just making sure everything's in working order

Come summertime, a large number of Japanese companies require their employees to have annual medical check-ups. GEOS is one of these. This is a good thing (I guess) because if I wasn't forced to do this, there's no telling when I would do it on my own. Probably never. At least it's fairly simple, requiring only height/weight measurements, blood pressure check, sight/hearing check, x-ray, and urinalysis.

I'm not sure why x-rays are required, but I thought it was cool anyway because I don't ever remember have any part of my body x-rayed. Only teeth, and that's just downright dull. Also, my insides are neat. The doctor showed me my heart and lungs, though it was hard to tell they were my lungs because they were so clean and clear. There are no spots on my insides. The doctor was very pleased.

Interesting note: the doctor did everything. In the States, nurses do the brunt of the work (in my opinion) and the doctor just comes in to poke at you and sign the paper. This is my experience. Here (and, oddly enough, in Puerto Rico), the doctor did all of the tests and measurements. The nurse assisted, mainly by holding things and showing me to the bathroom. Also, the doctor spoke some English and was pleased to know I'm from Florida, because, of course, he'd been to Orlando in years past.

It was a very fast doctor's visit; it took all of maybe 40 minutes. I got a clean bill of health, except for "excess weight." Yeah, I know. I'm working on it. To show how far I've come since my heavy high school days, this did not fill me with overwhelming self-loathing. Rather, I was amused, because I was thinking, 'Yeah, you should have seen that number two years ago, pal.' Granted, my weight is not where I'd like it to be, but I AM working on it. Also, in my defense, the measurement was taken in the middle of the day, only two hours after a huge lunch, and during a particularly bloated period of my cycle. None of these are ideal for weighing. I was a full 3 kilograms heavier than when I weighed myself that morning.

I have gained a little weight since moving to Matsudo, and it's because of a number of things. I'm riding my bike less, so that's a loss of aerobic activity. I am walking and using the stairs everyday, but that's only developed muscles in my thighs and calves, which probably accounts for the gain. I'm doing weights in my apartment at night 2-3 nights a week, so my triceps and biceps are a little more defined too. I've lost inches around my waist and hips, and that means more to me than anything else. But I'll be much happier when I can go back to riding my bike 30-60 minutes a day.

My blood pressure is normal, so all in all, I can't complain. And I feel great. I haven't had any muscle aches or body pain in months, and going up all those stairs has done nice things for my endurance.

So, to reward myself, I went shopping. Not for food (yay, me!). I usually go to the Lala Port at Kashiwa-noha-campus, but Mio-sensei suggested I go to Nagareyama's Otakanomori instead. So, I did.

Otakanomori is much bigger that the Lala Port and also not so Americanized. Lala Ports tend to be (in my experience) very similar to American malls, big and airy and open and filled with children. Otakanomori seems to cater to a more sophisticated crowd. It's not cave-like, but it has lower ceilings and fewer windows. It oozes style. It's a mall that doesn't feel like a mall.

I made wonderful discoveries in Otakanomori. A Build-A-Bear (because "a bear hug is understood in ANY language!"), a Cold Stone Creamery, a New York-style bagel shop, a Baskin Robbins, and a gorgeous movie theater. Also, more expensive clothing stores than you can shake a stick at. Best of all is a Kinokuniya, without a doubt my favorite Japanese bookstore. This one had a terribly small English section, but it was still nice to peruse. I bought a kanji workbook to improve my reading skills. And then I went over to the cd/dvd section and bought myself a new pair of earbuds because my old pair is falling apart. These are easily the best things that happened to me all day. I had no idea that my old pair sucked so much until I put these on.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, even though it rained on my all the way home, and I've got a blister on my left foot because I wore my new sandals instead of my tennis shoes. The clinic I went to was in Minami-Moriya, and exploring that area has only endeared me to Moriya as a whole. I saw a lot of apartment buildings with "tenants wanted" signs, so I'm going to talk to Mio-sensei about inquiring after some of them. It would be nice to live there - the train station is so tiny and cute, and it's a short ride to Moriya that way. By foot or bike, it's maybe three miles, which would definitely make for a healthier lifestyle. I'm also thinking that the apartments may be cheaper than in Moriya proper because there's no Tsukuba Express to drive up prices. We'll see.

For now, enjoy some pictures of south Moriya.

the barely there platform

the tiny, tiny train station
proof that Moriya really is countryside

the magical 90-day mark

Well, I've been working in Moriya for 3 months now, and I've made a decision: I'm moving to Moriya.

I'm already tired of living in Matsudo. I spent most of June 28th in Moriya at a school picnic (which deserves its own post, which I will hopefully post soon), and I realized how much I disliked living in the city. Moriya is much more comfortable, and it's just a nicer place to be. The commute isn't so terrible, I just don't like the atmosphere. Also, I have no place to ride my bike, so I'm getting much less exercise now (even taking into account the 10 minute walk to the station and all those stairs I have to go up and down twice a day). I tried working out in my room, but the only time I have to do this is when I get home, when all I want to do is relax after a long day of work. Also, it bored me. I could never participate in a gym class because aerobics really do bore the hell out of me.

I will still be close to Tokyo. In fact, I will be exactly 32 minutes from Akihabara, which is faster than the 45 minute ride from Shin-Matsudo to Ueno. This pleases me, because though I wouldn't want to live in Tokyo, it's fun to go there for day trips. There is always something to see in Tokyo, but even if you can't find it, there's always Kinokuniya, which (for a bibliophile like me) is paradise.

The whole moving thing is going to be a pretty major undertaking because GEOS does not have any apartments in the area, and I will have to do everything on my own. I have fortunately been blessed with very nice Japanese co-workers, students, and friends to help me out with this. The packing I will have to do on my own, but having Japanese support is way more important.

This will all have to wait until after the 20th, which is when I will return from my trip to the States. July is turning out to be an exciting month for me, what with the Florida trip and the busy weekends and now the whole moving thing. Now I just need to start filling up my August calendar. My birthday is August 10th, and I have that day off, so I want to do something fun.

(and that's only about a month away. jeez, time is just slipping away from me now. whee! have I mentioned that I love living in Japan? I love living in Japan. I'm having way too much fun.)

another universal teaching truth

You can't make people want to learn. I don't care if they're children, teenagers, adults - whatever. Age doesn't matter, nationality doesn't matter, NOTHING matters. If there is no motivation, you can't make 'em learn.

