Today the new school year started, which means that we had the opening ceremony introducing the new 1nensei to Yabuchuu this morning. The kids were SO cute! They were so nervous they looked like they were about to fall over. It was also funny to see them in their “they’re expensive, so we’ll buy big ones they’ll grow into!” uniforms. Awww, little 1nensei, please stay innocent and cute forever!
Other random notes and bitching from the opening ceremony:
-I hate hate hate hate hate the head of our PTA! He is so fucking full of himself! He thinks everyone just wants to sit there at ceremonies and listen to him talk for fucking hours about the wonder of Yabuchu. He literally gave a 10-minute speech today about how he hopes people will enjoy their time here. Um, he gave the exact same, long-winded speech (albeit in past-tense) at graduation two weeks ago. I hate him! It’s a bad sign when his speech is like three times longer than the principal’s. I want to find out who his kid is and give him or her bad grades for having a stupid father! Hehe, maybe not, but I find it weird that he wants to be at Yabuchu more than any of the students. Fucking freak!
-Somehow all of my just-turned 2nensei boys grew their hair long and started styling it over the last two weeks? It seems like two times longer?! I don’t get how that works.
-Man, word travels fast in Gunma. I won’t aide in the spreading of ALT gossip (for once!), but one of my students asked me about the recent ALT “incident?!” Damn.
-The teacher next to me had his program open and would cross out the scheduled time of events with a red pen and write in the actual time that they started? Okay….
-Not opening ceremony-related, but my new scheduler sucks ass, yo. I got my schedule for the next six months, and it SUCKS. I didn’t realize that Kojima-Sensei gave me an awesome schedule, as I had four classes everyday, and two periods off. My new one is a fucking uneven disaster! I have four on Monday, FIVE on Tuesday (um, fuck that shit), TWO on Thursday, and FIVE on fucking Friday(of all days). This sucks ass. He also doesn’t know what he is doing, as 7kumi (special needs) only has two English classes a week (one with me and one with a normal teacher), and he put them both on the same day?! Um…..bring back Kojima, please!
Hmm, is there a positive note I can end this on? Um….I’m getting drunk with my new 3nensei teachers tonight! I hope it’s fun? I’m nervous, it will be my first enkai! Hmm, we shall see how it goes…..and how getting up at 5 am for a hike tomorrow will go. Oy.
K, that wasn’t very positive ;) Maybe next time! Hehe.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Child Slave Labor
Yesterday I looked at the schedule for Thursday and it said, “Arrival of the new 3nensei and preparation for the new school year.” It is a sign that I have been here too long when I can sense that “preparation” is a secret word for “exploiting our kids to clean our dirty-ass, nasty school.” Sure enough, that’s exactly what we did!
The new 3nensei arrived at 9 in the morning, and by 9:01 they had the wet rags out and were cleaning every surface you could find (except for the walls, because Japanese people somehow don’t realize that walls should ever be cleaned). The sad thing is that the whole school was cleaned by students two weeks ago, but the damn Gunma winds brought TONS of dirt in through the closed windows, so everything was nasty again. A mixture of guilt and wanting to escape the boredom of my desk enticed me into helping the poor kids, but I am afraid I was worse than the 14 year-olds (13? Eh, I dunno how old they are). All of the kids were busy wiping the floors with wet towels (um, why not use mops?), and I was the ADD one that was like, “Hey, look! A bag full of ball crawl balls!” *throws them at kids* Hmm, I don’t think anyone was very impressed. When the jobs got too down-and-dirty, I would be the administrator and see how the kids were doing on other floors. I sort of helped, tho! I also succeeded in breathing in gallons of dust, so that has to count for some amount of work.
Yesterday Cindy and I were saying how ridiculous it is that the students are in charge of doing so much shit, and it really is true. Seriously, why should it be their job to come in during spring break and clean floors, desks, cubby holes, etc? Also, you really do get what you pay for when you have students do all of the shit for free. Japanese schools would be a LOT cleaner, hygienic, and attractive (well, as attractive as our prison schools can be) if they hired janitors. The only janitor-ish guy a school has is the groundskeeper, who pretty much just trims trees all day long (might I add that my groundskeeper is a bit too over-zealous with his job, and we pretty much only have stumps remaining at this point).
