2 weeks in
So, another week has gone by since I last updated. Time sure has been flying.
As I suspected, work is keeping me quite busy. It's not hard, but the days are quite long and somewhat tiring. I won't get into it too much, as this isn't a blog about my employer... That being said, I'll say this: I usually teach 8 classes a day at 40 minutes each plus I get 40 minutes for lunch. There's either 10 or 15 minutes between classes (meaning I actually get about an hour for lunch if I play my cards right.) Classes consist of 1 to 4 students of various levels of fluency from unintelligible to native speaker. The lessons are more-or-less pre-made and there's no homework to be checked so the office never follows me home. I haven't been trained to work with kids yet, so all my students for the time being are over the age of 16 (and some I suspect are, shall we say... up there in years.) I can't say there is a "typical" student, every one is different, and comes for different reasons. The teaching staff is also quite diverse. For example there are Australian, English, and Irish teachers in my school. In summary, I am really enjoying my job. I suppose by not knowing what I was getting into, there weren't any expectations to be lived up to.
Sunday night I went out with people from my office. It was a combination welcome/going away party for the old people leaving and the new people (like me) coming in. We went to a nice Thai place near our branch and did "nomi-hodai" (all you can drink) and dined on some descent Thai food. It was a great chance to sit and chat with people from work in a different setting (although the break room at work is fairly relaxed when it comes to chatter.) After an untold number of beers I somehow made it home, managing not to fall asleep on the train back. (Thankfully Mondays are 1/2 days for me, and I don't start until later in the day.)
Yesterday (Wednesday) was my first day off after my first full week of work. I had run out of the yen I brought with me so I started my day off going to the bank to exchange my traveler's checks. I had forgotten how much of a trip Japanese banks can be. ANYTHING you want to do will require filling out at least 1 form, taking a number, and a few minutes wait. Having exchanged my entire life savings into yen and putting it in my pocket, I headed for Yokohama to seek out a cell phone shop where you can do the sign up process in English. It took a while, but I managed to get my phone without much hassle at all. The woman who was helping me spoke really good English and it turned out she used to live near where I do and had attended the Fujisawa branch of my company a few years ago. After a quick lunch I popped into the Yokohama store of my favorite chain of electronics stores to see if they had a wireless router the store in my area didn't. (It turns out they did have it.) I rested a while after getting home before going out to dinner with one of my flat-mates and his parents (who happen to be in town.) We had a good meal at a "yaki-niku" (grilled meat) place where we got to cook our own dinner over live coals. After dinner it was off to a bar called "Free Culture" for a lively evening of chatting with what seemed like the foreign population of Fujisawa and the surrounding area. It was going well until the cops showed up and made everyone clear off of the porch area and go inside. The party carried on, just on a little closer level than I really like.
The last time I was in Japan, being for study of the Japanese language, I tended to avoid hanging out exclusively with other foreigners. This time I find many of my co-workers don't speak Japanese and only really hang out in the foreign community. I won't say I feel sorry for them, but I can't help thinking that that seems wrong on some level. I enjoy the company of people who speak my language as much as the next man, but if you're going to hand out exclusively with your countrymen, why leave home? *end rant*
Today I relaxed and chilled out around the house. My biggest accomplishment being that I got my laundry done. I also set up the router I bought yesterday, so now I finally have a stable internet connection (no more leaching for me.)
It's heading towards the time I should start thinking about bed so I'll sign off for tonight. Again, it may be a while before I post as I face another full week of work starting tomorrow. I'm thinking of writing of some... "filler" posts to put up during the week, but we'll see what time allows. Anyways, until next time:
Jaa Mata Ne!
As I suspected, work is keeping me quite busy. It's not hard, but the days are quite long and somewhat tiring. I won't get into it too much, as this isn't a blog about my employer... That being said, I'll say this: I usually teach 8 classes a day at 40 minutes each plus I get 40 minutes for lunch. There's either 10 or 15 minutes between classes (meaning I actually get about an hour for lunch if I play my cards right.) Classes consist of 1 to 4 students of various levels of fluency from unintelligible to native speaker. The lessons are more-or-less pre-made and there's no homework to be checked so the office never follows me home. I haven't been trained to work with kids yet, so all my students for the time being are over the age of 16 (and some I suspect are, shall we say... up there in years.) I can't say there is a "typical" student, every one is different, and comes for different reasons. The teaching staff is also quite diverse. For example there are Australian, English, and Irish teachers in my school. In summary, I am really enjoying my job. I suppose by not knowing what I was getting into, there weren't any expectations to be lived up to.
Sunday night I went out with people from my office. It was a combination welcome/going away party for the old people leaving and the new people (like me) coming in. We went to a nice Thai place near our branch and did "nomi-hodai" (all you can drink) and dined on some descent Thai food. It was a great chance to sit and chat with people from work in a different setting (although the break room at work is fairly relaxed when it comes to chatter.) After an untold number of beers I somehow made it home, managing not to fall asleep on the train back. (Thankfully Mondays are 1/2 days for me, and I don't start until later in the day.)
Yesterday (Wednesday) was my first day off after my first full week of work. I had run out of the yen I brought with me so I started my day off going to the bank to exchange my traveler's checks. I had forgotten how much of a trip Japanese banks can be. ANYTHING you want to do will require filling out at least 1 form, taking a number, and a few minutes wait. Having exchanged my entire life savings into yen and putting it in my pocket, I headed for Yokohama to seek out a cell phone shop where you can do the sign up process in English. It took a while, but I managed to get my phone without much hassle at all. The woman who was helping me spoke really good English and it turned out she used to live near where I do and had attended the Fujisawa branch of my company a few years ago. After a quick lunch I popped into the Yokohama store of my favorite chain of electronics stores to see if they had a wireless router the store in my area didn't. (It turns out they did have it.) I rested a while after getting home before going out to dinner with one of my flat-mates and his parents (who happen to be in town.) We had a good meal at a "yaki-niku" (grilled meat) place where we got to cook our own dinner over live coals. After dinner it was off to a bar called "Free Culture" for a lively evening of chatting with what seemed like the foreign population of Fujisawa and the surrounding area. It was going well until the cops showed up and made everyone clear off of the porch area and go inside. The party carried on, just on a little closer level than I really like.
The last time I was in Japan, being for study of the Japanese language, I tended to avoid hanging out exclusively with other foreigners. This time I find many of my co-workers don't speak Japanese and only really hang out in the foreign community. I won't say I feel sorry for them, but I can't help thinking that that seems wrong on some level. I enjoy the company of people who speak my language as much as the next man, but if you're going to hand out exclusively with your countrymen, why leave home? *end rant*
Today I relaxed and chilled out around the house. My biggest accomplishment being that I got my laundry done. I also set up the router I bought yesterday, so now I finally have a stable internet connection (no more leaching for me.)
It's heading towards the time I should start thinking about bed so I'll sign off for tonight. Again, it may be a while before I post as I face another full week of work starting tomorrow. I'm thinking of writing of some... "filler" posts to put up during the week, but we'll see what time allows. Anyways, until next time:
Jaa Mata Ne!
posted by Dockett @ 10:14 AM
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