Lately, head office has been coming down on our shisha (region) because of high cancellation rates and low renewal rates. Last week, I spent an hour in a v-chat where the primary message seemed to be "students are quitting/not renewing, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT. Quit blaming the economy, quit blaming job transfers, quit making excuses. Let's face it - you need to be better!"

(Talk about encouraging a lack of motivation . . .)

Sure, it's possible for teachers to increase motivation. I'll accept that. If a person is a really great teacher - I mean, really stupendous, totally has the whole thing down - then maybe they can get their students so pumped up about it that they'll keep coming back even when they don't really want to.

I am not a great teacher. I believe that 90% of motivation comes from within. I can't generate it for them. I can enjoy myself and take my job seriously, but I can't force people to want to study English. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't do the best I can. I love my job, and I want to do it well. That helps some - my students see how enthusiastic I am about English, and they think it's kind of cute. It makes them feel like I'm here because I want to be here and not because I need the money (which is true, wholly and completely - the money doesn't mean jack to me, not really). I can encourage my students and guide them and help them and amuse and educate them in class. But if they don't WANT to learn, there's not a whole lot I can do about that. Granted, this is my philosophy because it's the way I operate, but on the whole, I've found it to be mostly true. If they don't HAVE to do it, people won't do it unless they want to.

(Unless they're like me and they'll only do things they want to do, PERIOD.)

I will note that though Moriya's renewal rate is not great (it's over 50%, which is good enough for me), our successful interview rate is around 90%, and we pulled in 7 new students last month. As far as numbers are concerned, I still have about 75 students and 30 classes. Maybe we're not doing phenomenal work, but we're making ends meet, and that's enough to make me happy.

closing time

I have much to share and precious little time to do it in. Moving my small space is bad enough, but add in closing shop at the school and the social whirlwind of closing parties and goodbye lunches, and time flies right out the window.

There's no telling when I will be able to post again - I'm hoping that it will not take me six weeks to get internet at my new place, but I know better than to believe that things are going to be as simple as I want them to be. May the gods of convenience and interwebs smile upon me and offer me their blessings. I get the feeling I might need them.

I did receive some information about my new school. I'll have a much busier schedule this time around: 29 classes, ~75 students. As if I needed a reminder about how good I had it here in Isesaki. The upside of this is that only 8 of them are kids classes, and 11 of them are Sprint classes, which are fast and easy to prepare, especially now that I've been through all of Sprint 7 and half of Sprint 6 and Sprint 8. Also awesome is that I have two Headway classes, which offers the prospect of teaching high-level subjects. The real unknown factor here is that quite a few of my students are going to be businessmen, which is a change-up from the large number of teachers and bored housewives I had in Isesaki.

Perhaps saddest of all: this marks the end of my freedom to wear sneakers and jeans most of the day. I get the feeling that I will once again be considering buying stock in blister treatments. My feet already hurt.

Thus closes the first chapter of my life in Japan. I can only hope that the next one is as fulfilling and entertaining.

T-minus 5 days

The Tokyo travelogue will have to wait. It's mostly just about the St. Patrick's Day parade anyway.

More importantly, moving is hard. I've spent the past four or five days trying to get myself packed. It's not that it's been especially difficult, it's just that it's tedious. And boring. And I'm mostly doing it after work when all I want to do is relax and chill.

Plus, I'm packing at work too. Previous NETs have left all kinds of crap behind that either needs to be packed to send to Ito Yokado or just thrown away. Hitomi-san was told to bring all of whatever props/toys/books I don't take, but I don't see how they're going to fit it all into the Ito Yokado school. It's tiny. The office is miniscule. And it doesn't have any light. But, it's what she was told to do, so she'll do it. I've gone through everything and decided what I want to keep, which amounts to a big box of prop stuff and a small box of books.

On the apartment relocation side, I've received negligent information from my trainer(s): how do I get to my apartment from the train station? will someone be meeting me to give the key? if not, how do I get in? most importantly, how long will it take me to get internet? Actually, the only thing I'm worried about is getting into the apartment. Everything else will follow that. The utilities are already being arranged (Hitomi-san is a saint), and I'll have Thursday to get settled in.

As for my trainer(s), the only communication I've gotten is that they want pictures of my clean and empty apartment yesterday. At which I laughed quite a bit - after I sulked angrily for a while. Cuz, see, I thought I had until Tuesday to clean and empty my apartment. So, it's a major mess right now. Because I'm in the middle of packing and all. I've been doing most of the work at night (read: midnight-3am) because I've been staying at the school all day to help clean and pack there too. Yeesh, I am so sick of this cleaning and packing thing.

So, I spent two hours last night cleaning the toilet room and the kitchen and moving my crap from one side of my living room to the other to take pictures. The bathroom is still a mess because I just happened to do a load of laundry, and it was still hanging up to dry. It was too windy yesterday to hang it outside. As is typical of Gunma's spring weather.

(On a side note, it got cold again this week. Stupid weather.)

The bright side of this is that, if I continue this level of diligence, I'll be 95% ready to move by Tuesday - the other 5% being packing up my futon and finishing up my last load of laundry. So, at least I'll be able to enjoy my last couple of days in Isesaki to hang out at the school and chill with the students. They've all been very sweet and kind and sad about everything. Only two criers so far, but I imagine that our farewell parties are going to bring out the waterworks. We'll see.

"on the road again"

Leaving for my vacation tomorrow! Will spend two nights at a hostel near Mt. Hakone, followed by one night at a very nice and expensive hotel near Mt. Fuji. Then, on Sunday, I'm heading into Tokyo for the St. Patrick's Day Parade. So totally looking forward to this. Should have plenty of pictures when I get back.

Also, I will be moving. It hasn't been made fully official yet, but I am being transferred to the school in Moriya, in Ibaraki prefecture. I'm told that it's one of GEOS newer schools and that it's one of the company's fastest growing schools. My boss informed me that they need a teacher who is "strong and independent." This sounds like praise and recognition, doesn't it? I think it means that this may be a challenging position. And that may just mean that I'm a terrible cynic. Either way, challenges are okay with me. The majority of my students will be adults, and that's all I ask for.

Though I will be working in Moriya, I will be living in Matsudo, which is in Chiba prefecture and very close to Tokyo. One of my students also informed me that it's close to Disneyland, which she should know well enough because she is a frequent visitor to said theme park. That's fantastic (and that's sarcastic), but it's not like I'll be living IN Disneyland, so there. I will have to commute to work by train, so there's that to consider.

