This week was pretty normal again. I am pretty much all finished up with my student counseling meetings until I have to do them all over again in a few months. Overall I was kind of in a bummed out mood all week. I think the combination of coming back to work after my Tokyo trip and the few extra classes I had just put me in a pretty dismal mood. It wasn’t too bad. but I was just not feeling it at work the whole week. I kept messing things up too. I don’t know if anyone else noticed, and I cant seem to think of any really good examples now as I am writing this, but it was just one of those weeks where you have to do everything twice. I really was feeling pretty stupid towards the end of the week. I was very ready for it to end.
Saturday night after work we had Siobhan’s going away party. Siobhan is the other foreign teacher at my work. She is from the UK. This week is her last week. She is overlapping with the new foreign teacher this week to kind of show her the ropes and introduce her to the students. Siobhan has been pretty cool the past four months. She is very good at her job and has been very helpful to me in a lot of ways. She studied English Language for her degree, so she knows way more than me about grammar and sound rules and all the other off the wall questions I get from students for which I have no good explanation for other than “because that is what the English gods said millions of years ago when the earth was first created.” I usually send the student to Siobhan if I feel any temptation to say this, but it has been said on more than one occasion. I will miss Siobhan for that reason and others. She always was honest, which I respect. She never sugar coats things, and I really appreciate that. Especially in such a polite society as this.
The going away party was really awesome though. There were more people there than any of the other parties we have had since my arrival. Everyone brought all kinds of food and drink. We played some games and stuff, but it really seemed like everyone was just having a good time socializing. As usual, as one of the only native English speakers at the party, I was seldom without a conversation partner. Everyone is always happy to practice their English with me. It is kind of weird sometimes. I have normal conversation and then at the end they thank me for talking with them like I am doing them a favor, when I was just talking to them like a normal human being would. When they thank me at the end it makes me feel a bit used. I feel like I am genuinely forming a connection with someone and then they just crush me with a “Thank you” like I am some waiter who just filled there glass of water or something.
Everyone at the party seemed to get pretty drunk by the end of it. Many people brought nice bottles of sake, beer, and even some more aomori (the Okinawan moonshine). I just sipped on beer most of the night and only refilled my cup when a student or my manager insisted I do so. When it came time to say goodbye and everyone began to clean up, I realized how much farther into the bottle my coworkers were. I felt like the most sober person at the party. As we cleaned up the drink station my coworkers took it upon themselves to polish off any would be left overs, so I finally joined in the festivities. I have never experienced work parties like here in Japan. We have the parties in the middle of the school lobby, everyone brings bottles of alcohol and almost no one leaves sober. It is usually a good time, but I still have trouble getting away from the professional work feel and actually relax when I am in all reality still at work with my boss and my students. I did have fun meeting and talking to new students and others whom I had not yet met. We also ended the night well, some coworkers and I had a little after party as well, where I was able to relax a bit more.
The party was probably the highlight of my weekend. Sunday, I was pretty lazy. I cleaned my apartment, did some laundry and ran some errands, but mostly just watched TV and read. Monday, I helped Siobhan move her stuff into a local hotel, so her apartment would be open and ready for the new Foreign teacher to move in. After helping her move we went out for some really awesome curry. I will definitely be visiting that restaurant again very soon.
After gorging myself on curry, I found myself completely incapable of going to the gym like I was planning on doing. Instead, I went home and laid around some more. I didn’t do much at all the rest of the day.
Today was a much better start to my work week. I was able to get ahead of things right away unlike last week when I felt like I was doing everything last minute. Also I met my new foreign counterpart today. Her name is Elizabeth. She is from the US… and Korea. She seems to have lived many places within the states for most of her life, but has also lived in Korea for several years as well. Both of her parents are Korean, and they live there currently. Elizabeth seems to be a pretty easygoing person. She was very happy and cheery meeting everyone today. I hope she stays that way. So far so good though. I like the way things are looking for the rest of the week. I have these classes to get through then I am heading to Kanazawa this weekend with some friends. Kanazawa is a town on the coast of the Japanese sea. There are some parks and stuff to see there. I am definitely going to get some beach time. Although, I have heard the jellyfish are pretty bad this time of year, so swimming may be a no go. Either way it is a new place I have yet to discover. I am looking forward to telling you all about it next week.
Until then, I hope everyone has a nice week. Thanks for reading.
Hi Rob, Being a grandmother, when I heard a big storm was heading towards Japan, I worried about you. Did it affect you at all?
Yes Grams. There was a typhoon that came through last week. It was supposed to be the biggest Typhoon to have hit Japan in about 10 years. Okinawa was damaged as well as some areas in Nagano along the Japanese sea. We were alerted that there might be some severe weather over the night and into the morning one day last week. When I went to bed around 1am it was barely sprinkling, and when I woke up in the morning it was just overcast. The severe weather went around our area so we were fine. Though, it was EXTREMELY humid for the few days before the storm passed.
We are all safe and sound here though. Just a bit warm. Thanks for asking. I was going to write about it, but since it made so little impact here I never thought about it while I was writing.