Kuniko and I struggled to get up this morning at a decent hour – it was a chore. We both had to go to work. Kuniko has to work this whole week – I just have to go in today and Friday. We were out the door around seven, leaving Mark in charge of the homestead for the day.
There were several big events at my school today. We had our new teachers showing up for the first time, and so there was a big meeting to introduce the new teachers and staff. Also, everyone had to move their desks to a new location for the new year. That is, except for me. I’m in the same seat that I’ve held for almost three years.
Since I wasn’t moving it was just a matter of staying out of people’s way. I worked on the 2000 flashcards that I haven’t had time to memorize while Mark has been here, but I wasn’t able to catch up completely.
In the afternoon we had the meeting, and they introduced all the teachers. They seemed to be a nervous bunch, which I guess is to be expected – I was nervous my first day, too. There are two English teachers in the group, and I was able to talk to one teacher – Nosaki sensei. She seems really nice, and the early rumor among the other teachers was that she was a superstar in English. I didn’t really think so after talking to her, but if it makes everyone else nervous maybe it’s a good thing.
The cute girl in the office was replaced by another cute girl, and she was introduced with everyone else. I can’t understand the system of always having one cute girl in the office. Do they have a job description for that? Why does the position turn over every year? There’s something odd with that system.
At the very end of the meeting a couple of teachers stood up and complained about the new rules on smoking at school. Today was the first day that it was enforced, and I occasionally saw teachers sitting at the park adjacent from our school smoking. The complaint was that the students that were practicing club activities in the park were teasing the teachers that were smoking, and if the rule was made to keep the sight of teachers smoking from the students, it was having the opposite effect. I’m not sure where they left it, but it must have been an eye-opening experience for the new teachers to see them duke it out over tobacco.
I had a meeting in the afternoon with the English teachers to react to the original meeting, and we decided that a different teacher will be in charge of me this year – Yamamoto sensei. He’s the laid back teacher that invited me to see a concert in Osaka, so I was really happy about that. He’s an easy teacher to get along with. Hayashi sensei will be doing a student trip to Australia when my replacement shows up, so he wasn’t able to perform the duties again.
Now I’m home with Mark. Mark went shopping at IY and got some supplies for a Mexican dinner that he’s making for us. It smells great – I can’t wait until Kuniko shows up so we can eat it…
