Entries this day: Dream GET_Openhouse PM_chillin Sortified Toshiba_sucks Yuu_and_Mi concert meet_Charles timezone_change

Dream

7:33am ICT Wednesday 04 January 2006

I chose to go back separately, and Fred ended up taking all the girls back in Vicki (his Camaro). I felt a pang of "I wanna ride! I wanna ride!" but didn't act on it.

GET Openhouse

12:32pm ICT Wednesday 04 January 2006

Just did the GET Open House and met our students, though we still may do some more swapping. Kellie did a really good job of remembering names and abilities; I didn't really at all... Just remember one guy (Akira) was really funny. The rest are just a blur.

I'm pretty much not even worrying about who ends up in my two classes, but I'll be sure to not have a homogenous class when it's all settled.

PM chillin

3:34pm ICT Wednesday 04 January 2006

Was just chillin' on the top deck; chowed a bunch of lunch and read a lot of _Xenocide_, then worked a few minutes on my curriculum, and then read more on the pool deck while people swam and swung poi balls.

The sky is overcast, and winds and generally flowing right with the boat, making for lovely calm weather and a great day for lounging around outside.

I'm going to write about Vietnam now, using my fish book diary for memory-prompts.

Sortified

9:07pm ICT Wednesday 04 January 2006

Got our classes hashed out; very few changes past what we had done already. I'm quite pleased that I've got 5 and 6 students in my classes; I enjoy smaller numbers of students instead of larger (so long as they are whole numbers).

I haven't been super productive on my curriculum, but I think I'll bang on that a bit more tonight.

After sorting, we had a quick GET Meeting in the Sunshine Bar, and then Nick and Matt simultaneously threw each other into the pool after one or both of them had been (play?) threatening to toss Sachie into the pool.

I had a quick roommate meeting with Carl and Dan; I had heard a rumor that the girls hadn't understood the hilarity of our notes, but they got confirmation that they have decided on a technique of RSVP, and it's all good.

Ran down to the GET Office to do a final swaparoo (Carl said the guy who had requested a low class told Carl that he didn't want it to be *that* low, so I swapped him back from my class to Carl's) and *now* my classes are set.

Toshiba sucks

I was just in time to meet りえ at 7pm to figure out why her computer wasn't burning CDs. Turns out the OS is locked so only one particular vendor's CD burning software can be used. What a horrible way to treat their users.. They have even locked in some crappy software. We were burning about 100 photos and the Time Remaining bar counted from like 2:10 to 1:30 then jumped up to 5:40 and counted down to 3:50 and then plummeted to 2:00 again.. Totally shit software. Toshiba sucks.

Yuu and Mi

9:17pm ICT Wednesday 04 January 2006

Went down to dinner with Rie and happened to meet up with Petra, Karen, Tomoyo, Tomomi, Yuu, and Isabel. I was playfully like, "whoohoo! Going to dinner with 7 women!"

Yuu has a sister named Ai. Yuu and Ai make/get lots of English jokes based on their names...

When I told them I was 13,068 days old, they said I was まめ, which we translated as "diligent." I can certainly go with that.

Tomomi and Tomoyo were like, "Bye, Mi!" and "Bye, Yo!" when Tomomi left the table.

concert

9:21pm ICT Wednesday 04 January 2006

Around 8:50, the girls were like, "are you going to the live?" ("live" as in Live Concert, an example of Japanese English). I was like, "naw, man" and then realized I had nothing to lose (though I couldn't stay for the whole thing), so I stepped into the back/side of Broadway. Soon as the music started, I was like, gotta get outta here, cause it was just rock, which I basically just reject outright after having worked at KTRU.

Then when the lead singer girl started singing, though her voice was cute and lovely, I realized it would be in Japanese, and I'd basically understand nothing. So that clenched it and I escaped without further delay.

meet Charles

12:02am ICT Thursday 05 January 2006

Just got back from all-English session with Charles, the Executive Driver (actually Director) of Second Harvest Japan, aka Food Bank.

I didn't know that most of the 'homeless' in Tokyo are not ex-salarymen, but day-laborers, who reached 55 years old and can no longer work (or their job market dried up).

He recalibrated my brain which had been thinking I could just live off the free food from his organization when he said they only give food once per week.

Hmmmm.

I asked if financially poor people in Japan were friendlier than the working class. He said they were.

After Carl's question, we learned that it's better to be homeless in Japan than the US, unless one wants to change their status, then the US has more resources for climbing out of the job/homeless hole.

Maruan asked questions about Charles' military service, spiritual belief, voting record, and if he was a fatalist. I didn't quite get why, but it's all good.

Mary, Charles' 12(?) year old daughter, who is quite wonderfully bilingual (at least), came in for a bit and answered a couple of questions. She wants to be a singer/actress in Hollywood; she didn't want to come on PB before she was on, and now she doesn't want to get off.

timezone change

1:17am SGT Thursday 05 January 2006

We are back to Singapore Time, just lost an hour. Good night.