this is the third of three postings describing a typical weekday for me as a rural assistant language teacher. in case youre curious, here is part one and part two.

__after school__
my brain has a tendency to turn to mush after teaching up to 6 classes a day. theres something about teaching a room full of children who either dont understand, dont care, dont like me, arent awake, or who make jokes the whole time, that can be very exhausting. but thats not to say theyre all bad. on the contrary, there are plenty of genuinely smart kids who are pretty chill and try their best to learn. those kids make me smile. the hard part is trying to balance my lessons so that the bad kids stay quiet, the slow kids actually learn some english, and the smart kids arent bored out of their minds. teaching all day, coupled with the fact that i am constantly speaking, listening, and translating two different languages, really wears me out most days.

needless to say, when im allowed to leave around 4:30 or 5pm i breath a sigh of relief. after school, i either walk, catch an infrequent bus, or ride my bike back home. when i step inside my house i am instantly reminded of two things. first of all, since there is no central heating in most buildings in japan, its just as cold inside as it is outside. brrr. and secondly, the smell that greets my nose reminds me that i still dont have a toilet that flushes. ugh.

__staying warm in the winter__
there are several things i do to stay warm during the cold winter nights in japan. exercising not only warms me up but it helps keep me in shape too. these days ive been doing a lot of yoga, jump rope, and jogging to keep warm. cooking and eating hot foods like udon or ramen soup helps take the chill off too. taking long hot showers helps quite a bit as well. but the number one savior to staying warm in japan is the kotatsu (炬燵). a kotatsu is a low table with a heater underneath and a blanket over the sides to trap the heat in. imagine a small warm tent for your legs - thats a kotatsu. when im at home i spend most of my time sitting on the floor with half my body under that thing. its where i play guitar and eat my meals. its where i talk to my friends on the phone and play video games. and you can bet its where im sitting right now while i write this post.

__lonely weeknights__
i spend most weeknights alone in my room. some nights i take a train two hours each way to have dinner with some friends. every other thursday night i teach a beginners english class for very old people. some tuesdays i travel north to the next town over and study japanese with a friend. but that leaves the rest of the weeknights to spend in my house by myself. its not terrible though; my weeknights are a break from my crazy weekend adventures. since i arrived in kihoku (紀北) about six and a half months ago, ive only spent four weekends in my town. the rest are spent exploring other cities and finding exciting new people, places, and customs.

even though i have school the next day, i still dont let myself fall asleep before 2am most weeknights. ive got into the habit of wearing at least two shirts to bed so i dont wake up freezing. lately ive been setting three alarms for myself to make sure i actually wake up in time to do everything over again the next day. such is the end of another glamorous day as a jet assistant language teacher.