Driver's License and New Job!

This morning I flew out of bed. The reason I flew out of bed is because my alarm didn't go off. And the reason my alarm didn't go off is because Japan is not equipped to handle American alarm clocks. Seriously. It's hard to explain but I'll try. You see, we are able to use all of our American appliances which is a huge advantage when living overseas. However, because of the different wattage in the Japanese outlets, regular alarm clocks aren't able to keep accurate time. They somehow become delayed. So now Mike and I use a battery operated alarm clock. And this little "friend" of ours has forced us to sleep in at really bad times (no pun intended : ) 

But in any case, I was still able to make it to my driving course held on base. Everyone who PCS's here has to take the course in order to get a Japanese driver's license. The day before, Mike made me very nervous and told me that I needed to study because if I failed the test, I'd have to wait a whole week before I could take the test again. When I woke up a half hour later than expected, that nixed the studying time for me so I was left to fly by the seat of my pants. When I got to the room, it was packed with other newcomers who all looked as stupid and dumbfounded as I do most of the time. There was a schedule posted on the wall with the order of events for the days class; Two videos, Take Test, and Grade Test. One knucklehead raised his hand and asked if the "Take Test" was the practice test and the "Grade Test" was the real one...Guess I was smarter than some in this room! After that little shenanigan, the instructor talked to us for about two and half hours about different driving rules in Japan. "Use your face!" he screamed aloud and smacked his hands together so that I would stay awake. "Trust your eyeballs!" Now, being that is broken English, I assumed he was telling me to "Use my head" and "Trust my own eyes" but he still got his point across! Needless to say, he was a very good instructor because I scored 100% on my test and will pick up my license tomorrow! 

In other news, I just accepted a part-time Reading Specialist position at Yokota West Elementary School. The reason some may not have heard from me about this news is because I only found out about it on Tuesday and I had until Thursday to make my decision. There were a lot of different factors that swayed my decision from one way to the other. The first being that I wanted to teach full time, and the second being that I wanted to be a regular classroom teacher and not a Reading Specialist right away. I explained it to Mike as being a pilot who flies planes versus a pilot who works at a desk job. That's what it felt like to me since I'd be pulling kids from their classrooms and just doing one on one time with them. However, after visiting the school and meeting the principal and different faculty members, I was pleasantly surprised! The school is really cute and everyone was so friendly to me. I found out that I will get my own classroom and in addition to pulling kids for reading interventions, I will also be teaching from the Read 180 program. I haven't worked with that program before but essentially I will have a classroom of kids for an hour and a half per session. That's a new approach that most Reading Specialist don't get to experience. Kind of nice huh? Also, there is still a possibility that I will be moved to be a Kindergarten teacher depending on enrollment before the school year. So we'll see. If I'm part-time this year, maybe they'll bump me up to full-time next year. It's a good start.

In a few minutes, our commander's wife and her kids will be coming over to drop off a few goodies. I met her for the first time yesterday and she's really nice. It's so fun to feel welcomed and I've only been here 6 days! Hopefully she won't judge me by the appearance of our house!