Don Quixote and German Tents

Okay, time for another quick and unremarkable post.  I’ve continued my hectic work schedule of going to six branches a week and getting home at 11:30 most nights.  I had my final “Tea Time in English” with two more Shimon teachers and we all agreed to have “Beer Time in English” next time we are all free.  The leading choice for venue is a converted greenhouse/tent thingy in a rice field that serves German beer.  It’s like three blocks from my house and it never occurred to me that a red, yellow and black tent could be a German restaurant.

Well mid-terms are coming up and that means several of my English conversation classes may canceled this week.  I’m not too bummed as these are my toughest classes, which combine 7^th and 9^th graders.  Not 7-9^th graders, just 7^th and 9^th with no 8^th graders.  It’s a very weird mix, especially considering most of the kids don’t know each other and have never been in a class where they were asked to speak English.  Last week we went around the room saying our favorite pets and it took about 2 minutes for each kid.  Come on Timmy, just fucking say “cat”!  My other classes are going pretty good though, and most of the elementary kids are starting to speak out.  They especially like it when they find errors in the power point presentation.  This week there was a slide with a picture of an orange umbrella and the Japanese subtitle said “white cat”.  I got a big rise out of the kids by pounding my fist on the screen and insisting that it said orange umbrella.  The power points are made by my supervisor, who is a really neat guy and a total workaholic, and are finished on average about 3 hours before the classes are supposed to start.  For some reason they refuse to just buy a text book.

Well the weekend has come and gone, and with the rainy season looming, I decided to get out as much as possible.  I went hiking in the mountains yesterday, and I walked around Gifu city today.  That’s the capital, which has like 500,000 people and is 12 minutes on the train from me.  All the main streets have like 5 stories of straight concrete on either side.  I bought a few new ties at a store called Don Quixote, walked down a river for a few miles and got home just as the other Americans were heading out to eat hamburgers.  We have one really good burger place in town where they play Elvis all the time and show Popeye cartoons on an old TV.  Very nostalgic.  Alright, hopefully I’ll do something other than work and wonder around this week.  See you all later!