Sensei and Sensibility
Thursday, May 16, 2002
A Day in the Life
6:30am: alarm clock buzzes. I sleepily push the snooze button and immediately one of two things happens - either I fall back into a deep slumber or I guiltily toss and turn for a few minutes.
Get out of bed, shower, put on a CD and get dressed, make instant coffee, and putter a bit getting the garbage ready. You see, they burn garbage here, so it all goes out on different days - cans one day, glass another, normal burnables another and plastics another - resulting in garbage day being every day here - and all of it has to be at the curb by 7:30
I feel jealous that all the other teachers have parents or housewives at home to make them breakfast and do their ironing. At least I don`t need to make my own lunch...
7:45 - depart for school. Dodge other cars and cyclists and walkers and old ladies pushing baskets on the narrow, winding road - all the while praying that there won`t be an oncoming car around the curve.
7:55 - arrive at school - turn on my computer and grab some green tea from the plunge pot. Have yelled "ohayo gozaimasu" (good morning ) to everyone until my voice is hoarse. Check over my daily schedule and make sure that there have been no changes.
8:15 - the bell rings. Some days this means that the morning meeting will start now, some days it means that it will start in 10 minutes. I haven`t figured it out yet. When the morning meeting starts, we all stand at our desks in the communal staff office and yell "ohayo gozaimasu!" again and bow in unison. Then people stand in turn and announce things while I stare off into space and daydream about the novel I am reading. Then all the teachers mill about, while I check my e-mail. There are 15 messages and I hope that at least one of them will be from a friend who just wants to say hi and fill me in. I don`t have to teach 1st period today, so I manage to send off replies to all except for the ones I am still thinking about.
9:35 - first period has ended and I must go teach the 2nd year students. Today we have a fun game planned, so I hope the students are energetic. I grab my materials and make my way to their classroom. They stand up when we enter (I team teach with a Japanese teacher) and bow in unison shouting "onegaishimasu" (meaning "please" or "please teach us today" in a broader context). The students are energetic and love the game - I joke around with them and use big gestures. It is soon 10:25 and time for class to end. They shout "thank you, see you again" and bow to the other teacher and I as we leave to go back to the office. I grab more tea and go to the washroom (green tea just zooms on through!) and gather my things for the next class.
10:35 - teach the first years - they have to write their own self introduction today, so I am bombarded with shouts of "sensei" (teacher) to translate or check for spelling. They copy my example on the blackboard almost to a "T", with some differences. I said that I like hiking, and one of the boys says he likes "poo" (and he does - he draws little steaming cartoon piles of it on everything). I say I am married to Brad Pitt, and they write that they want to be so and so`s boyfriend (which usually gets a lot of shrieks from the other students). I say that I am 27 years old and they say they are 103. They are my favourite class...
11:35 - time to teach the third years - they are much quieter than my third years were last class, but they are more lively with me now after I went to Tokyo Disney with them. Still, doing anything is like pulling teeth with them. They seem to like today`s activity though - we are making little folded fortune tellers - you know, those paper things that fit over one`s fingers and the person has to choose a number (or vocabulary word) and count it out (or spell it out) while the person holding it moves the corners back and forth. Inside, we`ve put fortunes under the flaps like "you will have no hair" and "you will marry Ayumi Hamasaka" (a famous singer here).
12:25 - Back int he teacher`s office - time to clean my hands and serve school lunch with the other female teachers. ahem. No comment. I want to choke one of the new women in my office who always runs to get the male teachers a cup of tea to go along with their lunches while us women have to grab our own.
12:40 - time to eat, being very careful to say "itadakimasu" first (thank you for the food - loosely). I tend to read the Canadian on line newspapers and check my e-mail again now.
1:00 - time to clean up the lunch plates and stuff
1:10 - cleaning time starts. I have to clean the upstairs meeting room/language laboritory with two other students. One, I think , is a bit slow, for she spends al‚?ost the whole time wiping off the teacher`s podium... I usually sweep up all the eraser bitties from the math classes that were held there.
1:35 - time for 5th period - once again I have to teach the 2nd years and they like the game we are playing (giving and receiving directions - they have the same maps but with different missing information, and they have to give directions to each other to fill in the place names).
2:35 - yay - my teaching day is over - I surf the net for a bit, catch up on marking, check what classes I have tomorrow and prepare for them, or I prepare for my radio show or adult class tonight. I also socialize with the teachers and drink some tea.
4:00pm - I can go home now, as the day is done for me technically. However, I still have marking to do and some photocopying for tonight`s adult class. The other teachers are all gone, running the practises for the Music, Volleyball, Baseball, Tennis, Table tennis, and computer clubs. CLub activities end at 5 or 6pm and the other teachers usually stay at school until around 6:30 - if they have finished their marking and stuff - otherwise, they stay at school until much much later - no worries - their wives or parents will make sure they come home to a nice hot meal...
5:00pm - still not done - make a mental note to myself to come in early tomorrow (yeah, right!) to finish off the work - I still have to make flashcards for friday`s Elementary School lessons. Note to self - bring markers and cardboard tomorrow.
5:10pm - at home I change into track pants, check and read my mail, and start cooking dinner -a toasted tomato sandwich with a spinach salad. I don`t have time for much else because I have to go to pottery tonight at 7:30.
6:00pm - finished eating and cooking and doing the dishes and have about an hour of free time before pottery - I pick up the novel I am reading and flop down on the couch to read. Right now, at my busiest time, the only night I have free is Monday - on Tuesdays I do aerobics and flower arranging (starting at 6:30), on Wednesdays I have pottery class, on Thursdays I teach my adult class, and on fridays I have to be gone by 6 to make it to my Japanese class an hour away. It`s not so bad - not like I can understand what`s on TV anyhow....
9:45pm - come home from pottery and try to get the gunk out from under my nails. Pick a room and tidy it and get stuff together for tomorrow. Have a banana, take my vitamins, and do all those other "going to bed" rituals.
10:45 - lie in bed and read - thoroughly enjoying some peace and quiet. Oh No! I forgot to pack the markers! Run around to do that and remember loads of other stuff I forgot.
11:00 - try to read again, and in 15 minutes I am almost asleep - so I reach over, grab one last sip of water, and turn off the light.
 Sabine . 12:41 AM . Comments
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