Monday morning Kuniko and I were both pretty tired from the weekend. Only one of us had the luxury of sleeping in, though. Kuniko went off to work, and the best I could do to say goodbye was to wave from my bed. What a lazy bum…<\/p>\n
During the day I ran some errands around town. I stopped at the local bank to deposit some money that we got from Tomoko to pay for her ticket to Hawaii. The line for the ATMs was pretty long, but I really had no choice but to wait. <\/p>\n
I could write volumes about my opinion on Japanese banks. To sum it up, I think they are old fashioned, inefficient, and a rip-off. Remind me to revisit the subject sometime and I will more fully vent my frustration.<\/p>\n
After about 10 minutes of waiting I deposited the money, and then took care of some other things on the way home. Once I got back I cleaned and did some studying, had a leisurely lunch (Kuniko is bringing a bento to work, and so she leaves me my portion on plate for my lunch), and then around 2 o’clock I walked down to the train station and caught the train for Higashi Kakogawa.<\/p>\n
One thing I didn’t know before I started working here was that there is a college nearby. On my way to work I walk past lots of college students, and in the last week I bumped into four or five students that are my former students from Takasago. They look different, especially the girls, since they can’t wear makeup in high school. When they get to college they go makeup crazy, and they looked like L.A. streetwalkers when I saw them the other day. <\/p>\n
At the classroom Nozaki sensei had left some notes for the classes this week and some paperwork to deal with, so I took care of that and then settled into my first three classes. This was the second time for the students, and they are incrementally adapting to me teaching the classes. <\/p>\n
One of my students in the first class discovered a little bug walking around amid the namecards for all the classes. She and the other students freaked out with giggles and “ewwwwww” comments, but one little girl, Kako, saw this as an opportunity. She ran up to where the namecards were, searched out the little silverfish-looking bug, and smashed it with her thumb. She looked at me with triumph and I handed her a tissue and sent her in to wash her hands. Kako is a little off, but in a good way. She’s really smart and knows a lot of English. She sometimes starts speaking in English without prompting and for no apparent reason. Other students look at her with a mixture of curiousity and awe. I encourage her behavior, but I didn’t know she was an exterminator as well. Cool.<\/p>\n
I also had a junior high school class tonight. This class was completely different from the other one that I had taught last week. Two girls were scared so completely that they never smiled during the whole lesson. Everybody just needed to relax, and upon later reflection I think I should have done some more ice breaker activities. One girl and one boy in that class show some promise of loosening up, but these two girls are going to be tough. Please, just smile and relax!<\/p>\n
After class I met with Nozaki sensei. Today was payday. She didn’t have time to go to the bank to wire me the money, so she just gave me an envelope full of cash. She calculated all the students, and was surprised to find out how much money she owed me. I had done the calculations before when considering the job, so I was ready but maybe she didn’t realize just what it added up to. I wanted to make sure she was still cool with the deal, but it was no problem. <\/p>\n
Walking back home with all that cash in my pocket, I still can’t believe what I am getting paid versus what I am actually doing. It’s a little more money that what I was getting at my last job for working all day. Kuniko and I were talking about it later, and her feelings on my new job are that, number one, she is jealous that I have a job that has so much free time, and number two, impressed that I managed to find it. I am close to falling into the zurui category again…<\/p>\n
Kuniko made dinner for me tonight – a giant (giant!) om-rice that really hit the spot. Coupled with a glass of white wine it really turned out great. Since we both worked late tonight we both went to bed on the late side, but it was a good Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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