James Cameron finds Jesus!

Just not quite in the way you might expect.

I'm the first to admit that my schedule is ridiculously easy, and that I could stand to work a few more hours. But c'mon. Monday morning? Urgh.

Two bright sides:

1) we still have to do the trial lesson. Maybe the kids will hate me.

2) Andrew seems to feel extremely guilty about this, and is offering me compensation. The amount? To be haggled out between us.

We were supposed to be going snowboarding again next weekend, but instead, Liz and I have decided to scrounge up some axes and cut down all the cedar trees in Japan. An extreme reaction to hayfever? Hah. Hardly.

Pauline thinks we're joking. Boy, is she in for a surprise.

I am not normally a person who remembers my dreams, and if last night's was any indication of their usual quality, I can only be grateful. I had a dream about...I can barely bring myself to admit it...Paris Hilton. Yes. You heard me. Paris Hilton. For some reason she decided she wanted to learn Japanese (in real life, I'd be surprised to learn that she actually knew there was such a language), and she wanted to study at MI. In the dream, Andrew was teaching her at first, but then had to go, so I took over. I don't remember what we talked about, but her Japanese was actually pretty good. Also, she was less annoying in my dream than she probably actually is. At the end of the dream, she gave me a coupon for a discount at the Hilton hotel in Jamaica...$29.99 off! I woke up making a WTF?? face.

However, after talking to Andrew today, I can't help but wonder if this dream was somehow prophetic. It seems things might change at MI; changes that might bring us (or even me) a bit more money, but will involve a lot of annoyance in my life. We have been approached about teaching at a kindergarten on Mondays. Monday mornings. Now, I am all for stuff that makes the school more money (financially stable employers are happy employers, and happy employers make for happy employees!), but I am NOT all for stuff that makes me get up early on Monday mornings. Andrew said that Masami still didn't have a lot of information at this point, so they're going to talk about it on Saturday. He did say that if I end up doing this, he might take over my Monday afternoon/evening classes, or else I might get a raise. Which I guess is good, but....MONDAY MORNINGS. EVERY MONDAY.

Eep.

nataliedee.com

It's like every time I ride public transportation!

Kids are weird. My Tuesday girls seem desperate for me to take my glasses off. I am mystified as to why. Today two of them started asking me, in Japanese, to take them off. I pretended I didn't understand their Japanese (partly to reinforce the whole "we are in English class, speak English!" thing we've got going, but partly because it's just plain funny to watch them try to mime what they want.) They eventually got Andrew to tell them how to say it in English: "Take off your glasses, please!", to which I answered "why?" This stumped them, until Keiko came up with "because I have finished my writing!", which as far as compelling reasons go is, frankly, not so compelling.

Then, and I can't remember how this came up, they found out that Miho and I don't actually get to keep the money they give us for their monthly fee. When we told them that Andrew gets it and pays us out of it, they got quite indignant. (Possibly because I told them with a straight face that I only get one yen and Andrew keeps all the rest. Bad Alisa!) They staged a mini-riot, yelling at Andrew that he should give Miho and I more money, if not all of it. Miho and I were too busy laughing hysterically to stop them. Lord only knows what they're gonna tell their parents when asked about how their English class went.

Hooray! I totally did not cripple myself! Ok, so there is something weird going on with my foot, but I can totally walk on it, so la la la. The snow was terrible, though, all icy and hard.

Also, I think my hayfever kicked in. I've been feeling a bit itchy and sniffly lately, but nothing too bad. And then BAM! Although since I was three kilometers up a mountain and it was snowing, I'm not sure where the pollen was coming from. And yet, sneezing and hapless nose-running ensued.

It was cute, though, to see Pauline react to the snow. Liz never got that excited about it: she was all "Oh, so this is that thing you call snow? Huh. I don't see what the big deal is." Pauline, on the other hand, was sticking out her tongue to catch snowflakes. I threw some snowballs at her, just to help with the mood.

Happy Valentine's Day! Mine was pretty good...one student even brought me chocolates. Plus, I got to spend the day teasing children about their boyfriends, which is always fun. ("So, did you give chocolates to anyone today? You did? Did you give it to...YOUR BOYFRIEND??" 9 year olds freak out way too easily.) Traditionally, V-Day in Japan consists only of girls giving chocolate to boys, but lately there has been a trend of giving "tomo-choco" ("friend chocolate"), where girls can give other girls chocolate. I'm trying to start a trend of giving "sensei-choco", but it doesn't seem to be catching on.

I've also been doing an article about the history of Valentine's Day with my adult students. I had a hard time finding an article that wasn't too hard, but eventually found one that gave the basics. The chronological order is weird, though...instead of starting out with the ancient Roman festival that it is based on, it first concentrated on two saints named Valentine. So first the students meet one guy who was beheaded on February 14th (doesn't that just scream romance?), and then they meet another one who was burned at the stake. It's quite a leap from gruesome deaths to heart-shaped chocolates.

FINALLY getting to go snowboarding again this weekend. Naturally, I do not plan on going up the ski lift alone, so I should be able to avoid any further mishaps. Also, I have found what looks like a very good deal for my vacation in March, and Pauline is totally willing to take a few days off to join me. So now I just need to talk to the travel agent and see if the deal is, in fact, too good to be true.

