first week of work

Actually, more like training before the first week of work. I typed this up last week, and didn't get a chance to come over to Seattle's Best across the city to upload it.

7/27/06

I've been playing Brain Age every night before I go to bed, but I never manage to get past the first three exercises because I'm so tired. Jet lag was pretty bad the first day of training because we weren't doing very much other than sitting there listening to people talk, but at least I was able to sleep for five or six hours last night without waking up. Except that when I go to bed at midnight, that means I'm awake at 5 or 6 am. I do manage to go back to sleep in the morning, but training doesn't start until 10, so I've usually still got a lot of time on my hands, even with all the getting dressed and getting ready to go to a business meeting prep. It might be nice to keep this schedule, but I don't know if I'll be able to once I get my classes and need to put together lesson plans and things. We're supposedly able to finish everything at work, but at first I hear everyone brings back work the first few weeks.

It's also strange because they have a set schedule for vacations, so my first vacation is coming up in a few weeks. It's cool because Jo is coming over for a bit during that time, and then we're going to Osaka so I can visit our exchange student from last summer.

Training's gotten really interesting, now that they've started teaching us the MAT method of teaching (Model, Action, Talk). It takes a lot of practice, but the lessons we end up doing are easy to plan and prep for and a lot of fun for the kids.

7/30/06

I just moved into my apartment today! And I managed to find my way around without any mishaps. I was really lucky, because we were already in the city I am supposed to teach in for training, so I just took the local cable car over to my apartment building (aka, 'mansion').

My apartment is pretty small, but it doesn't feel that small. I think it's because all the furniture is on the floor, so it doesn't really block the flow of getting from place to place in the room. There's even a really nice sink with lights over it at the entrance, like the ones we had backstage at dance for putting on make up, with a removable nozzle. For now, I've just stocked up on rice, tea, and calcium milk, with some bananas and tofu in the fridge. I've also been boiling water and refrigerating it so I don't have to buy that (I buy the tea because it has vitamin C in it).

I love the 100 yen store. We've got one that's five stories, and they pretty much have everything. It's like a five-story 98 cent Marukai. There's even a lot of the same things that you could get in Gardena, which I thought was really funny. I got a pair of fuzzy slippers exactly like the ones Jo had at home.

The person living here before also left a lot of their stuff here. I've got two pairs of weights, an extra futon, some paints and paintbrushes and other random supplies, a VCR, and a bunch of utensils (but not enough chopsticks...) I also grabbed some new cutting boards because the one left here was pretty gross.

It's been strange going to places here with people who look less Japanese than I do, but in some cases speak more of the language than I do. The other foreign teacher at my school is half-Japanese and didn't grow up speaking Japanese, but he's been studying the language more diligently than I have, and he's got the language pretty much down. He can communicate with the locals, and has made friends at the local stores (which is a good thing, because he's vegan). But it was interesting today to see how the waitress at the cafe kept talking to me when he was clearly the only one who could understand her and was the only one responding. He's a regular, too. I must've had the blankest look on my face. I guess that means I need to learn more Japanese...

That show on after Dotch in L.A. on Saturdays is on right now (I think they're on like episode 30 or something...) But it's really funny because it's just way clearer, but the music and opening are exactly the same (I haven't actually watched that much of the actual show). It looks like the main couple have moved pretty far up (and now the main dude has a mustache and poofy pony tail...) and are living with his parents. Actually, they might be her parents. The mom kinda looks like her, so that might make more sense. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're with her family, because her mom and sister are totally making fun of her.

Also, the regular on Dotch cut his hair, so now it's like super short. It looks funny on him, but I think it's better than his long hair...