This week wasn’t too crazy. School went pretty well all week. Everything is becoming more and more routine every day. My students are getting used to me. I am no longer just a big scary white dude to the little kids. Now instead of cowering in the corner when they see me, they tease me, tapping me on the back then running away laughing. Nothing I am not used to. Growing up as a ginger, I learned at a very young age how to deal with being singled out by other kids. My adult students are much more sympathetic to my struggles. I brought the wrong book and wrong CD (for listening exercises) to one class and they seemed to feel genuinely sorry for me. I apologized profusely for my mistake, and they just told me it was OK, and that they didn’t mind. They looked at me with so much pity. I think they thought I was about to cry. It was perfect.
Outside of school, the weather has been really nice. I catch myself staring out the classroom window sometimes during class, wishing I could take the class outside. Not at all unlike my daydreams when I was the student. I mentioned the idea of outdoor classes to my boss, she just laughed at me… I guess that means no… for now. I will bring it up again sooner or later.
Since school doesn’t seem to be moving outdoors any time soon I am trying to get outside as much as possible during my off time. It still isn’t enough though. Even with all of the sun we have had lately I am still pasty white and pale which is not normal for me. I know you are all thinking, “oh he’s a ginger, he cant be in the sun” but actually I get pretty tan for a redhead. Some may say “it’s just freckles”, but I like to think I get “tan”. I keep telling everyone, I am not a ginger, I am a day walker. Big difference!
This weekend I made my way out to do a little hiking and cherry blossom viewing. I think this was the last week for the blooms so I figured I would go out since I don’t know if I will ever have another chance, and I wanted to make the most of my one day weekend. I went to a place called Yoshino. It was really cool. Again, very crowded. Yoshino is a mountain that has thousands of cherry trees planted all over it. When you get up to the top and look out, there seems to be pink everywhere. I heard there was an emperor that lived there a long long time ago who loved the cherry blossoms. He had thousands of cherry trees planted all over the mountain. It is supposed to be the best place to see the cherry blossoms in all of Japan. Several of my students suggested I go there so I felt I had to. I am definitely glad I did.
Like I said, I had a short weekend this week. I had to go into honbu for follow up training yesterday. It wasn’t all that bad, but I was not exactly pleased with giving up a day of my weekend. This morning, when my manager asked me how it went I told her “It was so much fun”. She didn’t catch my sarcasm at all. She was so happy thinking my response was sincere, I didn’t couldn’t bring myself to crush her with a lesson in sarcasm. The training really wasn’t all that bad though. There were some other teachers there with me. We were all “thrilled” about losing a day from our weekend, so we may not have been the most attentive students but we got through it. I think the trainers were happy with us, aside from a few times when we were all laughing hysterically at some stupid joke someone made. It probably wouldn’t have been funny any other time but for some reason we were laughing to the point of tears more than once. I think the fact that the trainer, who was Japanese, couldn’t understand what was so funny was part of it. She just looked at us with a half confused, half annoyed look and was asking what was so funny but we couldn’t explain because we were laughing so hard. Reminded me of when my brother and his friends were all laughing at a joke that I didn’t get, and I started to feel awkward when they were laughing so hard, like they were making fun of me. I feel a little bad now as I am typing this, but then I think of all the laundry I didn’t get to do yesterday. They need to realize Monday is LAUNDRY DAY!
…..Good thing I included that last bit about laundry. I totally forgot about the load that I put in the washer when I got home tonight. I had to take a brief break to go outside and hang that up to dry…. I can see my mom reading this and shaking her head with a smirk. See mom, I remember things sometimes! I just have different ways of reminding myself.
So since this training thing is behind me life is good. I also had someone from honbu come in to observe one of my lessons today. It was kind of a surprise, she had to come in to my school to do something else, then decided to kill two birds with one stone and watch one of my lessons (which she would have to do soon anyway). It went really well, it was with the class I forgot the CD for last week, so I was already “well rehearsed” to avoid a mishap two lessons in a row. When I say “well rehearsed” I mean….. well forget about what I mean. I have done very well so far being “well rehearsed” for everything so far and I my trainers and manager have all praised me for it, so I will just keep “rehearsing” accordingly 😉
Anyway, my training day, and the lesson observation is all behind me. This weekend is a full 2 day weekend, which I plan on taking advantage of. Let’s just say there is a very strong possibility of me catching the first or second train home on Sunday morning. The weekend after this will be the beginning “Golden Week”, in western English we would simply refer to this as a “9 day vacation”. I am pretty stoked. I am planning on taking a trip into the mountains to do some hiking, and maybe getting to the beach as well. My friend from home, Candice, is also going to be making a stop in Kobe for a few days while on a cruise with her family. We are planning on getting together for a day before I leave for my hiking trip. It should be an exciting week. Who knows what else I will get into. I have 9 days to do whatever! I am getting antsy just thinking about it. I need to get a chunk of this To-Do list done.
Things are going swimmingly. Life is very good. I may be getting a bike soon, so that may open the door to some new adventures. I will be sure to keep everyone updated. Thanks again for reading. I hope all is well in your neck o’ the woods. Please keep my Chilean friends in your thoughts, 2 weeks ago there was a major earthquake and tsunami there, and this week there is a massive fire blazing through Valparaiso (hands down, the coolest place I have ever been) Over 500 homes had been burned as of yesterday, and over 3000 people had been evacuated. I know they will make it, those people are hard to get down. The happiest people I have ever met. Fuerza Chile!…..Until next time, peace out friends.
Glad to hear that your having fun! Enjoying reading your posts!
Love reading your posts, hope you are keeping all of them. Think of you often and LYTM .
Maybe if you write your blog before class you wouldn’t forget your book & CD, since that helped you remember the laundry. You were right I was laughing & shaking my head. Enjoy your full weekend. We miss you but are glad you’re having fun. Love, Mom