Work Updates

I have been swamped, stressed, and sleepy. Between teaching 9-5 at 5 junior high schools, I facilitate an evening English circle, teach an English class just for beginners, and today I am leading a classroom/conversation one-shot English workshop for a mix of elementary and middle school teachers. Not to mention the everyday lesson planning, and I have to do and the multiple full-period Halloween lessons tomorrow and next week. And to top it off, my BOE is adding elementary schools to my mix, so Monday I will team teach at my first elementary school. It doesn't help my stress level that I have had about 5 CouchSurfing requests that I have had to organize in the last couple of weeks, and that lat weekend I was out of town for the HAJET Fall Meeting in Obihiro and wasn't able to get work done or relax. *head explodes*

On a lighter note, I drove to my 2 schools that are 45-minutes away through a mountain pass last week, and the fall colors and sunshine over the sea of Japan was so picturesque:

Last week all of my junior highs also came together to display tidbits of their school festival performances, which overall was lovely.

However, I think there is a teacher who is trying to sabotage me. She's an English teacher who sits next to me every day and rarely talks to me, besides apologizing for putting her stuff all over my desk all the time. On a day that I wasn't informed that it was a half day for students and there was no lunch planned, I remained at school for an hour while she ate next to me, before someone else mentioned the schedule change. She is constantly misinforming me about my weekly schedule, but what really got me pissed was what happened at the performances.

I walked into the gym, standing along the wall with a few other teachers while the gym filled with students sitting in chairs or rugs on the gym floor. A kind teacher came over to me and showed me where I could sit on the floor with students if I wanted to. But the saboteur intervened, and told me where I should sit in a line of tables with about 7 seats. She led me there and I didn't have much choice but to sit down.

Then, the superintendent and the head of the town council were seated at the other end of these tables. I felt out of place, sitting alone at the other end of the table that seemed reserved for people more important. I realized right before the performance started that the principals of each of the 5 junior high schools were standing next to each other, on the other side of the tables, as if they were waiting to sit down, and I thought for sure I was in their spot, but before I could act, people brought a bunch of folding chairs for them to sit where they didn't have quite as good of a view. So I sat, with 4 chairs between myself and the superintendent and head of the town council, for the entire performance. I felt like such a moron, but that teacher told me to sit there! She walked by later, and didn't acknowledge me at all.

I can only try to explain how uncomfortable I was...and have my little conspiracy theory that this teacher is out to make me look bad. Maybe she didn't know those tables were reserved, but why would she have been so insistent for me to sit there when she has never gone out of her way for me before?

At my two-month meeting with my supervisor, I was asked if there were any situations in my life in Japan where I felt confused or uncomfortable (the paper she gave me said, "tell me about your condition"). I told her that I feel confused and uncomfortable a lot, but I would do my best. Being unable to speak Japanese well, unable to understand the subtle rules of Japanese culture, and unable to grasp the individual school subcultures, renders me awkward and if unguided or misguided, I will likely commit many a faux pas, creating an endless string of baka gaijin's misadventures.  *sigh*