Time for the update that everyone was waiting for! Yes, I survived the first day of work!
I was definitely nervous about it, but since I only had the kids for a total of two hours, there wasn’t much too much to be worried about. For the first three days, they will only come for a couple hours to get accustomed to school, then they will stay for lunch for the next three days, THEN they will stay the whole day. That’s when it will be very interesting.
All-in-all, the kids did great! We had a couple criers in the beginning, but two out of nine is not bad at all. One girl, Nao, as soon as she stepped into the building she saw the toys, dropped her backpack, and absent mindedly waved bye to her mom while she began to play. No crying from her. I’m sure as the days get longer, there may be more kids crying more often, but I really think God blessed me with a nice first day.
Now with my job starting, hopefully I can start to piece together the rest of my schedule. I will eventually be meeting with two ladies who will help me learn Japanese and I can spend time simply fellowshipping with them and talking.
Wow…I’ve been here for a little over 5 weeks now. First time living away from my parents and I’m in a foreign country. It’s great—the scenery, the culture, the bills… Oh yeah, I’m an adult and I have bills to pay, and the catch is they’re all written in Japanese! Yay! Thankfully, I’m living with an amazing family, whom at least two of them (if not almost three) are fluent in Japanese. Praise the Lord for that one. ;D Really though, it’s an interesting thought that the first time I’m paying bills and have my own health insurance and car insurance is when I move to another country. Some places allow automatic payments from your bank account, but most bills you can actually go to your local 7/11 or any other convenience store (which are everywhere and have delicious food, btw) with an ATM and pay your bills there! Japan is a highly cash based society, so most people pay their bills with cash through the ATMs in convenience stores instead of using debit cards (which are very rare here). Don’t worry, I planned for the bills.
Upcoming schedule for me so far is working Monday-Friday from 8:30-2:30 most weeks (except holidays, YAY GOLDEN WEEK). The weekend of April 15th, we are having a church camp for three nights-two days, where all the families from the Sunday bible studies and some others are coming to simply fellowship, pray, and listen to God’s word. So please pray that it will go well and we’ll have enough food to feed everyone. 😀 Also, in the beginning of June, a family is coming to stay and intern with the Smiths. The family consists of a husband, wife, and two children that are two and four years old. Currently, the Smiths are trying to decide where to put them. I may or may not have to give up my room for two months, which is totally fine with me since, you know, the Smiths own the place, or there’s a couple other options. But, if you can, pray that it will be a good visit for them, that they will learn a lot from the internship, and that we will know what to do with the kids for two months. 😀
That’s pretty much it for now! If anyone wants to know anything specifically, please feel free to leave a comment or message me. I’m going to try really hard to update weekly now. Most likely on Saturdays.
Panda traveler 