This news has been disappointing to my students, though. Even some of them who are cancelling were a little upset - as Naofumi-san pointed out, I could still hang out with my old students if I stayed in Gunma-ken. Rio-chan's mother even said I should come and visit them, and in all seriousness offered to have me as a guest. (Have I mentioned that I love my students? I love my students. They are awesome incarnate.) I'm not sure how many of my classes will transfer to Ito Yokado now, because some of them are already asking about transfering to other GEOS schools.

Which raises other concerns for me. I had an interview today, and despite the move and the changing of teachers, the prospective student decided to sign a contract. This gives my adult interviews a 100% success rate. I do not understand this. It always strikes me as odd when people seem to like me. I've never thought of myself as particularly personable. My greatest concern, however, is how these newer students (there are 3 of them whose contracts start this month) will fare at Ito Yokado. Renewals have not been encouraged, a sub teacher will be put in charge of the adult classes, and Hitomi-san has been told not to open any new classes. I find all this a little distressing, but there's nothing I can do about it, which just irritates me.

Finally, I would like to take this time to affirm my distaste for adverbs. The Sprint 8X lesson this week was all about adverbs, and it was painful. Even Naofumi-san thought it was a little disconcerting. The conversation caused me great emotional trauma from the overuse of its adverbs. I also took offense to the book's suggestion that writers use adverbs to help "describe their characters and their motivations." As a writer myself, I believe that using adverbs is akin to cheating and should not be encouraged. Adverbs should be used only when necessary and not whenever the writer doesn't know how to express herself in detail.

Take, for example, the adverb "clumsily." You can write, "The ballerina danced clumsily." Okay, fine. That'll get the job done. But, suppose you write, "The ballerina tripped over her feet and staggered forward, bumping into male lead and knocking them both off balance." No, it's not perfect, but you get more detail and a better visual idea of what's happening. Creative writing is about forging a mental image of a scene, and that requires details. Adverbs only offer outlines, vague shadows of what is happening.

Yes, I've edited a few things over the years. I've written some crap over the years too. I also read fan-fiction for a while before I decided to give it up for the sake of my sanity. If not used with great care, adverbs can ruin your prose.

In closing, Tom Swifties should be outlawed. That is all.

for more information on the abomination that is a Tom Swifty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swifties
(adverbs and puns combined! the horror . . .)

"little yellow devils" and weekly luncheons

No, that's not a slur. It's Naofumi-san's term for the pollen that has been assaulting most of my students for past few weeks. This week has seen a proliferation of face masks as people try to protect themselves from the onslaught. Success has been limited. It's been a miserable March for some of them.

As for myself, I'm relatively okay. Last week, I had a couple of sneezing days and even that wasn't so bad. I've never had a problem with allergies, but I was worried that strange Japanese pollen may trigger a sudden bout of hay fever. So far, so good. Hitomi-san has also been faring well, but apparently, her daughter is doing terribly. Given that she's the sickliest little kid I've known, that's not a surprise, unfortunately.

What else has been happening lately?

Benni-sensei, Hitomi-san, and I totally had steak for lunch today. Not just steak but filet mignon. To give a rough idea of how good this beef was, consider how exquisite a $40 filet must be. I'm 99.9% certain that it was the best beef I've ever had. I am unfond of this habit of dousing steak/non-bunned hamburg with unidentifiable house sauces, though. It's criminal to drown perfect meat like that. Especially when it's a sauce fraught with something as despicable as onions. Ew.

Next week, we're planning on going to a Korean barbecue place. It's become a weekly ritual with us. Last week, they finally took me to a kaiten-zushi restaurant, which features sushi on a conveyor belt holy crap how awesome is that? I admit, the merry-go-round sushi left a little to be desired - there's no way of telling exactly how long the sushi has been on the conveyor belt - but you can order fresh sushi too, so that makes up for it. I also had a bowl of chirashizushi (sushi scattered over rice). You can choose what you want, so I had raw tuna and avacado, and that was just plain delicious.

We've also been to a shabu shabu restaurant. This was interesting and entertaining, but it required a lot of time and a little energy. It's almost like fondue - you take the meat and "swish" it around a few times in a pot of boiling water to cook it. It cooks very quickly, but you can only do a little at a time, and with four people sharing one pot, it can get crowded. But it was fun and definitely yummy.

For more information on kaiten-zushi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_belt_sushi
For more information on shabu shabu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu_shabu

fun things that happened this week

(no food, sorry . . . okay, there is a little at the end. the next three posts, I promise)

Despite the rollercoaster ride that has been working for GEOS this month, I still love my job. I mean it, I do. I LOVE my job, which is why I'm willing to fight so hard to keep doing it. I have not once woken up in the morning and thought, "Jeez, I really don't feel like working today." Now, I admit, I've woken up and thought, "Just the toddlers to get through, and I'm good for the day." But that's only on Friday and Saturday. Other than that, I enjoy coming in to work. Even when I have six hours between classes.

Which leads me to one awesome thing that happened this week: Rio's mother looking kind of shocked when I told her that. "You have 6 hours before your first class today? And you still come in? Why? What do you do?"

The answer to this demonstrates how focused I am on my own enjoyment: "Eh, it's more fun here than it is at my apartment. I hang out with Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san, I chat with Benni-sensei's students, I sit in my room and listen to my iPod."

Seriously, I have an awesome job. Two days a week, I can hang around in my jeans because my classes don't start until 6pm. Thursdays, we go out to lunch or make a big lunch at the school (this week, we went to a shabu shabu restaurant, which was highly entertaining). Wednesdays, I ride around in the afternoon and run all my little errands and get lunch at Beisia. Fridays, Benni-sensei and I sometimes go out for ramen and gyoza at 10pm. And on Saturdays, I'm done by 7pm. It's a terrific gig I've got here.

And, yes, I adore my students. Even my kid students have their moments.

1. I've mentioned my class with two 5-year old boys. I really can't stand N, because he will not do anything. I'd be happy if he'd just sit and make paper airplanes, but he's always distracting K, who will work for me. Today, K worked nicely on writing his letters, and then I had him practice writing his name. I wrote it out in the alphabet for him, and he copied it. Then, for the hell of it, I wrote his name in hiragana, and he clapped his hands and grinned at me. Not sure what it was about, but it was funny.

