Entry 033: cough cough
So, I'm in the middle if recovering from a cold that hit me hard last week.
Since I returned to work from New Year break, all if my schools have been doing parent observations where the parents watch/participate in their children. They're held during my native English lesson while the Japanese teacher is in a back room talking to parents individually. It kind of causes me a lot of stress most of the time because it throws me off my normal groove with my students and the way I teach. On top of that, the parents are essentially our main customers and they must always be satisfied.
Last week was my third week of observations at a school. This school is very cold (thanks to a weak heater), very small, and the kids seemed to be very sick. By Thursday night I was feeling terribly congested. I felt my first cold of the year hitting me in a way I haven't felt since 2nd year university. Friday morning, I only got worse but I woke up too late to be able to call out of work do I figured I'd suck it up. Also, I got a call from my supervisor about how a Japanese teacher at my school voiced her intention on quitting. So there was a lot on my mind. BUT! It was Friday and payday so whatever!
I greatly regretted working the moment I got home that night. My performance at work was just okay and it was kind of frustrating as well as headache-inducing to have taught four classes till late. I'm pretty sure teaching just made my illness worse.
On Saturday, I had already promised a friend to go to a party we were invited to since December from another friend whom I'll call Ake-chan. I was still feeling not-great and thought of not going. But again, decided to suck it up, haha. I managed to go out and shop for a new outfit just to wear to this party. I got new pants, blouse, jacket, and shoes. I think only my intimates were the only things not new, haha.
That night, I met up with my friend early since this was the first time she's gone to such a place too. It turned out to be someone's apartment at the top of this high-rise apartment building! The party was ¥3,000 all-can-eat/drink hosted by some fancy lawyer dude! Ake-chan, who invited us, was the lawyer's bartender for the party. My friend and I knew absolutely no one at the party except maybe these two girls we saw at an anime bar we went to together. Other than them, the party was essentially meant to mix and mingle anyway. I was so busy trying to keep my coughing fits in, it was hard to talk to some people, aside from my own limited Japanese anyway. But, the food and drinks were enjoyable. A few guys did try talking to me so it was nice. I mostly quite enjoyed watching my friend talking to other people with her awesome Japanese. Did I mention that my friend and I were the only non-Japanese people there. Cause, yeah.
The party was only 2.5 hours so it wasn't that exhausting. My friend and I left the party feeling pretty sure that the lawyer host is most probably connected with the yakuza. So that was interesting. It was weird and awkward but I'd do it again I think.
When we got to the subway to head home, we found one of the guys from the party. He wasn't sure how to get home on the subway and he was definitely drunk. Oh how lucky was the fact that he lives in my city so I accompanied him on the last train to Toyota. He was cute and drunk but I was too sick and sleepy to bother. Also, it was raining and cold so I had other things in mind than to exchange contact info with him.
However, one of the guys I talked to at the party, Koichi, LINE'd me the next morning and we've been chatting throughout this week. At least something interesting came out of going to the party.
Lately, I've been feeling my luck this year hasn't been that great so far. Though my luck seems to be better than most of those around me, it's still been starting very different compared to last year. I started having deep thoughts about what this year might bring on me after a small incident that happened to me today.
This past week, due to covering classes as well as parent observations in a far away school I've never been to before, my eating habits have been terrible. So, today I treated myself to a full lunch in a small restaurant. I got a lunch set that came with katsu, salad, rice, yogurt, and, of course, miso soup. When the waitress came to my table with my tray of food, I tried to help clear my drink and towelette as she placed it down. But then my elbow knocked my soup to spill all over me. My first mental reaction to having had done that was, 'That's never happened to me before'. I've been lucky in my 24 years of life to have had knocked my own food all over myself until that moment. I think that odd shock distracted me from realizing how the soup burned through the leggings I was wearing. I think the waitress was more surprised about that than about the spill itself. I just sat there until the waitress coaxed me to get up and go to the washroom. Luckily all my clothes were rather dark so it wasn't too obvious and I was able to eat as normal when I got back.
Much like how 2013 was a very big year of great first-times for things, I wonder if 2014 will bring lots of other types of firsts as well. I hope they're not terribly bad but my firsts so far haven't been great.
In much better news! It seems that I hit in the lottery process to see tenimyu Shitenhouji musical live-viewing in the Shibuya theater that I selected. I'm so excited!
Well that was a whole bunch of random. Sorry!