Training
Well, I had my first day of training that was preempted by a minor freak out. The plane tickets that were supposed to get me home no longer existed and I kind of had a mini-meltdown. My graduation is postponed, therefore I cannot change visas until May, I'm not going to be able to go home regardless, I have a cold, I'm going to get fired from my job before I even begin it, I'm not going to make it in time, et cetera, et cetera.
I emailed Skye a bit on my phone to try to let her know the situation, but it only made me increasingly more annoyed at the text word limits and how little I was actually able to say to her. It's so much nicer with Japanese cell phones and their 1000 character limit.
I managed to get to work on time. (Early, actually) but I found out that I have to leave the house on the 11:15am bus to get to Soen station for 11:50ish and then catch a train to Sapporo and then the train to Oasa. Even though today was my first day of the commute, I'm excited to move closer to there. -__-;
I got there and talked with Greg, the teacher that I'm replacing. I guess I should explain a bit about the school. There is a staff of four teachers, two Japanese and two 'foreign', although one is half, I think. He's the one that looks like Orlando Bloom. To my delight, I found out that I'm actually older than him by three months, lol. He's nice and I really like him. The guy I'm replacing is from Montreal but has the most bizarre accent I have ever heard from a Canadian. Granted....he's Quebecois, he said that his French wasn't that good. I dunno. He is leaving the school to open up his own cafe / English school sometime in the near future. More power to him. And then there's the Principal lady who's pretty nice.
When I had to explain about the issue with my graduation getting postponed to May and the potential issues about the visa, she frowned and asked about my work permission as a ryuugakusei. I showed it to her and she was like, "well, you can work eight hours a day as an arubaito... いいんじゃない？" so she said that I could work the job as a part time job until the visa went through officially and then I could be employed full time. I honestly was super worked up and worried about it, but it turned out alright. I guess I kind of worked myself up thinking of only the worst case scenarios.
The first class I sat in on was a class with older ladies. It was an hour and a half long. The teacher I'm replacing, G-san, complimented me up the wazoo afterward. He told me that I was free to speak in the class, but since I was technically only observing, he was surprised by how much I actually talked. And the Principal S-san told me that she spoke with the ladies and they said that I was really easy to understand and that they are looking forward to working with me in the future. I guess that is kind of a confidence booster. G-san said that I had a really good demeanor with the ladies and that I was good with 'reading the students' to see whether they actually understood or not.
After that I took promotional pictures with everyone and then went with Orlando...I mean I-san, to discuss some stuff about school policies and that kind of stuff. After that, I participated in a Mom and Baby class. The babies were two years old...but they were really adorable. I must say, though, Hina is cuter. XD; That class was pretty fun. After, I was kind of exhausted and reeling, but I went with G-san to his elementary student's class, but I wasn't of much help there, so I snuck out half-way through and talked with S-san who told me that I could go home. So home I went!
I stopped in Sapporo and eyed all the chocolates, and decided to buy myself some. XD; I got some from Narumi, but I always wanted one of those big ones, so I bought it for myself. ^__^ These next two weeks are going to be kind of tough, but I managed to buy a plane ticket home! *cheers* Unfortunately, the only dates that I could buy it were for March 1st- March 30th. So while I'm excited to be home for a whole month, jet-leg is going to kick my butt on the way home. Narumi expressed concern as she said that I always feel kind of sick when I get home from a trip. Granted, when I came from America last April I had caught a cold, so that was kind of different, but maybe this time I'll travel with a *shudder* mask. We'll see. I am going to see if they let me start work from the second week of April, since it's impossible for me to start on a Friday after having got back from America the previous day.
Well, I want to proof read a bit more of Michelle's book before I go to bed. Night!
I emailed Skye a bit on my phone to try to let her know the situation, but it only made me increasingly more annoyed at the text word limits and how little I was actually able to say to her. It's so much nicer with Japanese cell phones and their 1000 character limit.
I managed to get to work on time. (Early, actually) but I found out that I have to leave the house on the 11:15am bus to get to Soen station for 11:50ish and then catch a train to Sapporo and then the train to Oasa. Even though today was my first day of the commute, I'm excited to move closer to there. -__-;
I got there and talked with Greg, the teacher that I'm replacing. I guess I should explain a bit about the school. There is a staff of four teachers, two Japanese and two 'foreign', although one is half, I think. He's the one that looks like Orlando Bloom. To my delight, I found out that I'm actually older than him by three months, lol. He's nice and I really like him. The guy I'm replacing is from Montreal but has the most bizarre accent I have ever heard from a Canadian. Granted....he's Quebecois, he said that his French wasn't that good. I dunno. He is leaving the school to open up his own cafe / English school sometime in the near future. More power to him. And then there's the Principal lady who's pretty nice.
When I had to explain about the issue with my graduation getting postponed to May and the potential issues about the visa, she frowned and asked about my work permission as a ryuugakusei. I showed it to her and she was like, "well, you can work eight hours a day as an arubaito... いいんじゃない？" so she said that I could work the job as a part time job until the visa went through officially and then I could be employed full time. I honestly was super worked up and worried about it, but it turned out alright. I guess I kind of worked myself up thinking of only the worst case scenarios.
The first class I sat in on was a class with older ladies. It was an hour and a half long. The teacher I'm replacing, G-san, complimented me up the wazoo afterward. He told me that I was free to speak in the class, but since I was technically only observing, he was surprised by how much I actually talked. And the Principal S-san told me that she spoke with the ladies and they said that I was really easy to understand and that they are looking forward to working with me in the future. I guess that is kind of a confidence booster. G-san said that I had a really good demeanor with the ladies and that I was good with 'reading the students' to see whether they actually understood or not.
After that I took promotional pictures with everyone and then went with Orlando...I mean I-san, to discuss some stuff about school policies and that kind of stuff. After that, I participated in a Mom and Baby class. The babies were two years old...but they were really adorable. I must say, though, Hina is cuter. XD; That class was pretty fun. After, I was kind of exhausted and reeling, but I went with G-san to his elementary student's class, but I wasn't of much help there, so I snuck out half-way through and talked with S-san who told me that I could go home. So home I went!
I stopped in Sapporo and eyed all the chocolates, and decided to buy myself some. XD; I got some from Narumi, but I always wanted one of those big ones, so I bought it for myself. ^__^ These next two weeks are going to be kind of tough, but I managed to buy a plane ticket home! *cheers* Unfortunately, the only dates that I could buy it were for March 1st- March 30th. So while I'm excited to be home for a whole month, jet-leg is going to kick my butt on the way home. Narumi expressed concern as she said that I always feel kind of sick when I get home from a trip. Granted, when I came from America last April I had caught a cold, so that was kind of different, but maybe this time I'll travel with a *shudder* mask. We'll see. I am going to see if they let me start work from the second week of April, since it's impossible for me to start on a Friday after having got back from America the previous day.
Well, I want to proof read a bit more of Michelle's book before I go to bed. Night!