(no subject)
Okay I love my island, but I'm getting really tired of the compulsory "volunteer" activities that teachers have to participate and being told about them at the very last minute. I don't mind having to do it at school, because that's my work time, but dear God please can I be told about these things so I can actually have time to plan my lessons?
The first was Friday night's announcement about the budget, which thankfully Takako-sensei let me skip on the premise that I needed to buy dinner (and wouldn't understand a thing said anyway); which turned into an evening out with my kyouikuiinkai, which is never a bad thing.
Then, on Saturday I had to come in and record the correct pronunciation for all the vocabulary for the spelling contest; which, okay, yeah, I can do that. But I recorded for three and a half hours on tapes which turned out to be no good, so my JTE wanted me to redo them.
Okay. Fair enough.
But then, after picking vegetables and settling in for my evening, planning to cook myself dinner, I got a call that I had to go to the story thing, and then to the sanshin and taiko performance after. Okay, well, I wanted to see my students perform, so that's okay. And it was really cool watching it, though there were tons of people I didn't know there.
So, Sunday morning I come in to work to rerecord the tapes, which took me a good two hours, which, okay, yeah, it's something that needs to be done. But then, the golf game was at 12:30, so after some preparation work that I did I had an hour to go home, put my laundry in the washing machine, and eat lunch. I headed over to the grand golf game. It was for charity for the school, so I had to pay 1,000¥.
It was okay fun, and Mio and Yurina were taking care of scoring etc. Though I'm still pretty terrible, I'm getting better. But I was planning to go back to the school in the evening and preparing for class. But then, Kitsune told me I had to go with all the teachers to a dinner and bingo game at 7:00pm. I was stressed but okay, yeah I had time to go home, hang up my laundry maybe, and breathe. The grand golf game ended at 5:00, and then Kitsune told me that she'd been wrong, that the dinner actually started at 5:30pm, and that she'd call me at 5:25 and pick me up. I ran home to hang up my laundry, try to eat some normal food, and maybe change my clothes. But then I got a call at 5:15 that she was waiting for me and actually we had to go in early to take money from people coming in.
So not only did I have to pay another 1,000¥ to work and sit around being bored and feeling ostracized, but also I had to pay another 1,000¥ for my required bingo card AND Kitsune asked if I could cover her entry fee and bingo card. So that was the equivalent of $50 I had to pay for "volunteer" work, without talking or having any fun. When we could finally join the long tables, I sat with some of the teachers just feeling really down and frustrated and lonely.
The highlight of the evening came though when Serina-sensei and I were making nice designs with the remaining bingo cards, and ended up making a square out of the cards with a single card in the middle. We'd been saying "お好きなの選んで下さい” which means "Please choose the one you like," but we gestured to the one in the middle as a joke that the next person would probably choose the middle one. I was wondering if kyouikuchou would be coming (since he hadn't been at the golf), and actually opened my mouth to ask when he walked in. He paid his entry fee, and I asked him if he would also like to buy a bingo card, and he gave me this long look, gave me the 1,000¥ and picked the card in the middle.
We all played bingo where once you won a bingo card you came up and drew a number, and that number corresponded to a wrapped gift. I won a tissue box and some jerky, but held onto my number because the grand prizes were drawn from the numbers you had drawn. So it was like everyone wins. My numbers were 93 and 105, and the final prize was a roundtrip flight to and from Minami Daito. Which is worth about $350.
Blinks-sensei drew the number, and totally killed everyone with suspense. "It's a three digit number." "The first number is one." "The second number is zero." (You can tell my excitement at this point), "And the last number is.... SEVEN!" much to everyone's groans.
But here's proof that I'm not just a crazy person. The winner was actually kyouikuchou. He came up to the front to receive the prize, and asked kochou-sensei to come forward. He then donated his ticket prize to the school, and went and sat back down. All of us teachers were like "Sugoooii, kyouikuchou!" and I did get a pat on the shoulder as he passed by. But honestly, the guy is always thinking what it means to be a superintendent, and thinking about what the school needs and, extending that to me, what I need. Just freaking awesome.
But yeah, aside from that the evening was kind of tiring and lonely. Then, Kitsune wanted me to come in this morning and help with the spelling bee preparation but I turned her down on the grounds that I hadn't prepared for any of my classes.
Now, she's just pulled me aside and asked me to stay after school and help them prepare for a few hours, which would be fine if I hadn't planned to go to the bank after school because there isn't a red cent in my wallet. Fuck fuck fuck. When I told her my worries about not being prepared for class because of all the unexpected required stuff I had to go to this weekend, she said "That's why we were all so busy last week." Well gee, if I had known about any of this stuff I would have prepared better too.
I'm completely stressed out and totally headed for getting sick again, but I don't feel like I have time to breathe. Every single weekend there is something, and things like drinking with my kyouikuiinkai or washing buckets and buckets of vegetables with Yoseda-san is wonderful and relaxing, but man the school is just barreling along so fast. Normally that's good and keeps me from getting homesick, but lately spending time with the other teachers has been kind of exhausting. I'm tired of not understanding everything, of feeling left out of all the jokes, and having to ask people all the time for help. Everyone knows how much I love being a burden, after all.
