7 weeks to go

I’ve been counting the days until my return to Toronto.  I have most of my remaining weekends planned out.  I’ve started sorting out what I need to pack/sell/do before I go… sort of.   Well, at least I’ve started to read about what I should be doing to get ready to go home. 

With a month of classes left, 10 months into the job (2 months with the new students), I feel I’m finally starting to connect with some of the students.  It’s great at my visiting school where the kids actually have some English ability and I can sort of understand what they’re saying.  Unlike at my base school where they speak to me in Japanese and give up when I don’t understand.  I think the problem with the first 9.5 months was the ambiguity of my job.  I’m a teacher but not really.  I didn’t know if it was appropriate to be hanging out with the students.  Then again, I’m not a real teacher and it would be good for the students to have to try to communicate in English.  So what changed?  I started not to care any more.  It’s the end of the year, what are they going to do?  In a society where people are so focused on outward appearances and other peoples’ opinions, I’ve started to learn not to care what others think.  Had I known this earlier, I think my year would have been more enjoyable and less stressful.  But better late than never, right? 

This weekend is the Nagano ALT soccer tournament.  Thinking about it, I don’t really enjoy playing soccer than much.  There’s just nothing about it that makes me feel anything for it.  Like there’s a feeling you get when a basketball is released from your fingertips and you hear the “swish” through the hoop.  Or the feeling you get in karate class when you learn/see something you’ve never seen before.  Or score a point when you’re sparring.  Or the feeling of striking a golf ball well and watching it fly away.  Even in volleyball, which I don’t play often, the feeling of spiking the ball or getting a block.  In soccer, kicking the ball or even scoring a goal is like, as John would say, “meh.”  I play soccer for the exercise and for socializing.