Rainy June

 Weather’s been crazy during this week. Almost every day around 3 or 4 it starts raining heavily for about half an hour or so. I’m glad I did laundry early in the morning…!

I already finished my second month at work. No major changes, or at least, not the changes I was waiting for. Someone from the local Board of Education came to see some the lessons and asked me if I was happy with the working style in the schools…well, not that I get much to say about it but since I am spending two hours to commute to work daily I would like to participate a bit more…maybe I was wrong telling them what I was actually thinking but I do really want those kids to learn English (or enjoy it). Obviously for me it takes no effort just standing there in a corner doing nothing and not having to prepare stuff nor think about the lessons, but…I don’t think that’s good for kids either, and that’s what really matters. Teachers cannot speak English at all in some cases and I can see in their lack of enthusiasm when teaching English that they hate it, and I am there anyway so…I would really like to make kids enjoy English now, because they will hate it when they get in junior-high.

I was talking to a friend the other day and he told me that the problem might be the fact that I am not a teacher. That I do not own a bachelor’s degree on Education nor the teaching license. Well, I have a bachelor’s degree on Translation and Interpreting and they laugh at my face when I say it because here it’s just a test… anyway. I’ve been coaching figure skating for 6 years (with the corresponding license), I have been teaching in summer schools (with the license to do it) and I have taught English in language schools. And I bet you that more than a license it’s the attitude what makes you a teacher…you can own a license or have a degree and suck at it anyway. You can consider yourself a teacher but being disrespectful to other people in front of the kids shows how much of a good teacher you are (this actually happened…). Saying this won’t change the fact that I won’t be considered as a teacher but I am happy to know that I can do a good job and make kids learn something useful when given the chance to teach, even if this doesn’t make me a teacher “officially”.  Of course I have been considering studying something related to my job so I don’t have to deal with this anymore J (the only problem by now is the money, yey!).

Changing a bit the topic, the thing is that I miss studying. I have too much free time. I know that I could do something like having a hobby but…I’m used to a working while studying lifestyle and I kind of miss it. On a brighter note, last week I decided to do something to keep the motivation up on my battle to lose weight: swimming.

I have always liked swimming (okay, I didn’t like it on elementary school because a teacher just pushed me into the water and he was scary and I just freaked out…), but I like swimming at my own pace. I actually swim about 1500 meters in about 45 minutes which is not bad considering I have spent the last two years doing nothing and having an amazing swollen ankle. The thing is that it took me a lot of effort finding somewhere I can swim. Why? Because of the tattoo. Most gyms in Japan don’t let you register if you have tattoos (at least visible as mine…) and I had a hard time looking for places where I can get into the pool without taping my tattoo. I bought a new swimming suit that almost covers it all and I found out the swimming pool next to my house lets you in if your tattoo doesn’t exceed the size of a fist, which is my case. It’s very close to the place where I live, 2 minutes by foot (or less) but it only has 3 25m lanes and you can’t do U turn, you must change lane. Also they make a 10 minute break every hour so I have to be extremely punctual if I want to swim without interruptions. Also the use of soap and shampoo of any kind is forbidden (because the floor gets slippery…). But they have a machine that leaves your swimming suit almost dry in a matter of seconds. It costs 400 yen for 2 hours. Not bad but I miss my hometown’s pool. Never thought I would say this.

And this is how my June was. I missed Saint John’s parties and all but this year I will spend my birthday home with my family so I am really looking forward to it!