the second time around

It's been a little bit more than a year since I started teaching in Japan and up until 5 minutes ago, I'd taken nothing but comfort in the repetition and predictability of school-life this semester. I haven't felt lost or out of the loop when everyone disappears from the teachers' room and I know all of my students names...smooth sailing. Then, for today's lunch, we were served the same exact dessert that I wrote about in this post last year and I felt a pang of loss for the new-ness and everyday excitement that characterized my first year on the JET Program. The rabbit-shaped jelly was still cute, but not as cute/interesting as it had been last year when a handful of teachers had explained it's significance to me. hmmm...now that I think about it, I hope that my students don't feel that way about me sticking around for a second year!

To keep them on their toes, I've recently started wearing these lovely green Crocs as my "indoor" shoes at school. Although I've seen them around Japan, my students are obsessed with them and they continue to dominate our conversations even after several weeks. I think that they're almost offensively ugly, but they're incredibly comfortable and perfect for my lifestyle at school (sometimes I'm on my feet all day, sometimes I lounge at my desk for 7 hours). I'm starting to think that I should import a shipment and sell them from a kiosk outside the school gym...

Finally, a lot has happened in the past few weeks, but I haven't blogged about any of it. The truth is that I've spent excessive amounts of time writing "sports day" posts only to have my Mozilla crash on me not once, not twice, but three times. I'll try to get them up asap!