Ahhhh!!!! Last day of school, last night in Misato... for almost two weeks... I am a bit stressed trying to get my act together. Tomorrow and Friday I will be in Shiojiri (a few towns from here, also the home of the evil Drivers Lisence Place and the almost as evil Driving School... more below) for a two day AET training meeting. My supervisor and I are presenting a workshop on team-teaching. I had full responsibility for planning since next week is mid-terms and on top of that all of the teachers were required to be observed by the principal and other school higher ups... they've been out of their minds busy. So, I had one of our classes with the 1st graders video taped and we will be talking about our (rare) ability to actually share most of a class (as opposed to JETs who are shoved in a corner and dusted off for a couple of minutes of pronounciation practice, etc.). Unfortunately, I have to stay for the rest of the conference, too. Six long workshops, all the exact topics from last year.. most of the same people (minus those who went home and plus the newbies... same atmosphere though the names just change). We are required to stay in the nasty hotel at the center even though the Japanese English teachers who come are not (Jaclyn and I tried to get out of it last year but were harassed with constant phone calls to our school and Board of Education asking if we were sure we hadn't made a mistake and could make it back to the center for the second day... I decided to give in this year and save myself the hassle). We also have a curfew, have received an e-mail requiring us to wear suits (I refuse on account of my going directly to Thailand from the conference and just on stubborn-ness), and spent the two days last year being berated by the organizers and keynote speaker for being immature, responsibility shirking, messy post-college students on a free ride. Needless to say, I am dreading this meeting and for some reason feel as if I'm not being treated as a professional. Probably out of line but... (yeah right).

On to the more fun stuff!!!

Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving went really well. It was exhausting- we cooked from about 1pm to 11pm on Saturday and from 1pm to 6pm on Sunday. It all got done though, and I have pictures to proove it. It was a great time had by all... which could have been slightly related to the amount of whiskey in our pecan pies. (hehehe)

Driving Lesson: Did I say fun stuff? Yeah, I'm sure this topic will be fun one of these days (perhaps if I ever GET my lisence) so I'll just leave this here for now. Last night was my first (and hopefully only) driving lesson. It was mortifying, stressful, and completely and utterly annoying. First of all, there are the transportation issues, but I crabbed about that last week so I'll let you find that yourself. Here's how it went: I am all checked in at the front desk and have my file. The 5:38 bell rings and a happy voice tells us its time for all of us 5:40 appointment people to find our cars. I leave the building with 10 or so others and try to find my car- #1 according to my computer generated slip. There are a lot of cars. Everyone else has found theirs and I get nervous so I run back into the building and ask where the hell my car is. They show me on a map and roll their eyes as I'm leaving (ok, I could just be projecting here...). I run back out into the parking lot and find my car because next to it is standing a little man who looks annoyed and like he's waiting for someone. I've already lost face... we get in the car and do a tiny bit of small talk. He tells me to start the car & back up. After waiting for the woman in back of me to move, I start backing up and am in the middle of straightening out the car when he grabs the wheel and starts reprimanding me for the way I hold the steering wheel. Apparently, in Japan it is against the law to turn the wheel in an underhand grip instead of overhand. He is shocked the test folks didn't say anything to me about it. We practice holding and turning the steering wheel. We're 5 minutes into the lesson and I already know the next hour is going to hurt (but I suppose I should have guessed that at $100/hour). So then we drive around the corner. Oh- have I mentioned that this is a closed course? We're practicing on this course that is supposed to be a duplicate of the course at the testing facility- except it isn't and I'm totally confused. We've done a full lap when he says "Aizu". I figure he wants me to look in my mirror, (Japanese pronounciation of "Eyes"?) so I do. He says "Aizu! Aizu!!". I madly look around, both sides, in all mirrors and he's just yelling louder. Finally he crams on the break and as we jerk to a halt in the middle of the road he reaches across me and yanks on my turn signal. "Aizu, Aizu!!!" "You don't know how to turn on your turn signal???" Uh, ok... I'm really peeved at this point and of course his personality type isn't one to let me defend myself and we go do another lap. This time when he starts yelling "Aizu", I get only briefly confused and sort of manage to get my blinker on before he breaks on me again and we have the same conversation. Try #3 is a total disaster because though I have figured out what he's yelling, I don't know why, since he hasn't told me where and which direction to turn. I have no idea which blinker to turn on and he crams on the break again and just shakes his head. I'm practically in tears and utterly confused. He opens his glove compartment, gets out a book and shows me pictures of how in Japan, if you want to turn, you must turn your blinker on about 5 miles ahead of time, look behind you, and then three seconds later move over to the absolute rightest most right section of the lane. Then he asks me scornfully if we don't do this in America? Well, no, sir... we don't have to get over in the lane (though we may actually have more than one lane in which case we'll change lanes, but... and EYES MEANS EYES!!!!). Gah... so, the rest of the lesson went pretty much like that. We'd somewhat managed to speak the same language by the time I finished... but I don't think he sounded too hopefull when he wished me luck on the test. I wonder if they put bets on who will be back for more lessons?? Oh brother... it was terrible. Please Lord, let me pass so I never have to go anywhere near Shiojiri again!!!

Exhale.

So I leave for Thailand on Saturday morning. That thought has been sustaining me through 2 months of driving crap, 3 weeks of no classes and utter boredom, and two weeks of very little "going right". I am incredibly in need of a vacation. We will be in Bankok a couple nights and are also visiting the old capital city of Ayutthaya, going hiking in a junle national park, and spending two days on an island doing NOTHING. I will be a very, very happy and relaxed camper.

So hopefully I haven't spread my stress... to show that I still have my sense of humor, here are two students' journal entries for today. They both made me laugh- out loud. Its all about the little things.

Dear Ms. sherman
Today it was sunny, but it was very
cold in the morning. So I put on my
mother's gloves. I felt warm, and I
think I'll use gloves tomorrow again.
From Saki

Dear Ms. Shaman,
I studyed English.
I'm difficulted.
From Keisuke.