Getting an update in before things get busy
Though, I know you all wish I was in more contact, I know, there really isn't much other than work and little tidbits to talk about. I feel like I talk to much about work as it is.
The tidbits, some of you already get because we see you everyday. So I'll do the LJ cuts of doom and let you read what you like.
I am here for another year. This seems to be a first for this particular position in Ishikawa. I could be wrong. I'm working on starting the new school year, the conferences that start in May and run until August and getting to know the new co-workers I have here at the Kyouiku Center due to the March job transfers. My boss has left the prefectural office and been re-assigned to teaching at one of the high schools. The last time I spoke with him he was positively giddy with the joy of getting the hell out of the prefectural office and back in the classroom. Seriously, laughing with pure joy. The bastard. Muko is glad that he has dodged the bullet again this year in taking that role at the kencho. He doesn't want it any more that Shomura did. Shomura was good at it though - honest, direct and consciencious. He is one of those people who is an amazing leader, no matter if is in an administrative role in the government or as an amazing educator making a difference in the classroom. He, however, has a distinct preference for the classroom. My new boss, whom I have yet to meet face to face, is Azuma-sensei. She was at Izumi - where Brian teaches - and he raved about her. Which is good. I am trying not to overwhelm her too much. The mere fact that she is there is probably enough to put anyone over the edge.
One the other side of that, I'm settled into my job now. I think I may get bored with this very easily to be honest. I am still here because I still want to be in Japan. I need to make the most of the time that I have in studying and interacting. This job gives me sporatic moments of fulfillment. When I was a normal ALT, I had one group of people I was dedicated to and I could focus my attention and actions on bettering the quality of my work and my relationships with that singular group, so the payback was also more focused. Now, I feel like I am spread over various groups: the learning center, the kencho, five sets of students and teachers, and a herd of ALTs who either view my job as necessary or unnecessary to their lives (with corresponding levels of appreciation and scorn). My job makes me feel scattered, I suppose. I give what I can. Some days, you come home feeling good about it; more days you come home feeling like you want to ram your head on to a spike to make the throbbing forehead vein stop doing the can-can across your left temple.
I make small changes where I can and hope they are for the best. I'm trying to make more job training available for the ALTs. I want to give people an idea of what they can do - since most have no idea when they get here. I try to establish communication where I can. I try to keep things (ideas, not hamsters) in people's heads. I want to establish more of a community with the people that are here. My goals are to create more resources and learn to be a good little kencho-person. I hope that it will benefit myself and others, in the end.
For those who don't know the power and glory of Tonick (half my first name with most of his last), it is Brian's idea at cheesy and requires all couples we know to come up with their own combined name-thing in the most annoying combined name whine possible.
I think the best way to address this is to steal blattantly from a recent email conversation with knownasl :
knownasl : Everybody keeps asking if I really think you'll get married (why anybody wants my opinion on such a matter I am still not at all sure, but whatever). All I can say is, "Yeah... sounds like it is going to happen to me!" This does not do much for the masses, but what would? You know our friends :)
mingpagoda :This does not do much for the masses, but what would? You know our friends :)
That phrase may speak volumes to the interpersonal dynamics, yes. Yes, we are getting married. It will happen when I get an official proposal, which will happen when he gets the ring I want. Could happen soon, could be five years from now. The way we look at it is that we are in it for the long haul, things like marriage are just techinical social details. For all intensive purposes, emotionally, we already are. I think the phrase he uttered after watching the interaction of the couple we just saw get married over the weekend sums it up well, "Thank you for not being a crazy-fucking psycho. I love you."
Brian has been single-minded lately about the ring. For a week or so it was all he was talking about until I told him he was obsessed. The ring fund is started, so yeah, there it is. Nothing other than that is in the works because I can't be arsed really. I need to learn Japanese first. Wee.
We are good. Life is good. We work well together. We annoy the crap out of one another and there's no one else I'd rather come home to.Now we just need to get off our arses and make them disappear from hiding indoors all winter in a state of inactivity and gluttony.
In other events, we went to Kyoto and Osaka over spring break. We rented bikes in Kyoto and saw the sites. It was nice and we could have spent a lot more time there, as we only had two days. The following days were spent in Osaka for a wedding and the festivities associated therein. We managed Sunday to ourselves and spent it wandering down Den-den Town. We brought home three more pop figures (Zoro, Vivi, and Franky) and I managed to finally find a Kuromi. Lots of cherry blossoms, lots of food, a lot of walking and riding - which was great. It was a nice vacation. I'll get pictures up eventually.
