Who needs a leap year?

Here it is, the 29th of February all because of a leap year. I for one wouldn't have minded a day being shaved off the month. Alas, here it is and it's nearly over so I'll stop whining. What a February it's been! Quite exhausting to be perfectly honest. That's mostly because I'm used to teaching three weeks out of the month but February saw me teaching all four weeks of the month due to covering for another teacher who was vacationing back in his home country of Australia. I wasn't really worried, and continue to not be worried, about having to cover for other teachers. I've adopted the mindset that covering isn't so bad because the kids can fall on one of two sides of the coin; they're either really nice and excited to see a new foreign face, or they may be rude and obnoxious because you aren't their normal teacher. Now why isn't that so bad? Well, if they're excited about you, the classes kick butt and the time flies, and if the kids are terrible little monsters, well guess what? You probably never have to see them again as the odds of covering for the same teacher at that same school are slim-to-none.The school I was covering at was a mixed bag. There were some classes where the kids were shy because they didn't know me, but once I showed them I came in peace, they warmed up to me and the lessons went well. This past Saturday however, I had a Lavender class (our classes our color-coded) with three students. Beforehand I told myself, "this will be no problem...three students, piece of cake", but alas, my motivational speech to myself was far from the truth. These three kids were some of the rudest, most ill-behaved, disrespectful children I've come across. They were lazy, they complained about everything, and the hour couldn't pass fast enough. For sure, when it was over, I thought, "thank God that's not one of my regular classes". It was a fairly easy week of coverage all said, and I walk away mostly unscathed.

As for my regular schools, I just finished up teaching at one of them. I know what you're thinking, "but Jason, it's only Wednesday. what's the deal?". Well reader, my schedule got all switched away due to my supervisor having a compulsion to mix things up for no good reason. So I have tomorrow (Thursday) off, when I typically have three classes to teach. Instead, my JT for this school is teaching those lessons. Huh? Then on Friday I'm taking the three-hour train ride to Miyazaki to cover for another NT who is traveling back to New Zealand for vacation. Another NT will be teaching my regular Friday classes at my regular school. Say what? So yeah, I'll be in Miyazaki teaching this NT's three classes, staying overnight in a hotel, then teaching two of his classes on Saturday, staying another night and then coming back to Oita. Again, I don't mind covering, especially since this NT is a cool dude and I actually like the hotel stay. It's a nice change of pace and the hotel is awesome (I've been there before, having covered for another Miyazaki NT months before). I know it sounds simple, but I like sleeping in a regular bed after having spent all this time on a futon. It stills boggle the mind having a teacher (me) commute three hours by train, requiring a hotel stay, for three lessons. I guess those types of decisions are outside my pay grade. Continuing on with the topic of coverage, I'll be teaching four weeks again this month, covering for another NT during the third week in March. At this point you must be thinking, "are you the only one they get to cover?", and I'd tell you, I'm thinking the same thing. It's a bit obnoxious at times, especially if I think too much about why they can't find someone else. All I know is that I'm planning to take some days off and someone will have to cover for me. It goes both ways.

So that's how things are shaping up and how things have looked since my last past. I'm passing the time with Fringe (almost done with season 2) and my new obsession, Adventure Time. That cartoon is awesome and I'm not really a cartoon guy. I also ordered FIFA 12 and Final Fantasy IV Collection for my PSP, which should be arriving tomorrow, so that the commuting is much more tolerable. Until next time.

Two of my fellow NT packin' it up after a meeting.

A fellow NT...doing something.

My supervisor schoolin' an NT.

Chicken sandwich with an odd, yet delicious, tasting shake.

Spicy little rice crackers.

K-ON!! promotional goods from Lotteria.

Yep.

This is from K-ON!! as well.

See what I mean?

Sandwich lunch pack. Custard filled. Very odd.

 

Wakai!

What does, "wakai", mean? Hmm, it's used to say something, or someone, looks young. So what does it have to do with me or this blog? Well, I've been hearing that word a lot lately as I've been meeting new people. When people find our how old I am, 31 for all of those unaware, they say, "wakai!", meaning that I look a lot younger than my actual age. It's actually a pretty awesome thing to hear to be honest with you. I'm hearing it from students and other Japanese people I meet. One person in particular told me, "we Japanese think that many foreigners look much older than their age, so I'm surprised!". Yay for me and my baby-face syndrome.

