at one of the schools i teach at, it has been awful from the very first day. very cold reception, very unwelcome feeling, and very bad atmosphere. i wasn’t sure if it was just that the school was that kind of school or if the teachers just didn’t like me.
i still don’t really know which one it was for sure, but i do know that both are pretty much true.
i heard from my employer today, and they told me that the principal has told the board of education that he’s “concerned” that i “don’t understand japanese school systems” or something like that. his complaints against me were how this past friday one of the students caught me chewing gum at lunch recess and went and told the principal, and how occasionally i’m a few minutes late. i travel an hour to get to the school and sometimes the trains are delayed from rain. which makes me miss my bus. meaning sometimes i AM a few minutes late. i always call and apologize and i haven’t ever really missed anything anyway. so it’s not like it’s caused a problem.
obviously his complaints are minor, but he felt the need to call and tell the board of education, my boss’s bosses, that i’m a bad employee.
anyway, i already wrote one really long entry about this but i unpublished it because i don’t think it’s necessary to go so in depth with this. especially considering the apparent amount of people i don’t know that are finding my blog based on searching for japan or something. no offense to those that are doing that. it’s just that i meant this blog mainly for people i know.
point is, i turned out to be right and they really are sort of out to get me at that school.
it’s nice now because it’s sort of in the open now, instead of them just acting like jerks to me all the time and me pretending everything’s normal and trying to be friendly all the time. now when i’m acting friendly and they’re being cold, i know why.
my company has told me that it’s nearly impossible to get a school change in the middle of the school year, so my options are to either stay there until next march, or, break my contract and leave. they didn’t tell me the last part, but it’s how i am looking at it.
i’m going to just wait and see. it’s only been 3 months. it’s ONLY BEEN THREE MONTHS! IT’S ONLY BEEN THREE MONTHS and the principal is calling the board of education tattling on me like the kid that tattled on me for chewing gum. for equally valid complaints, both of them.
i guess it’s no secret that i haven’t been having as much fun in japan as i thought i would be, and after this i’m not sure how much i feel like fighting to stay. if those jerks at the school are the type of bitter assholes that want to try to make my life Hell for no good reason, then what would i want to fight for that for? it’s not really a giving up thing. i’m not a quitter. it’s more that i feel like i’m wasting my time here. i was having more fun when i was back in LA. everybody i know has jobs and they’re making good money and getting started doing big things. i’m wasting a year and not even enjoying it. call me spoiled or lazy or whatever you are thinking, because you don’t have any idea. oh well. it’s just how it is.
it really sucks because the one other school i’ve been teaching at has been awesome. they love me there and i love being there.
anyway, i will definitely be sticking around at least until the fall. i’ve dealt with worse jerks than these people before for much longer periods of time, so i know i can handle it. i think that if, around september or october, things aren’t better, and especially if they’re worse, then i’m going to put in my 30 days’ notice and get back to the real world.
it’s basically my bed time right now and i feel like i had a bigger purpose for starting to write this entry. it’s starting to turn out like the one i wrote and took down before. i don’t know.
basically, i think that maybe japan isn’t really that bad of a place if you get the right situation, but i’m a pretty unlucky guy sometimes and i have got a pretty bad draw. i also found out this weekend that those little numbers written by my door panel on the outside of my apartment are most likely burglar codes, so i’m probably about to get ripped off. i scribbled them out, but the fact remains that they are targeting this building. my door handle was partially unscrewed the other day when i came back. it was hanging off.
it seems that the rainy season might be starting to come to an end! and my summer break is going to start in about three weeks!
so i’ll be free for half of july and all of august. i’m pretty excited even though i have nothing planned. i’m probably going to just try to catch up on my sleep.
speaking of which, i need to go to bed. when i remember what i meant to write in this entry i’ll edit it later
How the hell did they unscrew the thing? Thought that was only possible on one side of the door… unless that side is facing out -_-’
Comment by Cesar D — July 1, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
there’s like a little panel that covers the area where the screws are, and somehow it was pulled away, and sure enough there were screws facing out that way. don’t ask me, man. seems like a huge security issue if someone’s able to break into your apartment by simply unscrewing your door handle from the outside with a plain old screwdriver, but it wasn’t me that designed the stupidass thing, so i don’t know
Comment by attensean — July 1, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
…you should post a picture of that.
It’s interesting and relevant.
And a couple paces away.
:3
Comment by Cesar D — July 1, 2008 @ 8:19 pm
nah, i already fixed it with my own screwdriver so there’s nothing to really see.
also i scribbled out the code that the burglars wrote, so there’s nothing to see there really, either.
when i come back from work someday soon and find my door swinging wide open, i’ll take some pictures then
Comment by attensean — July 2, 2008 @ 12:51 am