Random thoughts, comments, observations and general fluff from a random bint who left London at the end of September 2004 to embark on a new life and new adventures in Tokyo, land of the cute.... and is leaving mid-June 2010 - and counting!

Friday, March 05, 2010

Odd Day

My bedtime seems to be slipping later and later every night, despite my best intentions! This evening I was so tired I had a nap around 9pm, which has fucked up tonights sleep but I've finished up a bottle of Arak a student gave me a while back, so I've a feeling that might help with the sleep.

Today another student gave me a gift of alcohol. Bring it on! This guy works in Shochu. Not literally. He does copywriting or some kind of promotion for them. Anyhoo, today he gave me a huge, heavy, VERY VERY nice award winning bottle of shochu. I almost danced around the school. Reception thought I was nuts for being so happy at any rate!

The school I work at on Thursdays has a very different vibe from other schools I've worked at. Part of it is down to the school managers that have worked there and part of it down to the students - it's in a very wealthy area of Tokyo - if that's relevant. Anyway, it just seems a lot friendlier than other schools. There's more chatting; it feels more relaxed. It also has some of the strangest students in the company - but that's something else! Okay, okay, it isn't. For example, there's Mr. Echo - the student that echos everything you say. Not repeats but echos. A millisecond behind you. VERY disconcerting. He doesn't understand me and I don't understant him. A friend of mine, another teacher, used to text me every time he got Mr. Echo on his schedule. Not the most popular of students. Then there was Mrs. Anime Woman. Mrs. AW is in her 60s. Long purple streaked hair, dungarees, need I say more? Very amusing and interesting student - when you could understand her. She was, unfortunately, very prone to monologues. Mr. Record Business was another one. He only wanted to chat. And every lesson, with almost every teacher, all he wanted to talk about was himself and his job. Nice guy but telling your teaching 'I like talking about myself' - well!

Anyway, recently there's been a host of lovely - but very giggly - work experience women. They've mainly been sitting in a room translating a business text teachers notes from English into Japanese. They've been allowed brief stints on reception too! Today I gave a business email lesson to four of them - one was elementary, one pre-intermediate, one intermediate and one advanced. Miraculously the lesson worked. Awesome ladies. I'll miss them now they're going.

And there's the other thing. An email I got from an old friend. Sorry, ex-friend, who's father is dying. I feel bad about not making contact but there's a lot of complicated history and I don't want to make contact. But there's the guilt. Nuff said. I have to deal with this.

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