暑いですね！

I bet that you are wondering about how all that other stuff went. Well, I can't tell you, because it already happened and then I forgot. Last week we had a big performance for all the elementary school English Clubs, and that was a to of fun. We did a play based on Shrek, in which I had the role of Prince Charming. But it wasn't the role from the movie. Thankfully it was a very small role, because I am a terrible actor with no stage presence. A lot of times teachers (especially Elementary School teachers) say that I should become a TV personality, because I have a certain way of leading a class and keeping everyone amused with my antics and so forth. But the truth is I could never do something like that. My main role in the performance was obtaining all the music and operating the mixing software. If I had used an actual mixing board this wouldn't have been too difficult, but I used software in my computer to mix everything together, which is hard because you only have the one mouse pointer instead of two hands with 5 fingers each to slide the little sliders around.

Anyway, the other night we had an earthquake. This on was the strongest I have experienced yet in Japan. (Or anywhere for that matter, as I have never experienced one anywhere else.) It was a five on the funny Japanese scale that they use, which is pretty strong. What made it feel so strong was that the epicenter was not too far from here. Until now all the ones I have felt have been centered very far away, so I am just feeling the periphery. This time, it seemed to start with a snap. It didn't knock anything but a few poorly balanced items over, but it kinda freaked me out.

So we have student teachers in the school again. Actually, today is their last day. There are three of them. Two of them have only been here for two weeks, but I don't know what their teaching is like because they don't teach English. And they haven't really talked to me at all. One of them is the classic, almost stereotypical, shy quiet piano teacher. I talked to her once because she came to the special class and played the piano. The second one is the really cute but cold stereotype. All the students were saying that I should go out with her, but we didn't talk the entire time she was here. She just didn't seem at all interesting. The kids couldn't really understand that though; they just thought that she was cute and that that should be enough.

The third student teacher was a guy named Kenta Suzuki, who we called Suzuken. He was an English teacher, and he was here for a whole month. I was impressed at how good he became at teaching after a month. When he started, he was uptight and quiet and deferential to the kids in class, but eventually he learned how to take control of the class to some extent. I am certain that that is more important that knowing how to make good lesson plans or anything like that, which you can easily learn in school. All the kids really liked him and were really loud in his classes, which came to be a bit difficult when we were team teaching, because they are always really loud when I am there. So with the two of us together, it was very loud. But fun. I am going to miss him because most all of the teachers at my school are old and not any fun at all. The main exception was the teacher who was in charge of Suzuken, who is a fun lady even though she's not exactly young. In fact, since he was copying her, she's probably why he turned out so cool.

Anyway, we're getting set to be hit by our 22nd typhoon of the year, so I have to go batten down the hatches and so forth.