The Beginning (Part II)

I landed in Japan on January 11^th. I arrived three weeks before my first week of training. I did that because as I said, I'm not an impulsive person and as such, I wanted to make sure that my jetlag would completely pass before I had to retain any form of information.

I stayed in the company guest house (for free, woohoo!) and just wondered around Tokyo and played the tourist.

That first month I stayed in that guest house was really, really cold. It was the middle of winter, it snowed (!!) and the insulation in that building was as good as you covering you head with your hands in the rain. I was sleeping with four big blankets and the heater on. It was intense. Oh also, I was completely alone in a two story house…

Anyway! I wish I could recall specific things about my training week, but it's pretty much a blur. I was so stressed and getting overloaded with information about the books I was going to teach, the type of kids, how to go about teaching adults and babies, survival in Japan training and such that I had a few breakdowns where I had to go and cry in the bathroom for a little bit. During training I also had to observe both teachers I was going to replace and other teachers. That added a lot to the stress levels but also helped understand what I was getting myself into.

My training schedule changed a lot from what it said on paper and that was actually good because I was supposed to have training during the weekend and ended up not to. A thing which allowed me to go to the YG Family 15^th anniversary concert in Saitama! But I digress. I'll make a post about concerts at a later time (since I'll be going to one next week and two more in August).

I finished training and was set to start working. My working days were Wednesday to Sunday and I worked in 5 different schools in 4 different cities. I'd like to point out here and when I say school, I don't mean a regular elementary or junior high school. I mean conversation school. It's basically a place that looks like an office with classrooms. My biggest class has 5 students and I teach students of all ages.

That first teaching day was brutal. I was so stressed I was on the verge of tears 50% of the time, but the other teachers around me and the staff were all helpful and sweet, and the students were all nice. That school is my favourite school now.

It probably had something to do with the magically refilling cookie bowl.

To be continued…