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Tight.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Money is getting tight this month. Luckily I expected it and semi
planned for it, but then a few things happened that were unexpected
and slightly changed that plan. I had the welcome party for the BoE
and then I went to the 2nd party against my better
judgment, then I got screwed on the bill since someone didn’t pay,
then I went out to out a few more times than expected, and several
other things. Between now and payday I have minimal expenses and can
stick with eating light, but there is one thing I was hoping to do
that might be difficult. On Oct 19th I go to my super small
elementary school (28 kids total) and wanted to buy some pumpkins and
have them carve them for a good Halloween experience as well as a
presentation for their school festival the next day. Unfortunately
that day is two days before payday and there has historically never
been a time in my history of living in Japan where I had any extra
money two days before payday. So….hmmm….I might have to borrow money
since this will be a tighter month than usual, or try to bump it to
another day. We’ll see what happens, but my 6th graders
loved it last year at Konan.
This week has been crazy busy, but most of that was my own
doing. Monday was the welcome party, Tuesday I had to plan for
Wednesday’s classes at Tadano (since they always give me a full load
of 4 classes), Wednesday I spent hours filming another 3 minute video
for class (literally I was up until 2am then back up at 6am to finish
it), Thursday night was casual and I spent some time cleaning the
apartment and tonight will be slow. I have a tendency to not do things
for a while and then get into a frenzy and knock out ten things at
once. I still hadn’t fully put all the camping stuff away from last
week and had been tripping over it. I cleaned that up and then went
crazy moving stuff around and ended up getting a lot done. Then, in
the virtual world, I canceled several monthly things that were being
billed to my CC that I either were not using or were too expensive and
I just didn’t need. I also took some stuff to the recycling shop
recently and took the money earned from that (not much) and used it to
buy a color printer. Yet, my apartment is still cluttered and I don’t
fully know why.
Although I could guess as to why, I suppose. I have a
tendency to buy things I need/want. I really enjoy buying stuff and
then finding a place for it even though I later want to throw it out.
I’m good for the economy, but bad for the environment. I’m on the
verge of buying a projector now to project my computer screen(s) on
the wall. Partially it's a luxury item that will be like having a 200
inch TV, but also it’s somewhat needed since I do video editing and my
screen for that is just tiny. It’s more on the luxury side, I know,
but not entirely. My next big purchase will be either an HD digital
video camera (I think they are still called camcorders, but that
sounds so 80’s and clunky), and then an $800 program for making motion
graphics and special effects. Only the projector would be something
that would take up space in the apartment really, but I suppose I
would mount it somewhere and leave it more or less like that.
Actually, when I say on the verge I literally mean I might
do it tonight. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and found one
that is a value, but not super awesome HD mega-pricey. I’ve been
looking at it and reading reviews and searching for better deals, but
I have found a good deal at Amazon.jp and they even had same day
shipping for an extra $5. What? I was thinking same day shipping would
add $100 or so, but nope, Japan is strange like that sometimes. So I
may or may not do that tonight. One bad thing is that I would be using
an American credit card which means the awesome exchange rate would
not be so awesome. It’s only awesome when I send money back to the US,
not when I buy stuff in Yen and charge it to my US card.
Did It.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
I did
order it. Amazingly, up to the point of ordering it I had to have it.
Once I clicked buy I thought "eh...I could have waited", but it will
be nice. It should come in tomorrow. This morning I went to the
station as usual and had McDonald's and then Starbucks. I am trying to
stop going, but it's a ritual that gets me out of the house and moving
around some. I did ride my bike which was nice, but I'm unable to not
go entirely yet. While there I bought a 15 foot USB cable to put my
printer in the other room and then some yellow gel keyboard cleaner.
It did clean it some, but not as much as I had hoped. I've heard you
can scrub the keyboard with soap and water and then just let it dry
for a few days and it works fine, but that scares me. Here are some
before and after shots. Although they aren't great, it did clean much
of the funk off. Nope, never mind. They were too close and blurry.
Odd Week.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Thus far it has been
somewhat odd. Monday I went to Ohse and had 2 classes and then took
the afternoon off since they had some boring 2 hour lecture about
traffic safety. I came home and played with my new toy, the projector.