Exhausted. Simply exhausted. I mean, I worked for a whole hour and a half today! Thank goodness it wasn't consecutive...if it hadn't been for that 30 minute break in between the two classes, I'd be dead on my feet right now.

I was just talking to my brother about the mysterious modem-free internet, and he says I am probably stealing from my neighbours, since my computer has the wireless thingie built into it. He tells me not to question the free internet, which is good advice, except that I'm paying for my own connection. A connection I apparently don't need.

Huh.

So, I was trying to download some stuff this week, but it was taking an awfully long time. I brought the computer to work today, and hey presto! Magic speed. Then I brought it home again, and it commenced to not do anything. So, remembering what happened the last time my computer slowed down, I decided to try unplugging the modem for a a bit. Now, the weird thing is, I'm pretty sure I don't have a wireless connection here at home. But my modem is currently unplugged, and yet that doesn't seem to be hindering my internet connection abilities.

I'd gloat about how it's so warm, and spring appears to have started, but I am currently too sneezy and miserable to bother. Yes, that's right...it's hayfever time! Actually, I haven't had it so bad yet, but I went out for drinks with Kozue tonight and lo! The worst part of hayfever is already upon me...the inability to drink alcohol without sneezing fifty gazillion times.

I hate spring. Stupid flowers.

Remember how just last week I was freezing my ass off and had to wear all of my clothes just to make it through the (two and a half hour) working day? Yes, well, not so much a problem this week. This Friday, the high was 17 degrees. Not only did I not need a jacket or toque or gloves, we actually taught for the first hour with the windows open.

I'd enjoy it, but I'm worried about global warming.

Finally, my knee is all better. Well, almost all better. 99.9% better. And just in time to...wave goodbye to Liz and Pauline as they head off to the fluffy powder snow of Nagano. It's a weekend trip, but I cannot go, since I must work on Monday. (Well, I could go, but I'd have to pay an extra 15 000 yen to get back to work on time via the Shinkansen, so....yeah, no.) Instead, I will be hanging out here, experimenting with fruit pizza and drinking beer. Which...ok, not a bad way to spend the weekend.

Tomorrow is supposed to be both warm and sunny (try not to think of the melting icebergs), so I might try to do something outdoors. Or I might just stay in my pajamas and eat bagels and bake cupcakes while watching cartoons. We'll see.

Filed under Things You Think But Don't Say:

Women as birthing machines. Not included in this article is the bit of his speech where he referred to women (or "machines") of the ages 15 - 50. Which...nice. Let's not subsidize child care, or offer decent maternity leave, or allow fathers to actually have enough spare time to spend with their families. Let's just encourage 15 year old girls to start churning out babies.

Turns out Liz and Pauline still haven't figured out how to change their computer desktop picture. I, however, have, and I assure you that I only use my powers for evil. I guess you could reason that by choosing unflattering pictures of them to stick up, I am giving them motivation to learn how to do it....but you would be so, so wrong.

Common sense prevailed, and I did not go snowboarding. I did get to go back to the onsen, though. It's still nice even if you're not exhausted and in pain, and this time I could climb up and down the stairs with ease.



These are the yukata you can choose from. I went with pink again.


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I also got some more pictures of the snowboarding trip from Wataru. He took a couple of videos, and I have graciously decided to share with you the super short one....that shows me falling down. Well, not so much falling per se. More like I was tired and wanted to sit down. You can tell by how I didn't hit the ground so hard my hat flew off.


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Oh, hush. It was only my third time out ever. I think I did pretty good!

I am so stuffed still. Liz and Pauline had a potluck today. I made carrot cake yesterday, but still got drafted into helping Pauline make 100 spring rolls. (She fell just a little short. I think she ended up with 95.) I think there were only about 20 of us, and everyone brought food. Blake brought spinach dip. Do you know how long it's been since I've had spinach dip? Despite the profusion of food, I mostly filled up on the spring rolls and spinach dip, partly because they were oh so tasty, but also partly because the other food was at the other table, and I didn't want to, y'know, move.

And I got sent home with leftovers.

Best. Party. Ever.

At the risk of sounding like a cheesy beer commercial, I am Canadian. I spent the first 18 years of my life frolicking in the snow. (Well, not ALL of those 18 years. We had summer...for all of about two weeks at a time, but still.) When I moved to Holland, that was the first year I'd ever spent not knee-deep in snow, but it was still one of the coldest years in a while. What I am trying to say is that I am no stranger to the cold. I rather like it, actually. Too much heat makes me woozy.

However.

Today was Friday, which means the kindergarten. Which means the room with no heat. The room that has one wall consisting entirely of glass doors. Double-glazed? Hah. No. Today at work I wore the following: long sleeved thermal shirt, thermal leggings (yes, the same ones I bought to go snowboarding), woolen turtleneck sweater, jeans, knee-high socks, second sweater (non-turtleneck), and thick wool socks. Plus I stuck one of those handy heating pads on my lower back. This may seem like overkill, considering the temperature didn't even drop below freezing, but it barely kept me going for the two and a half hours I was required to be there.

It is now 2:30 and I'm still chilled to the bone, although various flannel and fleece clothes, the kotatsu, and a glass of delicious Cloudberry liqueur has helped some.