"Hi! I'm Anne Hathaway. It's nice to meet you. Are you a Hollywood actress?"

Serious question:  Am I Anne Hathaway?  I had never asked myself that question, until my first day of class in Japan, which was this past Thursday.  My lesson plan involved going over basic introductions (ie. My name is Bob.  Nice to meet you.  Are you a student?)  and we also practiced asking some simple yes/no questions.  Yes/No questions, as opposed to your wh- questions (who,what,when,why,where, and that rebel, how), will always result in either a yes or no answer. (ie. Are you a student? No.  Do you like reading this blog? Yes.)  So at the end of class, I had students work in pairs to come up with some yes/no questions to ask me.  The first question was almost always "do you like Japanese food?"  ("yes. I love it.  When I leave Japan I will be very fat." I would answer.)  Some brave students would ask "Do you have a boyfriend ("That's private.... but yes.")  And one clever student asked "Are you hungry?"  ("Yes, especially after the first question.")  But then one student asked, "Are you Anne Hathaway?"  Hmmm, good question. I don't know if he was just being funny, or if I just looked indistinctly Western enough for him to think we look alike.  I guess we also have to consider the possibility that I am in fact Anne Hathaway.  But then that brings up another question.  Which Anne Hathaway was he talking about?  The American actress, forever remembered for her powerful performance in Princess Diaries, or Shakespeare's wife, forever remembered for being in a loveless marriage to the bard.  I think given the option, I would just stick with being me.

Well, all things aside, the first two days of teaching have been exhausting and really intense.  I am pretty much gone from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.  I teach the same lesson about 7 times a day, with breaks for prep, lunch and the occasional "teacher meeting" which is really just an extra prep.  The other teachers are I teach with (two Americans, one Brit) are great, and so far we have worked pretty well as a team, making sure no one sleeps in or goes crazy.  The campus is beautiful.  It's in a residential area, so it's rather quiet, but still only a few minutes walk from the train station so it's very convenient.  Wow, that last sentence just reminded me of my Japanese lesson today, where we described where we lived, using the words for quiet "shizuka" and convenient "benri".  When you learn a new language, you also, half-conciously acquire cultural values and perspectives.  It is really striking as a beginner, because the first words you learn in one language are often different than the first words in another.  It's really no surprise that I learned how to describe "quiet" and "convenient" places because there is such a difference between quiet and busy neighborhoods and conveinent and inconveinent locations in Tokyo.  It's just important here.

It's getting late, and I need to pay school loans, get something to eat and go to bed.  Tomorrow is Sunday so I have the day off, but I will need to do some lesson planning and cleaning!  I have only been here a week but there are already hair tumbleweeds rolling around the hallway.  It's disgusting!

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.  Love and miss you!

ps.  Sorry I haven't posted more pictures.  I will try to do that soon, so stay posted!