It's smaller than I thought and requires a longer throw distance than
my room allows, but overall it's great. I have it set up so that I
watch all my shows and movies on it and the screen is about six feet
diagonal. I think I can get it bigger if I use mirrors. I've said that
in the bedroom before....no wait...no I haven't. Oh here's an odd
thing about the projector. I first bought a white sheet for a screen,
but the wrinkles were too obvious. Then I bought a thicker table cloth
thing made out of plastic, but that seemed to wrinkle as well. So then
I went looking for a big piece of white paper and managed to find some
huge piece for 70 cents. So here's the weird part. I measured down
from the ceiling and hung it to make sure it was level and then thumb
tacked it up. Ok it is up and squared and ready. So then I moved the
(off) projector from a smaller table to a 3 level bookshelf and then
turned it on. When it came on it was perfectly lined up with the paper
screen. Perfectly balanced on each side and top to bottom. Wow, that
was strange, but maybe not as much as I built the story up.
Ok, so then Tuesday I go to Konan and had a class with the devil class
though the one penis-showing kid wasn't there. Then I had a class with
another elementary class a bit younger than the devil class. Before it
started I was in the classroom talking to some kids. One ADHD boy,
whom I really like, came up and started whining/talking about
something. He grabbed on to my leg and wouldn't let go. Then another
boy who is slightly bratty came up and kept saying "Ryan, Ryan, Ryan,
Ryan" and also grabbed my leg. I was trying to get them off my legs
and start class. I peeled them off a few times and said "ok stop, it's
time for class", but as usual they ignored me. I said it louder a few
times and peeled them off again and again with no luck. This went on
about 6 times each time with me getting more and more serious. The
ADHD-like kid was pulling me so I was almost falling over and with him
grabbing both legs I was about to fall over.
Finally I pushed the bratty kid off and said "seriously, STOP, really,
I'm not kidding". I said it in plain, but stern Japanese. Since there
is no punishment in Japan and you don't have to listen to what people
say, he ignored me and grabbed me again and nearly pulled me over. I
pushed him away in a way I thought was too rough. He kind of slid
across the floor a bit and I felt bad. The plan was to get him to stop
so I could get the other kid to then stop as well. Then bratty ran
back over and grabbed me and started poking me in the ass. Japanese
boys love the ass for some reason. Then I just snapped and hurled him
about 10 feet away, which would have caused no problem since he would
have thought I was playing, but I was so mad I yelled "YAMERO" (ya may
row) which means "absolutely stop now". It's like yelling without
yelling. I yelled it louder than I meant to since the whole class got
silent and looked at me. The bratty kid stared and then walked over to
his desk and the ADHD-like kid did as well, though he did wander
around some. Then the teacher made them both apologize and I said
"when I say stop, please stop". They said ok, but that won't last. I
felt bad about it all, but I utterly loathe how kids can do anything
they want and there is never any punishment.
Then Wednesday I went to Tadano Elementary for 1 class and then to the
extension school of it with 10 students for 2 classes and lunch. I
love the extension, or bunko as it's called, since it is small and the
kids are great. With 10 kids, 2 teachers, and a lunch/office lady it's
really like a big family gathering. Next year is going to be only
about 6 kids since the five 4th graders will go to the main school and
only one new 1st grader will come in.
I taught fruits to the 1-2 graders, but that's tough since there are 2
of each totaling 4. You would think that makes it easier, but there is
only one other person to talk to in your grade so none of my usual
activities work. I usually have them wander around asking other
students something related to the lesson, but I can't do that so I
improvise. Then in the 3-4 grade class of 6 kids (one 3rd grader) we
did body parts which leads me to an annoying point about teaching
English.
I love my schools and all the teachers and all the kids, but I wish I
could make my own teaching plan for the year. There is a suggested
plan set forth by the BoE, but changing it would require teachers to
use critical thinking which they rarely do. So basically that is the
plan by which I must teach. The plan is ok, but sometimes kids are
past a lesson that should be next. When there are teachers that don't
speak English they shouldn't be making my plan. As was the case this
time. The plan was to teach body parts so I took the plan and
activities for "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" and just for kicks I
also took part two which is "eyes, and ears, and mouth, and nose" and
an activity someone made called Monster Maker where I tell them how
many eyes, ears, mouths, and noses and they draw and alien or monster.
