Furniture makes it Official

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14

Alarm went off just as planned. I was dreaming of singing or some such and it cut off abruptly when the alarm went off. It left me with the same jarred feeling I have when I close a song in MediaMonkey in the middle. It just... grates.

I needed to wash my hair, but was exhausted last night with the adventures of the past few days piling down on me, so I had to rush to do that before work today. Especially rush, as I snoozed my alarm and probably shouldn't have. I need to figure out what switch I need to flip for winter water heating, because I have the water as hot as it'll go and it takes AGES to get any water in the tub and the water pressure is almost non-existent from the shower-head. It makes it hard to wash my hair. It wasn't fully dry by the time I had to leave, so I put it up in a bun where the dampness wouldn't be so obvious.

At work the teacher's meeting ran long and I still have no idea what was going on, but I had two papers on my desk, all in kanji that everyone else was reading very seriously. I listened quietly and cluelessly and read over my lesson plan for the day on my computer. After all, I have a first hour class to prepare for.

Sheila had read over my lesson plan and said it was “good,” which I have begun not to entirely trust. We didn't really have time, though, to change anything, so I suppose it's good that she didn't say she hated it and I had better come up with a new one in five minutes. We rushed off to photocopy papers. My giant Mario, by being laminated, won't hold magnets (which breaks my heart, based on how long I worked on him!) so she photocopied him and we used a black and white version on the board. The students didn't seem to mind.

They were rather quick, however, to point out that Mario's foot, the barefoot one I added, is backwards. Huh.... I'd NEVER noticed, and NONE of the many teachers I'd showed it to had said anything. But students.... they noticed instantly. Sometimes they're too smart for their own good.

The students were so good today that they were bad! They switched into new classes after the exams, so this is their first week in those classes. And they're shy. They're well-behaved, but I can't get them to SAY anything! No enthusiasm. They just sit there. Even Mario with his various casts couldn't excite them. It broke my heart and spirit. I hope they'll mellow out and we'll be back to our usually scheduled rowdy program in no time. And, really, they were well-behaved. They were quiet, they seemed to listen. They weren't bounding around the classroom. I'll probably miss this control in a few weeks' time. But right now... I miss my playful boys.

I spent a good deal of class acting out various injuries (stabbed hand, stubbed toe, twisted ankle, stomach ache, hurt eye, etc., all to dull reactions. Perhaps I find myself more amusing than my students. Perhaps they just have no idea what to make of me.

If I leave here at a decent time, which I should, I'll try to run to the store and get that taken care of. Someone arrange for delivery. I just need to take final measurements and make sure that it'll fit. I also should try to pick up a yukata obi, before they go out of season. I may even buy an obi-jime (chord that goes around the obi) to match it. We'll see how I'm feeling and what's available.

If I understood correctly, I'll be buying a yukata, obi, and zori through the school for about 4,000 yen, which is a fantastic deal, as these obi themselves can be about 2,500. So, I'll possibly have TWO yukata within the month! I think I'll try to make that one green, although I don't know how much choice I'll have. Just so long as they're not both pink.

Because we spent the first part of class reviewing the exam, we only got through the first part of my Injuries lesson. So, I spent my lunch hour adapting the second part into a separate lesson, so that I can bump the Koko-inspired music lesson to the week AFTER next. That'd be nice. There's still some work to do on the Sickness one. For one, I think I need a BIT more material to fill the time. But who can say? I'm so terrible at judging how long stuff will take!

I finished my last two classes of the day. I have one boy in one class who is really loud, very eager to answer questions and a bit of a class clown. He's always playing with me and throwing mock fits if I don't call on him. Yes, he can be troublesome, but it does make class so much more fun. And it's really, really good to always have SOMEONE I can call on.

When I hand back exams, I actually called names. Some classes were better than others, but often they just started giggling. As Sheila explained later, they're not used to hearing someone foreign say their names. It sounds pleasantly odd to them. It's amusing. So, I'll be doing that again in the future. I had one student in pretty much every class who wrote their name in kanji, so I just listed off last names and called out “Kanji” when I got to that one. They were sitting in order, so the students knew it was them.

I left at 5 and Sheila commented on how late I'd been working recently, in the kind of way that hinted that I shouldn't feel obligated to stay so long. I told her about how late I work at Koko sometimes. I had a nice chat with her about my kimono lessons and all my different schools. She seemed quite sympathetic about juggling all those different schedules and schools. That's the kind of conversation I've just never managed to have with Nishi teachers.

I biked home determined to be productive if it killed me. I found an envelope for my letter to the Green Bay Packers and got that addressed, then headed out to the Recycle Shop. There, I found the shelving thing I'd eyed up last time I was there. But, there was a big sign on it in kanji. Nothing else had that sign, so it looked like someone else had claimed it or something. I was disappointed and kept walking around to see if there was something else that might work instead. I did find a really nice wooden thing that would work, but it was too big for the space by about a foot. I also found an $8 thing that could double as maybe a bookshelf but also has some shelving and drawers. It's a bit scratched up, but it's $8 and I need to keep stuff off the floor.

I was looking around when a staff member came upstairs. So, I grabbed him, pointed to the kanji and asked about it. It was hard, given my lack of Japanese and his lack of English and the fact that, while I'm still not quite positive what the sign meant, it didn't mean what I was asking about. Eventually there were three sales people upstairs with me all working on sorting out the details. Delivery would be $10 to my door on Saturday, which is fine. I spent a long time asking, but eventually learned delivery was a flat $10, so I threw in the $8 shelving/book thing as well. After all, I need to get stuff off the floor. My current Paris pantry will have to be moved. It'll either become a winter clothes cupboard in my front entryway (with hats, gloves, scarves, etc.) or will hold a few books and school supplies in the library. We'll see what I need most. I did eye up the bookshelves and got close on one before I realised it was poorly made and the shelves were all tilted in a way that would bother me. I'll check back in a few weeks and maybe there'll be something else. We'll see how much and what I need.

From there, I went to the post office, and mailed my letter to the Packers. We'll see what free stuff they might offer to send. Hopefully something!

Then, I went home, gathered up my yukata and a quick shopping list. I first went and bough another glass canister for my brown sugar. Then went to the kimono store and asked about yukata obi. They had some, but really, really expensive (like $80!) and didn't quite match as I'd hoped. So, I held off, but thanked the kind Japanese women profusely. She kept speaking Japanese to me no matter how much I told her I didn't understand it, but I think she was telling me that yukata are out of season. I may have to wait until spring. It makes me sad.

I then grabbed a few necessary groceries and headed back home. I made dinner and once again am lamenting that butter is so expensive here. The margarine, though, is terrible, so I may just have to suck it up and throw that much money away to get good tasting butter.

I did some dishes and now, it's bedtime. I don't teach tomorrow. I just need to show up, be awake, and do something productive. I plan to decorate.