2. I have a class of 4 12-year olds who can be pretty funny and not so bad, if they're on task. For some reason, they got to practicing cursive writing; I have no idea how or why. So, I spent ten minutes showing them how to write their names in cursive. They also found my signature absolutely hysterical, but I've found that most Japanese do.

3. One of my students signed papers to buy a house this week, and he invited the whole class for the housewarming party in April. Actually, this is one of my favorite classes. They're a Tuesday class, so they were one of my first classes, and they welcomed me with sweets and fresh-ground coffee. I am so happy that they're sticking through the move.

4. Naofumi-san goes to Hamamatsu once a month for business, and he always brings something back for us. This time, he brought back tuna & cheese cubes. Now, I like tuna, and I like cheese, and I like it mixed together, so I thought this should be edible. Unfortunately, I was wrong. This may very well be the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten. I'm quite convinced that this is what catfood tastes like, because it certainly tasted the way cat food smells. The upshot is that Benni-sensei and Naofumi-san took great pleasure in laughing uproariously at my suffering.

It looks so innocent, doesn't it? And yet, it is a horrible, vile thing.

"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!

philosophical addendum

I guess the major problem I'm having with this move to Ito Yokado is that I don't want to be taken advantage of by my company. Why is that so wrong?

I understand well and good that a corporation will do what it has to in order to survive - but why should I give up my happiness and my integrity for it? Especially when said company has shown no concern for me personally? Why are people expected to take all the crap their company shovels out to them and eat it with smiles on their faces? Why do we have to settle for doing something we don't like simply because "it's our job?" Am I just some kind of idiot who thinks you should do only what makes you happy?

Look, I know life is hard, and sometimes, you've got to take the bad with the good. But, honestly, why would I lay down and let this company walk all over me? Why shouldn't I fight for what I want? Why shouldn't I try to do what's best for me? Why shouldn't I enjoy my job?

What makes it worse is that I have been enjoying my job. I LOVE my job as it is right now. Shouldn't I fight to keep it? Shouldn't I try to hold on to it? Is that wrong?

All I want is to be happy. Is that too much to ask?

not as mad as it seems

The problem with text is that you can't really hear the degree of emotion in the words. Sarcasm rarely translates well through text. It's hard to make sentimentality work without sounding cheesy or treacly. Apparently, frustrated confusion comes out more like anger than anything else.

My last post seems to have been interpreted as angry, so I want to clear the air a little. When I read the post, it doesn't sound terribly angry to me - but then, I know how I was feeling at the time, and there's no word in the English language to describe that feeling. It was (and for the most part, still is) a combination of frustration and bafflement. Frustration that I seem to have little control over my livelihood and bafflement at how I'm being treated by people who told me that they were here to help me. I also feel that I was lied to, which does make me a little mad. More importantly, though, I'm disappointed by it. I've communicated my wants to my bosses - indeed, I was asked to do so - but thus far, I've mostly been ignored. I think I have the right to be a little angry. I also think I have the right to be more than a little frustrated, because this is my life we're talking about, and I'm the one who should have the most control over it.

Let me say this: I don't talk to anyone at GEOS this way. After all, this is a blog, and let's face it, bloggers are stereotypically angry people. Blogging's a harmless way to get it all out. I feel it's okay to have an angry blog once in a while, considering that most of my blogs are about how much I enjoy my life here in Japan. I still love my life here in Japan, and that's one reason I'm upset - taking away my adult classes is going to take away a lot of what I love about life. I happen to be one of those people who believes that if you're not happy in your job, what's the point of doing it?

It's difficult for me to accept my lack of control in this situation, especially because my trainers made me feel like I had some say in my job. It also makes the possibility of going into a CDM situation worse because I don't trust them anymore. When they say they'll give me support, I don't believe it. When they say they'll do what they can for me, I don't believe it. They said that three weeks ago, and I'm worse off than I was before.

I'm leaving the post up, because it is how I felt that night when I got home. I was confused, and I was frustrated, but I wasn't really mad. I will amend one sentence, and that's my closing statement. It's true that they can put me in a CDM classroom and tell me to teach it, and it's true that I'll do what I can - but I doubt very much that I'll enjoy it. The only thing that really made me truly angry was being told that I would learn to enjoy it. That's an assumption of character that should not be made, especially considering I had just told him that of all my classes, I like the CDM ones the least. That he made that statement proved to me that he hadn't been listening to me and that it was on my shoulders to take the job and be happy about it. But he's not the one teaching there, I am, and I know what I'm capable of. And after 4 months of enduring CDM classes because it's a necessary part of my job, I know well enough that I don't want to spend all of my working time with kids. I do not like playing the games, I do not like singing the songs, and most of all, I hate the puppets. I'm afraid I cannot put a lot of effort into that which I do not like. This is what I meant: they can put me in that classroom, but that doesn't mean I will excel at or enjoy it. I will do what I did when I was teaching American high school: I will survive. I will do what is necessary. That is all. That was a rewardless job. I expect this one will be fairly similar.

And I understand that GEOS has to do what it has to do, but I do not believe that it needs to stomp all over its employees and customers while it does it. It will do so, of course, but I think it's only reasonable to react with a little emotion. I'm a human being not a Tetris block. They can't just decide what to do with me and expect me to have no feelings about it whatsoever. I'll get over, yes, but I won't forget it. And I have enough of my youth left in me to feel that I should be doing what I want to do, what I like to do. I will hold to my contract, but I will not be treated as anything less than a human being. I deserve a little bit of respect.

There, that's what's really bothering me about this situation. I'm expected to respect my company and my bosses, but I have received no respect from them. And I have to sit back and watch them disrespect my students as well, and I am unable to do anything about it. That's the problem. That's what upsets me.

It's still a hell of a way to run a railroad. I will be civil, and I will be cooperative, but I will not forfeit my own happiness for a company that treats me as a thing, as something to be shuffled around for their needs and not mine. Maybe that makes me selfish, but I believe I was put on this world to be happy, and that is my foremost concern. I'm not a self-proclaimed cynic for nothing.

why my students are the awesome

I love my students, I really do. They're all generally nice people, and they work hard and do their best. And they are sincere about things. It's unfortunate (but understandable) that so many of them are cancelling their classes because of the school situation. Some of them have gone to visit Ito Yokado and have come back disappointed. No surprise, because the Ito Yokado school is a joke. In a cruel twist of fate, the punchline is my own misery.

Wait, this is a post about how much I like my students. Right.

