Tuesday 9 October 2007
I think ants broke my laptop speakers
Ants from next door have gradually migrated their way into my apartment. Their main bases seem to be in my sink (for reasons unknown) and around my computer desk. I noticed them the same time my laptop speakers started to crackle and die. Thus, I have concluded the little gits have crawled in and burnt their bodies onto all the electronic stuff. My only comfort is that when I go to brush my teeth I can turn on the tap and flush them all to ant hell.
I never got much sleep this weekend so I'm carrying about two weeks worse of 5-6 hours of worth of sleep a night. That's normal enough but that's on top of many demanding activities in this never ending humidity. Honestly, this morning was so humid I thought I was going to faint after my cycle to school. I got annoyed about the "It's Autumn so we can't use the air conditioner" so I went for a walk around the school grounds to get some air before classes. Today was pretty busy actually as I had three junior high school classes then a period of marking about 80 books. For some annoying reason the junior high school lunch ran 30 minutes late so I had to run to elementary and try to set up my class. I kind of ran out of time and it threw me off my lesson slightly. I like elementary but I think I'm going to suck at the classes. I get the whole 45-50 minutes which can be a bloody long time trying to entertain thirty 9-10 year olds knowing no Japanese. Never mind that I have no teaching experience, the teacher knows no English and they insist on Noah being in my class which makes me anxious. I made some stupid mistakes but hopefully I'll be able to learn from them next time. Well, I hope I'll improve because I'm not used to failing miserably at things I try really hard at. From elementary I went straight to the Board of Education to plan my advanced English class which took a few hours. I spent most of the 90 minutes talking about the Roman Empire and I got quite excited at some points and went off on tangents about the Picts and the Byzantine Empire. So it has been a fairly long day.
I only meant to do a small update but my tiredness has spawned a short rant.
I bought an ipod station for about £20 to make up for my lack of music due to the broken speakers. I spent most of the holiday weekend sober which is a first and pushed my car to the limits by driving all around the prefecture. Half the JETs were away down in Muroto for an English camp so some of us that weren't went out for dinner and drinks most of the weekend. I got up at 6:30am on Sunday to drive to the Minnaport Cup over in the city. It's basically a four team tournament with local schools and foreigner types. I think my predecessor used to organise it all but now it's an Aussie guy called Steveo who seemed pretty fun. I met some new folk I haven't seen including one New Zealand guy who was almost in tears when I told him France had beaten them in the rugby. He told me later "I thought you were joking but I've got a missed call from my brother and he only phones when something awful has happened." Our team was a varied mix and we got gubbed 4-0 in the first game by junior high school kids. We drew 0-0 against some University students (but should have won) and then won our last game 1-0 against some older blokes. I played alright but my best chance was ruined when I ran past the last defender and about to strike the ball when he elbowed me right in the face. It was a cracker and the crowd went "huuuooohhh" as my arms and head waved about. Also, both my legs were killing me from falling down the drain but I was smart and rubbed moisturiser into my knee scabs for flexible running.
Yesterday was a holiday Monday and I volunteered to help out at a sports day way up in the mountains. It's the most rural place in Japan you could possibly find and the school only has four pupils. Matt from Aki teaches there once a week and his Board of Education managed to convince (ie. lie a bit) me and Andrew to help out. I was expecting a stupid little sports day that finished at lunch and that I would actually be needed. Instead, they imported some students and had a 24 event day that lasted from 9-4. It was bloody awful and I hated every single crappy minute of it. They took 10 minutes to set up every useless event and at lunch half the kids vanished. The second half of the day involved all the 80 year old villagers. This was how I spent my last holiday Monday in ages and didn't event get paid/time off like Andrew and Matt. I'm a useless mug sometimes. Although I felt more sorry for Andrew since it was his birthday and he was stuck on a wooden bench up in the humid mountains.
Speaking of me being a mug and being too kind for my own good... I now have a lodger staying with me for another 10 days. I may have mentioned her in a few previous posts as she has hung out with us for a few weeks. Yeah, so Marika, the Japanese girl has been crashing at Yasuda David's place just up the road for a few months. She had been the fiance of Kitagawa Nick but they split up a few months ago and she still had a job/friends here or something. Yeah it's so very complicated and American high school drama-esque. Anyway, his Board of Education decided she wasn't welcome and gave her a day to move out so she has ended up crashing at mine. She's moving to Hiroshima soon enough and needs time to organise it and work her notice. It's pretty weird and uncomfortable but she's a cool girl and us east side guys have gotten to know her quite well the last month or so. I think she pretty screwed if I didn't put her up so I didn't want to be a heartless person. Anyway, so I've got that going on at the minute too.
