A Major Scare

FRIDAY, AUGUST 27

I got to sleep in late because I went to Kogyo and it was most welcome. Once at school, I realised that I still didn't have slippers (a priority this weekend!) and just went in bare socks. In the teachers room I was greeted, shown (again) my desk. I pulled out my laptop to start working, but didn't get much done due to talking with teachers.

As my laptop was booting up, I could see the teachers behind me in the reflection talking about me. I had worn my hair up in hair sticks because, really, it's hot. And I could see them pointing, and looking at my hair behind me. It was odd. I was later asked about the hair style and I mentioned that in America we associate hair sticks with Asian culture and they pretty much told me that they don't wear hair sticks. It is true that I haven't seen ANYONE wearing any.

The school was kind enough to send one of their tech support guys to help me attach my laptop to the school's internet and networks. He fiddled with it (not speaking English, although my laptop is all in English) for about 45 minutes while I chatted with another teacher and tried not to panic. I'm very protective of my laptop and who gets to mess with it.

Some of the steps seemed odd, like asking my favorite web browser and getting welcome screens all over the place. Finally I sit down to get to work, do a little searching and discover that, yes, I can now access the internet, but he has set up a second user on my laptop “Magdalene” next to my normal user profile “Magda.” This made no sense to me (but did explain why it felt we were setting up EVERYTHING for the first time. I contacted Lonn, who was online and he agreed and said when I got home, we'd straighten a few things out.

Kogyo had told me I'd be working until 12, but the computer set-up meant that I didn't even start working until 12. So I put in an hour and after a teacher came by to tell me I was free, but I was welcome to work longer, I put in another 10 minutes then packed up my stuff. I wanted to do laundry, and get my laptop settings all figured out. There was no reason I had to do this in the unaircondtioned school on a Friday afternoon. Apparently they have an electricity budget so because of the shop and tech stuff, they sometimes are told to turn off the air conditioning in the teacher's room. Given that it's 90+ degrees and summer break, I don't quite understand.

I got my bike from the side of the school and biked out saying “goodbye” to the boys poking their heads out windows (“eigo sensei” or 'English Teacher') is now a phrase I recognize quite easily) and the boys wearing what looked to be black speedos spraying each other in the parking lot with hoses. I don't know. (Also, it was once again reiterated to me that the boys are going to be so excited to have me.)

Back at home, I rush in, plug in my computer and discover that the new settings mean that I can't access the internet at ALL! I go in and try to figure out what's wrong. I can see that I'm connected but nothing about why it won't work. Instant messenger is also not working, so I can't access Lonn. By this piont, I'm stressed out and ready to cry. After freaking out for a while, I open Skype and discover that, for some reason, it IS working. I place a phone call to Lonn, who picks up and hears “Oh thank GOD!” before his cell phone drops the call. It was enough, though.

Lonn popped online, remote accessed my lap top (which means that through the internet, he can see my screen and move my mouse and basically use my laptop and mess with it from thousands of miles away. While I sit there and watch the mouse click around. It's freaky and awesome!) and got everything fixed. While he was messing with stuff, he also set up my fingerprint reader, which means that when I want to log into certain websites, like my e-mail, or even my account, I can just swipe my finger and it lets me in instead of having to type my (ridiculously long) passwords. I feel like a secret agent.

By this point, I was doing much better. I set about cleaning the apartment for the weekend, as hair-ball bunnies had started drifting across my kitchen floor. I also started organizing stuff for laundry. Luckily, I didn't start it.

I took a brief nap, as I had a headache and woke up to my mobile ringing. It was an English teacher from Kogyo calling. I admit, I am not quite sure what the call was about. He didn't speak in complete sentences. More... phrases and catch words. I understood: personal computer, at school, not yours, use, etc. In various orders. Not quite sure what he was getting at, I explained that the computer I'd had at school was mine, and that it was my only computer, so I brought it home with me. My best guess is that my laptop wasn't on my desk and they were worried about it, having assumed that it would live at school: not the case! But, I'm really not sure. He apologized, said it was his fault, and hung up before I actually had any idea what was going on.

I got a second phone call as well! This one was from city office. The speaker was asking for me, as I understood my first and last name, and I replied in turn that I was she. But the speaker, despite working in the Alien registration office of the city office spoke no English. Like, not a word. My Japanese was better, which, for any of you who have heard my Japanese, is frightening. That failed miserably and eventually there was some muffled talking and after a good four minutes, the phone was turned over to a woman who spoke Japanese and Portuguese and a few words of English. This worked much better, but anything would have been an improvement. Luckily, I had an idea about what they must be calling and could fill in key words in English. “Gaijin cardo?”

The basic understanding I got was that my alien registration card can be picked up between September 7 and September 13. I know Elizabeth has already picked hers up, so that's a bit odd, but she also said that her card had my picture, so perhaps they had to redo them both. Regardless, when I'm back at Koko on Tuesday, I'll mention it and someone will probably call and confirm my details.

What made this call extra fun was that there was an absolute tumultuous downpour that started and ended during this call. I would have been in serious trouble had my laundry been outside.

But, regardless, after these two phone calls, I pretty much wanted to unplug and throw out my phones and tell people they could either write me or talk to me in person.

I made pancakes for dinner, which were tasty. But, horrifyingly, I had to stir the peanut butter before working with it, because the oil had separated out. This is not natural peanut butter. This is Skippy. The peanut butter is melted in the jar.

By this point, I still had a headache, so I took a bath (which ended up being longer because I was tired and distracted by making bubbles with the face cloth) and went to bed.