Happy Memorial Day!

I am feeling pretty tired this evening. My week was pretty standard, but I had to work a half day yesterday, and then I had my first boxing lesson today. I didn’t have any classes yesterday. I basically just had to be present at the office in case someone came in for some reason, which didn’t happen. The school is required to be open for a half day one Sunday every month. Everyone rotates who comes in those days, this week was my turn. I planned a few lessons, but mostly I just did more research on where I will go during my trip to Malaysia. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do there. All that is left to do now is buy my tickets. I have seen some articles online that say the best time to buy tickets is around midnight on a Wednesday about 45 days prior to your trip. I will keep an eye on ticket prices and jump on it if they get really low, but when I checked last Wednesday night, the tickets were almost half the price of what they are today. I hope this doesn’t screw me over, but I am going to wait it out.

Boxing class was pretty cool. It was a free trial lesson today, and I was just doing some basic stuff (jump roping, mits, and heavy bag) but I had a lot of fun. I have been working out on my own a few nights a week, so I wasn’t super tired while I was working out, but I am feeling pretty beat now. I haven’t slept much the past few nights though, so that probably has something to do with it. I am looking forward to going to my next session next week though. The guys who run the place were laughing a good bit as I was training, especially when we were trying to talk to each other. They were cool about it though, I was laughing too. It is kind of funny how we really don’t understand each other at all. We are managing though. They seem happy to have me there, but who knows. I was really glad to do some sport type activity though. I have been needing to get out some stress, and I definitely feel way more relaxed now.

It is a bit busy in the school right now. I have several student counseling meetings every day, and some teachers have open classes for parents to come observe their children’s classes. My week of open classes is not until the first week of July, but some of the other teachers have already begun theirs, and the stress level is a bit higher than normal. So really I am still just hanging out doing business as usual, while everyone else is stressing. As always, I am there to lighten the mood as much as possible with some “over your head sarcasm” or one of my “stupid question from a foreigner” jokes (that usually isn’t really a joke at all). The manager seems to appreciate my relaxed “just wing it” type attitude (although I doubt she knows that is how I describe it). Apparently some students have been having fun in my class and she is happy to hear that from them. She also is happy to have me around to greet perspective students. Especially the female ones… I have yet to be sent in to talk to any male perspective students, but every woman between the ages of 20 and 40 has seemed to automatically come to be my responsibility. I feel like I am being used as some foreign sex symbol to sell English lessons. It is not like anyone is trying to hide it either; the manager tells me to go in and “chat with her” and “be sure to smile a lot”. Supposedly some girl came in the other day and said she wanted to enroll in lessons, and she said that she was interested in meeting me in particular after seeing my picture on the website. All this attention was very flattering at first, but now I am starting to feel like the only pretty girl on the OCMD drunk bus at 230am on Memorial Day Weekend… Not so cool… But honestly, as long as the manager is happy with me, and I am allowed to keep doing things the way I have been, I can deal with occasionally having to woo a perspective student with my ravishing good looks and ebullient charm.

Overall, this week has been a good one. I really had a good week of lessons and my weekend turned out to be really good. I was able to meet and hang out with several new people this weekend, which was really cool. The more friends I make, the more this place feels like home. Saturday night I went out with some coworkers after work, it was fun to get together with them outside of work (and not at a work party). Last night I went to an opening party for a rooftop bar in Osaka called “Beer Garden”. It was an awesome night weather wise. They had free BBQ for the opening celebration, so the place was absolutely packed. It was really cool though. I ended up seeing some people I had met briefly before, and hung out with them most of the night. Most of the time I go out in Osaka I end up seeing similar faces everywhere I go. A lot of the bars I go to are popular among foreigners (like myself) so I never feel out of place, and most foreigners here are pretty outgoing so it is easy to make new friends. Between the past two nights and my new boxing buddies, I am happy to be reporting that my social circle has grown by a few more people in the past few days.

So with the social expansions and the addition of some new hobbies I am really looking forward to the weeks to come. I am mostly looking forward to this trip to Malaysia though. Even though I have only been in Japan 2 and a half months so far, I cannot wait to see another new place.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. Happy Memorial Day! I wish I could celebrate with you all, and watch the NCAA lacrosse championships! unfortunately they come on at 2am here so I doubt I will stay up that late. But I will see the highlights tomorrow morning…

I want to take a moment to say thank you to all of our Military personnel! Especially my brother Pat! You all kick ass.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a great day!