The start of a new school year!

Well it's been a while since I have posted something for a while. Actually I have been quite busy at work lately. It's been raining as hell the past few days too. It always seems to rain in the morning while I ride my bike to school and about 5:30pm when I get ready ride my bike back home! lol Oh well!

So, as for school. Three English teachers were transferred to another school. So we have three new English teachers. I have met them all and they are all very nice. One of them sits right behind me. She is a very nice lady and we have chatted a few times. As for my schedule, I will officially start my first class of the new school year on Monday. I will work with a new teacher in addition to the others that I currently work with. I am very excited to work with her this year! This year is already looking to be a great start. I have also met most my of my 1st year (freshman) students. They all seem quite "genki" (excited,happy) to be in English class. It looks to be that most of my 1st year students from last semester are coming back for another round of English classes with me!!! I really enjoyed those kids, so that will be a lot of fun. Overall it's going to be great this year!

Tuesday I started to assist the basketball club in coaching. We did some shooting drills and passing drills. Afterwards we played some half court games. I played with them for about 5 games. I am focusing on helping the "center" player get stronger. I figure if he can score on me then he can score on a Japanese high school kid in a game. Today we played full court games. Since we practice with the girls team, we played a 10 min game then the girls played a 10 min game and so on. We played 3 games, and I can tell you I was dead tired afterwards. Those kids are quick! I told them to give me a month to get back into good shape and we will run all over the place! haha It was really fun, and I don't mind staying till about 6pm. I am supposed to leave at four, but I would rather just hang out with the students and help them with their skills! After a few minutes of chatting up with the volleyball players I grabbed my stuff from the teachers room and went home in the rain. haha It's quite funny sometimes, because occasionally I will glance at the door to the gym and there are usually a few teachers gathered just staring at us play basketball. I guess they were all surprised to see that I can play. I have no idea what they were gawking at, but I don't mind. There is always a random "binsu, do a dunk shot!" And I will throw down a dunk once and a while for them. :) Anyway, this is something that completely enriches my experience here. I think sports is a great way to communicate with students even if our cultures are so different. I will keep you posted on what happens. Tomorrow we have a short practice at about 2pm. I'm already looking forward to it!

Tomorrow is also the return of the infamous "happy time" party. Honestly, I can't wait to get my eating and drinking on. I haven't done much of that lately, due to sheer volume of activities I am involved in. So I will get down with that tomorrow and have a blast with my co-workers. I might take a few photos of the party so look for that coming in the next few days.

So did you like my amateur video slide show? It has been viewed close to 90 times as of now and I have no idea who has watched it. Well, except for my cousin. Let me know what ya think. If you like it, then I will try to make some more movies in the future. What else would you like to see? Give me some ideas. Sometimes I think that writing about my life could be boring to you. ahh I'm blabbing again sorry... :(
I added a crap load of new songs to my music play list. Check it out, you are bound to like a song or two there. And most likely you haven't heard any of those songs before. ;)

Oh by the way, I have been reading this excellent anthology of science fiction short stories (thanks dad). If you are even remotely interested in science fiction stories about first contact, technology and reflections then give these books a shot. The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume 1 and 2. I would recommend them! Ok, long post today! Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon! maybe... :)

peace

vince