Tears of a clown

Speaking of competitiveness and sportyness, I made some kids cry today! I was having a pretty good day teaching, I even played dodgeball at recess. Then in 3rd grade, we played some games in order to learn the alphabet. The first game was "telephone". I gave each team leader a letter and they would whisper it down the row of their team and the front person would write it on the board. All was well until some of them started yelling at each other when someone got it wrong. One boy started crying from the pressure not knowing what to write. Another girl cried because she got it wrong. It was awful! Luckily they were ok after a few moments and some distraction. Peer pressure is different here but pretty intense. The teacher told me they don't play games well because they all start arguing and yelling at each other. I'll have to keep that in mind for this class.



I also had my first Japanese physical exam last week. Apparently it's mandatory for all teachers. The exam was well organized and efficient with stations for each part. Urine, blood, blood pressure, eye, ear, chest xray, heart rate, etc. At one point I had to lie down and have these clamps on my ankles and wrists and a heart monitor thing on my chest. That felt a little scary. But it was all done in less than an hour.

The doctor at the end of the exam also consulted me in English which was reassuring. He told me all was well. (I still have to fill these bizarre plastic containers with a lovely stool sample though!)

On to more exciting news... Scott got a job! Our neighbor Kevin suggested they go together to this welding shop in our neighborhood and see if they have any jobs. They walked in and talked to the boss who happened to know my supervisor and whose daughter is a teacher and knows many JET teachers. He also said they had two Brazilians working there at one point but he was surprised to meet an American welder in our small town. Scott started today. He's so excited to be working and I'm so proud and happy for him. Apparently they make parts for Mitsubishi and Hyundai tanker ships that get sent to Korea. Maybe we can get discounts for Mitsubishi stuff! Yeh Scott!