So I taught the first "fruits" class and it went great. Then we had
lunch which was delicious curry rice. I really HATE how I get the
exact same amount of food as a 1st grader. I don't know where that
would make sense. Then we have a break and play in the gym and then do
cleaning. Finally after cleaning I ask the 3rd student if she knows
how to said "head" in English. She goes through the whole song of
head, shoulders, knees, and toes ending with nose. I realize my next
lesson is going to be stupid since they already know it all. I tried
to stretch it out as much as possible, but ended up just having them
do Monster Maker a few times.
The point is, if I could have made my own schedule I would have known
what was coming up in the future and asked them in advance if they
knew it. Then I could accommodate them and change the class as needed.
I would also put some things closer to the beginning of the year so I
could cover them over and over little by little during each lesson.
I'm going to start taking some backup lessons in case this happens
again.
Then after school on Wednesday from about 5 to 1am I was making a
video about the "if" clause called "if you had 1 million dollars, what
would you do?" It was a news cast and I interviewed myself 5 times.
I'm getting better each time with the videos, but they still look
cheesy. So it's finished and I wake up to a typhoon and fight my way
to school. It took me an hour to go 25 minutes because people just
turned stupid when they were driving. One person was turning across
traffic on a small road with no outlets for a while and that caused
people to be backed up for about 20 cars. Finally there was an
opening, but he/she didn't take it and people were honking. Then
someone just stopped in the road to check a map. This is perfectly ok
in Japan if you put on your hazard lights. In this case it cased a big
traffic jam since people couldn't get around. Then there were just
hundreds of extra cars on the road. Finally I get to Ohse about 1
minute before 1st period. I tell the English teacher I made the video
and it took me all night, but I don't have a plan for the 3rd year
students. He said it was no problem since there were no students due
to the typhoon. So....I'm supposed to sit here for 8 hours with no
computer doing nothing? Uh....no thank you. I took vacation time and
came home. The annoying thing was all the teachers had to fight the
wind and rain just to go and sit for 8 hours doing nothing. Just
filling out papers and planning lessons that were already planned.
It's crucial for people to always be at work, regardless of whether or
not there is anything to do.
Ugh.
Friday, October 09, 2009
I had a good class with the 4th graders today. They are a
bit advanced so I taught them a 5th grade lesson. Since I
won’t be teaching them next year it won’t matter for me, they can just
learn it again. Plus it was “subjects” which means they can think
about it often when they see their daily schedule. I told them about
next week’s lesson and the teacher told/reminded me it was cut. Oh
well, I guess that’s fine since it’s the day of the school festival.
Then when I got back to the teacher’s room the 3rd grade
teacher said next Tuesday’s class with the 3rd graders
would be cut since they had to practice for the skit to perform at the
festival. What he didn’t say, but is always the case, is that English
can be cut for any reason since it would be horrible to cut any other
subject. English is expendable and I should be honored I am allowed to
spread my plague to the kids at all.
So that means basically I have no classes next week. At
least it’s only a 4 day week and I only come here twice. I can live
with 2 days of no classes since April to July was usually 3-4 days of
no classes. Friday will be fine since there will be festival stuff
going on all day, but Tuesday will just suck. Hmmm, Monday is a
holiday and Tuesday I have no classes….
This weekend is a 3 day holiday with Monday being health
day, whatever that means. I guess my way of celebrating health day
will be by doing a 3 day juice fast. I’ve done one before and felt
great during and after it. As I start into it there’s a bit of
gastrointestinal confusion and accompanying hunger pains or pangs as
some people say. Once your body figures out there is no food coming
down the pipe it starts to work on other projects and hobbies such as
cleaning itself and repairing things that need work. Plus it’s cheap
since you only spend $10-15 on veggies for a day as opposed to $20-30
eating out and more if you go drinking. Doing one over a three day
weekend will be nice too. I plan to stay in most of the time and work
on some computer things that I have been delaying.