First, I don't deserve their praise and loyalty - a number of them are transferring to the Ito Yokado school because I'm going there too. (no word yet on what I'll actually be teaching, but it damn well better be the adult classes . . . that's another rant, and I'm trying to be positive here) Suffice to say that they apparently like the way I teach. Go figure.

Second, they bring me things that they think I'll like. I am terribly unworthy of their gifts and so am very grateful whenever they think of me. That feeling is completely indescribable.

I love wagashi (Japanese sweets), especially daifuku, which most of my students find endearing. The above feast of wagashi was brought to me by a couple who take a private lesson. The yellow blocks are made of a sweet potato paste (delightfully yummy, not too sweet), while the white (plain mochi) and green (mugwort mochi) daifuku are filled with anko. The pink balls are wrapped in oak leaves and are traditional treats for Children's Day in May (though Hitomi-san tells me it's also for Girls' Day in March). It's an interesting combination of flavor - and yes, the oak leaves are completely edible and really make the overall experience worthwhile.

Another of my students likes to make sweet things every once in a while - she's brought cookies and caramels before. On Tuesday, she brought little tarts for everyone. A chocolate-almond tart and a lemon cream tart with fruit. Both of them were absolutely delicious.

And practically all of our students enjoyed the peanut butter balls, which I neglected to take a picture of. Oh, well.

In other news, February continues to suck major chicken balls. And only about 10% of that suckage has to do with the weather.

a failure to communicate

If only I could say it was a language issue, but honestly, I think it's more of a listening issue.

The lady in charge of the Codomo school at Ito Yokado (henceforth known as That Woman) has spent the past two weeks telling us simple folk at GEOS Isesaki what's doing. She does this in such a way that Hitomi-san will drop whatever she's doing and work on whatever it is That Woman wants her to do, despite the fact That Woman is not her boss and, indeed, has no right to tell any of us what to do. She's been making all sorts of decisions and insuinating to Hitomi-san that they are all official.

Note: That Woman has yet to speak directly to me, but she feels she has free reign to decide what to do with me.

Further, That Woman has also yet to have any sort of communication with my trainers, meaning that none of them have approved any of the decisions she's made. These include my schedule and the addition of another GEOS teacher to come to Ito Yokado two days a week to teach. Apparently, she's unconcerned that this other teacher is transferring to another school entirely and isn't available to come to Ito Yokado at all.

I spoke to one of my trainers last Friday, and he assured me that nothing That Woman has decided is official or even likely to happen. Any firm decisions made about me will come from GEOS, not from GEOS Codomo, and thus I should generally ignore anything That Woman says. Which I will gladly do.

So, as far as what the hell I'm doing in the near future is concerned, I know as little about it now as I did two weeks ago. But I do know I should generally ignore That Woman and wait to hear from my trainers before panicking about anything. Also, I am not in danger of becoming a Codomo-only teacher, which is perhaps my greatest fear, the mere thought of which makes me break into a cold sweat. The idea of teaching 30 classes of nothing but children is straight out of a nightmare for me.

The other problem is my co-workers. Don't get me wrong: I adore my co-workers, and they've shown a loyalty to me that I don't think I really deserve. But they're human, so they can be madly infuriating sometimes. One of my male students observed that giving advice to Japanese women is futile because, though they will listen and acknowledge the advice, they will ultimately reject it and continue to bemoan the situation, even if it's a good and reliable solution. I must, sadly, agree with him.

Hitomi-san is the more practical of my co-workers, recognizing the possibility of a bad situation when she sees one and not doing too much moaning about it. She tends to panic though, as she did on Thursday, when she called my trainer 10 times and emailed him thrice. I appreciate her concern, but I suggested that perhaps she was overdoing it a bit.

Benni-sensei, on the other hand, maintains a sentimental outlook on everything and becomes a confused, uncomprehending child whenever faced with something she doesn't like. When my trainer came to visit me last week, she spent half an hour trying to convince him not to close the school, like it was his decision in the first place. Once she gets an idea into her head, she clings to it, no matter how impractical it may be. She's the oldest of us, has more worldly experience, but it seems like sometimes we have to look out for her. She's forgetful, consistently late, terribly laidback, and a major pushover when it comes to kids. I get the feeling she spent too much time in California.

Anyway, my situation remains unchanged. For now, I'm definitely going to Ito Yokado, and the intent is for me to teach all of my old classes. That is, if my students don't all quit when they see how ridiculously small and inconvienent the Ito Yokado school is. However, I've had many of my students tell me (or Benni-sensei) how pleased they are that I will be teaching there, and that many of them want to continue their classes only if I'm their teacher. That's enough to put a bit of a thaw around the cold cockles of my heart. I'm unworthy of such loyalty.

is it karmic retribution or just bad luck?

I'm starting to wonder if I inadvertently pissed off some cosmic deity that is now wreaking physical and emotional revenge on me. This has been a pretty crummy week so far, and it's not even over yet!

It started on Sunday, of course, with my crash on the bike (which was entirely my fault, I admit that). The weather's been pretty grey and crummy all week, and I'm officially sick of winter and ready for spring to get here. February is a dreary month, and it's that time of the year for the winter blues. Add in all this uncertainty about my future with GEOS, and this is the first week in Japan that I've felt the on-comings of a blue funk.

The situation with the school has been escalating, though I didn't realize it until today. Usually when I see Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san conferring quietly in the office, I mind my own business and let them come to me if it is my business. Turns out, today's conference was. After my afternoon class, I went in to mark attendance, and Hitomi-san told me that she had been told by the Ito Yokado school boss that she should make a schedule for me that combines my current schedule with the NET's schedule at the Kids' school. Essentially, I'm intended to take over his position when he leaves in April.

This is highly laughable - and also insane. The NET at Ito Yokado has 74 students and 30 classes; I have ~45 students and 22 classes. Also, I am supposed to take over Benni-sensei's students to, which would give me maybe 10-12 more classes (most of her students have said they prefer to quit). On this schedule of mine, I have an estimated 55 classes.

I never claim to be good at math, but even I realized that this wasn't adding up. My days are 9 hours long, and I work 5 days. That's 45 weekly hours for classses. Notice the number difference: I would have to work 11 hour days to get all those classes in, without breaks, the majority of them kids' classes.

Well, Hitomi-san was having a mental breakdown trying to get it to work, even though I kept telling her that it was impossible, and she finally called her boss to find out what the hell the deal was. I've made it pretty clear that I don't want to teach only kids classes, and I've been falling back on my boss's reassurance that that wasn't going to happen. However, Hitomi-san was informed that I was slated to take over the NET position at Ito Yokado and that the only classes to be sacrificed were the adult classes. GEOS has made that clear enough already, practically encouraging us to convince our students to quit rather continue their contracts at Ito Yokado.

