More misc stuff

[I wrote most of this post a few days ago.]

By the way, you'll notice that I don't really mention names, or even the name of my school, in this journal. It is actually a stipulation of my contract that I be circumspect in blogging and not post anything negative about the school or compromise its students, etc. So although I am not saying negative things per se, I think it's just best not to go there. Even though only family and friends read this blog, I'm sure it could still be found in a web search.

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Yay, I'm finally on the grid! Today I bought a laptop. It was a bit of an undertaking. I wanted a PC, but to get an English OS on them would be a big hassle, so I have ended up with a cute little MacBook instead, and that was surprisingly easy. I know they're supposed to be better computers anyway, I just have to get used to the interface. I should have paid more attention to Stace. :)

I'm happy now I can write down whatever comes into my head. I want a good diary of my first few weeks in Japan, but to have to write everything by hand into a notebook, and then occasionally make the odd entry when I get access to an Internet cafe... well, so many details get lost.

This MacBook is pretty cool. When I first turned it on it gave me the option to run it in English. It also let me set up my keyboard English-style. So even though my 7 key may say it's an apostrophe, it does the & symbol as it should, and even though my apostrophe key says it's a * key, it types an apostrophe. So basically if you didn't already know your keyboard symbols, you would be confused by my keyboard. But I'm happy. :)

It also has a webcam built into it, yay! The only thing currently irritating me is I don't have the flexibility to edit pictures that I'd like. I just want to copy and paste my pics into a folder, open some of them and resize them, but I don't seem to be able to do that directly.

I do have wireless Internet access in my apartment but at the moment it's not really mine, so the connection is not good. If I move my laptop 3cm from its current position, I lose the connection.

Working at my school

Every time I go into a class I check and re-check that I'm teaching the correct unit for that week. I keep thinking I'll accidentally start teaching the wrong subject. Today, I finally did it. I did a pre-activity that must have made no sense to the students, and then said in a loud, confident voice:
'Please open your books to page 79.'
Blank pause.
'Page 79?'
'That's right. Unit 13.'
'But this week is unit 12.'
I look at all the students. Every one has their book open to unit 12. I ended up having to run out the room to get the real lesson materials. Fortunately I had quickly gone over these the previous week... hahah... oh well, at least I'm well prepared for unit 13, which starts on Thursday. :)

Living alone

Living alone is going okay. True, I have been living in squalor slightly more mess than I would have with Catherine or Stace, but I blame that on the garbage system. I felt overwhelmed with plastic bags and bits of packaging, and everything in my apartment was new and had packaging. It took me an hour and a half to sort my first week's garbage. I think, henceforth, a System needs to be implemented...

I think it's kind of rough that we have to follow such a rigorous system of recycling, because the wastage you see every day is horrific. I mean, yesterday I bought a small plastic container of gyoza (Chinese dumplings). They wrapped the plastic container in plastic wrap. Then they put it in a paper bag. Then they put that in a plastic bag. The amount of packaging on everything doesn't just border on the ridiculous, it's crossed way over...

Sadly the legacy of IKEA follows me, and I have already assembled an item of furniture. My apartment didn't come with a chair, which is typical - my first ryokan had no chair, per se, either. I bought a kind of cheap, basic office chair and put it together. I've also bought my MacBook and a DVD/VCR player (quite cheap really).

The downside with this is that newspapers, magazines, papers and cardboard boxes are only collected ONCE a MONTH. And of course, I started buying things The Day After that day. Now I have so much packaging from all my purchases. And my apartment is none too spacious, for storing this!

The other annoying thing about garbage here (oh, there are so many annoying things about it, actually!) is that there are different days for everything. I'd be happy to be able to just put out all my garbage on, say, a Tuesday. Instead you have to think, oh, I can put out burnable garbage on Tue, Thur or Sat; I can put out plastic packaging on Wednesdays, etc etc...

As for cooking, I have made progress this week. I'm slowing making the transition from buying all my meals around Kawasaki station, to 'cooking' frozen meals in my toaster oven. Hahaha! Right now my apartment smells of burnt cardboard. The illustration on the packet clearly showed the meal being heated in a toaster oven (the only kind of oven I have), but I must have misunderstood the directions somewhere along the line...

[It's a few days since I wrote the above paragraph and since then I've started doing actual cooking, but only the most basic, lazy sort - frying some mince, stir-frying some vegetables, pouring garlic powder, salt and pepper over it, and then adding in soy sauce. Only I don't think it's actually soy sauce. I thought I was buying soy sauce, but when I opened it, it smelled exactly like miso soup. But then, miso is made from soy, right? So I don't know. But it tastes fine, although it's definitely a 'single person cooking for themselves' kind of meal!]