...and hope springs eternal here on my tiny japanese island! i am feeling heaps better now that i am on the tail end of this week and am happy to report that hearing has been restored to my ears and i am virtually pain free in all other ways. i knew it would just take some time, but man those were a few grumbly days.
today is a whole new ball game though, or at least so it seems. i (unknowingly) set in motion a few things a few days back when i was grumbly and had the attention of someone whom i knew both understood me and would maybe be a bit sympathetic.
she is mizokami sensei, my most favorite of all the teachers that i work with here. she teaches jr high and is a bad ass as far as japanese women go. first and formost, SHE SPEAKS and UNDERSTANDS english! what a thrill it is to be able to spend time with her and just talk about the many differences from here to there around the world and especially in japan. secondly she is smart (she also speaks swahili and has raised a lovely smart 5th grade girl on her own), sassy (she laughs with me daily and helps me with most everything i need) and breaks lots and lots of rules, but with loads of japanese flair. she has confided in me some great juicy secrets (which i will not be revealing here. jeez.) and they are sooooo not the japanese way of doing things. she is my hero around these parts.
anyway i mentioned to ms mizokami that my schedule around the naru school system seems odd to me and after showing her what i meant she agreed. can a girl get a little help around here?! i am based at the high school. this means that my main desk is there, i have a computer there (the one i type my blog on now), all of my files and lesson plans and such are there, i get my lunch there and most importantly i guess, i get paid from that office. but my contract with the nagasaki BOE (board of education) states that i am in charge of all of the children on this island so i must teach at the elementary and jr high too. i love that, no problem for me. the only trouble is that i teach usually around 10-12 classes a week at the jr high/elementary school and 2 classes a week at the high school. hmmmmm, this just seems a bit weird, right? i dont mind spending half of my days running (yes sometimes i do run) back and forth between schools and coming back inbetween periods for things i forgot or to order lunch or whatever. i would like to think that there could be something more streamlined worked out about this. and after opening my yap to ms. mizokami this week, apparently they agree.
as i approached the elementary/jr high this morning i threw an enthusiastic "ohiyo gozimasu" up to my principal who was having his morning smoke on the balcony outside the english classroom. he threw a nice one back at me and added in his most wonderful english "good morning". (i love it when teachers say good morning to me in english and this happens at the elementary/jr high more than the high school for sure.) i shuffled in and repeated my good mornings for the other teachers in the staffroom, gathered my things for class there on my desk and walked off with ms. mizokami to teach the 3rd graders about pronunciation. after class i was greeted back at my desk by kocho sensei (my principal) as he stood there smiling with a pas con (personal computer/laptop) in his hands for me. i wanted to hug him but knew that it would really freak him out so instead i did a lot of bowing interupted only by small bits of jumping, smiling and clapping my hands. i felt like a little kid at christmas and looked like it too im sure (though none of them have ever seen a little kid all excited on christmas. why would that happen here, its just another day remember?!). they were really welcoming me to their school and accepting me as one of their own. i got a computer on my desk and now i can sit and work there just like everyone else. plus they are reviewing my schedule now and deciding that i should spend more time at the elementary/jr high and plan on making it my home base a few days a week. wow. i feel like i have won some sort of gaijin contest. this is major headway people, this is CHANGing things that have been in place for who knows how long now and doing it without anyone being pissed at me or upset (yet). it is all thanks to ms. mizokami, who is by the way celebrating her birthday today as well.
so happy birthday today to mizokami sensei and to bob too. dont think that i forget that it was his special day today too just because im not back in the states at a reggae show tonight...no way no how.
happy days to all of you out there who bother to keep up with me also.
"you can fool some people some times, but you cant fool all the people all the time. so now you've seen the light. stand up for your rights."
No comments:
Post a Comment