My teaching schedule has been strange lately, and I’m having a hard time finding a regular time to blog. I usually have some good stories but I end up either tired at the end of a long day or forgetting to post during a free hour or two other times.
Yesterday is a good example. In the morning I had a couple of hours before I had to go in to Kobe and teach a class, but I was so busy with household stuff and lesson planning that I let it slide. So here’s the update.
I’m coming to the final few weeks of my Kobe University course. It has been a great chance for me to get some experience teaching at the college level, and I’ve enjoyed working with the support staff there. The staff consists of mostly single women who are really interested in speaking English. There is a serious lack of testosterone in the department, so when I show up they line up to help me with whatever I need, and treat me like visiting royalty.
Yesterday a professor had a special lecture with a foreign doctor and dropped in to use my classroom during the lunchbreak. I was a little surprised since it meant we’d have to break down the projector and computer and also rearrange the classroom just so he could squeeze in a 45 minute lecture. My staff apologized for the inconvenience, and later told me that the room was signed out to me for the day, so it was a little bit of a jerk move on the professor. Just before my class was to begin my staff grouped up outside the door and as soon as it was time they went inside and like an Indy 500 pit crew put the room in order in minutes. It’s good to work with professionals.
After teaching another course at the Rokko campus I headed back home, and stopped in at my “backup” yakitori – called Ichiban. The master and his wife are really friendly, and I’ve had some good conversations with one of the part timers – we’ve bumped into each other before around town and once shared a train ride to Akashi. The master at Ichiban always sets me up next to some people that are drunk enough to have the courage to speak with me, and it almost always results in a fun time. I ate and drank with a lady about my age and her older male friend (boss? boyfriend?). The lady had two huge warts located on her nose and it was very, very hard to not look at them while talking to her. Luckily she had drank enough to appear not to notice or care. They were fun to talk to, but maybe a little too drunk. Her birthday was in a couple of days, and she very politely demanded a free bottle of shochu from the master to “keep” in the yakitori for the next time she comes. I thought it was a little rude, but I guess she is a good enough customer because the master delivered a bottle for her on the house.
On my way out everyone waved and said goodbye. The master’s high school age daughter said “Thank you, please come again” in English and I walked home fueled by hot sake and a delicious dinner.
Kuniko had a school trip yesterday to see “The Phantom of the Opera” in Osaka, and since she had a drinking party afterwards I was almost sound asleep by the time she got home around 1 a.m. Then she was off to work early again this morning, so I won’t really get to catch up with her until tonight. Everyone is busy in their own way around here.
Tomorrow is my busiest day with Kobe University in the daytime and Sanyo Electronics in the evening. The good news is that there is nothing really planned for the weekend, so I can get some downtime and continue working on the job search.
