I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight.....Back to school

Today was the first day of class... my first day teaching :) I only had 2 classes today, so it's an easy day. My first class had 20 something students in it. We started off with 'hello, how are you?' standard greeting. I had decided to ask the students some questions in the hope that they would speak to me. I caught the first girl completely off guard, though haha. I asked her what she did for summer vacation and she looked for a brief second like a deer in headlights. Overall, they were good though. Kind of quiet, but not as quiet as I thought. After I asked them a few questions, I handed out a worksheet I had made. A crossword puzzle with questions about me. I first had them guess the answers. I asked them what they thought my favorite color was, and both classes guessed white, blue, and yellow (in that order lol). I asked them how old they thought I was, and they actually guessed 25 (first class) and 24 (second class) which I think is the first time in my entire life somebody guessed my age as something other than 12. So yeah.. I had them guess things. I had to call on people because in each class there was only one or two students who would actually raise their hands and volunteer. But once I called on them, they would answer. Very quietly haha, but they would answer. After guessing some answers to questions, I showed them my powerpoint I made about myself. It was cool.. they paid attention. One kid in first period fell asleep but I think one out of 30 or so is an okay ratio. The timing of the lesson worked out very well actually. I had been a little worried about that. In the second class, I had a little time left over, but I filled it by asking the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Apparently the two classes I had today were the higher level classes, which would explain why they did so well. In my second period class, there was one girl who had studied abroad for a year in the US... Silver Spring, MD of all places haha. She was cool. If no one else would answer questions, I knew she would. In my first class a boy with spiky Japanese hair was the one who always asked questions. It was kind of comforting having at least one student that would respond. They all seemed attentive though. It's probably just a very early class. After the second class, one of the girls came up to me and asked me about my necklace and where I have been in Japan. She was really cute and really shy, but it was cool that she came up to me like that.
Things I need to work on for coming classes: speaking slower! it's a huge pain in the butt trying to constantly think about speaking slowly and and I always end up sounding really silly. Sometimes I think I'm speaking slowly and then the teacher says 'slow down!' and I think 'gaaaaaah.... slower????' But I know what it's like to try to understand rapid-fire Japanese (not a fun experience) so I'm trying to pay more attention to myself. Me and my crazy Yankee fast talking.....
Overall, good first day:) I now have the rest of the day to continue my Facebooking and reading and whatnot. I'm reading this book called Freakonomics and it's really good, so you should read it too. It shows more or less how society works... what is at the core of problems and solutions... relationships between random things like schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, how much parents matter, why drug dealers live with their moms, the relationship between crime rates and legal abortions. Really interesting stuff. Read it now.