so another long day this wonderful friday. current music: beatles-when i'm sixty four. i love this song. i had to learn it in elementary school. ahh...mrs. bartnick. i'm about to go up to my supervisor's apartment for dinner. again. she's been so great. i keep thinking of her as a host mom rather than my supervisor at work. today i got to see my school--finally. it is four stories high, my office is at the top, with no air-con (as the japanese say) i have a fan and i'd like to believe that i will be fine, but we'll see. 90% humidity is hard to get used to. we got there really early because murata-sensei had to open classrooms for students to study in, and yes it is summer, and yes of the students still come to school everyday. 3rd years (3-year system mind you) are studying for college entrance exams, 1st and 2nd are doing clubs. the teachers are supervising and killing time, i think, as they still have to come in everyday. i met the front office staff (useful people at know as they doal out the moo-la), but they all don't speak english so i need to figure out how to do basic japanese if only to suck up. i met a couple other teachers and the english teachers. mr. yamagouchi (who i share an office with) is very nice. kinda a goof i think. mr. ineo (?) is head of the english department and know it. he's spent alot of time in the u.s and is apparently new to yasufuruishi high (my school--i know the name, yay!). he kept going on and on in english about all the places he'd been. but he'll be useful resource. walking around the school all the students seem to light up when murata-sensei mentioned that i was the new ALT (assistant language teacher). it was pretty cute. my office seems like a good set up, i'll be spending a lot of time there so thats good. and it sounds like they're giving me more to do than my predecessor, she complained a lot i guess. so i have 16 first year oral communication classes, 9 second year writing classes and a vist to another school once a week. i'm not sure what's happening there. the first bit sounds like i'm just supposed to figure out a way to talk about myself for an hour. good ol' myspace, i hope you have trained me well. self-introduction is apparently the ice breaker for the students to the new ALT. so lesson planning here i come. after this tour/info session there was a mass of paper signing. apparently if you sneeze there's a form you need to file. talk about paper waste. it makes me sooo sick just thinking about it. i'll try to do my part to reduce, reuse, but i don't think japan recycles. i think they burn. *shiver* but i'm going to actually try to figure out the incredibly complicated garbage system and conquer it. (sp?--the fact that i'm an english teacher...nicole and elena you must separately be cracking up). so yes, on with the day. after all this rigamarole at school we headed out to get some more paper work done out in the world. i had to fill out forms for my alien registration card. i won't get this till the end of august and i won't be able to do anything--open a bank, get a cell phone, get internet--till i have this card. irritating to say the least. the next stop was the deo deo electronics store. murata-sensei asked how the other first years had cell phones (their supervisors put their name on the paperwork and would switch it later when the magic card came) and agreed to do the same! this was a shock. i was anticipating a month without a way to get a hold of anyone and low and behold murata -sensei saves the day. woo-freakin'-hoo. soo...i got the niftiest cell. it is orange (seems to be my current color) and the menus all have dancing penguins. they run around and climb ladders, grow balloons then ride them in the sky with the birds, fall like dominos, and so many more different antics. it makes me smile every time i open it. which is of course constantly because, hey new toy. so cell phone in hand we go to the hyaku-en shoppu, then a different hyaku-en, then the grocery store (in the same building as the hyaku-en) and finally home. a very thankful liz says good buy for the moment to murata-sensei and finally organizes her temporary apartment. and so after fiddling with my phone i attempt to e-mail my parents (after having only talked to my mom once) but i didn't write down the e-mail and i can't get it to work--japanese cell phones text with e-mail addresses. after calling sandi, who i'm going to hang out with tomorrow, and mayumi (yay!!!) i head up stairs for dinner. murata-sensei has made gyoza (pot-stickers) with shrimp and veggies in them just for me. we had salad (with kelp and tofu) and rice and bread and miso with fish. i feel mush better, i've been lacking greens, and mayumi calls! you have no idea how great it was to hear her voice. it just made me soo happy. she's going to come in the hiroshima at the end of aug or beginning of sept and then take me to osaka. so damn exciting. feeling even better, i then try text alex (who's e-mail i actually wrote down) and success, it doesn't bounce back. eventually he writes back but i can't read it. but at least (i think) i can write out. thats something. i finish the second half of monk (on the correct night, friday) and go to sleep. i feel sooo much more relaxed--which is probably helped by the fact that i found my happy pills and vitamins.
music i forgot:
5th element
tool
some classical
star wars
movies i crave:
mallrats
shawn of the dead
star trek iv, and well all of them
-hopefully i'll be able to find then here.
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