January 30th, 2008
A Slightly Different Hiroshima Routine
I got up at a regular, normal, human hour this morning instead of the usual Wednesday 6:30 alarm clock bell. Since my trip to the kindergarten was called off this morning, I was able to go later than usual. I checked my train schedules and decided to leave the house to catch the 10:30 train from Hokaiin and Okayama and then the 10:38 Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Normally, the ride from Hokaiin to Okayama takes about three minutes, but today the train was a couple of minutes late, so I ended up having to wait for the next Shinkansen at 11:02.
The 25-minute delay put me in a bit of a rush. I had plenty of time to get to Hiroshima, but I wanted to try and have lunch before going to class. I don’t usually get to have lunch until after the first adult class, around 3pm. I arrived in Hiroshima around 11:45 and stopped in the Lotteria under the train station and had my “Straight Burger Combo.”
While sitting there, I started to wonder about the buses. I had no idea what the schedule would be, or even if I could in fact find one that was going somewhere that I knew. But it turned out to be no problem, I found one that clearly say it was going to so-and-so shopping center via the Peace Park. I figured at the very worst I could walk from the park, but I could probably get off somewhere before that. That is indeed exactly how it worked out. I got off the bus about halfway between Mos Burger and the big arcade area, and walked to class. It’s not even especially cold today, so that worked out well. I arrived about a half hour before class, which is just about my usual time.
The International Author Speaks
The class initially started talking about my blog. It seems two of them have been reading it online, and a third is reading printouts given to her by one of the others. One only commented on how long it all was, but another really seemed to have read and understood a lot of it. I’m not surprised that they can understand it, since they are all pretty advanced. I am surprised however, that they found it interesting! One asked me about Hawaii and my change in plans, and when I started to explain about the crazy airline fees, one said “oh yes, listen to this!” because she knew what was coming. This is going to make my portion of the “what I did last week” part of the class a little more challenging for me!
One thing that I would be especially pleased to see would be one or more of them actually signing up to the blog and making a comment here. How neat would THAT be?
We talked about our weeks, and got into a brief, yet incredibly confusing lesson about causative verbs. They kept wanting me to explain about causatives, but as far as I can see, they mostly seem to understand them and use them correctly, so I am not quite sure what it is they want. I’ll look into some causative lessons this weekend though, just to see what I can do for them.
Somehow or other, we got started on the subject of politics. I ended up explaining about Democrats and Republicans and which “Primary Election” candidates were on which side. They know all the names, and a lot of the details about all the major players. They watch American politics very closely. I wonder how many Americans can even tell the name of the Japanese Prime Minister. Probably not very many.
Anyway, after talking about the primaries, I explained which past presidents were part of which party. They seemed to like the Democrats more than the Republicans, and they seemed surprised that I tended to go the other way, but once I said I didn’t like Bush, they were OK with that. When I say I don’t like Hillary either, they seem a little surprised. Hillary is very popular over here. I see her on the news almost as much as the Japanese politicians. This eventually got into the discussion about the Bush vs. Gore election, which in turn led to the discussion of Electoral votes and the popular vote, and how Gore could be both a winner and a loser at the same time. I’m pretty sure they actually understood all of this. Then we talked about the individual candidates and where they came from. Obama was from the House of Representatives, Hillary was from the Senate, Rudy was a Mayor, McCain was in the Military, Edwards was a lawyer, and so on. I’m not quite sure about the past of Huckabee or Romney; they weren’t big before I left the States, so I haven’t heard much about them. I really believe this class knows more about American politics than the typical “American on the Street.”
It eventually came down to who did I like for the election, and I said my guess was it would come down to Hillary Clinton Vs. Rudy Guliani. They wanted to know whom I would vote for, and I told them I didn’t really like any of them. One mentioned that if Obama won, he might be killed. I had to agree, but also added that Hillary would be just as much a target for the same reasons, but added that any President is always a target. Again, they seem quite well-informed.
Then class time was up, and I filed away the big pile of class activities and games I brought along so that we could maybe get to them next time. This class likes to talk too much to get into serious lessons. That’s OK, I think they need (and want) practice talking more than they need more grammar lessons.
No Computer Today?
Since I had the burger and fries this morning, I decided to forego lunch and go straight to the computer room this afternoon. Unfortunately, there was a class in there when I went upstairs. That’s never happened before; I wonder if it’s going to be a regular thing? I guess it doesn’t matter too much. Now that I have Mondays and Thursdays off, I can post everything then instead of on Wednesdays. It’s not that much of a delay. Back when I was worked every single weekday, something like this would be more of a problem.
Suddenly, I had three hours to kill. I walked way out past where I got off the bus this afternoon and had “Second Lunch” at Mos Burger. Then I walked back and checked the computer room again. The class was still going at 4:15. At that point, I went back to my classroom and fiddled around with the computer, writing all of this blog up to this point.
OK, Now I’m on the train home. Not much happened in the later class. A couple of the students who did not come last week returned, so it was a full house. Everyone got caught up on what they did on the break, and they all wanted to see my Miyajima photos. Fortunately, I had my laptop with me, so I showed them the slideshow. They talked so much tonight, once again, we never got around to a real lesson. I wonder if they would even notice if I took a day off?
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