Tuesday Feb 13

Well, today was the first day that Carly and I went to Matsudo Senshu Jr/Sr High School. Our first task of the day was to navigate to the school by ourselves! We could see it in the distance from our apartments, but we weren't entirely sure on what streets to get there the fastest. To our dismay we turned left when we should have gone straight and although we ended up on the right block, we were faced with a gigantic hill in front of us. We couldn't even bike up it (mostly from lack of physical fitness!), so we resolved to walk our bikes up the hill.

When we got to school we were able to sit in during a calligraphy class. We mostly just listened to the teacher read from the book. He kept coming over to our desks and showing us what page everyone was on and where they were reading. It was a nice gesture despite the fact we didn't know what was being read. We didn't get to do any painting this time, but I think that we will. We will go to that class once a week. After that we had a bit of free time and John showed us around the school. Around 11:30 we got lunch in the cafeteria. For approximately $4.50 we got a really decent lunch of some fried squid and pork I think, some rice, and vegetables. I had a lot of trouble with the chopsticks. I think it may take me a few weeks to get accustomed to it. After our lunch we went to a room and played games with about 15-20 kids while they ate their lunches. We played a little board game where they move their pieces and land on a square. Then they have to read and complete the sentence, in English. I sat with four boys. They were so cute and I was actually surprised at how well they did at the game. Only a few times I had to ask them to repeat themselves...Later in the afternoon Carly and I participated in the English classes. I sat at the front of the room and the kids raised their hands and asked me one question from a list of about 30 that they knew. After I answered their question, I had to ask them a question in return. It was really fun and I think a very good game for them. I was in Mr.Sypal's class for the first half of the class and then Carly and I switched and I went up to Mr.Phlanz's room.

In "Ambition Hall" (the name of the English building) are 2 bulletin boards that are for the interns (1 board each). We have to make a display that tells some things about us, so towards the end of the afternoon we took some time to make posters with our names and printed out some pictures of ourselves, friends, families, and places we've gone. I'm pretty excited to get it all put together in the next day or two.

After school Carly, Mr.Sypal, Mrs.Wolffe, and I went to Saizeriya, a small Italian restaurant. I had a pizza and some Pepsi. It was nice to eat something "normal" and feel for just a minute like I was back home.