That's probably it for now. Did I mention it's so humid I could die?
I never got much sleep this weekend so I'm carrying about two weeks worse of 5-6 hours of worth of sleep a night. That's normal enough but that's on top of many demanding activities in this never ending humidity. Honestly, this morning was so humid I thought I was going to faint after my cycle to school. I got annoyed about the "It's Autumn so we can't use the air conditioner" so I went for a walk around the school grounds to get some air before classes. Today was pretty busy actually as I had three junior high school classes then a period of marking about 80 books. For some annoying reason the junior high school lunch ran 30 minutes late so I had to run to elementary and try to set up my class. I kind of ran out of time and it threw me off my lesson slightly. I like elementary but I think I'm going to suck at the classes. I get the whole 45-50 minutes which can be a bloody long time trying to entertain thirty 9-10 year olds knowing no Japanese. Never mind that I have no teaching experience, the teacher knows no English and they insist on Noah being in my class which makes me anxious. I made some stupid mistakes but hopefully I'll be able to learn from them next time. Well, I hope I'll improve because I'm not used to failing miserably at things I try really hard at. From elementary I went straight to the Board of Education to plan my advanced English class which took a few hours. I spent most of the 90 minutes talking about the Roman Empire and I got quite excited at some points and went off on tangents about the Picts and the Byzantine Empire. So it has been a fairly long day.
I only meant to do a small update but my tiredness has spawned a short rant.
I bought an ipod station for about £20 to make up for my lack of music due to the broken speakers. I spent most of the holiday weekend sober which is a first and pushed my car to the limits by driving all around the prefecture. Half the JETs were away down in Muroto for an English camp so some of us that weren't went out for dinner and drinks most of the weekend. I got up at 6:30am on Sunday to drive to the Minnaport Cup over in the city. It's basically a four team tournament with local schools and foreigner types. I think my predecessor used to organise it all but now it's an Aussie guy called Steveo who seemed pretty fun. I met some new folk I haven't seen including one New Zealand guy who was almost in tears when I told him France had beaten them in the rugby. He told me later "I thought you were joking but I've got a missed call from my brother and he only phones when something awful has happened." Our team was a varied mix and we got gubbed 4-0 in the first game by junior high school kids. We drew 0-0 against some University students (but should have won) and then won our last game 1-0 against some older blokes. I played alright but my best chance was ruined when I ran past the last defender and about to strike the ball when he elbowed me right in the face. It was a cracker and the crowd went "huuuooohhh" as my arms and head waved about. Also, both my legs were killing me from falling down the drain but I was smart and rubbed moisturiser into my knee scabs for flexible running.
Yesterday was a holiday Monday and I volunteered to help out at a sports day way up in the mountains. It's the most rural place in Japan you could possibly find and the school only has four pupils. Matt from Aki teaches there once a week and his Board of Education managed to convince (ie. lie a bit) me and Andrew to help out. I was expecting a stupid little sports day that finished at lunch and that I would actually be needed. Instead, they imported some students and had a 24 event day that lasted from 9-4. It was bloody awful and I hated every single crappy minute of it. They took 10 minutes to set up every useless event and at lunch half the kids vanished. The second half of the day involved all the 80 year old villagers. This was how I spent my last holiday Monday in ages and didn't event get paid/time off like Andrew and Matt. I'm a useless mug sometimes. Although I felt more sorry for Andrew since it was his birthday and he was stuck on a wooden bench up in the humid mountains.
Speaking of me being a mug and being too kind for my own good... I now have a lodger staying with me for another 10 days. I may have mentioned her in a few previous posts as she has hung out with us for a few weeks. Yeah, so Marika, the Japanese girl has been crashing at Yasuda David's place just up the road for a few months. She had been the fiance of Kitagawa Nick but they split up a few months ago and she still had a job/friends here or something. Yeah it's so very complicated and American high school drama-esque. Anyway, his Board of Education decided she wasn't welcome and gave her a day to move out so she has ended up crashing at mine. She's moving to Hiroshima soon enough and needs time to organise it and work her notice. It's pretty weird and uncomfortable but she's a cool girl and us east side guys have gotten to know her quite well the last month or so. I think she pretty screwed if I didn't put her up so I didn't want to be a heartless person. Anyway, so I've got that going on at the minute too.
That's probably it for now. Did I mention it's so humid I could die?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment