Gremlins, Guns, and Greensleeves

The week has passed quickly and has been fairly enjoyable. Classes have been fun and I have managed to get a lot of things done.

Today (Friday) proved to be an amusing day for a couple of reasons. Firstly, an Associate Professor (with the obligatory tweed jacket) visited Hisawa JHS to watch a live online English lesson which our school does in conjunction with Benesse Corporation in Tokyo. What would be the worst thing that could happen when an esteemed professor comes visiting? Yes, gremlins. We were not able to carry out the class today as our connection to Benesse HQ in Tokyo had crashed. It was so funny watching the embarrassment and awkwardness of the professor and other teachers that I nearly soiled myself. Quality!

At lunchtime, I decided to eat with the 3rd grade students. They all seemed to be in good moods despite the pressure of upcoming high school entrance exams and their looming graduation in March. Whilst eating, I sat and chatted with the students and made the odd joke. I asked the boy sitting next to me what he had planned for this weekend. The student answered that he was going to shoot me on Saturday. I assume that he was joking and therefore will give him 10 out of 10 for originality. Usually when I ask this sort of question I get some sort of stock answer e.g. I'm going to watch TV. It's not often you manage to get a joke from a student so it made my day in a Clint Eastwood kind of way.

This week I have been irritated by the general level of noise that goes on around the staff room. My irritation has been triggered by the new ring tone that plays on the school phone every time it rings. The tune is Greensleeves but is reproduced in a tacky electronic way - I'm sure you can imagine what it's like. Not only is the tune annoying but it is really loud.

Because the phone noise has been annoying me, I've become more sensitive to the other noises in the staff room. This week I have noticed the lack of noise control exercised by the teachers in the staff room. Frequently, teachers communicate by shouting, even when they are standing next to each other. I didn't really notice this phenomenon before and I'm hoping that I will cease to notice again next week. On one occasion I was sitting at my desk listening to various shouted conversations and considering borrowing the decibel reader from the science lab.

What do I have planned for this weekend and next week at work? Hopefully I'll go to Takatsue ski area on Saturday if it doesn't rain. We'll probably go to Aizu Wakamatsu on Sunday (although I have forgotten the reason for the trip).

Next week seems to be a very easy week at work. As you can see by my schedule, I only have 5 classes in total with none on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The classes that I will attend are shaded in yellow on Wednesday and Friday. I am not bothered about having so few classes next week as I have plenty of other things to keep me occupied at the moment. Monday will also be really interesting as a very famous Egyptologist will visit Hisawa JHS and give a lecture on his work and findings. I'm really looking forward to this as I have always had an interest in Egypt and its history. Even though the lecture will be in Japanese, I'm sure I'll be able to glean plenty of information from the Egyptologist.