Two Months in.

Hmm, looks like it’s already been two months since I’ve moved to Japan.  The time is passing quickly and I feel mostly settled into a routine.  Work is getting smoother and I’m able anticipate most problems before they occur based on the people I work with at each branch.  For example: Branch where the guy gets there 45 minutes before class and spends 30 minutes frantically apologizing to people on the phone:  Didn’t have the new workbook.  Branch where the guy gets there 45 minutes before class and spends 30 minutes eating fried chicken:  Did not have the new workbook or the printed homework.  Branch where the guy sits in on every class and gets to work early to pull weeds out of the parking lot: Had extra workbooks and homework prints. 

Two days a week I still have Japanese teachers that sit in on my elementary classes.  One of them is fluent in English and seems like he wouldn’t mind teaching the class.  The other has never said a word of English to me but I’ve seen him helping students with English homework.  So I don’t know if he’s evaluating my teaching or just trying to learn shapes and colors.  He also wears sweet custom suits and cowboy boots to work.  The mysteries continue to unfold.

So outside of work I’ve been getting to know to the other American teachers and biking/running/hiking a fair amount.  The nice weather has been holding up and I’m currently slightly sunburned and enjoying a cool breeze I’ve created by cracking my door and window.   This week we had Sunday brunch complete with Bloody Marys.  Five of us also went to see the latest X Men movie which had amazing stabbing sound effects but a pretty basic plot.  I’m a little bit frustrated because it’s taking longer than I expected to make local friends.  It doesn’t help that all the Japanese people I work with are full-timers, so they work past midnight most nights, and also a lot of weekends.  For inspiration, I’m reading my old blogs from my first two trips here.  They remind that it took a lot of time and patience to build up a fun social life.  They also remind me of main regret, which was not studying more in the free time I had in the first few months.  Fortunately this time around I’ve mostly made the jump to studying real Japanese as opposed to text books.  Today I read the Huffington Post article about overcoming eating disorders and then watched a dubbed episode of Castle with Japanese subs turned on.  I think listening to the Japanese and reading it at the same time helps.  The dubbed American shows are actually easier to understand.  I think it’s because the voice actors are speaking straight into the mic.  Well I kind of feel like I’m rambling here and not really saying much interesting.  I’ll update again when I do something cool.  Good night all.