First Day of Teaching!

Before I forget to write something about my pictures you can look at them on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lalust/ It is easier just to post them there than trying to post them here. If you have difficulties let me know and I will try to help you. There aren't very many right now, but more will be coming.

Now about my first day of teaching. People have been telling me that I will have really big classes, at least 30 students in all of them. Well, boy was I surprised when I walked in and there was only 6 in one of them and 5 in the other one I taught today. The other weird thing was that these are really my Monday classes (yes I know it is Wednesday), but they have Monday's today and Wednesday's tomorrow b/c there are more Monday and Tuesday holidays and we need to hold each class 13 days. (There is no missing classes in Japan - if you do, you make it up on a Saturday if you have to.) My first class went well though. The students didn't really talk much at all, but they seemed to understand - well I hope they understood. My second class was the one that I had the most fun in. Normally on the first day the students go to class hand in these cards that they have to fill out they get the stamped copy and I keep the other. Well, in my second class student A came to hand in student B's card, b/c student b was job hunting. Well, their English is not very good, and I got really confused and had no idea what they were saying. Then one guy called student A a goat, which now I know why, but then I was wondering why he was calling him an animal. (Not the car!) So I was confused, and they were trying to draw pictures. Finally, after about 10 mins I figured out that student A was not going to be in my class at all, he was there for student B. Crazy! Oh and my classes so far - ALL BOYS! (None are very cute though.)

Today I also had the pleasure of meeting the Dean of the college. (Very nice man.) I don't have a clue what he said half the time. Kiuchi-San was there interpreting, but he only interpreted the parts about me. So, the rest of the time it was just the Dean and Kiuchi talking together and me standing there look dumb probably. OH WELL. It is amazing how many other people I have met today - can't tell you any of their names at all. Don't even know if I would recognize them if I saw them again either. There were so many. (Oh and Kiuchi is the person who is in charge of me - and Kiuchi is his last name. Toru is his first but we call him Kiuchi-san.)

There are two different campuses that go with Nihon University. I teach on both, Mimomi (this is the campus that has my office on it) and Okubo campus. They are about a mile apart from each other, and neither is more than a mile from my house. So I can walk to school or ride a bike. Today I rode my bike to Mimomi took a shuttle (for teachers - free) to Okubo, walked back to Mimomi to get my bike and rode home. The worst part was the 6 flights of stairs to my one class. The bike ride wasn't that bad either - although, it is a challenge riding a bike with a skirt on with the wind blowing. I have no idea how many people I flashed today, but probably more than I wanted to.