That's the long and short of it.
The tidbits, some of you already get because we see you everyday. So I'll do the LJ cuts of doom and let you read what you like.
I am here for another year. This seems to be a first for this particular position in Ishikawa. I could be wrong. I'm working on starting the new school year, the conferences that start in May and run until August and getting to know the new co-workers I have here at the Kyouiku Center due to the March job transfers. My boss has left the prefectural office and been re-assigned to teaching at one of the high schools. The last time I spoke with him he was positively giddy with the joy of getting the hell out of the prefectural office and back in the classroom. Seriously, laughing with pure joy. The bastard. Muko is glad that he has dodged the bullet again this year in taking that role at the kencho. He doesn't want it any more that Shomura did. Shomura was good at it though - honest, direct and consciencious. He is one of those people who is an amazing leader, no matter if is in an administrative role in the government or as an amazing educator making a difference in the classroom. He, however, has a distinct preference for the classroom. My new boss, whom I have yet to meet face to face, is Azuma-sensei. She was at Izumi - where Brian teaches - and he raved about her. Which is good. I am trying not to overwhelm her too much. The mere fact that she is there is probably enough to put anyone over the edge.
One the other side of that, I'm settled into my job now. I think I may get bored with this very easily to be honest. I am still here because I still want to be in Japan. I need to make the most of the time that I have in studying and interacting. This job gives me sporatic moments of fulfillment. When I was a normal ALT, I had one group of people I was dedicated to and I could focus my attention and actions on bettering the quality of my work and my relationships with that singular group, so the payback was also more focused. Now, I feel like I am spread over various groups: the learning center, the kencho, five sets of students and teachers, and a herd of ALTs who either view my job as necessary or unnecessary to their lives (with corresponding levels of appreciation and scorn). My job makes me feel scattered, I suppose. I give what I can. Some days, you come home feeling good about it; more days you come home feeling like you want to ram your head on to a spike to make the throbbing forehead vein stop doing the can-can across your left temple.
I make small changes where I can and hope they are for the best. I'm trying to make more job training available for the ALTs. I want to give people an idea of what they can do - since most have no idea when they get here. I try to establish communication where I can. I try to keep things (ideas, not hamsters) in people's heads. I want to establish more of a community with the people that are here. My goals are to create more resources and learn to be a good little kencho-person. I hope that it will benefit myself and others, in the end.
For those who don't know the power and glory of Tonick (half my first name with most of his last), it is Brian's idea at cheesy and requires all couples we know to come up with their own combined name-thing in the most annoying combined name whine possible.
I think the best way to address this is to steal blattantly from a recent email conversation with knownasl :
knownasl : Everybody keeps asking if I really think you'll get married (why anybody wants my opinion on such a matter I am still not at all sure, but whatever). All I can say is, "Yeah... sounds like it is going to happen to me!" This does not do much for the masses, but what would? You know our friends :)
mingpagoda :This does not do much for the masses, but what would? You know our friends :)
That phrase may speak volumes to the interpersonal dynamics, yes. Yes, we are getting married. It will happen when I get an official proposal, which will happen when he gets the ring I want. Could happen soon, could be five years from now. The way we look at it is that we are in it for the long haul, things like marriage are just techinical social details. For all intensive purposes, emotionally, we already are. I think the phrase he uttered after watching the interaction of the couple we just saw get married over the weekend sums it up well, "Thank you for not being a crazy-fucking psycho. I love you."
Brian has been single-minded lately about the ring. For a week or so it was all he was talking about until I told him he was obsessed. The ring fund is started, so yeah, there it is. Nothing other than that is in the works because I can't be arsed really. I need to learn Japanese first. Wee.
We are good. Life is good. We work well together. We annoy the crap out of one another and there's no one else I'd rather come home to.Now we just need to get off our arses and make them disappear from hiding indoors all winter in a state of inactivity and gluttony.
In other events, we went to Kyoto and Osaka over spring break. We rented bikes in Kyoto and saw the sites. It was nice and we could have spent a lot more time there, as we only had two days. The following days were spent in Osaka for a wedding and the festivities associated therein. We managed Sunday to ourselves and spent it wandering down Den-den Town. We brought home three more pop figures (Zoro, Vivi, and Franky) and I managed to finally find a Kuromi. Lots of cherry blossoms, lots of food, a lot of walking and riding - which was great. It was a nice vacation. I'll get pictures up eventually.
That's the long and short of it.