Well I did pretty good for a few months updating every week or so... And then I once again fall off the bandwagon. OH WELL.
Time to get back up on that horse.
Oh and just so you all know, I also have a webcomic that I pay attention to more than this.
http://novacation.smackjeeves.com/
So please, check it out
Friday, 5 August 2011
Monday, 4 July 2011
April 5th-11th 2010
I started keeping better track of my days after this so I'll start telling you more details. April 6th was my first day of work, there was no actual work to be done, I just had to come in for a few hours dressed formal, sit around, get a tour, listen to people talk in Japanese and then go home. It was exceptionally boring.
7th was much of the same only I had to give a little speech to the students since I was new. Granted I can't speak Japanese and I later learned, they can't speak English, so it was kind of a failing on all fronts.
8th was also much of the same, only more of me dozing at my desk and going over the textbooks a little.
In hindsight I wish we, (D, K, T and S, the teachers I worked with) would have really taken these first few days to really touch base, make arrangements for a monthly meeting (at minimum) and talked about what we were planning on teaching and when. D and K did this with me in the first week, and we made good arrangement for the Jr1 classes. However S and T made no such arrangements and were two of the most scatterbrained, unorganized and uncommunicative people I have ever met. So for the Jr 2, Jr 3 and Sr 2 classes which I unfortunately taught with them (the REST of my classes basically) You'll notice a slow but sure decent of me going nuts.
The 9th classes started. I had made a cute little "Classroom English" worksheet for my classes since I didn't realize how LOW these girls English was.
Each grade was split into 2 to 4 groups, and every class the 2 to 4 teachers would rotate between them. You'd think with such a style of teaching communicating what chapters you covered, what questions you answered or what problems you had in class would be priority. We had books that we'd pass back and fourth to tell each other what we did.
Assuming the teacher before bothered to fill it out.
Or had legible writing.
Or wrote in English.
10th Soda and I packed up his apartment. My packing was easy. Everything I owned still fit in two suitcases. Soda had more problems and needed to borrow two mini vans for all his stuff.
By the 11th we were all moved into the new place. It was lovely. My bedroom was larger than the old apartment, had two gorgeous sun facing windows, we were next to the train tracks but I sleep with earplugs anyway so I can live with it.
We would be paying about Y60,000 to 65,000 depending on utilities.
From the move I owed Soda about 3g in money and back-rent. But with my pay I'd be able to get that back to him in about 2 months.
7th was much of the same only I had to give a little speech to the students since I was new. Granted I can't speak Japanese and I later learned, they can't speak English, so it was kind of a failing on all fronts.
8th was also much of the same, only more of me dozing at my desk and going over the textbooks a little.
In hindsight I wish we, (D, K, T and S, the teachers I worked with) would have really taken these first few days to really touch base, make arrangements for a monthly meeting (at minimum) and talked about what we were planning on teaching and when. D and K did this with me in the first week, and we made good arrangement for the Jr1 classes. However S and T made no such arrangements and were two of the most scatterbrained, unorganized and uncommunicative people I have ever met. So for the Jr 2, Jr 3 and Sr 2 classes which I unfortunately taught with them (the REST of my classes basically) You'll notice a slow but sure decent of me going nuts.
The 9th classes started. I had made a cute little "Classroom English" worksheet for my classes since I didn't realize how LOW these girls English was.
Each grade was split into 2 to 4 groups, and every class the 2 to 4 teachers would rotate between them. You'd think with such a style of teaching communicating what chapters you covered, what questions you answered or what problems you had in class would be priority. We had books that we'd pass back and fourth to tell each other what we did.
Assuming the teacher before bothered to fill it out.
Or had legible writing.
Or wrote in English.
10th Soda and I packed up his apartment. My packing was easy. Everything I owned still fit in two suitcases. Soda had more problems and needed to borrow two mini vans for all his stuff.
