Hey there,
How are you all? I hear the summer rains have hit and you are all now living in the tropics!
Over here the weather has warmed up - and for once I'm not happy about it!! Kate turned out to be the weather fairy, with good weather showing up everytime she makes plans (bar yesterday, although it was an exceptionally warm 4 degrees!). Unfortunately, this means no snow in Jinseki while Kate is here. Tonight is her last night with us, so unless it cools down in a hurry today, she won't see white flakes for Christmas. As I'm sitting here in only longjohns and a cotton sweatshirt (my improvised PJs), I'm not picking that we will see snow anytime soon...
This week Kate has hung out with me in Jinseki, doing local things. In fact, we realised that the whole time she has stayed with us, we haven't cooked her dinner once! The first night we took her out for ramen, then once we brought her back here after her two weeks of work, we have been fed Monday night by Luc (the other JET/ALT in the area), Tuesday night by the Yamamoto's and the rest of the English group Jeff helps out at and tonight Nishikawa-san will be feeding us. We were supposed to have our pretend Christmas tonight; Kate and I were going to try to make chicken and potatoes without an oven. However, when Nishikawa-san heard she wouldn't get a chance to feed us, she looked so pained that Kate agreed to pass up her night in Kyoto to stay in Jinseki and have another mean feed (honestly, Kate and I have eaten so much I don't fit my jeans! Which is an issue when we go on holiday to Taiwan a couple of days after Kate leaves! Maybe it's a stale bread and water diet between Kate leaving and us going to Taiwan, so I can do my pants up on the plane, lol).
Anyway, when Jeff heard, he was a bit concerned about Kate sacrificing her night in Kyoto for one dinner, so he had the great idea of Christmas breakfast instead of lunch/dinner. Our attempt at Christmas dinner was always destined to fail, so when Jeff suggested pancakes with ice cream as a Christmas brekkie, we immediately saw the excellence in his plan (any plan that involves ice cream for breakfast has got to be good!!). So tomorrow morning Jeff will make pancakes, Kate will make a mushroom, sweetcorn and chicken thing to go on pancakes with cheese, and I will... serve the ice cream I bought at the supermarket! Life's hard!! We will then open some of the presents from home that Kate brought in her pack (her 20kg pack had 9kg of her clothes, then 11kg of stuff for us!!!), before taking Kate down to Fukuyama for her shinkansen (bullet train).
For actual Christmas day, Jeff and I are thinking of going traditional Japanese style - eating at a restaurant, then going to see the 'illumination' display at Shobara park. Japanese illuminations are like when people at home put a lit-up santa in their garden, only they have huge multicoloured creations. In Hiroshima they had a massive illumination display and we took ages walking up and down the street while Kate took photos of every single one. I can't decide which was my favourite - I'm torn between the griffin and the pirate ship! Keep an eye on Kate's facebook in the next month or two for the multitude of pictures!
As referenced in the title, my work situation looks to be changing. My boss contacted me yesterday to say that their contract to teach one of the factories has ended and they have a fair few students quitting, so he can't keep me working the same hours I do currently. What he has offered instead is that I work one week a month (rather than four days a week), without paying rent or utilities. I can't see how the logistics work, as it doesn't seem practical, so I think he is basically just making up work for me to keep me around, so he still has a trained person on hand when any other staff leave (because both the other guys are nearing the end of their visas). In all honesty, I was getting sick of the commute and paying all the tolls anyway, so was starting to think about other options (translation: I had spent the last three weeks talking about quitting). So this is timely news. I will have an opportunity to see what else I can do with my time and whether it is feasible to be self-employed around here. When I first came I really struggled with culture shock and my job really helped, but now I feel settled enough that I think I can make a routine with practising my Japanese, teaching English and trying to write. So although traditionally 'we are cutting your hours from 16 days a month to 5 days a month' is bad news, in this case I'm pretty happy about it.
I hope you are all well and that noone else has been told work is cutting their hours to one week a month!! As I may not write again in 2010, have a great Christmas - eat lots of potato and cake for me! - and make the most of the rest of the year. Enjoy the break - you deserve it!!
No comments:
Post a Comment