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