By the 11th we were all moved into the new place. It was lovely. My bedroom was larger than the old apartment, had two gorgeous sun facing windows, we were next to the train tracks but I sleep with earplugs anyway so I can live with it.
We would be paying about Y60,000 to 65,000 depending on utilities.
From the move I owed Soda about 3g in money and back-rent. But with my pay I'd be able to get that back to him in about 2 months.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
April 2nd 2010
Still having issues with Soda now that we've been looking at places. I told him I needed him to talk to me more and I think he's being more honest towards me with his feelings and I've been more honest towards him with my feelings since we almost broke up in October.
However an "Honesty of feelings" is that he says "Fuck you bitch." to me a lot more often, and I now call him a cunt all the time, oh and we no longer have sex.
You'd think something like 2 months with no sex (Not that I've been really denying him, but he's not trying and the two times he did was at like 1am when I was just falling asleep after I'd worked all day, and needed to be up by 6am to work again) would kind of mean something is really wrong. But I just figure he's finally disgusted enough by me or that he really does think I'm fat since he keeps on hinting at that.
I don't really care. I've lost weight since I started dating him and I've lost weight since I came back to Japan and if he wants a stick then he can date a Japanese girl.
Anyway just kind of getting this off my chest so that I can be calm with him.
Once I move (even though he's insisting on moving with me) our apartment will be a 2 bedroom deal so once I pay him back for the move I'll fully break up with him. I've been hinting at a break up for a while now (getting a job so far away, telling him I don't want him to move in with me, asking him if he's sure he wants to move because what if we break up, asking him if he's sure since he's so far away from where he's been living for so long.) And we've had some fights where I basically tell him I don't like him anymore. But then he always cozies up to me and begs and whines and pleads and like the weak willed girl I am I always take him back (but mostly because I'm living in his apartment now and I can't afford to leave)
Hopefully getting some space from him and some finances will help me grow a pair.
However an "Honesty of feelings" is that he says "Fuck you bitch." to me a lot more often, and I now call him a cunt all the time, oh and we no longer have sex.
You'd think something like 2 months with no sex (Not that I've been really denying him, but he's not trying and the two times he did was at like 1am when I was just falling asleep after I'd worked all day, and needed to be up by 6am to work again) would kind of mean something is really wrong. But I just figure he's finally disgusted enough by me or that he really does think I'm fat since he keeps on hinting at that.
I don't really care. I've lost weight since I started dating him and I've lost weight since I came back to Japan and if he wants a stick then he can date a Japanese girl.
Anyway just kind of getting this off my chest so that I can be calm with him.
Once I move (even though he's insisting on moving with me) our apartment will be a 2 bedroom deal so once I pay him back for the move I'll fully break up with him. I've been hinting at a break up for a while now (getting a job so far away, telling him I don't want him to move in with me, asking him if he's sure he wants to move because what if we break up, asking him if he's sure since he's so far away from where he's been living for so long.) And we've had some fights where I basically tell him I don't like him anymore. But then he always cozies up to me and begs and whines and pleads and like the weak willed girl I am I always take him back (but mostly because I'm living in his apartment now and I can't afford to leave)
Hopefully getting some space from him and some finances will help me grow a pair.
Monday, 27 June 2011
March 2010
Still doing a lot of interviews and playing a LOT of World of Warcraft. Finally being level 80 and a damn good healer I'm getting in on some nice raiding groups and starting to get myself some top tier gear. I'm hoping to be like somewhat impressive when Cata comes out so that I can roll with the big boys and start doing some of the new content stuff asap.
Been kind of derby with cooking. Being cheap and also just not very inspired to try new things. Forgot my good cookbook for chicken recipes (which you can switch over for anything) back in Canada.
I got hired for a job that finally met my requirements.
Y280,000/month fixed salary.
Paid summer and winter vacations as well as national holidays and any school vacations.
And we had a month to arrange moving to Kanagawa where the school was.
It was a Jr/Sr privet school for rather wealthy girls. SAI (not it's real name) was an international school.