On November 6th I will be taking the bullet
train north for 2 hours to see my student perform in the Almost-All
Japan speech contest. I thought it was a regional finals, but this is
as far as they are taking it so it’s like the finals, but not fully
country wide. It’s on the 7th, a Saturday, but I will go up
the night before and get a hotel room and relax. There’s not enough
time to really explore Morioka, but maybe I can do something after the
contest. Then when I come back to school on Monday I will have that
national public open house where 2-300 teachers from around Japan come
to our little school to see classes and of course everyone wants to
see the foreign teacher’s class.
Feel So Separated.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Today is the Konan school festival and I feel so detached. Last year I
felt similar, but the years before I felt like much more of a part of
the school. I guess that’s because we usually have an English video to
present during the Friday presentation part, but not this year. That’s
too bad since I bought a new computer this summer and have been
getting better at making little videos. Everyone is dressed in
matching shirts that say “Konan 5th”, but not me. That’s
partially my own fault, but also because there were no sizes that fit
me. Then everyone wrote little messages and they stuck that paper on
big animal paw looking prints and stuck those on the ceiling to look
like something walked down to the gym. Then there are posters for the
festival with a misspelling, but no one asked my advice about it.
The misspelling is small, but I hate it. They spelled "sho" as "syo",
because the Japanese who know all think the way you spell "sho" in
Roman letters is "syo" even though I have told them a million times
it's "siyo". Furthermore, I thought the festival was named Grody
because of the clever design.
That’s the thing with Japan, they are always polite to
you, but they still punish people when needed. The way they do that is
by simply politely excluding someone from a group. Maybe it’s a group
of people working on a project. Maybe it’s an entire village. I have
felt excluded for a year or more now. It’s not just me and not
everywhere and everyone, just this school. I have nearly no classes
here, no more NT classes (which is my main job), and I have barely no
connection to the school at all anymore. No one ever asks me to do
anything helpful which I would be more than happy to do and have
volunteered several times to make it clear that I am willing. Instead,
they ask people who are less capable to do things I could easily and
happily do. I’ve offered to create an English newspaper, then to
layout their handwritten Japanese newspaper, then to do some bulletin
boards, to ride the buses and make sure the kids get off at the right
place, and so much more. But the answer is always “thanks, but…”.
They asked me to go to a party on Sunday, but I declined.
I don’t have the money and I am tired of just sitting there alone
laughing when others laugh to imply I am part of the group. I think I
am not even going to come to the festival on Sunday since I might stop
by Ohse’s festival to see how that goes. I also have to pick up some
pumpkins from a nearby town so the 5-6th graders can carve
pumpkins. The big thing is I just don’t feel a part of the school
anymore and don’t want to go to the party. I’d go to a party for any
of my other schools.
Right now they are in the gym doing a whole-class jump
rope thing. 30+ kids are jumping at the same time using some long
rope. They only get about 15-20 jumps before something messes up. It’s
interesting and very Japanese in that it’s a group thing. I walked by
and took some photos, but then I came back to the teacher’s room to
type this and generally just not be there now. There’s a whole day of
stuff planned and I just don’t want to be here. That’s really sad, I
know, but I just don’t feel like I’m a part of school.
Yesterday I was at Ohse JHS and had 4 good classes. I’ve
been making videos for certain grammar points and the kids seem
interested and enjoy them. I enjoy making them and have gotten better
at the process. During a break I was trying to make memory mnemonics
for the month names. I made some for the days of the week and they are
effective. Now I can go into a classroom and say the mnemonic and the
kids remember the day of the week. Sunday is a sun and the number 3
which is “san”. Monday is Superman, Spiderman, and Anpanman since
their names end with a Mohn sound in Japanese. Tuesday is a mouse’s
voice which is like chu chu. So anyway, I’m trying to make them for
the months which is hard. Actually I made all of them minus a few. One
trouble maker is September. It would be easier if September was the 7th
month since se- sounds like seven. I looked up some things that start
with the se- sound in Japanese. I found “faithful wife”, yea can’t use
that one. Then there is “seppuku” or ritual suicide, that could almost
work, but I don’t want to be in a 4th grade class saying
things like “in September we do ritual suicide, visualize that and
remember it”. I’m going to use 7 Poohs since that’s the only thing
remotely close to the sound.