Having said all of this, I do have a lot of respect for the kids for not rebelling and doing a nation-wide towel-burning protest. I only helped for like 45 minutes and I was bitching and ready for lunch and a nap. The kids, on the other hand, didn’t think anything of it, and were barefoot, cleaning the halls (eww). So, Japanese kids around the country, my hat goes off to you. Let you never go to another country and realize that you shouldn’t be forced into doing all of this shit!
The new 3nensei arrived at 9 in the morning, and by 9:01 they had the wet rags out and were cleaning every surface you could find (except for the walls, because Japanese people somehow don’t realize that walls should ever be cleaned). The sad thing is that the whole school was cleaned by students two weeks ago, but the damn Gunma winds brought TONS of dirt in through the closed windows, so everything was nasty again. A mixture of guilt and wanting to escape the boredom of my desk enticed me into helping the poor kids, but I am afraid I was worse than the 14 year-olds (13? Eh, I dunno how old they are). All of the kids were busy wiping the floors with wet towels (um, why not use mops?), and I was the ADD one that was like, “Hey, look! A bag full of ball crawl balls!” *throws them at kids* Hmm, I don’t think anyone was very impressed. When the jobs got too down-and-dirty, I would be the administrator and see how the kids were doing on other floors. I sort of helped, tho! I also succeeded in breathing in gallons of dust, so that has to count for some amount of work.
Yesterday Cindy and I were saying how ridiculous it is that the students are in charge of doing so much shit, and it really is true. Seriously, why should it be their job to come in during spring break and clean floors, desks, cubby holes, etc? Also, you really do get what you pay for when you have students do all of the shit for free. Japanese schools would be a LOT cleaner, hygienic, and attractive (well, as attractive as our prison schools can be) if they hired janitors. The only janitor-ish guy a school has is the groundskeeper, who pretty much just trims trees all day long (might I add that my groundskeeper is a bit too over-zealous with his job, and we pretty much only have stumps remaining at this point).
Having said all of this, I do have a lot of respect for the kids for not rebelling and doing a nation-wide towel-burning protest. I only helped for like 45 minutes and I was bitching and ready for lunch and a nap. The kids, on the other hand, didn’t think anything of it, and were barefoot, cleaning the halls (eww). So, Japanese kids around the country, my hat goes off to you. Let you never go to another country and realize that you shouldn’t be forced into doing all of this shit!
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The times, they are a-changin’
Japanese people are a seasonal people. Every season brings harsh changes in the weather, various festivals, new seasonal snacks at the conbini (this may be the most important change to Jeffu), and more. Spring has come to Japan, and with it come the sakura (cherry blossoms) and the tradition of hanami (sitting under the trees with friends or co-workers and getting shitfaced in honor of surviving an awful winter and seeing the beauty of the trees). Another important change that comes with spring is that practically every teacher in Japan gets a completely different job! After a week of wonderful vacation, I came back on Monday to say a rushed goodbye to my departing teachers, and have an “oh shit, I barely remembered the old co-workers’ names, now I have to remember NEW ones?!” moment.
Teachers get changed around schools regularly in Japan. I am not exactly sure why, but for some reason they believe it isn’t good for them to stay in one place for long. I feel the opposite way, but whatever. Anyway! I knew that new teachers would be coming, but I wasn’t sure how many, or who was leaving. In fact, the teachers that left didn’t even know until a week or two before they did so. So, on Monday I showed up at work, praying that we would get hot new teachers and that Fujii-Sensei, the hottest Japanese teacher in the world, wouldn’t leave. Needless to say, Monday was a bad day!!! Sigh.
I came in Monday morning and saw Fujii’s desk empty except for his Puma bag (I swear he single-handedly keeps Puma in business). Although I prayed that he was just thoroughly cleaning his desk, I knew better. Fujii and 21 other teachers (!!!) left on Monday and got replaced by 17 new teachers. Satou Sensei, another cute one, left, too! Of the 17 new teachers, only one is cute….hello, NOT a fair trade! I think I need to be in charge of the teacher bartering next year.
