Jeanneabeck’s Weblog

I go back and forth between being great at staying in contact with home and not.  This morning I was reading some random articles on the BBC world news website and saw an article about Japan’s recent earthquake. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8194563.stm  At the same time I was talking with a Japanese friend who’s living in the US who said she promptly called her parents after reading about the earthquake in the newspaper.  It was at that time I realized I probably should’ve at least written on here at the earthquake was interesting/annoying/woke me up/etc. and that I was ok.  So, sorry family members.  The earthquake wasn’t a problem at all.

It hit around 5am and was enough to wake us up.  I rolled over, hugged Ryan and said “Protect me from the earthquake, k?” and we fell back asleep.  When I woke up for work around 7 I thought, “Did that actually happen?”  That was the biggest earthquake I’d ever felt but in all actuality it wasn’t that powerful, at least where I lived.  Nothing fell off the shelves or anything, I just looked up for a few seconds and saw that we were being shaken a little. 

I’m getting my days confused now because of summer break but I believe that was the day we went to the bus stop at Iida Station to say good bye to our two students who will be exchange students in America for one year.  Talk about leaving with a bang.  I’m sure they’ll have fun telling their host families about Japan’s earthquakes once they arrive.

What are suppose to be the dog days of summer here in Japan have surprisingly been quite rainy. Summer break began Wednesday and students will have no class for the next three weeks. It’s a big difference from the 3 months I’m used to receiving back in the US, but I suppose having shorter breaks is better for students because they’ll remember what they learned. A lot of students are coming to school every day anyways to participate in their clubs which I still find funny even though I’ve been in Japan exactly one year now.

Anyway, what am I doing at school during summer break? Well, as a teacher the only way you can get out of coming to school every day is taking time off. A good number of teachers are gone from the office out on vacations, visiting family, or just taking care of personal stuff around town. While this might not sound like the funnest thing to do, Ryan and I decided that since we don’t have that much extra cash on hand and will want extra vacation in the coming months for going back to America, visiting other parts of Japan, and other countries that I’ll just go to work every day during summer vacation. I actually have a lot to do here which include editing 40 essays from the 3rd year students on their study trip to Australia, planning for the next semester, and reading ahead for my next semeter’s worth of graduate classes. It can be a bit mind numbing at times having no classes to teach and nothing but the sounds of volleyball and band practice filtering into the office from the open windows, but whenever I start to loose focus I’ll turn to my blog or whatnot to reawaken my mind.