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Intensive Week
This week is crazy at GEOS. Sprint classes are all cancelled and in their place we do "intensive" lessons, which are these experimental lesson plans sent to us from the head office. Students sign up to make up missed Sprint lessons. I have one student who literally signed up for 8 classes this week, and another for 6, and one for 5. It's pretty crazy. Duane and Eri and I put up schedules of when we'd teach classes in Listening, Vocabulary, Speaking, and Reading, and people signed up. It's great, because we get to teach some of the other teachers' students. It sucks, because we have to teach some of the other teachers' students. No, I'm just kidding, but it's a little awkward when you have a class with two students and one is in Sprint 8 and one is in Sprint 4.
I'm the main native teacher at the school, though, so I actually have a large number of non-Sprint classes, so my schedule is only semi-screwed up. Today, for example, I didn't have any Sprint classes, just Actives and kids and a private lesson. But tomorrow is going to be a hell day for me -- my PL Flex student comes in, then I have 4 Intensive classes plus my normal Mill A. I stayed after work today until 11:30pm to prepare some stuff, and I've still got a ton to do tomorrow in my whopping 3 hours of free time to prepare classes. I wonder what it'll be like once I'm really used to teaching this stuff -- right now I swear I work a 55-60 hour week, when it comes down to it, and I don't get paid overtime for this crap.
Today I actually took a real lunch hour to go shopping, though. I went to UNIQLO or however you type it, and I found two shirts I really liked, and they were cheap. The XL size there fits me in shirts, kind of, though I can't get any pants there, alas. I tried on some jeans at Ito Yokado and found some that fit but I wasn't overjoyed with them. I got that box of my stuff from Seattle yesterday, and I'll have to see how those jeans fit -- they're smaller than the pair that's been falling off me lately. It'd be stupid but I'm wondering if I should send a box of stuff back to Seattle. Eh, probably not, it might be easier just to box things up and put them in my closet here instead, just in case I need them later.
Oh, so the problem with the box, anyway, is that I asked Carl to send me my USB computer keyboard. Which he did. And of course I forgot that it was disgustingly full of crumbs and food and debris from sitting on my computer desk for a year or two. So it leaked debris into the rest of the box, so I need to do laundry before I can wear anything -- and of course, it's impossible for me to really do laundry outside the weekends now for the most part, since it's too cold to dry anything outside. I took apart my keyboard to clean it out and put the keys in the sink to wash them and they're still drying out, a day later, I swear.
Yesterday I threw a birthday party for one of my students (one of the ones who took me out to dinner last week), I bought her a card and got eclairs from the Ginza Cozy Corner and even invited Eri in to hang out with our class. My student was OVERJOYED and said that nobody ever celebrates her birthday outside of her family. After class she walked with me to the station and showed me an import food store up there. There's some interesting stuff there, including ingredients to make tacos, which I might have to try to do sometime, because there are no mexican restaurants in Japan, I swear.
Many of my students have been wishing me luck with the Fighters-Marines series. It's kind of funny. I was pretty depressed yesterday after work because I think the Fighters are kind of screwed now -- tied 2-2 for games and with Naruse on the mound for Chiba tomorrow... ah well. I went and got curry rice to drown my sorrows, but it didn't really work. Tonight I even managed to play a game of PNM, though I got to Warabi late enough that the arcade manager gave me a dirty look as I was leaving, since they start closing up around 11:30pm.
Oh, I forgot a funny story. So tonight one of my students shows up, we're talking about the Giants-Dragons series. I say I have a ticket for Sunday, he says "Oh, I see. If the Giants sweep you don't get to go," and I said "If the Giants OR Dragons sweep, thank you," and he said "You like the Dragons too?" "Yeah. I like Fighters, Dragons, Baystars." He pauses, and in a total deadpan, replies, "Your favorite color is blue?" I cracked up. Turns out he wasn't joking, he meant it seriously. Oops.
I think I should get a haircut. I just don't know what kind to get, or where, or anything, so I'll probably continue to be lazy.
I'm the main native teacher at the school, though, so I actually have a large number of non-Sprint classes, so my schedule is only semi-screwed up. Today, for example, I didn't have any Sprint classes, just Actives and kids and a private lesson. But tomorrow is going to be a hell day for me -- my PL Flex student comes in, then I have 4 Intensive classes plus my normal Mill A. I stayed after work today until 11:30pm to prepare some stuff, and I've still got a ton to do tomorrow in my whopping 3 hours of free time to prepare classes. I wonder what it'll be like once I'm really used to teaching this stuff -- right now I swear I work a 55-60 hour week, when it comes down to it, and I don't get paid overtime for this crap.
Today I actually took a real lunch hour to go shopping, though. I went to UNIQLO or however you type it, and I found two shirts I really liked, and they were cheap. The XL size there fits me in shirts, kind of, though I can't get any pants there, alas. I tried on some jeans at Ito Yokado and found some that fit but I wasn't overjoyed with them. I got that box of my stuff from Seattle yesterday, and I'll have to see how those jeans fit -- they're smaller than the pair that's been falling off me lately. It'd be stupid but I'm wondering if I should send a box of stuff back to Seattle. Eh, probably not, it might be easier just to box things up and put them in my closet here instead, just in case I need them later.
Oh, so the problem with the box, anyway, is that I asked Carl to send me my USB computer keyboard. Which he did. And of course I forgot that it was disgustingly full of crumbs and food and debris from sitting on my computer desk for a year or two. So it leaked debris into the rest of the box, so I need to do laundry before I can wear anything -- and of course, it's impossible for me to really do laundry outside the weekends now for the most part, since it's too cold to dry anything outside. I took apart my keyboard to clean it out and put the keys in the sink to wash them and they're still drying out, a day later, I swear.
Yesterday I threw a birthday party for one of my students (one of the ones who took me out to dinner last week), I bought her a card and got eclairs from the Ginza Cozy Corner and even invited Eri in to hang out with our class. My student was OVERJOYED and said that nobody ever celebrates her birthday outside of her family. After class she walked with me to the station and showed me an import food store up there. There's some interesting stuff there, including ingredients to make tacos, which I might have to try to do sometime, because there are no mexican restaurants in Japan, I swear.
Many of my students have been wishing me luck with the Fighters-Marines series. It's kind of funny. I was pretty depressed yesterday after work because I think the Fighters are kind of screwed now -- tied 2-2 for games and with Naruse on the mound for Chiba tomorrow... ah well. I went and got curry rice to drown my sorrows, but it didn't really work. Tonight I even managed to play a game of PNM, though I got to Warabi late enough that the arcade manager gave me a dirty look as I was leaving, since they start closing up around 11:30pm.
Oh, I forgot a funny story. So tonight one of my students shows up, we're talking about the Giants-Dragons series. I say I have a ticket for Sunday, he says "Oh, I see. If the Giants sweep you don't get to go," and I said "If the Giants OR Dragons sweep, thank you," and he said "You like the Dragons too?" "Yeah. I like Fighters, Dragons, Baystars." He pauses, and in a total deadpan, replies, "Your favorite color is blue?" I cracked up. Turns out he wasn't joking, he meant it seriously. Oops.
I think I should get a haircut. I just don't know what kind to get, or where, or anything, so I'll probably continue to be lazy.
no subject
Like this:
http://www.rockyourhair.com/rock-hair.gif
Took me a while to catch up on your posts, you write faster than I can read. Luckily there was a super boring phone meeting at work and I gravitated here to enjoy some of your adventures.
When is your week of training or whatever that you need that book for?