Life as Usual

Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I posted anything. I've been pretty busy in comparison to the weeks before that. For one thing, I've been in a class that calls itself, "Measurement, Evaluation, and Ethics in Research" for my masters degree. What it really means, as I discovered about a week into it, is Statistics. (Insert scary music here.) The last time I took a math class was in high school (I somehow managed to pass out of the college stuff), and I was not especially excited about doing it now. Several minor panic attacks later, I've survived the class and even have an A, don't ask me how. So hopefully I can say good bye to the scary numbers for another several years.
Also, word has finally gotten out that I teach English, and I'm starting to get regular job offers. I was told before I arrived that I'd be able to find plenty of work, all I had to do was tell everyone that I teach English. I've been doing that, and now I'm finding that I may actually get more work than I know what to do with. I'm still only teaching one class at the junior college, but one of the other teachers there said she took on a class at a high school here and isn't sure she'll be able to keep it, so I may pick that up.
The rest of what I've been doing has been private stuff. Last Monday and Wednesday, I worked with a Japanese woman who gives English lessons to kids around here. Each lesson was a group lesson that lasted about an hour. The kids ranged in age from six to about eleven. The Japanese woman led the class and I would occasionally read a phrase for the students to repeat back and I'd make sure they were pronouncing it right. Then we all played some go fish with their vocabulary. Good fun.
Tuesday was my first ever private lesson. My student is a woman who owns a stationary shop down town. She lives above it, and her house is really pretty cool, let me tell you. Teaching her basically means going to her house and talking to her for an hour, after which she pays me. Sometimes she'll apparently ask questions relating to her shop, but mostly it's just talking to her. Nice deal. And tomorrow, I go meet a group of ladies who is looking for a new teacher to do much the same thing once a week for them. As Navy people move away, all their students are suddenly becoming available, and I'm enjoying the chance to get out and teach.
While I'm out doing all this teaching, Zack is still buried in work. Today he is celebrating labor day by only spending a few hours at work instead of the whole day. I think he's feeling more confident about what he's doing, though, so that's good. Also, he's super excited about Appalachian's defeat of Michigan. Our little alma mater always did have a good football team...
We'll let you know when we get out of Sasebo again for some sightseeing...