おともだちになってくれる？

So last night, I went salsa dancing. I met some JETs and this adorable Japanese gal named Mai outside Sannomiya, and we went to this place where this hispanic guy who speaks Spanglanese was giving lessons. Apparently they do a different kind of dance every month? This month is Salsa. It was very fun and made me very happy. Afterwards, we went to dinner at this sushi place that was really good and actually pretty cheap. I had ebi (shrimp), salmon, tuna, and cucumber. I wanted yellowtail, but they were out. I'm fairly certain my favorite quote from anyone ever was from dinner, when Mai said the guy she was interested in 'Looks kind of like Ewan McGregor, but also Stitch.'

This week the students come back to school. They had summer break, but actually now they're in the middle of a school year, because their year actually starts in April I think. It's kind of funny coming in the middle of everything. It's also been a bit complicated as far as lesson planning, because I've been trying to find out what the students have done so far this year, and none of the teachers can give me a concrete list of vocabulary or grammar, so I'm a bit lost for now... at least until I meet the kids and can talk to them and get an idea of what they know. For this week, though, the lesson is just going to be my self introduction. I get to introduce myself 14 times. BAH. I made a cool powerpoint and a crossword puzzle to go with it. I'm probably going to ask the students questions too... hopefully they will speak haha. I've heard horror stories about silent Japanese students. ::cross fingers:: If they don't say anything, I suppose I can just pretend they are my customers at the Cheesecake Factory who like to pretend the waitress isn't speaking to them only with my class I can't say 'yes? no? mmmmmmmmalright!' and walk away. We'll see how it goes..........
So yesterday all the teachers came back. Technically teachers still work over summer break, but a lot of them do take their vacations, or they are coaching sports or something so you don't see all of them until school starts. I had to introduce myself in front of all of them. Yamashiro sensei had helped me translate an intro into Japanese. I don't think I've ever been so nervous to speak in front of anyone. Normally I don't have any problem speaking to large groups, but this was SCARY. I think I was just very intimidated by all the teachers I didn't know, and I was going to be speaking in Japanese which, when you're nervous, has a tendency just to look like a bunch of syllables that don't mean ANYTHING. And then I had to sit up front, which made it even worse. ugh. I was actually shaking during my speech which was sooooo dumb. Stupid nerves. It made it even more scary for today... I had to introduce myself in front of all the students. It was cool seeing them all come to school this morning. I've seen them around, but in small numbers for their clubs and whatnot. Today, they all came in, and everybody went to the gym for the opening ceremony... which is a loose term to describe basically just an assembly. I was already nervous before we got to the gym. Luckily the other ALT Andrew was there to talk to and I didn't feel as horrified as I did the day before. The teachers spent about a half hour going through the students and checking their uniforms. If anything was wrong with their uniform they were sent home, and there were a few students that were kicked out. (I was neither sent home, nor written up... which is a new thing for me :) ) After all the students were situated, the principal did an opening speech, which was apparently a really metaphorical speech about dreams. Then I was introduced, and I had to get up on the stage and as soon as I did, my heart started pounding and I swear I felt like I wanted to run away haha. The principal said a couple more things and it was all muddled together cuz of the echo in the gym which made me freak out just a bit more. I was quite the internal mess. I gave the same speech I had given the day before... only this time I started out with a little bit of English which helped me calm down a bit. I read the thing straight out of my notebook-my public speaking professor would have been mortified- but I was able to look up a couple times. Overall, it went better than Monday so whatever. I do feel kind of dumb but I think once I start having class and the students start to know me better it will be okay.
**side note to Greco: Remember how you were always mad at me during public speaking because I never had to practice and just made everything up on the spot? Well, this is your karmic retribution**
Even though the students are back today, class doesn't officially start until tomorrow. For today, the students are cleaning the school (no janitors in Jay-pan), and I am Facebooking/trying to think of better lesson plans/blogging/reading/studying Japanese/whatever passes the time and makes me look busy. yay.