I have two days of no classes coming up and I’m surprised how much I’m looking forward to it. The problem is, I’m kind of dreading it too.

Because we don’t have midterms for our English classes, which means the next two days are class free, the foreign staff at the school where I work dubbed today “Fake Friday”.

We then have classes on Real Friday, which becomes Thank Goodness it’s Real Friday, then there’s the weekend and then the merciless grind of June begins.

New teachers at the school where I work arrive full of vigor and idealism and we the energiless and cynical warn them about June.

However, because we have an odd schedule that includes lots of national holidays, the new teachers generally scoff at the older teachers and declare we are weak because we are old.

Then June arrives on muggy feet and brings not a single national holiday nor a single school holiday.

As a result, as June arrives, the new teachers declare “I can’t believe it’s June already!” (insert gushing and old person jokes here). Two weeks later the new teachers declare “Are you kidding me? I can’t believe it’s still June.” (Insert snort and I told you so here.)

This year we are all jaded which means as June approaches, we become hermits on days we don’t have classes. This is necessary to conserve energy.

What makes June difficult isn’t the full weeks–the autumn term actually has more full weeks–it’s the fact that it’s getting hotter and more humid (as Japan enters the season of humid and the fact that the weather and long schedule messes with the students, too.

This year my goal is to get through June without yelling at any students. Unfortunately, they are already testing my limits.

This means June could be really long.