Test me
Now Playing: Orenji Renji
(Written almost two weeks ago)
The school has gone into exam mode, where students are taking midterms without any normal classes for about a week. The second years started early, as they’re going on a school trip to Hokkaido. How cool is that? The entire grade goes. Everything about the school is more community-oriented like that which makes me wish I had that experience. I asked about going and I might be able to next year…we’ll see I guess.

So I have a lot more free time, in which I just study Japanese and do odd jobs. Like I’ve appointed myself the English Department janitor—anything I can do to help. During lunch, I go to the cafeteria, and while most of the boys still kind of treat me as a novelty, and most of the girls just smile and nod and don’t say much, I’ve found a couple steady groups that take an honest interest in speaking English and trying to teach me some cool Japanese. And these aren’t the so-called nerds of the school, but some of the more outgoing people, which surprised me. Since the kids really get a kick out of me attempting Japanese, I always check to see if they’re teaching me offensive words, but I’ve found I can trust kids for the most part. The only frustrating thing is that they often tell me their nicknames or just make something up, so that name game is still hard. I think by the end of the school I’ll be able to name all 450 students that I currently teach. I’ve got maybe 50 right now.

In other news, I had the second cancer scare of my life, but this was a very long shot—I found a hard lump under my left nipple that had a discharge. OK no more details, don’t worry. And while yes, I know breast cancer is extremely rare in men I managed to get worked up over it—I even called a family friend that day and embarrassingly forgot to check the time, which ended up being about one a.m. for Minnesota. But I got into the doctor today, and it’s nothing. One of my Japanese friends was there to translate, bless her soul, which made the four-hour hurry-up-and-wait process much easier.