Entries this day: Called_by_Hitomi Crisis_equals_opportunity Lunch_student PM_student bike_check

Called by Hitomi

1:12pm JST Wednesday 30 June 2004

Hitomi called me at noon and asked if she could get her stuff.

I'm happy about her calling. I was happy to hear from her. I hope we can switch to friends mode.

Jen came to my room at 12:30. She came in and I was like, "she called me."

"Really? She called me too, about 6am."

What?? Why did Hitomi call you at 6am, and how did she even get your phone number?

- - - -

Jen, it turns out, was talking about Olivia.

Olivia, hating how badly she was being treated by the kids she was nannying, left in the middle of the night and is coming back to Japan.

wow.

Crisis equals opportunity

1:10pm JST Wednesday 30 June 2004

Casey Jones: have you heard the new dead prez album?
Rob Nugen: No I haven't
Rob Nugen: Have you?
Casey Jones: Yes
Rob Nugen: HI!
Casey Jones: how's it going?
Rob Nugen: Cool
Rob Nugen: It's wild
Rob Nugen: my friend is having a crisis
Casey Jones: how so?
Rob Nugen: crisis = opportunity in Chinese
Rob Nugen: Um.. several things happening all at once, each of which need specific attention
Casey Jones: ahh
Rob Nugen: I can list the several things;... but what would have been
           better is if I could have recorded her tirade, which was
           not done in a frantic crazy manner, but just a bit fast,
           and just so much stuff..
Casey Jones: hahah
Rob Nugen: I need to zoom; I'm meeting a private student for the first time in a couple hours.
Casey Jones: later man
Rob Nugen: I have just woken up (it's 1pm) (woke up at noon)
Rob Nugen: and need to take a shower so I can smell like a fresh flower instead of like a rally.
Casey Jones: haha
Rob Nugen: Hugs to you!
Casey Jones: Have a great day
Rob Nugen: too. bye!

Lunch student

2:45pm JST Wednesday 30 June 2004

In 15 minutes, I'm supposed to meet a private student for the first time. She doesn't speak English well, and I don't actually know her name nor what she looks like, but, here I am at McDonald's (*) (!) waiting for her.

(*) This is the second time I've been to McDonald's in Japan to actually eat anything besides a vanilla shake. The first time was to meet a student for the first time. He bought be a chicken sandwich and subsequently called me after having chosen someone else to be his girlfriend's teacher.

(!) According to an article (which could be fake, but likely isn't due to the possibility of being sued for slander) in one of the business textbooks at Gaba, three new McDonald's restaurants are opened each day

- - - -

It went fine. I was a bit nervous before meeting her, but remained generally relaxed in the stomach. When she originally called me, she was like, "I have a kid" or "can you teach my kid?" and I was like, "okay."

I didn't know which she had said, but I was ready for the possibility. Every mom and kid that arrived made me like, ?? Is she the one? Until finally I got continued eye contact from a woman and I knew she was the one.

Walked to her house while merging Japanese with English with mom and daughter. Found out the daughter's name is Hanami. Found out her toy stuffed cat's name is Nekosan (Mr Cat), a good name for a cat.

On the way to their house, mom told me she has another child; a few month old son. Grandma is around, and I wondered about appropriate behavior when meeting her. I wondered more about what materials we might need to buy. I chose not to suggest that we buy books or other materials after the lesson.

We arrived in their house and I just hung out in the living room playing with Hanami. I asked her name again and found out it's Sanami. She cracked out her crayons and a pad of paper. I was telling her colors and she was coloring and I tried some of the Nova-style teaching because she had just yesterday finished a Nova kids class (but it didn't work too well for her so I aborted that).

She had trouble with "red" and I taught her some new colors; light blue, brown, peach. I was like, "do you have any books?" and mom came into the living room and hooked us up with some books. four different books of different varieties of difficulty and style of writing. Some used Japanese and English translations, some were only English very easy level and one was higher level.

We scheduled 6 more classes over the next two months. Awesome.

PM student

7:51pm JST Wednesday 30 June 2004

Maki and I are supposed to meet at 8pm at Musashi Nakahara station. I'm outside the south exit of the staiton now, and have been looking for bikes taht look like my bike. Haven't seen any, but I have seen one with disc brakes. I did see a bike pound that I haven't seen before; I'll check it tomorrow to see if my bike is there.

I'm not nervous about meeting Maki, like I was nervous meeting my first student today. I don't know if that's primarily because she's my second new student today, or if it's because she speaks better English. However, I think those are the main factors.

10:27pm

The lesson went well enough, but I don't know that we'll meet again. The times she's available are generally not the times I want to teach and vice versa. She'll call me or not later.

bike check

10:27pm JST Wednesday 30 June 2004

Hitomi is calling the police station to see what if anything has happened with my bike. She says if my bike has been picked up by the cops for being illegally parked, the registration numbers are checked against a local list of reported-stolen bikes, but it's only for the local area.

I definitely appreciate her help, and I'm wondering about the possibility of getting it back.

On the way to and back home from Musashi Nakahara, I passed a bike pound and wondered if my bike was in there. Oh; I already wrote that.

10:33pm

I'm trying to find out now if I should go to the bike parking lot to get my bike more quickly.