Another update, hehe

Yep, things are going pretty well, and I just have so much to write about!

Today, I taught at one of my elementary schools, the biggest one, and it was...AWESOME! The English teacher there helped me out so much, and not by leading the lesson or anything, but by supporting me amazingly. When I read cards with Halloween words or sports names on them, she would take them from me and put them on the board with magnets, repeating after me to get the students to say the words as well. She gently initiated demonstrations between the two of us of how to do some of the exercises and worksheets. I was just amazed at how easily and modestly she took the back seat and allowed me to lead the lesson, and in the end it was only because of her helping me so much as a back-up that we were able to get through the entire lesson plan on time for both periods. The classes at this school are huge compared to the 9 students in the combined 4th, 5th, and 6th grade class at one elementary school and the 12 or so students in the combined 5th and 6th grade class at the other elementary school. Today I taught a class of about 30 5th graders followed by a 6th grade class of about 25, and we made it through the entire lesson plan, which was made at one of the small schools. I couldn't have even imagined that after my first day of actual lesson-giving a couple of weeks ago in which I was either finishing 5 minutes early and using the back-up picture book or barely finishing on time. I thought for the first time today, "This must be how team-teaching is supposed to work," as well as, "Hey, I think I'm starting to get used to giving lessons!" It was a very exciting day. I never thought I would love teaching so much, but I was very happy after giving today's lessons.

Tonight's English conversation class was also pretty cool. The highlight, besides all the awesome explanations of prepositions and word origins from the main English teacher (I'm serious, I think this guy is really interested in etymologies and the like. I've learned so many cool and interesting things about English from him.), was when one of the members mentioned she was in correspondence with a friends of hers, also from Japan, living in L.A. Apparently, she's some kind of teacher, maybe of English (which would be really interesting). I ventured to ask the class member if she knew where her friend lived in L.A. and she said she didn't know. But then, she took out a post-it and started reading an address off. I looked at the paper and, lo and behold, her friend lives in La Puente! What the heck!? I got to explain to the class then that lots of cities and streets in the U.S., at least in California, have Spanish names, and also that lots of Mexican-Americans (yes, I've been using that oh-so-neutral term just because it's a lot easier for most people to understand than Chicano or Latino, plus it's surprisingly self-explanatory) live in La Puente, including some of my relatives. I'm still working on how to explain that there are lots of Latinos in general in Los Angeles, and not just Mexican-Americans. That was a cool point, though, in today's lesson. It came completely out of left field; I would never have predicted it, haha.

I finally took out my trash which had been collecting way too many little flies. I hadn't taken it out the first chance I got because the trash bag wasn't quite full, and I didn't want to waste it. Then, I missed trash day the week after that. Ew, no good. I was looking forward to today, when I could finally put my trash out to be taken away tomorrow, all week. :)

That's about it. Maybe I'll get some more sleep tonight.

Oh yeah, I found out I have an English bulletin board in the middle school hallway all to myself yesterday and set out immediately to make my Dia de los muertos bulletin. I finished it today, and I'm pretty happy with it. I've had some pretty cool conversations with the other teachers about the holiday so far and it's only been a day and a half. Some of them compare it to Obon, which I have also done, and really the two do have a lot of similarities. The whole life-death cycle, making the day a time of lively celebration, and the ubiquitous use of skeletons is pretty different, though, and draws a lot of attention. Besides that, the two main comments I've heard from kids is, "yabai," which means "crazy" in the most colloquial sense, describing how people paint their faces like skulls, and "oh it's not Halloween?" But interest in better than nothing! The English teacher I work with wanted me to write katakana (the Japanese alphabet used to write foreign words) so students would know how to pronounce "Dia de los muertos," but katakana English is bad enough (see earlier entry - "doguzu," "catosu"), I didn't want these kids speaking katakana Spanish, too (although I think Spanish has a lot more similar of sounds to Japanese than English). So I tried to write some kind of pronunciation key in Roman letters (is that what it's called in English?). It came out alright, but whatever, I'm not worried about that.

I'm a little nostalgic for Dia de los muertos this year, but I'm looking forward to hearing about it and seeing pictures from my family. I hope they enjoy it a lot!

Time to get ready for bed. Oh yeah, the Daily Show was really funny today. It totally expressed something like my feelings about how news channels just put random people on t.v. and interview them to push points they want pushed (and that they're owners want pushed) with its segment, "Who the F@#k is that Guy?" Hilarious.

Bilarious.