Wednesday, May 19, 2004

A Day in the Life of a JET
I was at the elementary school today.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the elementary schools. On days when I'm in a good mood and have a lot of energy, it can be a lot of fun. On days when I'm feeling tired or my attention is distracted, it can be really rough. But on a good day I feel like I'm just getting paid to play games and have fun with the kids.

Today was a good day.

Also, I went to the Kindergarten today. The new school year has started over a month ago now, but I haven't met all the incoming Kindergarten students yet. One of them wanted to be picked up, so I hoisted him up in the air. Immediately a line formed, and I had to pick all of the kids up. I had a sore back for the rest of the day.

Some of the Kindergarten students were really amazed to see me. "You're even bigger than our teachers," one of them said. This is not surprising, since the kindergarten teachers are two petite Japanese women, but I guess when you're a little kid you have a different perspective on things.

My favorite comment so far though has been from the pre-school children in the first year I was here. One of the girls looked at me, and then said, "You're not Japanese, are you?" I answered no, I was not. Then she asked, "Are you Korean?"

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