catching up

Sorry I haven't been able to blog. Time has been a complete premium and I haven't had internet. Let me give you an update on the last few days.

Last Saturday was officially my last day of training. It was a really intense day! I taught THREE model lessons, one of which included real students. It went pretty well but I think the kids were really shy, especially since there were 4 foreigners in the room. I'm sure they were on their best behavior. So yeah, I'm so glad that's over because it was not fun. It was a whole week of no free time. After training, the company took us to have a really nice Japanese dinner where I had my first Sake. It was quite good and the dinner, even better. Our training group then finally had a good night out. Karaoke and then dancing. I got hit on by 3 Japanese dudes! Seriously, I had one guy just grab me from behind. Oh well...Japan is weird sometimes. Dancing was fun.

Sunday, our training group separated after being in a dorm for a week. Our manager and my new coworker Rachel came by Okayama station to take me to my apartment. Both my manager and Rachel are really really cool. I'm especially glad that my manager is so nice. Part of what makes working abroad frightening at times is the outside chance that who you work for will be a complete biatch. But nope, mine is golden. About my apartment, It's really NICE. Modern. It has all sorts of cool gizmos such as a bathroom (no toilet) that doubles as a sauna. The toilet is one of those fancy toilets that heats your tush and shoots water (into places). What else, I have a rice dispenser and I don't know it's just nice. After being shown my apartment, I headed to meet up with Natalie in Kurashiki. Natalie's apartment is not quite as new, but it IS much bigger. Definitely a plus...and Kurashiki. Wow...let's just say that it's really really scenic. It's such a nice town and I've hardly explored it.

On Monday, I spent the day with my manager running errands. We went to city hall to make my foreigner card and to the bank to open a bank account. Talking to my manager was fun as well. She speaks great English and seems to be very understanding of my culture. Outside of that, I bought a fold-able bike (about $150). It's convenient in that it folds...but that's about it. It's horribly balanced and it's very prone to doing wheelies for no reason whatsoever other than to aggravate me. Immediately after buying my bike, I went to Kurashiki (one hour) in the pouring rain. It sucked. Then, the train stopped moving for over an hour (very un-Japan like). After getting to Kurashiki, me and Natalie had a very pleasant evening exploring the Japanese equivalent of Wal-Mart. So many cool things to be bought at there.

(a note about Japan. Japan is ridiculously immaculate. For example, at the bank, I had to redo my forms 4 times. The first time, I wrote my name as Nikola Do Brunelle-Tran on my application. The teller than asks me to put my family name first. I turn it in and 30  mins. later she comes back and asks me to redo it again because there's a dash between my last name. What the hell? So ridiculous. I love it.)

So, finally, here we are, It's Tuesday night and I just finished my first day observing Spencer (whom I will be replacing) teaching his classes. Seems like I have some bad students...and a few good ones. Don't have much to say about my school yet. Let's just say it's different...stay tuned! I teach my first class tomorrow AND I get to see Natalie after not seeing her for a while.