After doing that I had lunch which still annoys me.
Everyone must get the same amount of food and if there is some left
over it can’t be given out to someone else, it has to be discarded.
ARGH. SO WASTEFUL. And I am always so hungry after eating the same
amount as an elementary FIRST GRADER. Yesterday’s lunch was actually
tasty, but just not enough. I even got a little extra from one nice
teacher, but he didn’t make a big deal about it. There was some left
over and I wanted
seconds, but that would be ME, an individual, saying I want to
separate myself from the group and get more than the others. ARGH.
Today after lunch I walked around while the kids cleaned. I did my
usual shenanigans of balancing brooms while they clean since cleaning
is all for show and so boring. It takes me 10 minutes to clean my area
and then I have to wander around for another 10 while kids act like
they are cleaning, but they are really just pushing the brooms around.
Last night a teacher called me and talked about the big
public class I have in November. He was writing the Japanese version
of my English teaching plan. He had all sorts of ideas and questions
about it and I have learned the only proper way to respond to these
situations. I said “yes, wow, that’s a great idea” to everything he
suggested. This is the Japanese way of doing things. Saying something
directly is too direct, the Japanese prefer (and are proud of) never
getting to a point. He wanted some things in the plan so the way to do
this is have me make a plan and then suggest some things that might be
good. It took me a long time to figure out how they do it, but now I
know and now I just wait for this and let them change it as needed.
Some ideas were good, others were really touchy-feely “how do you feel
about this part-it doesn’t matter if you don’t actually learn
anything”. I said put them all in and then thanked him profusely.
In Japanese class the teacher made a big point of
stressing how the Japanese are not direct and never get to a point.
She was proud of this and softly bashing our direct American style of
getting to a point. In English I might say “do you like apples?” and a
logical, normal, and proper response would be “yes, I do”. But in
Japanese that is WAY too direct. First you drop the subject in the
question so it’s “are apples liked?” Then the answer would never
single out the person and never get to a point, “well there are many
people that do in fact like apples. There may be some that don’t like
apples as much as those that do. Which group would I be considered a
member of? Well who’s to say that I fit in only one. In many cases I
would be standing near, but not solely in, the group that somewhat has
a preference toward enjoying things that are red and possibly
apple-like”. GOD. WHAT? JUST SAY YES. THREE LETTERS. But that would be
too direct. It’s ridiculous and it’s one reason why I will never be
fluent in Japanese.
They just finished the basketball tournament where each
class played against itself and then other classes. Then they came
into the teacher’s room and told all the teachers the big teacher
versus winning class match was next. I grabbed my phone, put it to my
ear, and walked out to the patio acting like I was on the phone. I
don’t play sports competitively nor with people watching. I’m not
athletic, it’s not fun, and I don’t do it. Come on it’s fun….some
people enjoy walking around naked with other people, let’s do
that…come on it’s fun. Not for me. I managed to wander around the
school not being seen nor heard. Two years ago they semi tricked me
into playing and caught me off guard. I had to put on a stupidly too
tight jersey and run around looking stupider than usual. I managed to
stay in bad positions, like behind another player, so no one could
throw me the ball. Then I quickly and subtly swapped jerseys with some
other teacher waiting to play. They went on to win and I managed to
sneak out of the room.
Man I am just Mr. Depressing this week aren’t I? I think
it’s the season or changing of the seasons. I always feel like this in
fall and winter. I actually don’t feel like this when I go to my other
schools since they use me and seem to appreciate me. At all of my
other schools I have 4 classes a day. At Konan I have 2-4 classes a
week and that was the case back in April-July when I only came here
and Ohse. They use me at the other schools and I feel appreciated so I
put out a bigger effort.
Oh I just heard something weird, possibly bad. The English
teacher here has to go to the JET conference in November. The one
where Fukushima JETs and their respective JTEs go for a 2 day
conference. There’s no reason for him to go since I’m not going and
not a JET. He has no idea why he’s going and it shows me as being at
Ohse Thursday and Konan Friday. The only reason we thought of was that
I will have to go as well and we will have to do some speech about me
being an NT and how we use multimedia in the classroom. Whatever. If I
have to go then we will talk about PowerPoint and making little videos
and show some or something.
