Day in the Life

Hello,
You ready? It’s a long one!
Well Christmas is in full consumer gear here as it is back home, no doubt. The mall where I work plays endless Christmas music, which I fortunately cannot hear when I am teaching. Christmas planning seems to also be at work back in Canada where my family so kindly includes me in their planning emails - it sounds loving guys, enjoy the tree and the skating in the park, why don’t you do some caroling while you are at it!…don’t worry about me, I’m not crying over here on the other side of the world…Mhairi and I were looking at Christmas trees today…nice tiny synthetic ones with fiber optic lights! Beat that! Ha and Mhairi says that we will find an ice rink in Tokyo…we will hold each others hands and get through this, family smaily, I have a cute Scot and you don’t!
Anyway….I have been asked to do a day in the life entry so here goes.
Yesterday, Monday, was busy as per usual. I biked to work which was my favorite part of the day. The sun was so strong and the cool crispy air softened by the rays. I love biking to work. I was running to work for a while there but as good as a workout that was, I can actually enjoy my surroundings when I am biking. I have been lent a bike to use for the rest of the month by my friend Rosie. After I arrived at work, clocked in and planned my first lesson the, the work day officially started at 1:20pm. One of the teachers at my school has been ill so we were short two teachers, as my branch manager was off doing training at another branch. This meant for big schedule changes and the Japanese staff juggled the classes around. So I started out the day with only three classes until my break (a schedule I had been hoping for since I had only had breakfast early in the morning) and I ended up with five classes until break which meant that I didn’t get a break until 6pm. But I survived and treated myself to some sushi for dinner. My classes went well. I have been in a strangely playful and giddy mood this past week and I have so much fun with my classes. My students may think I have a few screws loose but I get them laughing and enjoying the lesson so I really don’t care how much glue then think I have been sniffing. Bottom line is, if they’re bored, then I’m bored, and if I’m bored, I fall asleep, actually if I am not laughing or making fun of something or someone, I fall asleep. No one wants a passed out teacher, so they get nutty one. At the end of the day (9pm) I biked home with another teacher, also from Toronto. We talked all the way back so I hardly had time to notice the cold.
Almost as soon as I arrived in the door Mhairi announced that she was off to the internet café to apply for more jobs and to look for an apartment. We seeing as the apartment is for the both of us and we really need to find I a place, I joined her. The bike ride was chilly (Mhairi borrowed a bike as there was no way I was walking all the way there-it’s a 30min walk, in the cold) but quick. We were at the café for about two hours and found a few apartments which we made inquires about. (I have heard back for some and I am off to Tokyo to see two of them tomorrow.) So this took us until midnight. We headed over to our friend Bob’s apartment to return his bike keys and our quick little trip by ended up lasting until around 4am. An English movie came on TV as we were talking and we ended up watching it - The Secret Lives of Alter Boys. I don’t recommend it but I cant say I found it as bad as others in our party did.
So a typical day in my life does not include staying up so late, but it does generally involved watching movies and work.
Today and tomorrow are my days off. Today was spent grocery shopping, walking around the city, and of course, watching movies. Tomorrow it will be back to Tokyo to view apartments. I have high hopes that one of the ones I see tomorrow will be just fabulous and we can take it!
Oh, it is our two month anniversary today. Two months in Japan, and two months of friendship with Mhairi, the coolest and cutest little Scot in the world! When Mhairi gets home from work we will have a glass of wine and do something crazy! That’s right folks, we are going to watch a movie! It is either The Usual Suspects, or Four Weddings and a Funeral. Or maybe we will be REALLY CRAZY and watch BOTH! Can you handle it?
Oh and those of you who know me well will not be surprised to hear that I have been planning my birthday day. The lovely December 9th falls on a Saturday this year, my day off from my new job, and I plan on spending the day checking out Tokyo’s big museums and art galleries and drinking as much Starbucks as I feel like, and of course eating a fabulous sushi dinner! The girls and I will go out in the evening when they finish work…where has yet to be decided but there’s no real rush, we have about 25 days to figure that out.
Cheers
p.s. My skin has cleared up, not that any of you knew it was bad. The only reason that I say this is that I am afraid it is the cold weather that has inspired dermatological transformation which would seem like a good thing, except to a certain person who happens to hate the cold and would really not be happy to have her dreams of living in a warm climate plagued by her skin’s preference to Canadian weather!
p.p.s. yah, yah, I will lay off the glue….