The penultimate week before Christmas

The title is accurate, I suppose, but my week really didn't have anything to do with Christmas. It does, however, contain some good stories, after writing one of them, I think I'll just make this post about Tuesday. But first, apple juice is amazing. I have these vague memories of feeling pretty indifferent about apple juice as a kid - probably because it was healthy, and not as exciting as orange juice - but now it is completely delicious. I've been drinking it all week, and I even made a late-night run for another carton tonight before I started writing this just because I was craving it so bad. yum!

Ok, so, the week: it really kicked off on Tuesday, when I came in only to learn that one of the English teachers had hurt his back the night before. Unfortunately, all three of my classes for the day were with him, and I was asked if I could go ahead and teach 2 of the lessons myself (to be fair, it was the same lesson to two different classes)- the other English teacher was going to take care of the last one. Emphasis on 'myself'. It turns out that there were no other teachers available to even be in the room during one of the lessons, and there was a possibility that a teacher might show up for the other one. Also, the teacher who was absent never really goes over lesson plans with me (I have this hunch that he doesn't really go over them himself - he kind of just does it on the fly) so I had to build some kind of lesson plan, in about 2 hours. The lesson plan was the easy part, the hard part is figuring out how I would actually run the class: its as if the class had a substitute teacher, who didn't speak their language, and who isn't actually a teacher at all - I don't really have much of that, how do you say, authority.

But no time to worry about that, because as I'm running through my newly build lesson the hour before my first class starts, a student comes running into the teacher's room looking mildly distressed, and says something rapidly to the secretary. The secretary then turns to me and tells me that I should probably go to the gym. If you are confused at this point, good. So was I. I thought I deciphered something about how I should go because I was a dude (this all happened in Japanese) but I headed on over to the gym...to help break up a fight, apparently.

I arrive on the scene to see the vice principal (who is also a PE teacher - hence the gym - and used to be an English teacher - so I can kind of talk with him) trying to get between two boys who really don't want anyone in between them. Again, I am not really an authority figure at the school (technically I don't even work for the school, I'm just contracted by the school district, but that wasn't really on my mind during the events in the gym), so there was this pretty awkward pause for me right before I stepped in to take one of the boys by the shoulders, and a few steps back from the vice principal and the other boy. Fortunately, my boy is a good kid in general and was good enough not to really struggle with me. Eventually the boys calmed down enough to be lead away, and the whole incident never really escalated beyond some half-hearted lunging and posturing. Its difficult for me to describe how I felt about my part in the whole thing: On the one hand, I've been in Japan long enough to know that I'll never be Japanese - I'll never have the authority, responsibility, or rights of a Japanese teacher, and that made me really really nervous about being involved in (physically) breaking up the fight. You can imagine all the (potentially) scary ways that could be spun by teachers, parents, students, whoever. On the other hand, it was kind of cool, and combined with the fact that I went from that to flying solo-ish in the classroom about 15 minutes later.

The other English teacher did end up coming by and helping out in my first class. And, reality check, as soon as she showed up, the kids (and I) relaxed a ton. One of the kids even came right out and said it (in Japanese) when she asked why they wanted her to stay - the kid pretty much said "because you're a Teacher" - she said 'sensei dakara', for those of you who want to know the Japanese. Two steps forward... one step back.

So, that was Tuesday, and by far the most exciting day of the week.