workin' hard...

The shokuinshitsu (staff room) at Minami junior high school -- also known as: "have I seriously been sitting at this desk for 7 hours?"

While I don't always have a ton of classes, I usually have something to do... not this week. Wednesday and Thursday are final exams and I am restricted to the teachers' room. During the first semester I was able to lesson plan and fuss around during exams, but my JTE and I have planned our final lessons already and my time passing method of going upstairs and playing with the kids is also useless because they're less fun when they're stressed. For example, on Monday I ran around with this little toy from The Nightmare Before Christmas (it's one of Jack Skeleton's heads.) I may have mentioned this before, but anything Disney is a sparkling beacon of wonderfulness here and even boys hang Mickey Mouse charms from their Buzz Lightyear pencil cases. Paraphernalia from Nightmare is no exception and might even be extra cool because it has more of an edge to it than, say... the Little Mermaid. So anyway, holding this toy innocently in my hands as I walk around draws junior high school students like you wouldn't believe. Of course, they all want to see/hold my little toy, so while they gather around with excitement and curiosity I draw it up to eye-level to give them a better look, then SURPRISE! I squirt them in the face with water. heh heh.

And with that little lesson on effective methods of cross-cultural communication, I'll return to my regularly scheduled programming -- staring at the wall and chain-drinking green tea.