A typical day teaching

This blog entry, and maybe some more if I don't cover all I want to here, is made by request of my uncle. Thanks for the request. If anyone has more, please let me know through a comment, because I don't always know what people are interesting in hearing.

So, I'll run though a typical day teaching. I work Tuesday through Saturday. I thought I'd mostly be teaching at the main school here in the center of Hiroshima City. However, I was wrong, I teach about everywhere but there! I only teach at the main school on Saturday, which is my lightest day. The school is a fifteen minute walk from our apartment. The school pays for transportation from the main school to the other branch schools and public schools that I teach out at. The job itself is great, but the schedule is very tight and the traveling makes me exhausted and gives little time for planning as you will see here in a moment.

My most hectic day is is Friday. On Friday I get up at 7:00 AM and leave the apartment about 7:45 to walk to the train station which takes 20 to 30 minutes depending on how fast I walk. I then ride a train to a smaller city called Kure which takes around an hour. It depends on if I take the local or rapid train. I usually take whichever is available. It's a long, but beautiful train ride along the coast of Japan and the inland sea. I can see mountains and island being reflected in the water. The train goes through lots of tunnels too. I enjoy the train ride, and it's not a crowded train, unlike the first train I take to get to the main station where I can hardly breath and the doors don't want to close because so many people have decided to cram on the train, myself included.

When I arrive at Kure station I walk for 25 minutes to a private (I think) junior high school up on a hill. It's very nice, you take off your shoes upon entering and put on slippers, and I have my own desk and cubby, mailbox and locker to keep all my stuff. I spend the majority of two of my days here. I am the only junior high school native English speaker here. I will elaborate more about the types of lessons later, but I teach 7th, 8th, and 9th graders here and the classes are 45 minutes a piece.

My classes on Friday are done at 2:30 and I must rush back to the station in order to catch another train back and ride the hour back. Then I catch a bus for a 10 minute bus ride to the south side of Hiroshima City to teach a beginning kids class (1 hour long). After this I must rush back up to the northeast side of town to teach an adult class (1 hour and a half long) at the community center. By the time this is over, it's 8:00 and I have to either head back to main branch to grab some stuff (20 minute walk) and then walk to the grocery store and then home. So most days I don't get home till after 9:00 and then I have to cook dinner and I'm extremely tired, and I have to plan lessons. So the traveling is nice and tiresome at the same time. Wednesday and Friday are very tight like this, and I can't miss a train or bus or I will miss my class. Other days are rushed, but not quite as bad.

So, hopefully I didn't bore anyone, but that's my workday schedule for Friday. I don't know how else to show how far I travel and where all I go. I shall elaborate on what types of things I actually teach in another entry.