With only one class today there wasn’t a whole lot to write about, but I’ll try. Being a desk jockey all day has it’s benefits, and it’s drawbacks. The drawbacks are easy: I feel like the cop that got assigned desk duty and I’m off the street. My ass gets wider. And, I’m a sitting duck for the history teacher who can come and bug me at will.
The history teacher came by today looking for deep conversation. His 50th birthday is coming up, and he thinks he has only 20 more years left in him. He still isn’t married, and he’s sure that he needs to learn English before he croaks. He was telling me all the things he still wants to do today, while I sat in my desk and tried to cheer him up. I could tell he really had a brush with mortality.
We talked about spirituality (and my lack of it) – comparing Buddhism, Shintoism, and Christianity’s concepts of the afterlife. I hate talking about deep stuff with the history teacher because of the language gap – we end up simplifying things to the point that it isn’t deep any more. Also he takes anything I says and expands it to include every American. So I mention that I don’t believe in the afterlife, and he says “I didn’t realize Americans didn’t believe in the afterlife.” Enough to send me running for the hills.
But I didn’t just chat up the history teacher today, I did teach a class in the afternoon. My first year students did pretty well with the culture shock quiz that I give, with the exception of the last question. To a man my students believe that Italians sometimes wear spaghetti in their hair.
At the end of the day the vice principal walked by while the history teacher had cornered me and told the history teacher he should think about paying me for my time. And he was serious. The history teacher stammered and hemmed and hawed and left for his desk, saying that someday he will show his appreciation.
Also the principal came by and asked me how my home life was working out. Since most people don’t live with their spouses before marriage, I think there can be a shock when you move in with someone for the first time. I took the chance to tell him all about how we both do housework and share the cleaning and cooking, just to show him how the future is looking. I also got to use a new word I learned the other day, “tomobataraki”, which means “both working” – usually people get married and the wife quits.
Kuniko just sent me a message and she’s on the way home, so I gotta go and put some nabe on the burner. More fun from the trenches tomorrow!
