Having written so much recently I feel like I'm running out of things to say and repeating myself. I have to go back and look at my old posts to be sure that I'm not just writing the same thing over and over again. Sorry if I'm getting boring.

So, I got another jury summons. I wonder when they're going to realize that I don't live there and stop sending them. Last time I got one was three days before coming to Japan the first time. The second one was about a year after that, and then they required a letter from my employer confirming that I am not available to go home for jury duty. This makes number 3. Maybe it's the magic number and they'll realize that I'm a citizen but not a resident and stop sending them. It's not that I would mind sitting on a jury. I think it might be interesting, but I can't really plan on taking off an indefinite amount of time from work. Plus the pay sucks and wouldn't even get near the amount the plane ticket would cost. They'll just have to do without me.

This week I've been giving my students skills tests. I sit in a room and they come to me one by one and speak at me; afterwards I ask them a question or two. I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned it before. The topic for the first graders was a memory from the last year. One of the kids went to Guam during the summer vacation, but most of them just went to the beach or stayed in Chino. The second graders did a guessing game. They gave me hints and I guessed what animal the were talking about. Most were pretty good, but one or two went like this: I'm smaller than an elephant. I'm bigger than a mouse. I am brown. I like running. What am I? Can you be a little more vague for me? I think that one was supposed to be a deer. Who knew? I had to ask like three extra questions to figure out the answer. Some of them were really good and detailed, but a lot of the kids didn't know how to compare the size of the animals. I had some trouble too though...which is bigger, a cow or a horse? My answer... they're about the same size. Anyway, the third graders had to talk about a school, house or general Japanese rule. I got a lot of "I must clean my room everyday" and "I must study everyday." An interesting one was: We must clean the school quietly everyday. Only Nagano Prefecture has this rule. Other prefectures don't have to be quiet. I think it's important to clean quietly. I think this rule is a good rule.

It's not exact, but that's the general gist. I hadn't realized that that was rule only in Nagano. I can't imagine kids being able to clean the classrooms while talking. I know that when my students talk, they stop cleaning.

This whole week is devoted to skills tests so I don't have to prepare anything for class, but it's probably the most boring week of the year. 370 kids is a lot of speeches to listen to.

The pictures are my school from a couple weeks ago.