School Comparisons

   I know I shouldn't do it because nobody wins, but I still do it anyway.

   I compare the junior high school I work at now with the one I worked at for the last three years.

   This school has come to feel like home, so it's not like I look down on it or think badly of it; it's just different. Jarringly different sometimes. For example, the other day, I was checking mini-speeches written by the second-year students about their dreams. It was strange in a lot of ways; the girls wanted to be doctors, nurses, and pastry chefs -- normal stuff. The boys had different aspirations, though. They wanted to be mailmen, delivery men, mechanics, farmers, maintenance men, office workers, and government employees. Sure, a few of them wanted to be astronauts or chefs, but the vast majority of them wanted to be... well, practical workers with a steady salary.

   Read on!

Local News

   I saw a tiny news headline on Google News about a truck accident in the city I live in that killed three teenaged girls. My heart was racing as I googled for a Japanese article with names...

   I'm relieved that the three girls who died were from other cities. I didn't know them. I was scared to death that they could have been girls I knew.