KONNICHIWHAT!?: It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...just me

Yes, that's a reference to good 'ol Superman. But why? Well, I came to the aid of an old woman who clearly was in need of assistance. Let me paint you a picture...I'll take you there. It was this past Sunday, around 5pm and I had only been back in Oita since around 2 (having spent the weekend in Miyazaki...more on that later), and the weather was per usual; rainy. I wanted to go to my friend Matt's crepe restaurant, Bon App!!, but they don't open for dinner until 5:30. So I'm walking back to my apartment having killed some time out in the city and I see this old lady walking in my direction. She looks as if she's struggling to walk and sure enough, she falls right there in the road, dropping her umbrella and hitting the street. I knew she hadn't just slipped. On this road, that I often walk, there isn't a lot of people around and it can often be deserted for long periods of time. I ran over to her and immediately starting asking her if she was okay, what was wrong and if she needed an ambulance. Ya know, the basics for when you see a person in distress. She didn't even have the energy to grab her umbrella again so I knew it was bad. She could hardly catch her breath and when she did take breathes, they were raspy and seemingly difficult for her to take. She was complaining about her legs and feet and how she just couldn't walk anymore. She also had a face mask on, when had me thinking that maybe she was already feeling sick, hence the raspy breathing and lack of energy. Who the heck knows. The fact that she was struggling to take deep breathes was what had me most concerned. Anyway, I'm standing there holding her hand and using my other hand to keep her umbrella over her so she doesn't get wet. I try to walk with her, very slowly, towards the next closest business so we can get her some help from someone with real Japanese language ability. However, she just couldn't do it. We stood there for about 5 minutes until a guy on a bicycle pedaled by. I flagged him down and told him the lady was in bad shape. By God's grace he worked at the salon nearby, which is also right next to my apartment building, and he told us he had a car and he'd go get it. After getting his car, he came right back and we helped put the old lady in the car. He also told me to hop in and that he'd give me a ride back home. We made sure she was reunited with her people back at the senior center where she was staying and she thanked me profusely. I told her I was just happy she was okay. I thanked the guy for helping out as well but he said, "no, no, I should thank you". I don't think I've ever been in that position before, but I'm glad I didn't freeze up or walk the other way. It felt good to help someone in need.

In other news, I did indeed have my weekend in Miyazaki covering for another NT. How did it go? Well, it was a mixed bag. Total, I only covered five of his lessons, which again boggles my mind in that it's a total of six hours commuting time for five hours of lessons. I have to just assume the company is really short-staffed and they had no choice but to send me all that way. Nevertheless, I enjoy the hotel that they set me up at in Miyazaki and this time was really no different. Comfy as usual. I didn't care for how the NT at this school conducts the flow of their lessons. It's definitely different from my own style and you can just tell in the way the students behave and what they expect in the lesson. We simply do things differently at my schools. As for the mixed bag comment, well the first night, Friday, I had three lessons. The first was a group of 9 year olds and they were all very loud and energetic, possibly excited at the fact that they were dealing with a new foreigner. They weren't ill-mannered or anything like that, simply too hyper to listen and focus properly. The next class were 11 year olds and they were awesome. Very shy at first, but soon warmed up to me and seemed to enjoy the lesson, as did I. Last were the junior kids, around 14-15 years olds. From the get-go they were all really polite and well-behaved as they came in. They remained that way throughout the lesson and I had a good time with them. A nice way to end the day. The next day, Saturday, I only had two lessons to teach. The first being another group of 11 year olds, same lesson material as on Friday, but this group was quite different. They were really shy and a bit more behind than the other class. Meaning they simply didn't know as much. It wasn't horrible and it wasn't great, simply so-so. The last class was a group of 7 year olds and it was only four boys, but my God, what a nightmare group of boys to have. These guys were like animals that had broken out of the zoo and weren't gonna be calming down without a tranquilizer. I did my best with them, but it was certainly an exercise in patience. I'm not sure how much English they retained but to be honest, all I could think of was how happy I was to not have that class every month.

An interesting past week to say the least and thus the remainder of March is at my regular schools with another week of coverage for an NT. Oh how I hope it's the last bit of covering I do for a while. This month is also the last month of the year, curriculum wise, as the new school year starts in April. That means that in April, I'll have new classes at each of my schools with my current students "graduating" to the new curriculum level. Same kids, just in different classes learning different stuff. We'll see what happens and you can be sure I'll post about it.