Not only is a third of the staff new, but the teachers that are staying are all teaching new grades, too. In other words, no one has any idea what they are doing. This is a nice change, as usually I am the only one that doesn’t know what is going on. Now people are asking ME questions, wtf! I don’t know the answers to any of them, but still :)
Along with the staff changes, we all moved our desks yesterday, as well. It was one of the most amusing moments at Yabuchu so far, as Japanese people actually acted like normal dirty people! There were people ALL over just pushing desks, getting dusty, being loud and chaotic as possible. It was like I was in a different country! I made the executive decision that there is such a thing as TOO much help, so I just watched and laughed. Yes, I’m sure they love me. The new English teacher (a 23 year-old attractive girl who just graduated from college…teaching 2nensei…at Yabuchu….I fear she may be eaten alive) arrived in the middle of this chaos, and I am sure wondered what the hell kind of school she got placed at.
The good news about the desk change is that I got a NEW desk where I don’t have to suck in my stomach and scoot my chair in every time someone walks behind me. I also have my monitor facing the windows so not everyone can see what I’m doing on my computer (I assure you it is ALL teaching-related). ALSO, I have the best people-watching desk in the office! Hello, this is great! I also have a view of two cute teachers to stare at when bored (alas, if only Fujii were here!).
So, even though Jeff doesn’t adjust to change very well, these seem to be good changes so far. Yay, spring!
Teachers get changed around schools regularly in Japan. I am not exactly sure why, but for some reason they believe it isn’t good for them to stay in one place for long. I feel the opposite way, but whatever. Anyway! I knew that new teachers would be coming, but I wasn’t sure how many, or who was leaving. In fact, the teachers that left didn’t even know until a week or two before they did so. So, on Monday I showed up at work, praying that we would get hot new teachers and that Fujii-Sensei, the hottest Japanese teacher in the world, wouldn’t leave. Needless to say, Monday was a bad day!!! Sigh.
I came in Monday morning and saw Fujii’s desk empty except for his Puma bag (I swear he single-handedly keeps Puma in business). Although I prayed that he was just thoroughly cleaning his desk, I knew better. Fujii and 21 other teachers (!!!) left on Monday and got replaced by 17 new teachers. Satou Sensei, another cute one, left, too! Of the 17 new teachers, only one is cute….hello, NOT a fair trade! I think I need to be in charge of the teacher bartering next year.
Not only is a third of the staff new, but the teachers that are staying are all teaching new grades, too. In other words, no one has any idea what they are doing. This is a nice change, as usually I am the only one that doesn’t know what is going on. Now people are asking ME questions, wtf! I don’t know the answers to any of them, but still :)
Along with the staff changes, we all moved our desks yesterday, as well. It was one of the most amusing moments at Yabuchu so far, as Japanese people actually acted like normal dirty people! There were people ALL over just pushing desks, getting dusty, being loud and chaotic as possible. It was like I was in a different country! I made the executive decision that there is such a thing as TOO much help, so I just watched and laughed. Yes, I’m sure they love me. The new English teacher (a 23 year-old attractive girl who just graduated from college…teaching 2nensei…at Yabuchu….I fear she may be eaten alive) arrived in the middle of this chaos, and I am sure wondered what the hell kind of school she got placed at.
The good news about the desk change is that I got a NEW desk where I don’t have to suck in my stomach and scoot my chair in every time someone walks behind me. I also have my monitor facing the windows so not everyone can see what I’m doing on my computer (I assure you it is ALL teaching-related). ALSO, I have the best people-watching desk in the office! Hello, this is great! I also have a view of two cute teachers to stare at when bored (alas, if only Fujii were here!).
So, even though Jeff doesn’t adjust to change very well, these seem to be good changes so far. Yay, spring!
Hisashiburi, Buroggu-san
Yes, I have been a bad blogger, but I also haven’t been home in like 300 years! My sister came and we had soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun. We did way too much shit, so you will just have to take my word that we had fun, ‘cause there is no way I am typing it all out. We went to Kusatsu (famous for onsen), Nikko (a sort of mini-Kyoto in Tochigi), Toyama (host family and EATING like bitches), Tokyo, etc. We had a GREAT time, and it was very depressing to return to my sad boring apartment by myself on Sunday! Not acceptable! However, I realized that my apartment is plenty big for one person, but gets very small with two people! I also realized that I am glad I will never have to live with a girl, because there is fucking long hair all over my damn apartment! GROSS! I will post pictures eventually, but we all know that I am lazy when it comes to that….so, we shall see!
Oh, yeah, since Cindy’s blog is the same as mine, you can read hers to see some of the stuff we did :)
Oh, yeah, since Cindy’s blog is the same as mine, you can read hers to see some of the stuff we did :)
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