Mistakes

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

It turns out the credit card fraud was a mistake. I knew there was no reason to get all panicky about it. Just forgot that I had in fact bought something on the internet. Hey, it's a crazy life people!

And speaking of crazy, this past week and a half has finally caught up with me and then some.

I came into school today and the first thingI did was notice how everyone around me was wearing an "I'm sick" or "I don't want to catch your cold you sick freak" masks. I should have known something was up but half of them told me it was just allergies to spring. Well, I can understand that but the thief next to me was coughing and snorting to the point that I really wanted to gag. She'd blow her nose then keep working and suddenly she'd sniffle in the most disgusting manner that I could actually feel snot dripping down my own throat!

Well, it turns out it wasn't my imagination. As of this evening, I believe I've finally caught my first cold here in Japan. Check that one off my to do list.

It's a small cold really. Just a drippy nose that's making my throat a little sore. Ironically, I'm teaching my students how to say this in English and I wasn't able to tell anyone in Japanese what was wrong with me.

But the real irony is that I've been secretly wanting to catch a cold so I have a legitimate reason to sit in my apartment and do absolutely nothing instead of sitting at my desk. I just wish I had caught it next week! As Friday comes closer and closer, my schedule keeps getting worse and worse!

Allow me to explain.

Last week was supposed to be the last week that I teach any of my students. Starting last Friday I was to begin administering the final interview test to all of my first years which equal 167 total. I was going to have 4 days total to complete this task which was perfectly scheduled out to have exactly three classes everyday with no real stress.

On Tuesday of last week two of my JTEs came to me and asked if I could move their class to Friday of this week (1 1/2 weeks later) I looked at my schedule and I was easily able to squeeze them in.

On Friday of last week, I went up to another JTE and asked if his class was prepared to take the test since it was going to be the last time he was scheduled to work with me (and god knows I'm the only person who can actually give the test....but that's another rant for a little later). He then informed me that it was impossible for his students to take the test at that time. They just weren't ready! So we moved his class to the following week on Thursday.

That meant that I had two tests on Tuesday (today) two tests Thursday and 5 tests on Friday. Fine.

Today, I went up to my #2 I hate JTE (Let's call him Lazy from now on, like the dwarf) So I went up to Lazy and asked him if his classes were ready to take the test. He had two of them today and he told me that both weren't ready.

"Can't I just have them take it on Friday?"

Well, sir, I'm sure if you had come to me earlier I could have done something for you but I already have 5 classes on Friday and there are only 7 classes in a day and though I'm sure that sounds like perfect math the schedule for the students doesn't actually match up. I was able to squeeze in another class for Friday making me work the entire day and I swear to you I'm going to go crazy from saying "what sports do you like to play, what sports to you like to play, what sports do you like to play?" over and over and over and over again for the grand majority of all my students in a single day!!! (how's that for a run on sentence?)

As for his second class, we had to move them to the following Tuesday which I have a sneaky suspicion is going to be too late to actually administer the test but....well, I didn't make the decision. It's out of my hands.

Which brings me to the idea of...why the hell am I the only person to give the test?! I mean, the other teachers aren't exactly completely incompetent! Some of them have better abilities than others but how hard is it to ask "What sports do you like to play, what sports do you like to play, what sports do you like to play?"

Whatever. I'll become a mocking bird for a few days. No biggy.

In other news, I recently realized that my school has a nice collection of Largo yearbooks! In fact, they have three of my four years!!! Too bad they don't have my Senior year, I would have rather had that than Freshman but beggars can't be choosers.

I spent the majority of the day looking through them. All the books were given to the school as a gift and incidentally, I actually signed my Junior year one. I had come to Japan for the first time that year and as part of the gift we all signed it. Talk about nostalgia.

I'm bringing 5 of them with me tomorrow to Odochi and I think we're all going to really enjoy looking through them and seeing how the schools are so very very different! It's going to be awesome!

Also, I don't know if it's a good thing or not but...I look exactly the same in every single one of my pictures. Meaning, I look the same in my Freshman, Sophomore and Junior year pictures as well as my drivers license (16 yrs old) , UCF school id (18 yrs old) , and Japanese registration card (22 yrs old). That's like....9 years people! And I haven't changed!!! Well, I have fewer pimples, and that's saying something.

3 shared their love:

Unknown said...

Eh, Change isn't all it's cracked up to be. Some of us flux between hundreds of pounds over that same period of time ^__^`

Unknown said...

Sorry I have not answered your email about the letters, I knew you had emailed with Miranda and was extremely busy. But that is no excuse, sorry!! I will find people to answer all of your letters, we will do the club, but I have some classes we can work with too.

Anyhow, email me when you get the chance. I can plan on bringing yearbooks with me this summer to fill out the collection, I have extras of all of them! It will make for a heavy suitcase, but at least I would not have to bring them back!

Anonymous said...

It's because of your spritely nature...its true! Happy bubbly people are naturally younger looking...plus to be honest I can see a change but the pictures don't lie right??

 
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