Sports Day Practice

A view of the courtyard from the second floor of the JHS.

Lately the kids at JHS have been preoccupied with practicing for the sports day on Saturday. They have been practicing for over a week and even have full days off classes for practice. It seems a little crazy, but they actually benefit from it I think, because they have to do crazy intricate dances, group jump roping, and military-style marching, to name a few activities.

After my two classes this morning (both self-introduction classes still), I went to watch them practice for a bit. It was pretty intense! They spent about an hour just on getting positioned properly for the dance practice!

The entrance to the school, with all the shoe boxes for staff and guests.

I went back to school early, and since there were no students around, I took the opportunity to wander the school and take some photos. I popped my head into the shop classroom too, and saw that the students had made some amazing things out of wood! There are also painted banners in the front hallway from each grade for the sports day. These students are really talented!

Oh, and lunch today was actually pretty good! It was a hamburger patty with a bun and ketchup, vegetable and some kind of fish salad, 4 delicious grapes, milk, and an alphabet soup with mushrooms, a weird white sausage, and vegetables. The soup was okay, but torturous to eat. I still don't know how I was expected to eat freaking alphabet noodles with chopsticks!

Murals in the front hallway for sports day.

Some things I've noticed about school here:

The ES kids who walk to school do so in groups. There is a leader for each group, who carries a yellow flag. Near the school, teachers guard crosswalks and also carry flags. The local police also guard the crosswalks as well.

Students are responsible for bringing a teacher's materials to class. I felt really awkward today as one kid carried my laptop and the other carried my projector.

One of the classrooms I teach in.