Friday, January 30, 2004
Gadzooks!
My coworkers have discovered my blog! Yesterday, a farewell get-together given to me by my coworkers, my boss MH said, "You know, I had a dream that you and me were in Cuba and we were covered in cement" I began to think "Wait a minute, I had the exact same dream..." When he smirked at me and said, "We found your webpage". Apparently, BB ran a search on the web for info on our school and references to the school in my blog came up. It was quite a pleasant surprise...Good thing they didn`t read the July 14th entry where I trash all my coworkers...Oops, did I write that out? ;-)
My coworkers have discovered my blog! Yesterday, a farewell get-together given to me by my coworkers, my boss MH said, "You know, I had a dream that you and me were in Cuba and we were covered in cement" I began to think "Wait a minute, I had the exact same dream..." When he smirked at me and said, "We found your webpage". Apparently, BB ran a search on the web for info on our school and references to the school in my blog came up. It was quite a pleasant surprise...Good thing they didn`t read the July 14th entry where I trash all my coworkers...Oops, did I write that out? ;-)
My Computer
Back in early November, I got a seven-year-old, Win 95 computer for free from an ad in the Metropolis magazine, figuring that I could use it for the Internet so I wouldn`t have to spend money on Internet cafes. So I went through the whole trouble of paying 8,000 yen to have it hauled over to my apartment. Well, I ended up using about 4 or five times because I never got around to getting an Internet connection and besides, I had started going to this nice, new Internet cafe. However, I must say that the computer desk that I also got for free proved to be pretty useful.
Well, now that it`s time for me to go, I had to find a way to get rid of it, so I put an ad in three different places (Metropolis, Tokyo Notice Board, and a classifieds website run by one of my coworkers called Edesho.) and I got an overwhelming response. I got in contact with one of the first people that replied, but then he never responded. So in the end, after all the trouble I went through with the ads, I ended up giving it to BB, one of my coworkers. She was going to pick it up after work but yesterday, she said that perhaps it would be better if I had one of the staff members at our school call a cab to take me and the computer, desk, etc. to the LC, where she could store everything until she finds a place to live. I agreed to it but was a bit apprehensive. First, I felt bad asking the staff to go out of their way to call a cab and then, I was deathly afraid that everything would take so much time that I would be late. But things went rather smoothly. I was just going to ask the staff members for the phone number of a local taxi company but without me even asking, they called a taxi for me. I was able to disassemble everything and haul it down with hardly any problem, and the taxi driver was punctual (gotta love Japanese punctuality), and everything proceeded in a timely and smooth manner. I was even able to store mostly everything into a storage closet in the hallway. After all the excercise from lifting stuff, I felt energized and genki at the start of my classes. So now, much to my relief, I have gotten rid of my computer. That`s one down....
Back in early November, I got a seven-year-old, Win 95 computer for free from an ad in the Metropolis magazine, figuring that I could use it for the Internet so I wouldn`t have to spend money on Internet cafes. So I went through the whole trouble of paying 8,000 yen to have it hauled over to my apartment. Well, I ended up using about 4 or five times because I never got around to getting an Internet connection and besides, I had started going to this nice, new Internet cafe. However, I must say that the computer desk that I also got for free proved to be pretty useful.
Well, now that it`s time for me to go, I had to find a way to get rid of it, so I put an ad in three different places (Metropolis, Tokyo Notice Board, and a classifieds website run by one of my coworkers called Edesho.) and I got an overwhelming response. I got in contact with one of the first people that replied, but then he never responded. So in the end, after all the trouble I went through with the ads, I ended up giving it to BB, one of my coworkers. She was going to pick it up after work but yesterday, she said that perhaps it would be better if I had one of the staff members at our school call a cab to take me and the computer, desk, etc. to the LC, where she could store everything until she finds a place to live. I agreed to it but was a bit apprehensive. First, I felt bad asking the staff to go out of their way to call a cab and then, I was deathly afraid that everything would take so much time that I would be late. But things went rather smoothly. I was just going to ask the staff members for the phone number of a local taxi company but without me even asking, they called a taxi for me. I was able to disassemble everything and haul it down with hardly any problem, and the taxi driver was punctual (gotta love Japanese punctuality), and everything proceeded in a timely and smooth manner. I was even able to store mostly everything into a storage closet in the hallway. After all the excercise from lifting stuff, I felt energized and genki at the start of my classes. So now, much to my relief, I have gotten rid of my computer. That`s one down....
Thursday, January 29, 2004
So much to write, so little time...!
I want to write about what I did in December, but it will be a long entry so it will have to wait. What`s been going on with me? A lot and not much at the same time. I`ve been teaching in Kanagawa Prefecture a lot...I was even sent out to K`s hometown in Fujisawa! I`m going to Atsugi for the second time this week to teach kids (ugh). Also, tonight I`m getting together with my coworkers for a kind of farewell get-together and tomorrow night, my Soka friends will be having a get-together for me at TK`s place, which is next-door to Y-san`s apartment...ah, I had some good times at Y-san`s get-togethers this past summer...they seem so long ago now.
I want to make an apology for one of my remarks implying that only non-Japanese people keep their word. I guess at the time, I was feeling bitter about some people not showing up to celebrate my birthday when they said they would...but in the long run, it doesn`t really matter. Also, it was wrong of me to generalize Japanese people`s behavior. I think in both Western and Japanese cultures, there is a degree of being polite in order to not offend the other person. In both Japanese and Western cultures, we say "We have to get together sometime" just for the sake of politeness. And during my time in Japan, I have had the experience of a Japanese person inviting me to get together and following through with it....and also the experience of a Westerner telling me "we defenitely need to get together sometime" and never hearing from them again. Also, I think it`s also my fault for not having the initiative to invite people (though that hasn`t been the case lately ;-)).
I want to write about what I did in December, but it will be a long entry so it will have to wait. What`s been going on with me? A lot and not much at the same time. I`ve been teaching in Kanagawa Prefecture a lot...I was even sent out to K`s hometown in Fujisawa! I`m going to Atsugi for the second time this week to teach kids (ugh). Also, tonight I`m getting together with my coworkers for a kind of farewell get-together and tomorrow night, my Soka friends will be having a get-together for me at TK`s place, which is next-door to Y-san`s apartment...ah, I had some good times at Y-san`s get-togethers this past summer...they seem so long ago now.
I want to make an apology for one of my remarks implying that only non-Japanese people keep their word. I guess at the time, I was feeling bitter about some people not showing up to celebrate my birthday when they said they would...but in the long run, it doesn`t really matter. Also, it was wrong of me to generalize Japanese people`s behavior. I think in both Western and Japanese cultures, there is a degree of being polite in order to not offend the other person. In both Japanese and Western cultures, we say "We have to get together sometime" just for the sake of politeness. And during my time in Japan, I have had the experience of a Japanese person inviting me to get together and following through with it....and also the experience of a Westerner telling me "we defenitely need to get together sometime" and never hearing from them again. Also, I think it`s also my fault for not having the initiative to invite people (though that hasn`t been the case lately ;-)).
