Chris’s Blog

The summer is finally over. The days are getting cooler. School has begun. I didn’t really get up to much over the summer holidays as my credit card bill is equal to my pay check this month. I have got to start pinching pennies and save for the wedding.

School started yesterday. Looks like I have another great school. There are around 550 students, which works out to around 15 classes. The school won the Chiba prefecture kendo competition, and won bronze for the Kanto region. They are also very good at track and field, and there is also one girl that won something for surfing. Unfortunately for me they don’t have a badminton or tennis club, so I will have to make do with soccer and volleyball.

The teachers all seem nice (So far) and there are a few around my age (or they just look young) - so hopefully we will have a few things in common.

Self Introductions start today. Luckily I have a double stay so I don’t mind too much. I made sure to commandeer the computer room because it’s much easier to present in, and it has air conditioning

Moved into the new school on Monday. Seems good so far. There are around 680 students, or 19 classes. Going to be a boring two weeks of self introductions. The trip here is a lot less painful than the previous school, its 2 minutes on the train to Chiba (from Honchiba) a 4 minute wait for another train to Inage (about 5 minutes). From Inage its around a 7 minute bus trip and a 2 minute walk. I can finally wake up at a semi reasonable hour (6.40).

I have moved on to my next school, Amado Junior High. The kids here are amazing. During the assembly on Monday (my intro speech and some other stuff for the new first years) not one of them made a peep. I could actually hear my heart beating they were so quiet. It kind of freaked me out; this is probably the first school I have been to where an assembly took place without incident.

It’s not only the assemblies that are like this either. I went to see a P.E class and noticed that they were all warming up instead of pissing about before the teacher arrived. It’s a strange feeling, I don’t know if they are actually doing this because it makes sense (more time to enjoy P.E class I guess) or if they have been brainwashed or something. It’s hard to tell if I am going to enjoy this school more than some of the naughtier ones but it is certainly going to be easier teaching them English.

The one thing that sucks about being here is that I have to take the same damned bus that I took when I was visiting Hanamigawadaini. I have to get up just after six, leave at around 6:45, take a bus and train to school and arrive around 7:45 - 15 minutes too early. Still, I guess it’s not a bad habit to get into, even If it’s only going to last around 6 weeks.

Self Intro Progress: 4 down, 9 to go.

Just arrived today, luckily it is a Monday. Only a half day for me. There are around 270 students, nine classes in total. Seems like a nice school. The kids are similar to those at Kaizuka, but on a smaller scale.The journey to school is much better too. While it took almost an hour to get to my last school, it is only taking me about fourty minutes now. Furthermore I only need to be at school at 8.15 instead of the usual 8am. This means I can wake up at a more reasonable 6.45.I need to get some photos up! A text only blog looks boring. Ill post a photo of my servers or something later on.

Too late! I should have written about this ages ago. Its not really the new school for me any more now that I have been here since school started again after the summer break. Its quite a new school, but the trip in the morning is horrible. Its almost a full hour to get to school, and there is only one train I can take in the morning, and then another 20 minute walk.

The students are / have been great and I am looking forward to the time I have left. The teachers here are really nice and seem to get along with the students well too. The English level is also fairly high. Makes my job easier

Its not that I don’t like introducing myself, its just doing it 18 times in a row. Still, the new school isn’t the biggest in Chiba. My mate James had to do 27 classes. So on average, I reckon maybe 60-70 a year. Its slowly improving, but still super boring.

I wish the duration at each school would be longer, because its not only a drag for me, but the schools. For example, I’m the second alt in this academic year at Mitsuwa, meaning that approximately 36 classes have been used (this year) for A.L.T self introductions, followed by 72 classes used for the students self introductions (Assuming it takes two classes to prepare and present).

I’m only at this school for 6 weeks, around 30 academic days. On average three classes a day, thats 90 classes during my stay. Take out my self introduction (18) and the students self introductions (36) - thats only 54 actual classes, or about 9 each - and thats not including the last day.

Its not very efficient to have two A.L.T’s doing only 6 weeks each in a year. But thats the way the onigiri rolls. HA Super Lame!