This is just a random post, as I have some time to burn before my next class and there isn't enough interesting new to read about in the world. So after a couple of weekends spent with fellow gaijin it is time to get back into the rhythm of life on Izena, which has taken a bit of a battering due to the aforementioned gaijin and illness. I managed to get an ear and throat infection, all my fault, I went swimming and then played basket ball with a cold and then went to the mainland and drank lots, but anyway I got antibiotics last week and it's all good now. So anyway because of this I haven't been able to train with the students after school or go swimming much, even taiko practice has taken a beating. So last night I went to train with the kids for the first time in two weeks, ouch! Yeah maybe I shouldn't have chosen to practice the 100m, especially as the fast boys (and they are fast) like to race me. I definitely pulled something in my back, but it's all good. I need to get back to running etc. definitely been letting my body go to waste recently. So aside from that for the last two days we have had lovely dinners after school, the 1st for a teachers having been teaching for ten years and the other for our intern who has finished his spell here. I had to give a speech for him, caught me unawares so I just gave it in English, and even then I didn't know what to say, I think I talked about how he dressed well for a while. Regardless, it went down well. So at these dinners I have been helping to tidy up afterwards and today I helped set the places and put out the food, helped with the salad etc. The idea is to defy their gender rolls, i.e. women always serving the men. Also at school lunches I always help tidy it away (although the male teachers sometimes help with this). Anyway today I noticed I had been sat on the table with all the women, mmmm so maybe my plan is not quite working. Maybe they have just decided I am a woman. Oh well! I will still beat them all at arm wrestles, yeah I still get those. I actually have a busy day today, four classes! And then I have to go to the shogakko and discuss tomorrow's lesson plans. So I just had my english conversation class and I had the students translate english Haiku into japanese, probably as far removed from conversation as you can get but they were pretty into it. It was harder than I thought because in order for them to understand the english I had to tell them the meaning, and it was not always obvious. Anyways it went well, oh yeah and this one kid, whos very cool and all that, surprised me. He is always asleap in class and appears to know no english, asked me, with perfect enlgish, 'may I borrow your sunglasses please?'. So the little blighter does know english! ah well, one more class to go!