The only thing that makes me feel better is that I'm serving essentially as a double teacher, since I'm the only person that teaches both junior high and elementary (and kindergarden) in the school, so at least my stress isn't unreasonable. I don't think. I just want to hit my face into things for awhile.
The first was Friday night's announcement about the budget, which thankfully Takako-sensei let me skip on the premise that I needed to buy dinner (and wouldn't understand a thing said anyway); which turned into an evening out with my kyouikuiinkai, which is never a bad thing.
Then, on Saturday I had to come in and record the correct pronunciation for all the vocabulary for the spelling contest; which, okay, yeah, I can do that. But I recorded for three and a half hours on tapes which turned out to be no good, so my JTE wanted me to redo them.
Okay. Fair enough.
But then, after picking vegetables and settling in for my evening, planning to cook myself dinner, I got a call that I had to go to the story thing, and then to the sanshin and taiko performance after. Okay, well, I wanted to see my students perform, so that's okay. And it was really cool watching it, though there were tons of people I didn't know there.
So, Sunday morning I come in to work to rerecord the tapes, which took me a good two hours, which, okay, yeah, it's something that needs to be done. But then, the golf game was at 12:30, so after some preparation work that I did I had an hour to go home, put my laundry in the washing machine, and eat lunch. I headed over to the grand golf game. It was for charity for the school, so I had to pay 1,000¥.
It was okay fun, and Mio and Yurina were taking care of scoring etc. Though I'm still pretty terrible, I'm getting better. But I was planning to go back to the school in the evening and preparing for class. But then, Kitsune told me I had to go with all the teachers to a dinner and bingo game at 7:00pm. I was stressed but okay, yeah I had time to go home, hang up my laundry maybe, and breathe. The grand golf game ended at 5:00, and then Kitsune told me that she'd been wrong, that the dinner actually started at 5:30pm, and that she'd call me at 5:25 and pick me up. I ran home to hang up my laundry, try to eat some normal food, and maybe change my clothes. But then I got a call at 5:15 that she was waiting for me and actually we had to go in early to take money from people coming in.
So not only did I have to pay another 1,000¥ to work and sit around being bored and feeling ostracized, but also I had to pay another 1,000¥ for my required bingo card AND Kitsune asked if I could cover her entry fee and bingo card. So that was the equivalent of $50 I had to pay for "volunteer" work, without talking or having any fun. When we could finally join the long tables, I sat with some of the teachers just feeling really down and frustrated and lonely.
The highlight of the evening came though when Serina-sensei and I were making nice designs with the remaining bingo cards, and ended up making a square out of the cards with a single card in the middle. We'd been saying "お好きなの選んで下さい” which means "Please choose the one you like," but we gestured to the one in the middle as a joke that the next person would probably choose the middle one. I was wondering if kyouikuchou would be coming (since he hadn't been at the golf), and actually opened my mouth to ask when he walked in. He paid his entry fee, and I asked him if he would also like to buy a bingo card, and he gave me this long look, gave me the 1,000¥ and picked the card in the middle.
We all played bingo where once you won a bingo card you came up and drew a number, and that number corresponded to a wrapped gift. I won a tissue box and some jerky, but held onto my number because the grand prizes were drawn from the numbers you had drawn. So it was like everyone wins. My numbers were 93 and 105, and the final prize was a roundtrip flight to and from Minami Daito. Which is worth about $350.
Blinks-sensei drew the number, and totally killed everyone with suspense. "It's a three digit number." "The first number is one." "The second number is zero." (You can tell my excitement at this point), "And the last number is.... SEVEN!" much to everyone's groans.
But here's proof that I'm not just a crazy person. The winner was actually kyouikuchou. He came up to the front to receive the prize, and asked kochou-sensei to come forward. He then donated his ticket prize to the school, and went and sat back down. All of us teachers were like "Sugoooii, kyouikuchou!" and I did get a pat on the shoulder as he passed by. But honestly, the guy is always thinking what it means to be a superintendent, and thinking about what the school needs and, extending that to me, what I need. Just freaking awesome.
But yeah, aside from that the evening was kind of tiring and lonely. Then, Kitsune wanted me to come in this morning and help with the spelling bee preparation but I turned her down on the grounds that I hadn't prepared for any of my classes.
Now, she's just pulled me aside and asked me to stay after school and help them prepare for a few hours, which would be fine if I hadn't planned to go to the bank after school because there isn't a red cent in my wallet. Fuck fuck fuck. When I told her my worries about not being prepared for class because of all the unexpected required stuff I had to go to this weekend, she said "That's why we were all so busy last week." Well gee, if I had known about any of this stuff I would have prepared better too.
I'm completely stressed out and totally headed for getting sick again, but I don't feel like I have time to breathe. Every single weekend there is something, and things like drinking with my kyouikuiinkai or washing buckets and buckets of vegetables with Yoseda-san is wonderful and relaxing, but man the school is just barreling along so fast. Normally that's good and keeps me from getting homesick, but lately spending time with the other teachers has been kind of exhausting. I'm tired of not understanding everything, of feeling left out of all the jokes, and having to ask people all the time for help. Everyone knows how much I love being a burden, after all.
The only thing that makes me feel better is that I'm serving essentially as a double teacher, since I'm the only person that teaches both junior high and elementary (and kindergarden) in the school, so at least my stress isn't unreasonable. I don't think. I just want to hit my face into things for awhile.