Hello Higashi High School

I transfered schools this year, and I think it was a good decision. I was really sad to leave my old schools, and felt like I was abandoning some of my teachers in an English teaching and motivation battle they could never win.

But, Higashi High School is amazing! So far I've had to work every day quite a bit - planning anywhere from 1 to 4 classes a day. I'm always doing work which was very unusual for me at JHS. The kids I am teaching are really cool. They have their own opinions about the world and Japan, and they can expresses themselves in English. They come up to me (unsolicited) in the halls, teachers' room and before class and engage me in conversation where my opinion is valued. It's unbelievable compared to my previous situation.

Also the teachers are really nice and welcoming. My desk in the teacher's room is surrounded by 5 JTEs and 1 other JET, Toby, who is from the UK. So I can chat with people, and get ideas for classes really easily. Last night was our welcome party. It was a this really fancy place so I thought everyone would be serious and not talk that much. But it turned into this crazy party. I think at least half of the teachers there, about 20, came up and talked to me! This is pretty unusual behavior for teachers towards at ALT. After going to lots of parties where I only talk to the person next to me, and maybe one other person who gets me a drink, and hearing about the same thing happening to lots of ALTs, I was really happy and appreciated their friendliness even more.

I didn't get an invitation to the 2nd party. I feel like if I were really cool I would have. It's a good goal to work towards next time. But it was ok because I planned to go out with friends later anyways. Rob came to pick us up, and it turns out had hit a wild boar inoshishi on his way home from calligraphy lessons. Yikes! It messed up our bumper. So I'm going to look into getting that fixed today while he is at his school's cultural festival.