Jobs jobs jobs

Hi there,

Ok, so an update on the employment situation:

On the 9th I start work for a new English conversation school - yay!  I was put onto this job by my current boss, who heard that this woman was desperate for someone to cover a gap between her losing her current teacher and choosing and importing a new one.  Wanting to be helpful, he volunteered me.  The job is probably a bit further away (in Kurashiki, near Okayama), but it has an awesome little apartment and better pay.  I won't know for a while how long I'll be needed for, as it all depends on how long it takes Cindy to find and bring in a new teacher, but I have my fingers crossed it will take her a little while! 

As much as I had been trying to enjoy kicking back in Jinseki, and I know I'm really lucky to be living in Japan with no responsibilities and a husband whose well paid job allows us to live well and do a bit of travel, at the end of the day it's freaking boring.  There is only so much reading and facebooking you can do in a day.  Of course, I SHOULD be writing some amazing book or studying up hard on my Japanese, but having nothing to do saps your motivation and I end up thinking 'I will do it later' and just never getting around to it. 

The other big job news, in case anyone hasn't heard, is that JET are offering me a placement for the 2011-2012 year, starting in August.  Yesterday I went to our little country clinic for my medical examination.  The visit included the nurse standing on a bed to measure my height, sitting around awkwardly in a singlet with no bra waiting for my x-ray, peeing in a paper cup that looked exactly like a drinking cup, nurses wandering in and out of the doctor's office during my examination and the doc having to use his electronic dictionary whenever he wanted to tell me anything!  (In NZ I would never think twice about a doc or nurse seeing me shirtless or braless, because you know they've seen it a million times.  But here they HAVEN'T, the Japanese have almost no boobs!!  Awkward!!) 

Anyway, at the conclusion of that awesomely uncomfortable hour or so, I had a text from Jeff requesting I ask if we can get our Hep A & B booster shots at their clinic.  I did my best to ask for them and the nurse said 'yes, yes' and ran out of the room.  She came back in saying 'no, no Hepatitis C'.  I think she thought I was asking if my husband and I had Hepatitis C!  I tried again to explain what I wanted, but wasn't getting anywhere, so then I managed to explain that I would come back with Jeff when he got home from work, because he has more Japanese.  She agreed, 'ok, later' and they waved me goodbye.  I then was going, 'ah, pay now?' 'No, later.'  'Ah, no, pay now.'  'No, later, husband.'  Finally I managed to explain that I needed to send the form that day, so they let me pay then and take my form.  Phew! 

When Jeff got home from work we went back in to try again on the vaccinations, armed with our vaccination booklets and the Japanese work for immunisation (yobou sesshu, if I remember correctly...).  It took a while, it tested Jeff's Japanese skills and it required the doc consulting Dr. Google a fair amount, but after a bit over an hour we walked out of the clinic safe in the knowledge that they were ordering in the vaccines for us and we would get our booster shots.  Finally!

So now that I have returned all my forms to JET, we are now waiting on hearing where they will place me.  If it is too far away - eg. if we can't spend weekends together, I will probably turn it down, but everyone assures us that JET will make a big effort to place me somewhere close by, so we have our fingers crossed.  There are three placements coming free in Sera, 40 mins away, so we are hoping I score one of those...  Wish me luck!

Cheers,
Charly

Full time work? What is this thing??

Hi there,

I've just heard from my boss that another English school, also 1.5 hrs from home, is looking for a temporary teacher for a couple of months while they hire a permenant teacher.  It would suck to effectively move out of home, staying in a different city all week and only seeing Jeff and my bed in weekends, but it would be great to actually earn some money for a change.  I'm about as useful as a pot plant here - I make home a more pleasant place, but I don't really DO anything (yes, I am much more argumentative than a pot plant, but I also cook dinner often, so it balances out!).  So I'm thinking I might take this job. 

In other news, the cherry blossoms are doing their thing.  Unfortunately every time we prepared to go to a hanami party (cherry blossom viewing party, where you sit on a tarp under the trees and get trollied on sake), it was put off because the cherries weren't blooming yet.  Tomorrow we are finally lined up to go to a party that will NOT be cancelled because the cherries ARE blooming... and it's pouring with rain, due to continue tomorrow.  Where is the negative karma coming from???

Next week Thursday, late, Geoff and Sandra arrive in our part of the country (I say that in the widest sense of the word.  It will be a long drive to get them home).  We are understandably pretty darn excited about it.  Jeff, particuarly, has been getting pretty tired with the pressures of work (people tell me work is a tiring, stressful thing.  I wouldn't know :P ), so having friends from home visit will be a very, very welcome change. 

Hope you are all well.

Bye,
Charly