Mel is pissed.
Hello. Welcome to my angry rant.
So I was scheduled to go to Kanita JH today.
The town of Kanita is about a half hour away from my house, so the days I go to the JH or elementary there, I have to take the bus, which leaves at 8:24(ish) from a stop near my house. This means that, unlike my days in Tairadate, where my day starts at 7:55, I begin work at 9:25 in Kanita and don't finish until 4:45. Already, I spend 20 minutes sitting around every morning doing nothing because the guy who makes the class schedule in the JH isn't bright enough to schedule NO ENGLISH CLASS FIRST PERIOD BECAUSE I CAN'T BE THERE.
So it's no secret that I don't get there in the morning at the same time everyone else does.
Apparently, it's just really easy to forget.
Today was a special day--the whole school was going on a field trip to Aomori city to see some musical...or something musical (like many things, it was not properly explained to me). Earlier this week, He-sensei said there would be no classes for this reason. "Ok," I said, assuming, of course, that since the ENTIRE SCHOOL was going, I would be, too.
It was on the bus this morning that I had my first fleeting thought that perhaps they had left earlier than I would be able to arrive. Surely not. Certainly they wouldn't leave behind the foreigner. He-sensei would have said something, and he knew quite well that 9 was the earliest I could get there. And of course they would never have scheduled me to go to Kanita on a day I would be left sitting in the office alone for hours on end while everyone else was on a field trip. That could simply not be so.
Well guess what, optimism?
I sure did get there at 9, wait around till 9:30, and then ask the ONE lone guy sitting in the office if everyone had left. "Yes. They left at 8..." His eyes then flickered about the empty office, as though this were the first time it had occurred to him over the half hour we'd been sitting in silence alone in the school that I had nothing to do, and something had gone terribly awry. Through my broken Japanese, barely contained through my severe annoyance, we came to understand that I had, indeed, been left behind.
Man (clearly I don't know the guy's name): "...What will you do today?"
Me: "Hmmm...yea, I dunno."
Me *inner thought*: I WILL SEND MEGA DEATH RAYS OF DOOM TO AOMORI CITY TO STRIKE DOWN THE IDIOT WHO LEFT ME HERE!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Japanese people don't like to see the American angry. Perhaps because of the reserved nature of the Japanese spirit. Perhaps because, so far, I've put forth great effort to be a smiley gaijin in the face of inconvenience, and seeing me frown after weeks of not creates an unhappy disturbance in the Force. Or perhaps because most Japanese are convinced every American has a gun. I don't know. But the solitary man left behind at Kanita JH looked increasingly nervous as our conversation went along, although my nasty glances were not cast at him, but at the empty desk of He-sensei.
They left. Everyone left, and here I am still in Kanita with nothing to do for the day. I called up one of the women in the main office and had her bring me there so I would have a better working computer for 7 hours--everyone is scheduled to come back at 4, and I'm not sure if I can keep myself from ripping He-sensei's head off when I see him then.
I'm so pissed off right now. No one told me ahead of time in English or Japanese. No one called me this morning to see what I was doing. No one even reminded me yesterday that today is a special day. Oh, and no one told me to make myself a box lunch, because there's no school lunch provided today like there usually is. I was lucky to have one of the women in the office offer to take me out this afternoon. Otherwise, I'd be left with no food. Yea.
I've got half a mind just to walk home screaming. >:O
Let's just say my supervisor is damn lucky he's off today.
So I was scheduled to go to Kanita JH today.
The town of Kanita is about a half hour away from my house, so the days I go to the JH or elementary there, I have to take the bus, which leaves at 8:24(ish) from a stop near my house. This means that, unlike my days in Tairadate, where my day starts at 7:55, I begin work at 9:25 in Kanita and don't finish until 4:45. Already, I spend 20 minutes sitting around every morning doing nothing because the guy who makes the class schedule in the JH isn't bright enough to schedule NO ENGLISH CLASS FIRST PERIOD BECAUSE I CAN'T BE THERE.
So it's no secret that I don't get there in the morning at the same time everyone else does.
Apparently, it's just really easy to forget.
Today was a special day--the whole school was going on a field trip to Aomori city to see some musical...or something musical (like many things, it was not properly explained to me). Earlier this week, He-sensei said there would be no classes for this reason. "Ok," I said, assuming, of course, that since the ENTIRE SCHOOL was going, I would be, too.
It was on the bus this morning that I had my first fleeting thought that perhaps they had left earlier than I would be able to arrive. Surely not. Certainly they wouldn't leave behind the foreigner. He-sensei would have said something, and he knew quite well that 9 was the earliest I could get there. And of course they would never have scheduled me to go to Kanita on a day I would be left sitting in the office alone for hours on end while everyone else was on a field trip. That could simply not be so.
Well guess what, optimism?
I sure did get there at 9, wait around till 9:30, and then ask the ONE lone guy sitting in the office if everyone had left. "Yes. They left at 8..." His eyes then flickered about the empty office, as though this were the first time it had occurred to him over the half hour we'd been sitting in silence alone in the school that I had nothing to do, and something had gone terribly awry. Through my broken Japanese, barely contained through my severe annoyance, we came to understand that I had, indeed, been left behind.
Man (clearly I don't know the guy's name): "...What will you do today?"
Me: "Hmmm...yea, I dunno."
Me *inner thought*: I WILL SEND MEGA DEATH RAYS OF DOOM TO AOMORI CITY TO STRIKE DOWN THE IDIOT WHO LEFT ME HERE!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Japanese people don't like to see the American angry. Perhaps because of the reserved nature of the Japanese spirit. Perhaps because, so far, I've put forth great effort to be a smiley gaijin in the face of inconvenience, and seeing me frown after weeks of not creates an unhappy disturbance in the Force. Or perhaps because most Japanese are convinced every American has a gun. I don't know. But the solitary man left behind at Kanita JH looked increasingly nervous as our conversation went along, although my nasty glances were not cast at him, but at the empty desk of He-sensei.
They left. Everyone left, and here I am still in Kanita with nothing to do for the day. I called up one of the women in the main office and had her bring me there so I would have a better working computer for 7 hours--everyone is scheduled to come back at 4, and I'm not sure if I can keep myself from ripping He-sensei's head off when I see him then.
I'm so pissed off right now. No one told me ahead of time in English or Japanese. No one called me this morning to see what I was doing. No one even reminded me yesterday that today is a special day. Oh, and no one told me to make myself a box lunch, because there's no school lunch provided today like there usually is. I was lucky to have one of the women in the office offer to take me out this afternoon. Otherwise, I'd be left with no food. Yea.
I've got half a mind just to walk home screaming. >:O
Let's just say my supervisor is damn lucky he's off today.