Broke is the key…
Friday, October 23, 2009
I had my bi-monthly (or semi-monthly) blood test this morning and was
sure it would be awful since I somewhat forgot last night and had
Indian food. Ironically it wasn’t as bad as I thought and some things
were noticeably better than usual. I’ve also been broke recently and
had to eat really cheap stuff like ramen noodles so I figured that
would jack everything way up. My cholesterol and one liver function
were normal and the other liver stuff was barely above the line. The
blood fat was bad since I had Starbucks on Wednesday morning and
Indian last night.
I had Starbucks Wednesday morning since I was waiting for
the bank to open so I could send money back as soon as possible. Last
month I forgot and then there was a 3 day holiday and then I forgot
again and didn’t send it for more than a week which caused several
bills to be really late. That caused some problems and I needed to
make sure the money got back asap. Unfortunately I couldn’t send the
money back at 8am, even though the ATM was open then. Why couldn’t I?
Because in general the Japanese banking system is stupid and you can’t
wire money back until 8:30. You also can’t access your money in other
parts of the country since bank “networks” are limited to your area.
It’s just stupid and I am so tired of the silliness. I use the ATMs at
the 7-11s because they are 24 hours and don’t close at 5 on Sundays
like the others.
When I got to Tadano Elem on Wednesday the teacher told me
the 6th graders weren’t there that day since more than half
the kids were out with the flu. They just canceled all the classes for
the whole grade which makes sense really. They also had to cancel the
school festival this Saturday since there were too many kids absent to
rehearse. They will postpone it until the 7th of Nov, but I
will be in Morioka watching a student compete in the national finals.
So anyway, I had 4th period free and they were kind enough
to let me zip out to the ATM for a minute to send the money back.
There was an AET meeting that day where I would usually send money
back, but I don’t think I’m going to go to those anymore. However,
that’s a whole can of worms I don’t want to open now.
I had a wonderful plan for my big public open house class
on Nov 9th, but it got changed again. This time by the BoE
themselves and to be honest, I don’t like it. Their changes were to
make it more difficult for the kids, but the class is with the
elementary 2nd grade and the kids don’t have a big capacity
to remember a lot. I’m teaching how are you and the BoE
wants me to add more greetings and more answers. I’m probably going to
say ok, and then just not add them at all or not as many as they want.
Slow, wasteful day.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
I was at Ohse today and had 2 classes all day, even though the other
English teachers went to 2 other classes as well. For some reason they
didn't need me in the room and preferred I just sit in the teacher's
room which is so painfully boring. I ended up searching the internet
for paper model layouts of bizarre shapes such as truncated
tetrahedrons and then printing them and cutting/folding until I had
paper models of cubes, triangles, and 14 sided things all over my
desk. Then I walked around the school wasting time until 4:15 came
along. I love that school when I have 4 classes, 2-3 in the morning
and 1-2 in the afternoon. Especially 6th period because that lets out
at 3:20 and then it's less than an hour to leave. Sometimes I stay
there until 5-6 when we are practicing for the standardized English
test interview.
Another thing I did to waste time was read about an upcoming
International day at a school. I both love these things and don't love
them. If the teachers would say " you AETs are far more knowledgeable
at these things, please plan everything yourself" then I would love
them. The kids are always great and that makes it fun. But that's
never how it works and this time is no exception. The teachers gave us
a plan for how to internationalize the kids in the Japanese way. Some
of it is ok, but for the most part it's like running in knee deep
water. First we talk about our countries in separate rooms for 10
minutes (ok so far) and then the kids have a 5 minute break in between
each room (the rooms that are next to each other). So why not a 14
minute presentation and the kids talk less than a minute to walk
between the 2? There is always, ALWAYS, an absurd amount of break time
between activities. Then we break into groups of 4 AETs and teach the
class some English topic. We were given "shopping" which is ok and I
have done it many times before, but to complicate things the teachers
gave us exactly what the kids will be shopping for and are preparing
the money. What if we happen to have a perfect plan already made? Too
bad, we need to use the teacher's ideas as well. The ideas that we
won't really see until that day. Finally we get to the best part. In
the afternoon we are supposed to teach the kids regular subjects in
Japanese. Some people are teaching math, others science, others home
ec, and we are teaching music. Honestly, how is teaching math to the
kids in Japanese an internationalization activity? This is absurd and
typical of what happens when the teachers make the plan themselves.