It was a nice place and the other teachers seemed really nice too, I'd be a full fledged teacher and NOT and ALT. I wasn't sure how I felt about that since it was actually ILLEGAL for me to do that (I don't have a teaching degree in Japan so legally I'm not supposed to solo teach)
That should have been the first warning.
It started in April.
Soda and I were kind of on edge still. He was constantly "busy" with his new project, trying to become a self sufficient web programmer. I told him that he'd have to learn to speed up his programming abilities or charge more money if he wanted to be able to hack it as a programmer. Most of those guys made like 10g on a two or three month project. Soda had been working on this for 5 months now and only making like 2g give or take a month.
I started looking for an apartment closer to my work, occasionally insisting that he NOT come with me for this move since I was becoming more and more uncertain as to where our relationship was going. I was tired with him, tired of him never cleaning, never wanting to touch me, only ever mocking me and my interests and my goals. We hadn't had sex since the first night I'd returned from Canada in January, because he was constantly "Too Busy" and I was "annoying him" when I tried to get frisky, and by frisky I mean sit beside him on the sofa.
Still we located a 2DK at the end of the month and made arrangements to move in, in the first week of April, two days after I started working. It was a nice place and between the two of us cheaper than the last place. Each of us had our own room, our own space and I was REALLY hoping that would make things better between us.
Been kind of derby with cooking. Being cheap and also just not very inspired to try new things. Forgot my good cookbook for chicken recipes (which you can switch over for anything) back in Canada.
I got hired for a job that finally met my requirements.
Y280,000/month fixed salary.
Paid summer and winter vacations as well as national holidays and any school vacations.
And we had a month to arrange moving to Kanagawa where the school was.
It was a Jr/Sr privet school for rather wealthy girls. SAI (not it's real name) was an international school.
It was a nice place and the other teachers seemed really nice too, I'd be a full fledged teacher and NOT and ALT. I wasn't sure how I felt about that since it was actually ILLEGAL for me to do that (I don't have a teaching degree in Japan so legally I'm not supposed to solo teach)
That should have been the first warning.
It started in April.
Soda and I were kind of on edge still. He was constantly "busy" with his new project, trying to become a self sufficient web programmer. I told him that he'd have to learn to speed up his programming abilities or charge more money if he wanted to be able to hack it as a programmer. Most of those guys made like 10g on a two or three month project. Soda had been working on this for 5 months now and only making like 2g give or take a month.
I started looking for an apartment closer to my work, occasionally insisting that he NOT come with me for this move since I was becoming more and more uncertain as to where our relationship was going. I was tired with him, tired of him never cleaning, never wanting to touch me, only ever mocking me and my interests and my goals. We hadn't had sex since the first night I'd returned from Canada in January, because he was constantly "Too Busy" and I was "annoying him" when I tried to get frisky, and by frisky I mean sit beside him on the sofa.
Still we located a 2DK at the end of the month and made arrangements to move in, in the first week of April, two days after I started working. It was a nice place and between the two of us cheaper than the last place. Each of us had our own room, our own space and I was REALLY hoping that would make things better between us.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
February 2010
More interviews, drawing something everyday and trying to get as many comics done for http://novacation.smackjeeves.com/ as I can so I have a buffer. Also started http://lastpage.smackjeeves.com/ but it's more of a spam of comic like things with the same characters from Novacation.
I got a job offer at a school out in the middle of no where. I said yes hesitantly at first because at the initial interview they seemed like they were a pretty good deal. Everything I was asking for.
And then the sneaky other shoe dropped.
-I had to come in for one week of administrative days and be on call during my vacations, but it was at an 80% pay cut, so I couldn't actually LEAVE Japan or go anywhere JUST IN CASE they needed me. If I skipped these days I'd get no pay.
-I had a Y50,000 "bonus" that if I NEVER called in sick or was late in a month, I'd get. Granted it was WITH this bonus that I would be earning Y250,000.
