Stay out of my way world, I hate mornings and today I'm not holding back. I'm totally buggered from a couple of weekends of sightseeing (read early mornings) and 5:30am starts to drive to work from Jinseki, without a chance to sleep in and restock my sleep supplies.
Today I was really really struggling to stay awake for the hour and a half drive to work (safe, I know!) and when I got to work my lunch had leaked in my handbag. Jeff kindly suggested it was stupid of me to have put a bento box in my handbag, which wasn't really the reaction I was hoping for.
I know this is a really stupid, petty thing to mind, but I hate the walk up to my fourth floor office where I feel obliged to say 'Good morning!' all bright and cheery-like to every student I pass. I feel like a performing seal - watch the gaijin show model morning greetings! I don't mind - no, I enjoy real interactions (like the student who just came into the office to ask me a question), but I hate the passing comments where the students would actually rather I didn't say anything so they weren't forced to respond to me in English! Plus at this time of the morning I really struggle to jump back and forth between English with the students and Japanese with the teachers (which is encouraged to show respect because you're not here to force your language on the teachers!).
Finally, this has nothing to do with the morning except that I'm cranky atm, but it's really really bothering me the way the Japanese don't use soap when they wash their hands. Of course that's not a golden rule, but I don't think I've ever seen a student at Tode use the soap (many of the bathrooms have only recently been stocked with soap) and it's a max of about one in five students at Myoodai who use the soap. That might be generous - if I use the left soap for the first half of the day, then pick up the soap on the right side, it's usually dry and hard. For a country that wears face masks so frequently and pride themself on being super clean, it's hard for me to get my head round the soap aversion. I used to just ignore it, but it's been bothering me and grossing me out lately. I'm sure we used to get in trouble at primary school if another kid told the teacher you hadn't used soap to wash your hands!
Anyway, I now have to go and record some dictation for my darling supervisor. He told me I WOULD be doing it first period, as opposed to the other teachers who asked me if I was free at any point to help them with recording dictation! Another funny thing with my lovely supervisor is that he just came to ask if I did paperwork for working in Tode on the 22nd. I said yes, that I had put it in kyoto-sensei's inbox (Vice-Principal). He then proceeded to tell me he would call the Vice-President and after the phone call to tell me that the Vice-President didn't have my paperwork so I had to redo it. He must have talked about the Vice-President half a dozen times. It's kinda mean, I should correct him, but I'm weak and shallow and enjoy smirking at his mistake. So petty... so human.
***
After the recording:
That went fairly well with only one real concern. My stomach did a huge rumble in the middle of it and I have a strong suspicion it will be heard on the tape! Awkward, but not quite bad enough to make me go through that torturous process again - 'Read through three times. First, read it slowly. Second, read it out including speaking the commas and periods and pausing five seconds after commas and ten seconds after periods. Third, read it slowly.' By the time I finish counting ten seconds, I have forgotten I'm supposed to say the commas and periods (it's so unnatural - and I've always called them full-stops!). So I end up having to redo it a few times. Kinda painful with my smelly, silent supervisor. So if the students all hear my stomach rumbling, so be it!!
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