Oh, so I just recently wrapped up what I've deemed, "the longest week", this past Saturday and it was a near-death experience. My last post did say, "next week will kill me", if you recall. Sure, I'm exaggerating a bit, but doesn't a little exaggeration always make things more interesting? It all started on Monday, at my furthest away school (a near 2-hour commute each way), with classes having parent observations for the entire week. So I had P.O.'s on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then Thursday is typically my day off for this school's week but I had to cover at another school for a teacher who was out of the country due to personal issues. To make matters worse (getting screwed out of my day off), I also had P.O.'s at this other teachers school. Let me just say, P.O.'s are already awkward because there's a row of parents lined up against the wall watching you teach their children and you're trying to act like they aren't there. Now picture that in a situation where the students and parents both have no idea who you are and you have a SUPER awkward experience. I somehow made it out of that unscathed and it was back to my regular school and P.O.'s on Friday. Now keep in mind, I get home from this long-commute school around 11pm and it's near impossible for me to fall asleep right away. I need to unwind, eat something, take a shower and then hit the hay. Friday night was rough because I knew I had to get up at 5:45am in order to catch a 7:06am train to my school for 10am classes. I couldn't fall asleep, because my mind races, and didn't do so until around 3am. You do the math. Total exhaustion. Normally I don't have classes that early, but the company is in the middle of it's, "Spring Campaign", which is where we try to get new students to enroll. How do we do that? By giving demo lessons (basically a free lesson) to potential new students to show them what they'd be signing up for. Again, the parents are there watching and it's quite awkward cause these kids have no idea what goes on in the classroom and they're just staring at you clueless. I had two hours of demo lessons, from 10am to 12pm, then I had a 1 hour break, with my regular classes starting back up at 1:15pm. From 1:15pm to 4:45pm I had my three regular lessons with yep, you guess it...P.O.'s. My first class, Green class with little 4 year old kids, was weirder than usual because they all had stage fright, so to speak, having to do things in front of their parents. To make matters worse, the parents were filming the class, which the company says they aren't allowed to do (but you try telling them that). Thankfully, my last class of the day went really well and it was just fun. After they all left, I went back into drained-mode and could only think about sleep. I did just that, falling asleep at 8:30 Saturday night and waking up at 10am Sunday morning, batteries recharged.

However, the excitement of having a day off was hampered by the fact that I'd be traveling two hours north on Monday to cover at Nakatsu for another teacher who is on vacation. No rest for the white man. I opted to spend the extra yen today to get an express train ticket to Nakatsu, thus making my train ride only an hour instead of the cheaper, local train ticket price, which makes for a 2 hour ride. I get to Nakatsu and yeah, it's a sleepy town but the classroom I was covering at was big, clean and pretty darn nice. I only had to teach two classes, which would be super awesome if it weren't for the fact that the last class of the day was one that I'd never taught before called Peptalk. The first class went really well and the kids were well behaved, I'm thinking they were just excited to see a different native teacher, but the Peptalk class was a mixed bag. I had a really talkative boy that was super-nice and happy to chat with me, but that was the problem; he chatted too much. Then there was two really smart girls with the same name, a really shy girl and a girl that just didn't try. The material for this class is pretty lame and this unit I was teaching them about giving compliments to friends and family. You may or may not know that the Japanese have a bit of a reputation for being shy and quiet. This can be quite true, especially if they're put on the spot to give compliments! Regardless, I somehow made it through and there I was, alone on the train platform, the only one hopping on the express train from Nakatsu bound for Oita. I have tomorrow and the next day off. I plan to enjoy a Fringe marathon (currently on season 2) and I'm pondering the purchase of a 3DS. By golly I think I've earned it.

This stuff was TOO dry for me.

Salt and Mayo chips. Oddly enough, super tasty.

Make your own gooey candy!

It taste like total crap.

I made sausage curry with cheese. Looks like deuce, tastes like yum-yum!

Super flippin' hot chips.

For the first time

My post title is referring to the fact that yesterday, for the first time, I actually realized that there are some students of mine that I'll really miss seeing when this adventure comes to an end. I hadn't really had that moment yet; that thought, but there I was, laying in bed, thinking about the students that I enjoy seeing, teaching and interacting with. Obviously, this is a good thing but it's not without a negative side. Maybe not so much negative as it is bittersweet. It's great that I'm finally at that moment where I can enjoy certain students, having now had enough time to learn about them, their interests and personalities. However, when it all comes to an end, it's going to make it all the more difficult to say goodbye to them. How's that gonna' go down? I've thought about that scenario for sure and I'm thinking that the Japanese teachers for the schools that I teach at will give the students a heads-up about my departure date so that it's not so sudden an jarring for them when suddenly I'm gone. I suppose it's an inevitability in this line of work and I also know that the students have seen it all before, the coming and going of native teachers, but I'm almost certain I'll be feeling guilty saying goodbye. Why? Because I've been spending this time trying to form relationships and trust with these students so that the hour we spend with each other every month is a comfortable, fun experience. Then I feel like I'm going to be that jerk native that suddenly tosses it all out the window and lets these kids down by going home. "He came into our lives and then he was gone". I'm already having these thoughts at the near-halfway point, so I can only imagine these feelings will be stronger come this September.

In other news, in one of my classes yesterday I was teaching the students (2 girls and 1 boy) about Valentines day and White day. White day, for those that don't know, is on March 14th and it's when boys give girls chocolates. See, on Valentines day here, still February 14th, girls give chocolates to the boys. The point of all this was that I was giving them a hard time about whether or not they had boyfriends and girlfriends and I caught the girls passing love messages back and forth...about me! Ah, I've never been the focus of a crush before...at least not that I was aware of. My classes, so far this week, have been pretty awesome and the kids have all been well behaved. Today, in Yellow class (4 year olds), I had a new student who my Japanese teacher informed me is a total crybaby. This little dude cries about EVERYTHING! His mom sat in on the class to supervise his behavior so he wouldn't have a complete meltdown but he still came close to it. He cried for almost the entire hour and I only hope this behavior changes. I can't imagine another 7 months of that. Two more days at this school for the week and then I have a nice two-day weekend. Next week will kill me...wish me luck.

At the big CM (combined meeting).

My fellow natives.

Fanta Funmix. Cola+Orange mixed. Surprisingly tasty.

My favorite ice cream.

Vanilla ice cream, crunch chocolate and wafer. Simple.

Grilled meat Cheetos. Terrible.