Can you afford it?
Page: 5/5
Money Comes and Money Goes
... where does it go?
Today I stimulated Japan's economy... well, as best as I could on a foreigner assistant language teacher's salary. Funny thing is that I didn't mean to. This afternoon I got out of school early (more on that in a bit), so I decided to hit the department store in downtown Takahashi (the one of the two that's further away) to soak up some holiday cheer. My cellphone with my shopping list stored inside died on my way there, so I had to scramble to try to remember what I was going to buy. I knew there were at least 3 things I needed, but I could only remember two of them. My plan then became to walk around aimlessly and try to see if anything jogged my memory.
Oh wait... bad plan...
Instead of remembering what I was SUPPOSED to be buying, I kinda just suckered myself into buying everything ELSE that I either did or did not need.
Laundry wheel... did need
Pants hanger... didn't need
Japanese Christmas cards... did need
Ceramic mug... didn't need
Large bowl... did need
Large plate... didn't need
Bottle of Coke... did need
Tiramisu... didn't need
Notebook to write new kanji in... did need
To-LoveRU Manga Volume 11... didn't need (but in my defense, it was only 400 yen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
and last item... some kind of cow statue. There was a whole entire display of cow figurines set up in the omiyage shop with "2009" written all over them. I'm assuming 2009 is like "the Year of the Cow" in the Chinese calendar or something? Does that sound right? Is there even a cow in the Chinese Zodiac? Anyway, this is my gift for the Secret-Santa thing I'm doing for the bonenkai (end-of-the-year party) with the teachers at the junior high school. I haven't heard anything about any parties with the elementary school teachers, but knowing them, I'll be given the details the night before we're scheduled to have it (if you can't tell, I'm still bitter about the "oh, the school field trip is tomorrow, please join us" message I was given in October... after it was too late to change the plans I had already made for that day).
So yeah, even though I'm in Japan, the Christmas spirit is still around me. Well, the part of the spirit that really pushes you to buy stuff. Bright, twinkling lights... "Merry Christmas" signs... holiday muzac... staffers dressed in red, white, and green. I'm still puzzled about what to do about my holiday shopping for those back in the US. There is plenty of cool stuff to buy here, but shipping costs are ridiculous. I think I'm going to stick with cards for this year and then give everyone IOUs for the nicer knick-knacks when I eventually go home.
Let's get back to discussing my school life. Today was officially the most boring day at the junior high school. Why? Because this is the first day of mid-terms, which means no classes. Oh well, on the bright-side, the day ended at noon... well, for the students. Teachers had to stay until 3:30pm minimum (though I was let out at 3pm since there really was NOTHING for me to do), and since everyone was busy correcting papers, I had to sit and twiddle my thumbs. I'm just extremely lucky that A-sensei just happened to mention this thing about the exams during yesterday's (yes, Sunday's... that's how dedicated I am, haha) speech contest practice. I brought my laptop to work on the Kyoto and Osaka photos during the schoolday (that article will be coming eventually).
And speaking of the speech contest preparations, even though I had no classes to teach today, I still got to see my students who were in the contest. Well, two of the five, at least. Their "performances" are coming along quite well. I don't want to jinx myself (or them!), but I do have confidence that they will finish quite well in this coming Friday's competition. And even if they don't, I can still be proud of them for doing so well... even if they ARE still stumbling on the word "really." Argh... and it's the second word in the whole speech!!! The judges are instantly going to be like "ugh, this girl fails.... NEXT!" O___O
I also found out something very interesting in speaking with A-sensei today: apparently there are two speech contests in this area. There is the citywide contest which is just 3 representatives (or pairs) from each of the schools in our district. This is a one-level, winner-gets-a-trophy, contest... the one we're registered in. But there's also a prefectual contest also scheduled in December. I was a little disappointed to hear that A-sensei hadn't registered our students for this one, since this is the one that sends the winner to Tokyo for the national competition. He told me that he didn't have the confidence in our students to compete well.
I'm a little ashamed of him for thinking in such a way... or in the very least, a little hurt that he didn't ask for my opinion, or even moreso, the students themselves. If the students wanted to try, I would definitely be up for encouraging them from beginning to end. Or in the converse, I would totally be up for encouraging them to try if they are a little reluctant. A-sensei apologized to me for not seeking my guidance and promised me that we'll try our hardest for next year. Hey, if anything this is good news to me to know that my position has a bit of job-security built into it, haha.
In related xeno-sensei-loves-showing-his-support-for-the-students new, I found out that the students were having their home economics mid-term today. I was all pumped up at the idea of cooking with the students... I mean, I did have the whole day free afterall. However, when I got the details, I found out that the exam they were taking was the written-exam. Uguu~ oh well, A-sensei knows I'm interested now and says he will ask the home-ec teacher about letting me sit on a few classes. I could probably ask her myself since we got slightly closer during the class trip... and when I say "slightly"... I mean we said about 5 words to eachother, which means we went from being 1% acquaintances to 2% acquaintances.
So yeah, hopefully that will happen soon. I can't wait to blog about that adventure, heehee. Speaking of blogging... a few updates to announce:
1) the title of this serial has OFFICIALLY been changed from "xeno in Japanland" to "GTX: Great Teacher Xeno." I never did like the original title and I wasn't sure if editing the name would affect any of my entries. Luckily the transition was seamless... "Cuteness-sama's in Her Heaven; All is Right with the World."
2) there IS a table of contents coming soon, so for those of you who are new to this blog, you'll be able to catch up on the full story in a bit. And for those who HAVE been loyal-readers since Day One (thank you, BTW), you'll be able to browse back and recall some of the wackier moments. I know I'll look forward to picking out random entries and seeing how my views on the schools and the students were back when I was still a noob. Website Lead Coder Frundock will be tweeking the blog module later this week to prettify our that new feature. And for those of you who are curious, this marks the 82nd entry in this serial.
3) a slow-down in content production will be coming soon. I will be on vacation starting December 20th and ending on January 9th. For three weeks, there won't be any tales of moe, but I'll still see what I can do about discussing my life in Japan... albeit not daily... maybe once a week during that gap. Yes, it will be painful for me, too. I already have plans to have my body cryogenically-frozen so I don't have to endure the pain of being away from the crazy antics of my 217 little brothers and sisters... and my one daughter, haha.
4) Upcoming Projects & Events
- December 12: JHS Speech Contest
- December 22: JHS Bonenkai
- December 31: New Year's Eve in Japan
- random daytrips to local cities
- and don't forget, every year we hold the Favorite Anime Series of the Year Survey!!!! Watch for that around mid-January.
That's all for now! Be sure to check the blog-section of this website every few days, if not EVERY day. The latest entries can be seen in the right-side skyscraper menu. Comments and questions are always appreciated!!! I like hearing what people have to say and feedback about what they want to hear more about!! ^___^V
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