Entries this day: Work

Work

11:04pm JST Monday 15 December 2003

First lesson at work was pretty fun. I was genki and students were generally laughing and having a good time. Nice.

Not all the lessons were like that today, but mayyybe nearly half of them were.

Oh, after the first lesson, Ali had a hackey sack out and we started Kawasaki Haki Saki (かわさきはきさき). Actually Tony started. One must say, "this is an official attempt" and all attempts must be recorded on a piece of paper taped inside the teachers' room door.

Junko (the staff member most likely to (attempt to) say anything we tell her to say (such as "I like it went you call me big papa" and "Whatchoo talkin' bout foo?")) was in the room and I was like "Okay, Junko, turn toward me," and she was like "nani?" and I demonstrated a simple inside kick with the footbag and caught it in my hand. "Okay, do that." and she was like, "chigaw chigaw" and I'm like, "just kick!" and served the footbag to her and she kicked it successfully and then instantly said, "Bye! Bye!" and sped out of the room. God bless Junko for putting up with us.

One of my lessons was a training given by Scott to Mike and me. When I had seen the training on the schedule I was like, "I don't think I'm in trouble..." I wasn't. That was nice.

And, actually, the ideas he gave us were pretty good.

During that lesson I glanced over Scott's shoulder to see if I could catch Miki's eye in the next room. This is Miki Haneda, not KG Miki nor high school Miki. I never did. After that, before my last lesson, Guy asked Mike to join him in some pushups in the hall. I joined them. I did 15 pushups and called it good. Guy did 60 straight and then did 10 more. Mike did more than me and fewer than Guy.

After that, and before the lesson, I saw Kaori and Miki H chillin' next to the voice room. I made sure that Miki knew I couldn't meet her tonight; that because I hadn't heard from her I had made other plans (to meet with KG Miki). My last lesson was in the voice room: high school Miki, Keiko (level 3 or 4), and Wada (level 3) were there. Oh; I had had a lesson with Wada and a trial student named Naomi earlier. It also went pretty well. Scott gave me some almost unwanted advice for that lesson, but, again, (actually first), it turned out to be helpful. I didn't do quite what he suggested, but I did use a variant of what he was talking about and that helped. . . . Voice was pretty cool; we talked about origami and then roller coasters (how do I so often talk about roller coasters? hmmmm) Then bing bong time to go.

Ali and I did some more かわさきはきさき. Good way to end a good day. Oh, but that wasn't quite the end

Phil and Ali and I went to a bar and had some drinks. OJ for me and brewskis for they (brewskis??). Ali tried to guess the name of the student with whom I'm going to TDL tomorrow. I told him I'd give 1000 yen if he got it on the first guess and take off 100 yen for each guess after that. Phil ended up guessing (though he didn't know the significance of the name) and I gave him 200 yen, which he put into a pot on the table. Ali had us guess an Arabic name; Mussafa or something; and then Phil had us guess: I got Cedric after a couple guesses. He told us it was an old English name that started with C.

We traded a few simple riddles and I knew all the ones Phil showed us. Phil knew all the ones that I knew that I showed us (I couldn't remember the solution to

       There are 12 coins.  All the coins look identical.  One coin is
       fake and is either lighter or heavier than the other coins.
       The only way to discern the weight difference is with a
       balance which can be used only three times.  By what sequence
       of balances can one find the fake coin and know if it's
       heavier or lighter?

which Mr Reagh gave us in high school. I think we solved the puzzle back then, but I don't remember the solution now) because I didn't show The Carpet Problem given to us by Mr Reagh.

       You have rectangular piece of carpet 12 by 9 feet.  Cut out a
       single rectangular 1 by 8 foot strip from the carpet.  Cut the
       remaining carpet into exactly two pieces so that they can fit
       together to form a square 10 by 10 feet.

Ali mostly gave up before solving any of the riddles. Oh, but he did offer the get 4 units of liquid using a 3 unit and a 5 unit container riddle.

After that I went to hang out with KG Miki, who told me about her trying day at work with her mean boss. Miki told her boss she wants to quit; she's quite torn up about it because she loves her job, just hates her boss. She's going to talk to her (nice) boss tomorrow and try to explain the situation. I encouraged her to get support from parents of the kids who like Miki as a teacher. They can write letters and stuff.

Rocked home and here I am.