This did - and to an extent still does - infuriate me. In January, I told my boss that under no circumstances did I want to become a kids only teacher, and he told me that wasn't what was going to happen. Either I go to Ito Yokado in essentially the same capacity I'm in now or I go to a new school - that's what I was told. Now, the Ito Yokado head is telling Hitomi-san that my boss "lied to" or "misinformed" me. Also, she told Hitomi-san not to show me the schedule or even speak to me about the proposed move to Ito Yokado. Thankfully, she ignored this.

I spent most of the evening working myself into an agitated state and consuming large quantities of chocolate. Because I have not been "officially" apprised of the situation, Hitomi-san didn't want me to contact my boss and demand an explanation. Instead, she sent him a harried email, to which he replied that he was "occupied" but that someone would contact me tomorrow. She gave him my available times, apologized to me profusely, and suggested that I not agree to anything that had to do with Ito Yokado, to tell my boss that I wanted to move and request an adult school and nothing else. She also told me the head of the Ito Yokado school was crazy, but I'd already figured that out.

Here's why I'm mad: I was told that I would go to Ito Yokado with my students, separate from the kids' school. I would not be replacing the NET there, who has been coerced into staying even though he's wanted to leave since October. And now, I'm starting to wonder if this was the plan - to have me replace him. I don't want to believe that my boss deliberately lied to me, so I'm anxious to talk to him to get the story straight. Because if I find out I'm being tricked into going to Ito Yokado as the only NET, I'll be very displeased indeed.

I talked with Benni-sensei a while after our last classes, then headed home. I decided that I needed a bath to relax me, so after my shower, I stayed in the bathtub to fill it up and relax. I'm sitting there, washing my still scabby knees and thinking about the screw-job that GEOS is doing to me and about how idiotic and enfuriating the whole thing is.

The next thing I know, I'm having some weird "Twilight Zone" moment where I have no idea where I am or what I'm doing. Complete disorientation, total black-out. And I'm aware of a dull pain on my forehead. I touch my fingers to the sore spot and discover that I have a ginormous goose egg developing. I think what happened is that the warmth of the air and the water overwhelmed me (taking Japanese hot baths is a lot like taking a sauna), and I passed out for a few seconds. I've gotten drowsy in them before, but I've never lost consciousness, until this time. I hit my head on the sink, and that brought me around again. I must have hit it pretty hard, because not only was there a large and lovely goose egg, but there's also a little scratch near the top.

My first thought was, "oh, crap I hope I don't have a concussion," especially after I stood up and was hit by a wave of dizziness and nausea. Nothing came of it, and I didn't feel confused and the dizziness passed quickly, so I figured I was mostly alright. My main problem now is that my arm is going to fall off because I'm holding this thing of whipped cream to my head.

I don't have any ice, but I do have this soft plastic bag of whipped cream. I used it on my knee the other day, and now I'm holding it to my head. My arm hurts. My head feels better - still a bit of pain, but it's very dull, and the swelling has gone down some. There's a bit of warmth, but that's to be expected. It's not fever, just some heat around the goose egg. And my hands are really cold too, so the heat feels even stronger.

Actually, my head feels a lot clearer now. I'm still mad that I'm being played like a chess piece in the grand GEOS scheme, but perhaps I'm also thinking about it too much and letting it get to me. I'm taking things too seriously, worrying about something that I can't do anything about yet. I should focus instead on what I want, what I need to do for myself. I also shouldn't get worked up about things when I don't have all the information. I'll speak to my boss, lay out my concerns and desires, and let it go from there. It's really all I can do.

In the meantime, I'll remember to pay more attention to my surroundings, to pay attention to the good things that are around me. One thing I'm still enjoying immensely is my classes. I hope that's something that never changes.

Also, gyoza party. All the gyoza I could eat (which amounted to too much), and good company as a bonus. Also, when our students came into the school, they all said pretty much the same thing: "Smells like a chinese restaurant!" We smelled like it too, on our clothes. Eau de gyoza, very nice.

GEOS Isesaki is SOL

GEOS seems to have made its own New Year's resolutions, which appears mainly to be that they will save as much money as possible. They're accomplishing this by closing down quite a few of their schools, and - in a turn of events that is not surprising to me in any way - Isesaki is one of the unlucky ones.

Technically, my school isn't fully closing - it's being merged with the local GEOS Codomo (kids') school, and head office wants us to encourage our students to move over to is. The Codomo school isn't very far away, and since their only other choices are Takasaki (1 hour away by car) or Ota (two hours away by car), head office is hoping that the majority of the students will simply opt for the new location.

Sounds good on paper, right? Merge two schools at the better location, making it more successful, and keep everyone happy in the process. Right, except that ideas that look good on paper rarely work properly in the real world. There are two major flaws in the logic.

1. The Codomo school is TINY. Yes, it's located in the Ito Yokado mall, but it's TINY. It occupies a little corner and is basically constructed of partition boards. There's a very small lobby, a miniscule office, and two average classrooms. The school already has about 70 kid students, and given that I have 40 students, nobody's convinced that schedules can be made to fit the classroom limitations. They could probably add some of the kids to my classes, but my classes are more expensive and aren't set up quite the same.

2. In the official letter to the students, it's stated that I will quite possibly not be the teacher at the "new" school. I can't read the letter because it's in Japanese, but Benni-sensei says it pretty much guarantees that they'll have a new native teacher. This is only partly true. If enough of my students agree to move their classes to the new location, then I'll be kept on as the native teacher. If too many of them decide to quit or go to different schools, then I too will be sent to a different school. Which means I'm facing the possibility of moving.

On principle, I don't mind moving. It's a hassle and will cause me problems, but the actual idea of moving isn't aggravating to me. The problem is that I don't want to move. I'm quite happy where I am - I like Isesaki, I like my students, I like my co-workers, and I don't want to have to get adjusted to a new place and a new school. The matter would be completely different if I was ready to move on, but I'm not. I'm very comfortable here, and I'm not ready to move on yet. In other worse, I like moving but not being told I have to move. Of course, I don't like being told what to do in general, so I'm unhappy anyway.

