"vacation, all I ever wanted"

The next three posts after this will be about food, I promise. For now, life in general continues to be entertaining enough.

I made a show of thinking things over this past weekend (though, in reality, my mind was already made up), and then on Tuesday, I emailed the CDM trainer and told him that I was grateful for the information he gave me, but ultimately, I was not interested in a CDM contract. I cc'd it to my GEOS trainer as well.

The next day, I received a very polite and very icy reply from the CDM trainer, thanking me for being straightforward about my desires and informing me that he was looking for someone who would actually enjoy the job. It almost sounded like he was turning me down, like I had applied for the job. Benni-sensei read it too, and she said, "Why's he sound mad?" I explained that he'd lost a whole month in job recruitment because someone had mistakenly told him I wanted the job. Now he's under even more pressure. I can understand that he's a little unhappy with the situation. Benni-sensei didn't quite get it, but that's okay. I don't mind people being mad at me.

Then my trainer called and said that he'd met with the CDM trainer, who had basically flat-out refused to work with me. This did not upset me either, because the feeling was mutual. My trainer also sounded a bit irritated with me, especially when he asked me what my Plan B was.

My reply: "Uh, continue working as an adult teacher. Do I have a choice?" I had to explain that I wasn't refusing to go to the Ito Yokado school - I was just refusing to become a CDM teacher. My main complaint this past month was that I was being taken away from my students even when I was going to be present at the school.

Allow me to note that I really do feel like my students are being done a disservice by GEOS. First, the company planned to send them a sub teacher, which suggests to me a short-term situation. Second, we are not supposed to do any contract renewals, despite a couple of students asking to do them. Third, my trainer keeps dismissing their concerns about Ito Yokado as "silly - they'll get over it." The past two weeks, our students have become more vocal about their concerns because we've basically been told not to tell them anything. And then my trainer says, "Just don't say anything that will get them mad at the school." Yeah, that's not really necessary, because by saying nothing, they are getting mad at the company. I have tried to be honest with my students without making GEOS seem like some big bad dragon that has it out for them. Doing that would not make the situation better. But I'm not going to lie to them either. What I haven't done is come out and tell them what I really think, which is that GEOS doesn't care if they go to Ito Yokado or not. And Hitomi-san is 99% convinced that the CDM school would prefer for the adult students to just disappear altogether. She was told to encourage them to cancel their contracts.

My point here is that I'm concerned about my students, and I'm frustrated with GEOS because they aren't doing much to alleviate my concerns.

Then my trainer tells me that he still has to talk to customer service to get an idea of how many adult students are actually going to Ito Yokado. And if only a small number of them are going, then they will have to move me to another school.

"Okay," I said, because that had been the way it was described to me a month ago.

"Well, GEOS will not pay for your moving costs."

"That's alright, I understand."

"Of course, that's not certain. There's no telling if we have a school to send you to. You'll probably have to stay at Ito Yokado for a couple of months."

"I understand that too. It's no problem."

Actually, the idea of leaving Isesaki is not a pleasant one, but I'll do it if I have to. At this point, having lost a good number of my favorite students, I don't feel bad about the idea. And the more I learn about the problems at Ito Yokado, the less certain I feel about working there.

So, here we stand, sure about one thing only: the CDM NET trainer wants nothing doing with me and will not work with me. I consider that a good thing, especially if that means they won't try to recruit me again in the future. I'm sorry that there was this misunderstanding between us, but if he'd spoken to me at the beginning of February (rather than going through third parties, most of whom were Japanese), I would have told him then that I wasn't interested. I'm still not sure where the miscommunication came from, because I never told anybody that I wanted to be a CDM teacher. I didn't even agree to take it into consideration. The first time my trainer spoke to me about it, I told him how I felt. So, I'm sorry the CDM trainer wasted his time believing that I was the solution to his problem. But that doesn't mean I'm going to give in and do what they all wanted me to do. That's just not the way I am.

In other news, I decided to take a vacation, as a number of people have suggested to me. In two weeks, I am going to spend four days in the Mt. Hakone/Mt. Fuji area. I'm staying at a hostel near Mt. Hakone for two nights, then moving to a very posh-looking French-style hotel near Mt. Fuji for one night. I am very much looking forward to this. But, no, I do not plan on climbing Mt. Fuji. That should be saved for a future summer. After much training, I should think.

I am hoping that March turns out to be a nicer month to me than February has (shouldn't be too difficult, considering that February is the cruelest of all months). In addition to the trip to Hakone/Fuji, a group of our students wants to take Benni-sensei and me to Kawagoe, and I'm excited about that, mainly because of how awesome said students are. They're a very amusing group of ladies. And tomorrow night, I'm going to Maebashi for a takoyaki/gyoza party. Ah, see, things are looking better already!