Flashes of Boredom and Excitement

Three-day weekend earlier means no work on Monday. JET Mid-year meeting on Thursday and Friday mean no work on those days either. The result is a 2-day workweek...with a grand total of one class during those two days. Pretty sweet.

But far from it. On Thursday, I had to wake up at 6am rather than the usual 7:50 in order to make it to the meeting on time. The education center was about 3 hours away from me, and I had to pick up James on the way. So to get there by 9:30, I should have left by 6:30. I left at 7:10. Whoops. I was speeding like a madman though, overtaking everyone in sight in order to get to James' house. Once there, I had made decent time, so little need for speeding but no time for dawdling. Thy asked us to bring lunch, but stopping to buy lunch was out of the question. Luckily my Vice Principal printed me out several maps including the troublesome spots, so finding the place was no problem and we got there at 9:45 on the nose (the latest you could arrive without being late). Sweet deal.

These conferences are generally a waste of time, and this one was no exception. The positive side was that both the JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English) of Louise and I couldn't make it to these meetings, so we had no one of "authority." Looking over us. We sat together instead of with a JTE and just made fun of the whole thing, writing silly stories and jokes on the papers. Since we couldn't bring lunch, we decided to sneak out during lunchtime and go to a restaurant. This turned out to be a fantastic idea and we decided it would be on tomorrow's agenda as well. After lunch we had to get back into groups and sit in boring example lessons. The whole thing just drained you, and left you wondering "Is it better to be away from work, and here beating your head against the wall, or vice versa?"

After boring boring lecture town, we got in my car and headed toward Terrina's house. She lived pretty close to the center so it would be a good idea to stay there instead of driving in the AM. Something fun was definitely called for. We loaded in her car and went out to the bank and the dollar store (to search for musical props and costumes). We found a set of Luchador wrestling masks/power ranger masks and each bought one. Terrina was Gentle Green, Sean was Narcissistic Blue, I was Glamorous Pink, and Louise was Jocular Yellow! (These were written on the package and were in no way invented by us...) Back in the car we headed for Italian. It was a special all you can eat salad/appetizer bar with either a pasta or pizza entrée for about $20. This includes dessert of course. The buffet part was great. Our pizza and pasta however were not so much. Pasta was Bacon and Cabbage in a Tomato Cream sauce... Too Eastern European tasting for me... and the pizza was Corn and Tuna Salad pizza. loaded with onions and mayo... Dessert was ice cream and flan.

After dinner we decided to go bowling, wearing our new masks. First, however, we went to a discount alcohol shop and bought stuff to drink. Upon my encouragement, (because I thought it would have been funny) Terrina parked diagonally taking up three parking spaces outside a liquor shop. It was pretty funny. Sean and Louise bought a brand of sake called "Oni Killer" or "Demon Killer" which tasted horrible but was OK for the novelty. We went back to Terrina's and played cards for a while as we drank. Then we took a taxi to bowling. Much to the delight/confusion/horror (we're not sure exactly) of the many Japanese people there, we bowled wearing our garish masks. I even had Christmas tinsel around me to really enforce the glamorousness of glamorous pink. They put us in a lane next to a group of old ladies who quickly left. :( But were replaced by 19 year old boys who were eager to try on our costumes and have fun with us. We bowled in half real style, half handicapped style. Handicapped means no accounting for actual skill. The difficulty lies in meeting the challenge. For example, we had such rounds as "Flinstones Bowling" where you had to approach the lane like Fred Flinstone. "Turn and Bowl" where you had to spin up to the line and then bowl. “Animal bowling” where the approach was in the style of an animal of your choice, etc.

Hilarity ensued when Terrina's ball got stuck in her fingers and stayed there as she swung up.. looking as if she was going to toss it over her head. But the funniest moment of the night was during the Turn and Bowl. A man was next to us, in full bowling gear including a glove, by himself bowling strike after strike in two lanes. He looked serious. During turn and bowl though, Terrina gave him quite the scare of his lifetime. She started turning and went diagonally, landing RIGHT in front of one of his lanes. She of course didn’t realize this and took aim. Time froze still as we were calling out "Terrina NO!!!" as his face froze in the horror of her ruining his perfect games, and Terrina swinging back to release the ball. By some grace of heavenly being, she realized that we were shouting at her and stopped just in time. Heart stopping thrill moment and one of the funniest of my life. I lost miserably in the second bowling round but kicked but in the second round (122... kind of pathetic). After bowling we all got into a mini-picture studio and got more Purikura taken.

God of fortune was shining on us that night because as it turned out there was karaoke in the same building as bowling. They didn’t serve alcohol but suggested we get some from the convenience store if we wanted and bring it in. Also since we had bowled already, they gave us two hours for the price of one in Karaoke. Sweet x2. The crappy bit was we had work at 9:30am the next day and we were out till 3am. We called a taxi at 2:30. The guy didn’t know where he was going and drove the wrong way for a while, doubling our fare. But Louise took revenge by taking a picture in the car, probably blinding him with her flash. Asleep by three, awake by 8:30. No fun.

No fun indeed. We woke up, grabbed McDonald's for breakfast and headed off. This time, despite being a whole lot closer, we arrived a bit later. But the lectures were just as boring. After lunch we arrived back for another lecture that was interactive. Not boring, per say, but nothing interesting. The same old crap, all day long. Enough of this!!!

Finally the two days of seminar were over. We had to head to someone’s house before returning home to check out his closet full of props costumes and things from previous year's musical. After I loaded up my car with both things I wanted and things we needed for our show, we headed home. This time Chris, Janet, and Louise were in my car. It was getting late and we were tired and hungry. we dropped Chris off in the city and Janet Louise and I went to Karaoke Mos Burger down by me. We were all very tired so the energy wasn't up, but it was nice to have the instrumental "Tea for Two" playing while we were being served our food. To take a break from killing ourselves, we went right from Mos Burger to my apartment and quietly watched a movie, staying in all night. The next morning we had musical rehearsal in Anan (by me). We got up late and arrived late, but everyone else arrived later (as usual). After lugging millions of props into the meeting hall, (Pausing to put on the giant horse head and get chased by Louise with a toy rifle, of course), we got around to actually rehearsing. It was productive. A lot of costume was thought about. 1.5 of the dances were made. Scenes were solidified. Great job.

That night I had to take Louise to the train station to go to Takamatsu. She had plans to see some friends out there since she wasn’t going to be around for a while. I went with James instead to dinner, and a bar. The crappy part of the bar was that I was sitting next to a Japanese guy who was drunk off his ass and thought it was funny to keep hitting me on the head... I would have punched him if I wasn’t a symbol of friendly foreign relations as well as a community figure looked upon with much scrutiny (a teacher). So instead an endless barrage of bludgeons to the head compounded my following morning’s hangover. Thanks a lot jerk. Lucky (sarcasm) we had musical practice the following morning in the city.

Everyone's late. What else is new? But when they get there, I begin the big dance number (to the music for Footloose). Despite my feeling like hell, it comes together really well and makes for another productive day. Louise comes in really late, but is excused as she was out shopping for costume goods. We have delicious curry for lunch and all is good. After the musical meeting, James Louise and I go to an actual Italian restaurant for dinner, then our separate ways back home.

PICTURES!!!

posted by Living and Teaching in Tokushima @ 1:44 PM Comments: 0