Right now, I don't know for certain what will happen to me. I'm hoping that the majority of my students decide to move to the Ito Yokado school, thereby allowing me to continue teaching them, which would make everybody happy (as Hitomi-san reports it, everyone's more worried about changing teachers than changing location, which I take as a compliment). But we can't tell them that I might be able to stay in Isesaki, which might encourage them to just cancel classes altogether.

I should know for certain what's happening to me by the middle of February, once we know what our students want to do. Our last day of classes will be March 31st, so at least I've got two more months to enjoy myself here. Although I don't like the idea of leaving Isesaki and getting settled in someplace new, I'm not completely against it. It's not like I have any choice in the matter. And Benni-sensei thinks I'd be placed somewhere else in Gunma or one of the neighboring prefectures, so maybe I won't be completely from everyone. After all, these are the people who are my first Japanese friends, and I really like some of them.

So, I'm still waiting to see what happens. For now, I'm just going to enjoy my time in Isesaki while I can. It's just another bend in the road that I'm approaching, and I won't know what happens until I get there.

the laziest Wednesday ever

I like my Wednesdays a lot, because there's not a lot of demands on me. I don't have any classes until 6pm, and my total number of students is 3, including Naofumi-san, who is always amusing. The kids are amusing too, especially since they usually want to spend the first five minutes sending my Obi-Wan doll on new adventures around the room.

There aren't any kids' classes because it's a "catch-up" week, when any classes missed due to GEOS holidays or teacher absences can be made up. I have no need to do this, so that ejects eight classes from my weekly schedule and leaves me with only Naofumi-san's classes today. I love it when I can show up at the school in jeans and know that I have ample time to do whatever the hell I want to most of the day.

Benni-sensei showed up with taco leftovers, so we all sat down for a taco fiesta for lunch, which was brilliant in so many ways. A delivery guy stopped by to drop off a package, and being the generous people we are, we forced him to eat a taco. Can't imagine what he thought of that - Mexican food isn't incredibly popular or available here (Shinobu-san had never eaten tacos before, and neither have Hitomi-san's parents) - but he seemed to enjoy it. He should have, because they were damn good tacos. Again, I ate way too many of them. We decided that we should do this more often, so our next theme will be a pizza party. No telling when we'll actually have it, but it's an idea.

After lunch, I went out to do something I've been putting off all month long: buying a set of weights. I stopped by Beisia first to get the ingredients to make peanut butter balls for this weekend and then went over to Cainz Home to get the weights. 3kg each, which is a little more than what I used in the States. We'll see if doing all this bike-riding has actually improved my endurance or not. I even brought my Biggest Loser DVD with me, so I'll be giving that a try this week. Good thing I don't have any kids to worry about, because I'll probably be in pain for a couple of days. Nice.

I dropped my stuff off at the apartment, changed into appropriate attire, and arrived back at the school in time to learn that Naofumi-san had called to say he would be absent, thus affording me my first day of 0 classes taught. Hitomi-san and I gave Benni-sensei her card and present (a small blanket and pillow for when she wants to nap in her classroom - seriously, she's done it a couple times, and she's slept there overnight too), and then I spent three hours studying Japanese.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my life? Because I do. Totally.

sara-sensei has a sexy voice

I came into work this morning, greeted my co-workers, and Benni-sensei said, "Ooh, Sara-sensei has a sexy voice this morning!" And I said, "Yes, because I'm sick!" And, of course, we all laughed, because I did have a very hoarse, throaty voice this morning, and it's too bad I don't sound like that ALL the time.

Fortunately, it's only a cold. I know this because it started out as a sore throat, and my colds always start as sore throats. Yesterday, I was light-headed and had a bit of congestion. Today, I'm starting to sneeze. Tomorrow will probably involve more sneezing and some coughing. If all goes well, I should be back to normal by Wednesday. It hasn't been too bad at all, especially now that my throat is feeling better. Swallowing without pain is so nice.

But, yeah, I'm sick. Yesterday and today, I had moments of light-headedness, and there were a couple times in the middle of class when I completely lost track of what I was doing and my students were staring at me like I was crazy. I know I'm sick when I can't think straight. But, I also know I'm not too sick, because I slept fine (only woke up a couple times in need of water) and I still have my appetite.

That doesn't mean I'm letting my guard down. Flu season has only just begun, and I know I can't stay 100% healthy forever. I'll just keep doing the best that I can. Which includes drinking lemon tea with awesome levels of Vitamin C. I found one with 3000mg of V-C per serving, which I felt was okay when I was drinking only one cup of it. Because of the cold, I've been keeping myself more hydrated than usual, so I switched over to a 1000mg V-C/serving instead. If I drink it really hot, it also helps clear up the congestion!

The only medicine I agreed to buy was throat lozenges, though Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san both offered to help me find something stronger. As Benni-sensei pointed out, Japanese medicine isn't as strong as American medicine, and even that wouldn't cure me, just mask my symptoms, and they really aren't as bad as that. Benni-sensei's assessment of American medicine was interesting, though. She said that she tried Thera-Flu once and that it knocked her out completely. My reply: "Well, Americans like medicine that's going to make you unconscious so you don't have to deal with being sick." Medicine being one of the things that Benni-sensei misses about living in the States. If I get sick enough, I'll probably end up agreeing with her.

I'm just glad the week is over and I can sleep as much as I want for the next two days. I've allowed myself extra sleeping hours the past two days (nine on Thursday and eight on Friday), and I think that's been a big part in not getting worse. Of all things, I believe that rest is the most important thing when trying to get healthy. And though I can normally survive on about 6 hours of sleep, I know better than to try it when I'm sick.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is feeling okay and staying healthy, regardless of where they are. Take care of yourselves! As Benni-sensei continuously reminds me (after spraining and re-spraining her ankle), "Health is the most important thing!"

Wednesdays are amusing.

Wednesdays are now officially my easy days. I had one class moved to Saturday, so now I only have a kids' class and my two-hour block with Naofumi. Easy-peasy.

The kids' class is a small Intermediate class, with two boys who are between 10-12. One of them is really quiet, and the other one is really bright, and they get along well together. They're nice boys, and I've gotten to the point where I can mess with their heads a bit.

For Christmas, my BFF Heather sent me a ginormous box of goodies, including an action figure-type thing of Obi-Wan Kenobi, my favorite Star Wars character. I have it sitting on my side table in my classroom, and the boys noticed it immediately when they came into the room. They were enthralled, and once I explained how I got it, I'm not sure what they found funnier: the fact that my friend gave it to me as a Christmas present, or the fact that I like Star Wars. In any case, they joked about it quite a bit before settling down for class.

