The Final Countdown

July 20
I biked to a new school today, Meirin Junior High, which is right next door to Numata Elementary. A few minutes after I'd arrived and sat down and cooled off a little, because it was freaking hot, the phone rang and apparently it  was for me--Nishida-mama had seen me riding my bike up the overpass on my way to school and had called to see if I wanted to get together tonight and eat dinner. Of course I did, so we made plans for me to head over after I was done at Meirin. I was really happy to hear from her--she had said previously she would let me know when her days off from work were, when I was at the Tamiyas', but I never did get a message from her... oh well, better late than never.

Anyway, I helped out with two classes of third graders, and watched some Kimi wa Petto and did sudoku in my free time. I got to go home after lunch, and when I got home I ate some zerii and played some Wizard 101 to give myself a little break before heading over to the Nishidas' at around 5ish. I got there and me, Nishida-mama, Taku and obaa-san hung out in the living room for a while so Taku could finish his homework (which he hates, so it took a lot of pestering on our parts to get him to hurry up), and then the four of us plus Aya went to Nishida-mama's restaurant for some dinner. We hung out there for around two hours, and then Mai came from work. While she was finishing eating, Taku and I walked to the train station because I wanted to get some of the hand-made ice cream (sesame flavor is quickly becoming my flavor of choice, over match even!), and then we drove back to the Nishidas' house. I left a little bit after we got back, because I needed to shower and I was kind of tired. I made plans with Nishida-mama to come back Friday, since it's a "reserve day," meaning I'm not going to any school and so have free time.
I got home, showered, played more Wizard101 and went to bed.


July 21
I got to go back to Hagino today, which I was really excited about. One of the teachers came and picked me up, since Hagino is way too far to bike to (unfortunately--it would probably take about forty-five minutes to an hour), and then I helped out with 3A and 3B. I was really happy to see Kakizaki-sensei, Yaguchi-sensei and Kusakari-sensei again, and of course Ume-san. I really do love Hagino, even though it's small and old. According to the principal they'll  be getting an ALT starting next year, so hopefully when I apply for JET I can request to be placed there! Out of all the schools I've been to I feel like the English teachers at Hagino are the most competent, and so working with them would be a real pleasure.
Anyway, there was some sort of big... thing, with cheering and whatnot, for the clubs going on after lessons were finished, so I was driven home at around 4:30 by the same teacher who picked me up (I can't remember his name for the life of me...). I played more Wizard101, pretty much accomplishing all the quests I can for now without having to pay to access more areas of the game, ate dinner, showered, and went to bed.


July 22
Today's my last day helping at the schools this summer, and to say I'm sad would be lying (mostly). I had a lot of fun, but I'm actually glad to be finished and able to go back home and get back to my life.
Anyway, I had a great last day. I was helping out with the first-years today, and they are super energetic and really seemed to enjoy learning English. The teachers I was helping were Ko (nicknamed Richard; he's a really funny guy and I liked him a lot), and Aya. It was really, really, really freaking hot today though, so it was a challenge for me to salvage the energy to match the students'. I really do prefer working with teenaged students to little kids though, because even though they were rowdy they at least paid attention. The relationship between older kids and their teachers is also more to my liking too--it's less like parent and child and more like older sibling-younger sibling, or at least that's how it was with Richard, from what I could tell.
I got to finish Kimi wa Petto today too, and I was pretty satisfied with the way it ended. I also did like ten more sudoku puzzles, though at one point I couldn't focus very well since it was so hot and I put my head down and napped. Aya tought me a useful vocab word too--natsu batte, which means losing energy due to summer heat. I guess the word that's closest to it in English would be fatigue, though the Japanese word specifically has to do with the summer season. Aya says that the Japanese sometimes jokingly refer to natsu batte as a sickness. I love how Japanese has such specific words for feelings that English only can reference vaguely or with extremely long phrases.
Anyway, I biked home a little after three, cooled off in my room for an hour or so and had some zerii before taking a nap. Then I had dinner, during which Mama-chan called the Shinjo city office so I could talk to Takahashi-san about tomorrow, since apparently me, Andrew and Will are meeting up with them at around 6 to do, something, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, since I didn't know where it was, Takahashi-san told me to come meet him at the city office at around 5:30, since that's what Will was going to do too. So I hung up with him and finished dinner, then showered and went back upstairs to my room to organize my luggage a little bit. I'm really, really excited to be coming back next week, even though we're going to be travelling for five or six hours less than two days straight. It's gonna suck, but I'm happy to be coming home.