a few thoughts

I thought I was doing quite well the other day, cycling non-stop up the hill to school, only to be overtaken by an old granny going at about twice the speed! ....

Rice paddies are flooded now, hooray. Landscape is starting to look more like it did when I first arrived. New rice is being planted up here around now. So the outlook on the train & bike is now water flooded fields rather than earthy mud...

This afternoon, I went through a lesson plan with one of my JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English). The lesson for tomorrow centres around the question, "How do you come to school?" & different modes of transport. When I was leaving school today, the same teacher happened to be going out too. He said to me, "Hannah Sensei, by by?" or so it sounded. I hadn't really got a clue what he said, so rather stupidly replied, "Uhm". Wasn't sure if he said, "by bike" or "bye bye" or what. Then he looked confused and said, "raining?" And so I explained, "Yes, I go by bike every day, when it rains, or snows, if there's a typhoon..." He seemed pleased. If only he'd used the target question sentence we'd previously discussed!
... Oh and doing this lesson with another class this morning (I tend to repeat the lesson about 7 times, with each different class I teach), it turns out one of my students comes to school by ferry! He lives on a small island just off the mainland, so takes the ferry and bus every morning. Someone said he has to leave home at 6am every day! But I'll check this info by asking another girl who lives in the same place as him, in tomorrow's lesson.

...And one last thing, how weird... It was this time last year that I was just recovering from chicken pox, getting ready for my first 3rd year exam, looking forward to a friend's wedding, and about to hear about my JET placement. Time is really flying, it so doesn't feel like a year ago I was coming to the end of things at Durham. I know lots has changed since then, but still!