The writing was on the wall last November, then in December we were told there'd be a paycut. We all took one for the team and, alas, the nasty economy topped off with an influenza scare and my Company lessons at Sandvik (see farewell card) had been cancelled because they are TOO busy. Oh that wacky economy! All this has forced my employer to cut my hours down from 35 to about 10! Angered at first, I badmouthed the world and then two days later ran out and landed two more part-time jobs.
One of those jobs will be as a Junior High School Teacher twice a week at four different schools in わたり Watari (the home of handpicked strawberries.) I went to meet the Principals and a few of the teachers and 2/4 seemed friendly enough and one of them even provided fresh strawberries to sample! Yummy!
Another job which should fill out the rest of my work-week (but so far has only provided a few hours...grrr!) is at the USA-Club, a language school with a long-standing history but few students at present. I'm hoping it'll pick up enough so that I can affect a name change from USA- to Canada-Club, yet I'm afraid it'll only attract alcoholics.
This month has proven to be very slow and I've managed to fill my time by pretending to clean my apartment and playing lots of online-billiards. Now that I have my new eyeglasses, I hope to get into the groove of studying Japanese. Then I can fulfill my dream of becoming a translator for manga, OZ books, and Godzilla movies (disclaimer: not true.)Chin-up old man, things will improve and who knows, 2010 may prove to be my best year yet! (2009 sucked so much that it's not so lofty a goal!)
2 comments:
you're still so lucky you got to move to Japan, i thought about doing what you're doing for years...
I am one of the lucky ones. I came when the wages were still reasonable. If I were to come today, it's take a lot of searching to find a comparable job.
Younguns who come here still have several options, not old farts like me!
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