Autumn leaves

Hey there,

Well, to justify the title, I will first point out how beautiful Jinseki looks at the moment.  It was a warm damp weekend, with light but constant rain.  Jeff doesn't like this weather, but I love it.  I ran round the house taking some great pictures of the beautiful autumn trees from various windows.  In this dim, misty weather the reds, yellows and oranges glow.  I mean to go for a big drive at some point, taking millions of pictures before all the leaves fall.  I'm so glad we have our new camera now!

Not too much has happened lately, hence no update in a wee while, but there has been one important development.  The other ALT in Jinseki is married to a Japanese woman who lives a couple of hours away and is currently in his fourth year as a JET, out of a possible five years.  The area his wife lives in has recently started employing JET ALTs (as opposed to private Assistant Language Teachers), so he has applied for a transfer.  It should be noted here that he is unlikely to get it, as he would only be moving for the last year, but then again if anyone compassionate looks at his application, you would think they would let him move.  Anyhow, the question of whether I should apply to take Luc's position is something we have talked about before.  It would mean living together in one house all the time (no more packing a bag to visit my husband!), half the drive to work and a (brand new!) car provided for me.  So I SHOULD jump at the chance to work in Jinseki.  But... only hours before Jeff told me Luc's news I had been wondering about whether I would apply to shift in a year's time when Luc's contract was up.  And I had decided I probably wouldn't.  As it is, I get far more free rein as a teacher than... well then almost any ALT in Japan, I'm just starting to get into sports with the students, I love my workmates and the new apartment (and it's proximity to the train station) has been really helpful for our social life and travels.  It was a bit of a shock to me to realise that I had only a month to decide something that I thought I had over a year to think about.  I think I'm still in the honeymoon period at work, so maybe if I was asked again in six months time, I would be dead keen to shift workplaces, but right now I like Myoodai just fine. 

I wanted to say a bit more here, but the brass band has just started up in the courtyard and everyone is lined up on the walkway outside my office for an excellent bird's eye view, so I'm going to join them!  I promised myself I would go to kendo tonight, but watching the brass band performance probably fills my 'interacting with the students' quota!  (In fact, I do so little at kendo that watching brass band might be more exercise!  Of course, that's my own fault for not going regularly, but I haven't really figured out start times or anything yet!)

Hope you're all well.

Charly

P.S. Taught my 18 yr olds lots of essential Kiwi phrases in class today.  Things like 'choice', 'sweet as', 'heaps' and 'sparrow fart'.  They studiously asked the plural of 'sprog'.  Well, I've prepared them for NZ now!