Oops, my bad desu.

Yeah, So i've totally biffed and not been putting up lots of posts lately (it's been what, 3 weeks?) so i'll go ahead and drop a 'my bad' right here.

My last post mentioned the high schoolers taking their entrance exams. Since then, not too much has happened.

After the test, the school year was pretty much done, and the following week saw me with nothing to do at school and therefore i spent lots of time studying japanese and reading humor websites under the pretext of studying really hard.

We had closing ceremonies on the 18th of March, a long, serious event that I had a hard time getting much out of because I don't understand japanese. I caught bits n' pieces, but still.

We bid farewell to 5 teachers and the principal at the end of the year as well. Tradition in Asia sees teachers switching schools every 4-6 years (the principal was retiring). Kasuga was one of the teachers who was taking off (the head eng. teacher).

We had an enkai (drinking party) to celebrate the end of the year, which was lots of fun for me because i had 2 eng teachers at my table so I could actually carry on some decent conversation, as well as having fun speaking with one of the young history teachers who really likes english. Gotta love how the japanese use alcohol to grease the wheels of the social construct.

The party culminated with some pretty whacky things: including singing the iijima school song, then making a tunnel for the teachers who are leaving and singing a song to the tune of aud lane syne but with japanese lyrics. I sang with english lyrics.

Then, spontaneously, we decided to toss the kasuga into the air as a congragulations kinda thing. After tossing him, the teachers decided they wanted to throw the principal, who's cries of 'i have a bad back!' were met with laughter. The teachers opted to ignore the warnign and toss him anyway. That was sweet. Then they picked up the teeny secretary who's leaving and she got some serious hangtime.

I was laughing so hard and turned to the young english teacher and said 'man, i HAVE to tell people back home about this, because we never do this type of awesome stuff in america!' to which she replied 'yes, but you have to be careful! someone died from this just a couple days ago!' which made me laugh even harder and elicited an angry slap from my english teacher. 'that's not funny!', 'yes, it is!'

anyway, after some additional talking we figured out that i thought she meant they died mid-toss but she meant the drunk fools dropped the poor schmuck.

My initial plan was to be in Korea from March 27-April 5th (with classes startign the 6th) but i made the mistake of asking if I needed to fill out any forms or anything. Kasuga brought me back this mock sheet that the ALT before Jon made.

So i fill it out, say i'll be at school half the days, and in Korea the other half. the principal says that won't work (mind you, i'd run this by kasuga who said it wouldn't be a problem) because i needed to be there april 1st because of the new teachers rollin' in. so i was told that i was outta luck. particularly becuase the JET contract states that we have to be there on spring break like everyone else, and stare at a wall for the two week break. Awesome.

I was getting pretty exasperated while takling with kasuga about it. the convo went like this:

Me: Kasuga, the calendar I have here says that there's no school from the 18th until April 5th!

Kasuga: Well, that's a calendar for the PTA and Students...

Me: Oh, so is there a special calendar for teachers that I'm supposed to have instead?

K: well since we're civil servants we know that we'll have to be here on break...

Me: I DON'T KNOW THAT! >:(

so long story short, I'm spending my break at school, trying to look like I give a shit.

I had Daniel, a private eng teacher from Auz, stay with me for a few days after his contract was up and he had to move out but didn't have anywhere to go for a couple of days.

Two new english teachers, both women. 5 women teachers and me.