One of today's vocabulary words was "bike," which was partially confusing to them because they identified the picture as a "bicycle." Sometimes the vocab in the GEOS books is a little weird (a track suit is considered a jersey? okay, that's a new one on me, but hey, I'm not paid to publish this stuff ). My quiet boy grinned and started humming and then quite clearly sang out, "Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle!" well enough for me to recognize it as a small snippet of the Queen song. Then they both started chanting it and grinning like maniacs.

I'm fairly astounded at how popular Queen sometimes seems here. I watched a program a couple weeks ago that was solely dedicated to the awesomeness of Queen. There was even a Japanese guy who did a fairly astounding impersonation of Freddie Mercury (the pronunciation was a little off, but he looked JUST LIKE him and the mannerisms were insanely accurate). Also, at the local Cainz Home, Queen is heard quite often over the radio system. I don't complain about this. However, I now have "Bicycle Race" stuck in my head.

Fast forward to my class with Naofumi, which started with a discussion on what we did during the holiday break. (Oddly enough, he participated in a bicycle marathon. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.) Also, he watched movies. We discussed "Dark Knight" a bit before I made him tell me the plot of "Million Dollar Baby," which I have not seen.

This was surprisingly difficult for him and not because of a language issue. He was genuinely concerned about offending me by talking about "sad" and "nasty" plot points. I'm not sure how paralysis from the neck-down is considered "nasty," but that's how he referred to it while describing the fight. He kept pausing and asking me if it was okay to continue. To be fair, I probably should have let it pass and spared him some discomfort, but really, he should have known better. After all, I had just told him how much I liked "Dark Knight," and I've mentioned before that I love westerns and war movies. Paraplegia, welfare fraud, and euthanasia aren't difficult topics for me, but that's not saying a lot. I'll generally discuss anything and everything without much embarrassment. Besides, I'm not sure anything can top the catheter and prostate exam discussion I had with one of Benni-sensei's students.

Still, I found it interesting. He has no problems discussing politics with me, but he felt uncomfortable bringing up sensitive plot points in a movie. He kept saying how sad it was. Which prompted me to say that I love movies with sad endings, and he looked at me like I was a little crazy.

I dunno, maybe I am. All I know is, after putting up with me for three months, he'd know better by now. Oh, well, just goes to show that nothing is as it seems. Life is full of little surprises.

In other news, during my second hour with Naofumi, my throat started to clench up and it became hard to swallow. And now, I feel the makings of a full-bore sore throat starting. Which tells me that I have a cold and will probably not be in the best of health tomorrow. It had to happen eventually. Personally, I'm surprised that I've managed to avoid illness thus far. And I was actually getting a little worried. After all, if I don't get sick, my immune system doesn't get the chance to strengthen itself. Not that I'm excited about getting a cold. It's just nice to put an end to the anticipation. It was only a matter of time.

I don't feel like total crap yet. If Murphy's Law is truly in effect, my worst day will be on Friday, when I need to be at 100% to deal with my three kids' classes in a row. Or on Saturday, when I deal with the 2yo twins for the first time. With any luck, I'll survive to spend Sunday in bed.

Intensive Week, Schmentisive Week

Intensive Week is designed to allow our Sprint students a chance to make up any lessons they've missed in the past four months. Rather than giving regular lessons, we're supposed to use lesson plans from our supplemental materials. This is less to educate students and more to sell them stuff. The Tatsujin series (focused on Listening and Vocabulary) don't come cheap, but this is a perfect opportunity to show them off and dazzle the students with them. Too bad I have a pretty weak sell - though one student did ask me lots of questions about them and wondered if I thought they would help her. Considering she was asking about the Listening series, I emphatically replied yes, because . . . yeah, that's a weak spot for her.

Anyway, I have decided that I don't like Intensive Week and that I will prepare my own lesson plans for it from now on. The lessons from Head Office aren't terrible, they're just . . . ridiculous. The supplemental materials are not meant to be stretched out to 45 minutes (the Tatsujin series even states on the box "15 minutes per day"), and the amount of info given could cover about 2 hours of teaching, especially if the students are a little lower level. The warm-up exercises themselves could take up half an hour if the students aren't sure what's going on. See, the thing about Intensive Week is that Benni-sensei's students can take my classes and vice versa. So, I had a couple of mixed classes in which I had some fairly low-level students trying to keep up with more advanced speakers.

Actually, that was a little amusing. Naofumi in a class with five of Benni-sensei's Sprint 4/5 ladies? Funny. He's a little on the shy side, and he was a little overwhelmed at first, but he ended up being quite helpful. And Benni-sensei says that the ladies enjoyed themselves, so it wasn't a complete disaster. In fact, two of those students will be moving up to a Spring 6 class with me in the spring, so I was glad to have a little intro to them. They were just impressed that I knew their names.

But, really, the lesson plans were kind of useless to me. Plus, it didn't help that one of the suggested books is not in our library (Benni-sensei thinks that one of the former managers "borrowed it"), so I had to rush to make one up. And then I didn't even need it because the student - one of Benni-sensei's - just wanted to talk the entire time. Motosu-san is a very nice elderly gentleman who is a retired farmer. I spent most of the 45 minutes listening to him talk about his recent stay in the hospital, and trust me, you probably don't want to know why he was there. Let's just say it was educational for both of us, and you never know when catheters will suddenly come up in conversation.

I will be very glad to go back to the Sprint schedule next week. I just consider myself lucky that I only had four Intensive lessons - Benni-sensei had eight, and I'm sure there are teachers out there who have more than that. It's somewhat ironic that most of the training in Vancouver was geared towards teaching Sprint classes when I have a relatively small number of them. The majority of my classes are Active.

Still, another GEOS experience under the belt. Things can get back to normal for a little while. Best of all, winter vacation is only a week away!

three more Christmas party pics

And look! I'm in them!

I tried to avoid getting sucked into too many pics in front of the Christmas tree, mainly because I was the one making sure that everyone was staying out of trouble while Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san took the picture-taking. But even I couldn't avoid it all the time.

With Nene-chan.

With Rio-chan. Yes, she's dressed as Snow White. Her mother just shrugged and said she insisted. The girl loves her Disney.


For a brief while, we had the younger kids coloring quietly in my room. From left to right: Yoshiki-kun, his sister Saki-chan, and Yuzuki-chan.