Just call me .... disaster.

So, today was my first day making up my own lesson. I had been planning it for about a week. In my head it played out as FUN! Exciting! COOL!

Today, it was... huh? what? Wakarimasen..... 40 faces giving me the "deer in headlights" look.

The lesson was... To review directions, giving and receiving them as someone lost in Chicago and trying to find their way to Millennium Park. My problem was, I choose to large of a challenge, I assumed more than the students could comprehend and even though I felt the lesson was easy, I needed to make it even more simple.

So, my goal is to somehow repair the disappointed outcome with an interactive game. I have rearranged the desks to resemble the streets and buildings of Chicago (as best as a desk can do that...) I hope Japanese kids have as colourful an imagination as I do, otherwise this lesson is down the crapper.

What other failures have happened?
Hrm... Ah! Hiked Mt. Aso this weekend. Mt. Aso is an active volcano on Kyushu Island, about an hour and a half drive from where I live. It should have been pretty great, except that Kyushu is on the radar for a typhoon and the rain and moisture meant that the volcano was barely visible. Did that stop me from trying to hike this unpaved mountain in my brand new penny loafers that have no treads on the bottom? HELLZ NO! I did, it was exhausting, so much so.. my hosts dutifully pointed out in English and Japanese, how much I slept in the car ride. Young, you say? Sure I can climb a mountain like I am young... but boy does it poop me out! Guess I wasn't much fun to the 50+ year old chaperons who wanted to take me on this adventure. (Not an FML or anything... it wasnt THAT dramatic..just noteworthy)

On a happy note! Found an international food store to get my nutella, pasta sauce, and mac n'cheese fix. Also found that when randomly deciding to go bike around willy nilly during typhoon season, to bring a poncho. to come decked to the nines in rain gear.


Well, that's it for today. Gotta work on that lesson!

P.S. I hate typhoon season.... I mean wtf? Its like the sky is laughing its ass off at me... it rains for the 10 minutes I need to be outside to bike to work and once I enter the building it freak'n stops raining!!!! Gahhhh!!!