My first week back of teaching is officially over. It was a good time, mostly. The fifth graders were my last class. I split them up into two groups and made them to "paintings" with colored chalk on the board as a sort of contest. They were very enthusiastic and one team actually made a pretty beautiful picture.

It's interesting how some classes naturally just work and some don't. I do believe it has something to do with the specific groups of personality types and individuals, although I suppose if I were an excellently trained and experienced teacher like my mom I could do well with any class. But even she might have trouble with the grades that have some growing pain problems (puberty, yes, puberty).

I forgot to mention that a few months ago one of my predecessors showed up. He is this congenial bloke from England who stayed in this town for three years and ended up marrying a girl who was from the city of my prefecture.

I also forgot to mention that my flight from Osaka to Kumamoto contained about 100+ US troops on their way to Iraq. I overheard one the the many, who all flew in from different parts of the USA, say "I just realized that I really don't want to go to Iraq." I asked one guy how long they would be in Japan and he said "just a day to have a look around." I told him that I was teaching English in the countryside and he said "so you get to learn some of the language," and I said "sorta." I'm trying though.

It's snowing a lot now. Very cold. Good thing my hot water was fixed!