KONNICHIWHAT!?: The latest from the news desk

Howdy folks, it's me again. Been a hot minute since my last post but hey, I'm working over here, not relaxing. When I last left you dear reader, I was in the middle of trying to figure out what I was going to do with my contract renewal form. The decision I've made is....wait for it, drumroll please! I've extended my contract by another 3 months. Why only 3 months? I'm sure that's what you're thinking. Well, 3 months gives me 3 more months of time to think about my next move, it gives me 3 more paychecks in which to pay bills and it also caps out my 2012 year. Nothing like a fresh start in January right? Regardless, those were some of the elements at play in coming to my conclusion. That and I didn't want to commit to another year because it's really hard to predict the future, especially when I'm still 5 months out of finishing my initial contract. I know there are a few people that are disappointed that I'm not finishing up here and just going back to America, but hey...another 3 months isn't so long and it's better for me financially speaking. I haven't heard back from my boss yet after having faxed in my form, but I'm curious to see what he has to say about it.

In other news, it's been a week of teaching at a new school for me this past week. I was covering for another NT at her school for classes that went Monday through Friday. All in all, the classes went quite well. There weren't any monster children and really only 2 classes that stressed me out and made me want to scream. The week before however, a little bit of a different story. I was at one of my regular schools, and this particular nightmare class was on a Saturday, first class of the day. Now I have to say that I don't really have many monster children and these kids are all cute and quite nice in their own right, however, since April (the beginning of a new school year), my small kid classes were condensed into one big class. Now I have 12 little kids, around 3 - 5 years old, in the same class together. This is madness I assure you. It all started horribly with a little boy wailing like a banshee as his mother dropped him off. He cried for maybe 15 minutes, screaming for his mommy, while I'm trying to check the other kids in and comfort him at the same time. He finally stops screaming and the lesson begins per usual when suddenly one of my 3 year old students stops dead in her tracks and begins pissing on the floor. No warning whatsoever. I pick her up and take her to the bathroom, clean her up as best I can, taking her pissy socks off and I check her bag for a change of clothes. Her parents did not put a change of clothes in her bag! My God man she's only 3! That being said, she spent the rest of the lesson in piss covered pants. I come out of the bathroom with her to see a little boy pulling a little girl by the arm, thus making her cry because he's playing too rough. I tell him to apologize to the poor girl and he gives me that, "go F yourself" face. So I tell him again, "say you're sorry!", in Japanese and he does it, but then he bursts into tears screaming about how I bullied him into it. Have I painted a scene of pure chaos for you yet? It was insanity. I'm pretty sure we didn't get to cover anything for the lesson because it ended up being an hour of daycare. I refuse to teach that class again the way it is now. I told the JT and my boss that this class needs a sub teacher there. It was not fun at all.

That event was icing on the doo-doo cake encapsulating that whole week. This regular school of mine now has a class that finishes around 9:45, which isn't that late, but it's late enough so that there are no trains running back to my turf at that time, meaning I need to stay in a hotel. My boss, being his usual self, failed at making my hotel reservation even though he was aware months ahead of time that I'd have this new schedule starting in April. So I ended up sleeping on my JT's floor (bless her heart), because I didn't have enough money on me to cover the room cost. Another one of my schools, that I start teaching at tomorrow, now has a hotel night on Tuesday's and I pray to God that my boss has this in order already. Don't worry, I'll be inquiring tomorrow. Here's to a better week, and then my vacation begins on the 28th! Yay for Golden Week! (P.S. I didn't get the marketing job in Tokyo that I mentioned in my last post)