There's a thing in Japan where when a group is deciding something
everyone's opinion MUST be taken into account and used in someway. It
doesn't matter how absurd that person's idea is or even if it is
related or not, it has to be used. That's why you'll often see some
absurdly ridiculous mascots for companies and conferences. "Let's make
it tall....ok.....and red.....and black.....and have a pointy
head....ok.....and maybe it can look like a big red
penis.......ok...with green legs" and then you have some absurd mascot
that looks like a sex toy.
The general plan is usually to let the school that is having the
international day make the plan and present it to the people who must
then do it. That's the Japanese way. You must be internationalized in
the Japanese way. For another example of this go to
http://www.yesicanusechopsticks.com/thesequel/journal-march2.htm
and read the "Whap, right in the kisser" and "I feel a stroke coming
on" entries.
What it all boils down to is when foreigners are put in positions
where they are treated like play toys that Japanese people get to poke
and prod and ask absurd questions. I could never in a million years
imagine having an international day in the US at a school and giving
the visitors a plan. "He please teach us these things about your
culture in this way, otherwise we will become confused." I would say
"YOU know YOUR culture so please teach us about it in YOUR own way."
The way they want to do it truly makes no sense whatsoever to me.
Stupid Throat.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
It's Halloween and I had a great costume planned, but I can't go to
the party tonight because I have a sore throat. Technically I could
go, but it would be a miserable night. So I guess I am going to stay
home and do nothing which is actually NOT what I want. There was a
time when I hated going to school and lived for the weekends, but
that's when I was a Fukushima JET and had no classes, whereas now I
like seeing the kids and hate the boring weekends when I do nothing.
Plus last night was the first night of Thai Yoga, but that's when my
throat was at it's worst. I didn't even go to school yesterday, but I
actually really wanted to.
So instead of going to the party I stayed home and rearranged yet
again. I'm getting closer to finality. This time I moved the projector
into the closet and it's now shooting diagonally across the room
projecting to the 72" screen. That's 6 feet across diagonally. Man
that is big and yet I want it bigger. I think I can do it with
mirrors.
Apart from the projector, which was about $400, I am about to start
saving some money. I just cut over $200 a month from my bills both
here and in the US. I could cut some more, but I don't want to yet. I
canceled my gym membership ($80ish) that I haven't been going to.
Partially because I have been busy and partially because they didn't
have enough equipment. Then I canceled the monthly newspaper which was
$30. Then in the US I canceled three monthly (non-porn) things I was
subscribed to. They were computer things or Japanese language sites.
For one example I was using Lynda.com which is a great site for
learning computer stuff, but I need to save money for now so I had to
cut it. This paycheck I sent back some extra and paid down my credit
cards a little. I plan to do that for 2 more months and get them to
zero. Then pay ahead on my computer loan. The car loan stops in
November. So ideally after January I should be able to send back most
of my check to pay down my big grad school loan. I can't even imagine
not sending back half my paycheck every month, but maybe I will be
there within a year.
Another expense I need to cut is my stupid mobile phone. For some
reason I am on some plan where I pay about $80 a month and rarely use
it. I send messages daily, but not $80 worth. Granted $20 of that is
for me to pay down the phone itself which apparently cast $400 to be
paid over 2 years. I'm going to try to pay it off in December so I
would only owe $60. Then I'm either going to try to change plans so I
pay around $40 a month (like I have for 5 years) or cancel my service
with Docomo. That name means both anywhere and nowhere in Japanese.
Once the car loan and computer loan end I will have an extra $550 to
send to paying down the big grad school loan, that plus the same I
send back now. If I get my CC's paid down by December I can use all
the money I send back to pay down the big loan. I think I might send
in half a payment at the beginning of the month and then if I am ok
toward the end I can send in the rest. I also have to save for my
stupid sha-ken payment in November for my car.
I added some FaceBook photos. I think anyone can view them.
-2007
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