In the end, January
wasn’t too cold. It snowed a few times, but it only piled up twice, and it
still wasn’t that cold—I think -8C (17F) was the coldest it got. In February
though, it has gotten down to -14C (7F), which is really cold when you sleep
next to a door that isn’t sealed well in a building without insulation. Things
are wrapping up at school. I only have one more class with sixth graders,
because they graduate from elementary school soon and apparently need the last
two weeks to prepare for that. Classes will become fewer at the junior high
school too, so my class load will diminish.
I had two amusing
interactions with young elementary students on the way to or from work. One of
the schools where I worked last year is in between my house and work, so I usually
pass several students on the way. One day, I passed a few first graders. One
of them ran to catch up with me and asked me if I had a beard. My hat/shapka is
very furry, so I can understand their confusion. I unbuckled it and said “no!”
and we all laughed. I walked a little further and they ran to catch up with me
again, and we talked:
C: “Can
you speak Japanese?”
Me: (in
Japanese) “a little.”
C:
“Speak!”
Me:
“ohayo gozaimasu” (good morning)
C: “Ooh,
even though you’re American, you speak Japanese!”
Me: “Can
you speak English? Hello?”
C:
“Hello!”
Me: (in
Japanese) “Oooh! Even though you’re Japanese you speak English!”
C:
“Oooh! You spoke Japanese again!”
Then on
another day I walked past a couple of second graders. They said hello to me, and
I asked if they remembered me (since I taught them last year). When they looked
puzzled, I cried and pointed to myself and said “Joshua-sensei!” And then they
recognized me, maybe. We exchanged some more pleasantries, and then I walked on.
I was actually in a hurry, but they ran to catch up with me, so I acted like they
were stalking me, which they enjoyed. I should have written down the whole interaction,
but it was a week ago so now I don’t remember the details.
I have continued
my resolutions more often than not since the beginning of the year, but I have
found that I need to find things to do on days off lest I get distracted and
fall back into bad patterns. My last holiday until school finishes is this
Monday, so I’m hoping to use it to clean and mock-pack, as well as work on
schoolwork. I have been looking into getting rid of my stuff, and I’m worried
about my bicycle and all of its related items. I put a lot of money into them,
but the only sure way to get rid of it is to sell it at a secondhand shop, and
apparently they give very little money for used bicycles.
Today I
learned that I am (once again) very blessed to be in Shiojiri. Here we have a
kitchen in each school where our school lunch is made, so it’s fresh and generally
delicious. In Matsumoto, there is a school lunch center which makes food for
all the schools in the city, so it’s usually cold by the time it arrives at its
destination school.
