Reliving Glory Days

I've been at my junior high all week and it's the first time in months that I've even been here at all (let alone for a week straight), so I'm really enjoying it. I LOVE the students here. Like, I absolutely love them. They make my heart glow. And besides being completely fantastic in their own right, they become additionally endearing for how completely and unabashedly they adore and idolize me. In ways, this school is a microcosm of a nigh-ideal world: all the girls are completely in love with me and all the boys worship me, I am slightly revered for my magic language powers, I am given a good and important job to do (and often allowed to do it), I'm gaining some camaraderie amongst the other teachers, and there's free coffee every day (of course, it sucks). But I know, it's not a complete world here - and that's why I've got a date with Yuu chan when I get off work! Woo hoo! It is a good day.

Somehow I had forgotten about the actual teaching part of teaching in the several weeks of interim we've had since real classes. In addition to being gladly reminded of the fun rewarding side of it, I'm remembering that it's also drop-down exhausting. I taught periods 1-2-3-4 today and I'm BEAT. One of the classes was totally great - I got the handicapped class today (just two students this time) and went in to teach it with our new vice principal who was SUPER SUPER NERVOUS, and it was the most relaxed easy time in the world. We got to just hang out acting silly in English. It turns out I'm pretty good with being relaxed with kids and teaching them stuff. In the past I remember having a lot of self-confidence squalls when it came to interacting with kids I don't know, or kids I think I don't undersnatd what to do with (like kids with mental handicaps, for instance), but I'm getting more relaxed about all of it now. It probably helps that I'm totally like a little kid half the time anyway. But kids are awesome, they got like the best ideas ever about things. Like, kids haven't forgotten you don't ever need a reason to be enjoying yourself, you can just be having fun and that's ok. Today after lunch I spent like twenty minutes hitting a volleyball up in the air with kids. We didn't even have a net. Just a ball, and we'd keep it up in the air. Guess what? That's still totally fun. Like, it didn't stop being fun after we stopped being teenagers. Simple fun stuff is still simple fun stuff. In fact, I think I'm going to go remind myself of this by interfering with table tennis practice. I like to make them play with me (they're all insancely good) and do things like bank it off the wall or tennis serve it from across the gym. Rule breaking - it's the most important thing I can teach these children about American culture, for goodness sakes. Is that not my job? IS THAT NOT MY JOB?!?