-it was out in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE. Two hours away from Tokyo, the school was a 20 minute bike ride from the closest station I'd actually be working at 3 schools each about 5 minutes by bike from one another and the closest place they could arrange for me to live was still an hour away by train and like Y80,000 in rent and was the size and appearance of a cardboard box.
-Oh and they wouldn't even pay my travel cost.
Needless to say at the end of hearing all that I declined the position. Funny how these things don't come up until you're actually READING the contract. I got burnt once with tricky contracts with Green Tea highschool I wasn't about to be smacked again.
I got a job offer at a school out in the middle of no where. I said yes hesitantly at first because at the initial interview they seemed like they were a pretty good deal. Everything I was asking for.
And then the sneaky other shoe dropped.
-I had to come in for one week of administrative days and be on call during my vacations, but it was at an 80% pay cut, so I couldn't actually LEAVE Japan or go anywhere JUST IN CASE they needed me. If I skipped these days I'd get no pay.
-I had a Y50,000 "bonus" that if I NEVER called in sick or was late in a month, I'd get. Granted it was WITH this bonus that I would be earning Y250,000.
-it was out in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE. Two hours away from Tokyo, the school was a 20 minute bike ride from the closest station I'd actually be working at 3 schools each about 5 minutes by bike from one another and the closest place they could arrange for me to live was still an hour away by train and like Y80,000 in rent and was the size and appearance of a cardboard box.
-Oh and they wouldn't even pay my travel cost.
Needless to say at the end of hearing all that I declined the position. Funny how these things don't come up until you're actually READING the contract. I got burnt once with tricky contracts with Green Tea highschool I wasn't about to be smacked again.
Monday, 20 June 2011
January 2010
So 2009 was back in Canada
Now for 2010.
I came back to Japan around the 15th. Watched District 9 (8/10) 9 (The animation, made no sense. 5/10) and Funny People (Am I a bad person if I think this is the funniest Adam Sandler movie and yet when he didn't die I was disappointed? 7/10)
Of course, long plane ride was long. Soda let his hair grow out long and I kind of like that scruffy look. He was pretty nice and considerate to me this month, I guess I'd just gotten back and I cleaned everything and he knew he was stepping on eggshells with me at the moment since our big fight in October 2009.
I kickstarted my webcomic http://novacation.smackjeeves.com/ back up finally posting everything and seriously working on it.
I started going to interviews, I had enough money saved so I didn't HAVE to get a job until March but I wanted to get one asap but I also was being picky. Nothing under Y250,000/month, no children under 10, National holidays, summer and winter vacations off. Really that's not even that unreasonable, it's just having standards. My new years resolution was to be happy with my life, I was not going to put up with any shit this year.
Now for 2010.
I came back to Japan around the 15th. Watched District 9 (8/10) 9 (The animation, made no sense. 5/10) and Funny People (Am I a bad person if I think this is the funniest Adam Sandler movie and yet when he didn't die I was disappointed? 7/10)
Of course, long plane ride was long. Soda let his hair grow out long and I kind of like that scruffy look. He was pretty nice and considerate to me this month, I guess I'd just gotten back and I cleaned everything and he knew he was stepping on eggshells with me at the moment since our big fight in October 2009.
I kickstarted my webcomic http://novacation.smackjeeves.com/ back up finally posting everything and seriously working on it.
I started going to interviews, I had enough money saved so I didn't HAVE to get a job until March but I wanted to get one asap but I also was being picky. Nothing under Y250,000/month, no children under 10, National holidays, summer and winter vacations off. Really that's not even that unreasonable, it's just having standards. My new years resolution was to be happy with my life, I was not going to put up with any shit this year.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Another reason why I like teaching at Eikaiwa's
I teach at an Eikaiwa again now. Sometimes I hate it but sometimes you meet the coolest people. I just met a lady that volunteers with abused and orphaned kids, setting them up with apartments since kids without parents can't get apartments in Japan without guaranteers. It's a really awesome service that she does and I'm glad to have met her.
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