ゲーマーギャル

My First Blog Post!

Well I've been in Japan for a week and I think I am due to start up my new blog! As an introduction, I am a recently graduated 20-something from America! While I was getting ready to graduate from college I had no idea what I was going to do. I had studied in Japan two years ago, and I knew I wanted to go back. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do, in order to go back. My roommate and friend encouraged me to interview for a company that specializes in providing Assistant Language Teachers to schools in Japan. I was hesitant at first because I wasn't sure I'd make a good teacher, but I really wanted to go back to Japan. I thought more about it, and started to get excited about the idea of teaching though. Last May my friend and I went to go to get interviewed, and badda boom badda bang here am I ten months later sitting in my new apartment in Niigata Prefecture!

The past week I've been here has been hectic to say the least. I had orientation for the first few days before I moved to my new apartment, and let me tell you, it was the most stressful few days of my life. Nothing in college even compares to the stress I had those first few days. Most of the stress came from having to present lessons on the first day to our instructors, without any hints, pointers, or anything really. It was truly awful. They do that though basically I think to gauge your starting skills and to show you that there is always room for improvement. It absolutely crushed my confidence though. I thought I was going to loose it. I was so tired, and we had been in orientation for over twelve hours on the first day! The following few days were equally busy, but they demonstrated teaching techniques and I got a lot of constructive feedback. My confidence grew over the next few days. Before I knew it, it was time to leave!

Now I am all moved in. I will be teaching 6 elementary schools and 2 jr. high schools. I will only be seeing the elementary schools a few times a year, but I will see each jr. high school twice a week. I'm quite nervous about the jr. highs because that age group is so rough! I am very much looking forward to the elementary students! Elementary school kids are a lot of fun and usually enthusiastic. 

I'm very much looking forward to this next year in Japan. This is my first real adult job after college! So much has happened already that I'm having a really hard time putting it all into words and being able to express it to you (I was also super tired when I wrote this). I will continue to update this blog with all sorts of fun things from my life here! First up is an outfit post from my shopping day in Niigata! 

Here is the view from my balcony!