Cold and Rainy

That pretty much sums up the weather today as I write this post. I had an office day today, which on a Saturday means waking up around 8 in order to shower and get to the classroom in time to call in. I woke up to the sound of heavy rain and strong winds. I didn't expect that at all so it put a damper on my already sour mood from not getting a lot of sleep. Today was spent working on a poster for our upcoming CM (combined meeting), which is where all the area Japanese teachers and Native teachers get together to talk business. The theme of the poster is St. Patrick's Day and it's supposed to get the attention of potential students for our school. I almost finished, but I'm a bit picky when it comes to my artwork so I still have some coloring to do before it's done. I'm sure I'll post of a photo of the finished "product" when it's done. The reason I'm making it in the first place is because my boss is making all of us NT's create one for a "friendly" competition. I don't mean to brag or boast, but I'm thinking mine is a slamdunk win.

Aside from that, not much is going on here in Japan, at least not in my life. Work is about the same as always, although I'm continuing to discover that I'm not really cut out to be a teacher. I simply don't have the patience for it. I know, I know - news flash! But hey, at least I'm aware of my own shortcomings right? More and more I think to myself, it sure would be nice to be back in the states. Not that I hate Japan, but I simply don't care for teaching that much and to be perfectly honest, it's quite difficult to find non-teaching work here as a foreigner. I mean, I could be flipping burgers at McDonald's Japan, but I'm talking about jobs where I can actually make a decent wage. So as it stands, I'm still planning to be home by next summer, which really isn't that far away as we creep up on December. I'm not sure who really cares about the idea of my going back to the states aside from a couple people, but hey, I'm puttin' it out there.

5 Pepper-flavored chips

Before

After...yummy!

Meow...bring on the money!

Somewhere in Oita

Red chili and garlic-flavored chips.

Sausage snack...gag, vomit, gross.

Party pizza-flavored Pringles. Bleh.

Korean inspired onigiri. Meat and kimchi inside. YUM!

Before

After. Tasty soba.

I've Got Something to Say!!

Those of you in the know, the cool folks, know that this post title comes from the gone-too-soon series, "Strangers with Candy". God I loved that show. Anyway, it is indeed fitting as it has been awhile and I do have things to say. A lot has happened since my last post. Work has been about the same. Classes have been going well and I still stand by the claim that I have the most well-behaved kids in the prefecture. I felt like I had a bit of a breakthrough this week with some teens that I teach on Wednesday at this particular school. I can't really put it into words, but the vibe was just more positive and they seemed to be having a better time. Maybe it was me, maybe it was them, maybe it was a little of both. It's a good feeling when you see a positive change in student's attitudes. On the downside of the teaching game, I have to cover Monday classes at another NT's school this next week and it's a school I truly dislike teaching at. I find the behavior of the students there to be...obnoxious, to put it lightly. So not only does that suck for me, but my boss has given me the task of recording some of the students giving thank you messages to their JT (Japanese teacher). "Hey kids, you barely know me, but saddle up and play nice for the camera would ya?". Just seems poorly planned in my opinion. However, as always, I tell myself...it's not my school and it's just one day. It could always be worse.

In happier news, I am no longer a single man. Woo-hoo! I've had a lovely lady in my life since October 16th, yes, I'm counting. Let's face it fellas, these are important dates to remember in the mind of a woman. Obviously, things are still in early stages but I'm having a great time with her and she genuinely gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Oh what's this? I'm finally going to be getting the video games that I ordered on October 9th!? Yeah, it's been close to a month since I ordered Fifa 13 and Sleeping Dogs from play-asia.com. Now, both games were listed as having a ship out date of 1-5 days. Not bad I thought. However, October 16th rolls around and I still haven't heard from these guys. I emailed them to inquire about my order to which they replied, "we're currently waiting for more copies of Sleeping Dogs so that we can ship your order out in full". Wow, you don't even have stock of the game I ordered? Well  then why would you list it for sale on your site? Can you imagine if all e-commerce sites did this? October 31st - still nothing. I email again saying, "yo, what's going on with my order? I enjoy your site and the products you offer but I'm disappointed in the way you've handled my order". Who knows if that would make any kind of difference, but I wanted to speak my mind. Ideally, they would feel like a child being disciplined by a parent. Oddly enough, hours later, I get an email saying my order shipped. How about that? I'm not saying my displeased email had anything to do with it, but the timing is quite amusing. Will I order from these turds again? Possibly, but my expectations have been significantly lowered.

A random Izakaya (Japanese bar) I socialized in.

Summer School.

Classroom decorations SS.

Ditto.

Summer festival decorations in Oita (I'm behind in posting pics!)