a lovely week too!