Wet weekend

Well, my open day class is over and done with. It is always heaps weird to conduct a class with a bunch of adults just standing there watching in the back. My technique so I don't get flustered is to just ignore them completely. I never look in their direction and never refer to them being there to the kids. It seems to work, mostly the kids ignore them to. But there was one dad today who decided to lean in the window near the blackboard and shout out the vocabulary words while I was putting them on the board. Wanker. The kids were kind of less energetic than usual at first but by the end of the class they were ok again - livened up by plenty of game action.

So now I have 2 hours to kill before the end of the day and I can go home and just relax again. Tomorrow I have lots of odd jobs to do. I was thinking of going and seeing a movie as well. Just because I don't get to watch much quality here since the TV is crap and I don't have a VCR so I can't hire videos. I dunno that there is anything quality screening at the moment though anyway. The ladies I was teaching yesterday told me about some film with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in it which is a re-make of a Korean film about 2 people separated by 2 years but communicating through letters or something. I reckon the original is probably better. There might be a more appealing Jap film out I can see.

This evening I am meeting up with R and B to sort out our Aussie speech for the event being held on Dec 10. We have been asked to make an hour long speech about Australia after they have a screening of Rabbit Proof Fence so I am trying to sort something out. They would like us to do it in Japanese since they want everyone to come, not only those who can speak English. Big job. I was thinking of just giving them each a beer and a Tim Tam and getting them to watch a footy game... Actually it's quite hard to find footage of stuff like that to show them. I was trying to find a video of cricket to show my grade 3 class but I couldn't. Doesn't help that DVDs have the whole area code thing going on so you can't just get something sent over from Oz. Well, we will have a few beers and sit on it for a while and I am sure inspiration will strike!

Friday night I went out into the city and met up with some foreigner friends I haven't seen in a while. We went out for tea and then on to the Aussie bar where we drank them dry of Coopers Pale Ale :( and then on to drink in the street for a while. There is no law in Japan against open bottles in the street so upon failure to gain entry to a karaoke box due to the apparent need to make a booking on a Saturday night we went to the local convenience store and bought beer. We sat around on some steps being all untidy and stuff until about 2am when the last of us decided finally to push off to bed, which for me was an internet cafe of course... I met some new newbies who have arrived only a week ago to teach for private school, Nova. The foreigner circle in Okayama is a little bit incestuous - everone knows everyone so whenever new blood arrives it is pounced upon and examined thoroughly before an assessment of character is made and quickly passed along to the rest of the crowd who will surely be kicking themselves for having missed the opportunity for a first hand squiz. I had a very pleasant and refreshingly intellectual conversation with one such newbie, enough to make my evening worth while. Sometimes going out and talking to other foreigners here is a little like smacking myself in the head with a knobbly stick with boring carved into the end.

Saturday morning I had to get up quite early and choof back home to teach those private English classes I am doing. Their rightful teacher comes home today so I am all done with that now. It wasn't a fun time really. Most of the students are elderly and sometimes they just want to talk about pretty boring stuff. I was struggling against not only my boredom but slight hangover and severe lack of sleep. We ended up talking about tattoos and why they are so bad in Japan. Do you think that when I am old I will have as little capacity for broadminded thought as these old people do? Or have they been narrow minded their whole lives? Anyway, one of them gave me some fresh vegies from her garden which was lovely and I had some sauteed green beans, eggplant, capsicum and asparagus for dinner. Yum. I had a bit of a nap in the late arvo and then went to bed fairly early so this morning I was all back to normal ready for work.

Yes, it is raining.