New Job and the Valentine's Hedgehog~

Hey! Once again, I went a long time without posting.. ehehe sorry!

My last post was from Christmas to January. Now I'll update you on what happened in February and whats currently happening NOW! Cause I just had one of the biggest shocks in my life today.

Forewarning, I'm exhausted so there is a rant and lots of run on sentences...

In my last post, I talked about how I had decided on the closer school to work at and how I was worrying whether I had made the correct decision or not. I'm very glad I did so. I'm teaching a lot more kids than I thought I would be, and I have total control over class content and a lot of say in helping with management planning. They are very happy and grateful that I am actively participating in trying to make this a great school. It seems that most foreigner teachers are not quite as active, and would rather have the school tell them what to teach than make their own lessons. So I'm on their very very good side; to the point where they will give me a raise as soon as my trial period is over.

[Start of Rant, please skip..]

The only issue I have with this school is the owner. He comes off as classist and slightly racist in that he's always focusing on teaching the "elite".. He's not stating anything obvious, but its just the feeling I get when he talks.

And boy, does he talk! I'll come in to the office to ask a quick yes/no question and it turns into an hour long "training session" which is more along the lines of him repeating everything he told me during his last "training session." Then there is the fact that anything good that happens is claimed by him as his work with training. M, his daughter and the manager I work with, has been doing a great job trying to re-learn formal business Japanese (which is insanely hard by the way) and when ever she does a good job, its due to his "training." Same with me, in the fact that now that I wear more make up, I'm so much happier and better at my job thanks to his training of "Basic Attitude."

It's not so much the content as it is the way he delivers it. It feels as if I've done something wrong, and hes lecturing me over and over again.

And then there was the second day of work. I showed up in my street clothes 10 minutes before work started to I could change into my suit. This HAD been okay-ed the day before. He spent those 10 minutes, BEFORE I had the chance to change, talking to me about some random things that could have waited.  Then after it turned 12 he said, "Oh, you can go change now." THEN during the meeting after I had changed, he told me, "You need to show up earlier to change your clothes. You're not allowed to change during work time." NO DUH! It was you talking at me about NOTHING that forced me to change after work had technically started! I showed up 10 MINUTES early so I could change, but you didn't let me!! Gah!



Ok. Rant done. He's not a bad man at all, but some parts of him I don't appreciate very much. But I enjoy some of our conversations about history, when I can get a sentence or two in~


I LOVE M though. His daughter, my co-worker. Mr. Owner will leave in a month or two once "training" is done, and then it will be just us. She's my new best friend in Osaka~

Here are some pictures of us at an Izakaya after work. Izakaya is basically an alcohol and fried foods restaurant/bar. Each group gets a room and you order a bunch of finger foods, or simple foods to share and then eat and drink for hours~ This is our new Saturday tradition~

 The menu and drinks~

 The lovely ms. M~

 uhm.. me

The floor~ :D

 This is... konnyaku wrapped in pork , fried with karashi and mayonnaise.
Translation:
Konnyaku is a rubbery type of food made from yam that absorbs flavor fairly well, so people use it to make bigger portions for less cost and fat. Konnyaku is negative calories~

Karashi is just spicy mustard~

 This, is kimchi, pork, tofu, bean sprouts, and fish flakes~

Kimchi is slightly fermented and spicy cabbage~

 This, is heaven.

 These are potatoes. duhr.
With curry salt and the "house sauce" which is really just ketchup and Worcesters sauce..

Again, heaven. Its mochi (sticky flour dumpling) with cheese inside, fried, and butter on top. Aka, Heaven.
















I also have a private student whom I teach once a week on my days off who lives nearby. She has two 6 month old twin girls and is fairly fluent in English, but wants to learn more for her nail salon business, which seems to be a branch of an American company. She talked with me about possibly opening our own bilingual pre-school/kindergarten school together in 5 or so years! She created and runs her own business, and has a close friend who has her own advertising company. She told me that it feels sort of like destiny to her that she met me, a young foreign girl who enjoys teaching children, seems to be good at it, and has plans to stay in Japan for a long time. So maybe I'll have my own school some time much sooner than I'm expecting..!

Part 2!

J bought me a hedgehog for Valentine's Day!! :D
Her name is Princess and coincidentally, she was born the same day I arrived in Japan. SO I have been in Japan for 6 months officially, and she is now 6 months old.

Below are her many adorable photographs! And a link to the album for more~
https://picasaweb.google.com/102970583507996767325/March202012

 Cause this is thriller! Thriller night~

I am also going to be starting gardening! I bought pea plants, cucumber plants, asparagus and rosemary for now~ I'll take pictures and post them tomorrow (maybe) when I'm done setting them up.


I also bought a new phone! Its amazing! It has a full slide-out keyboad, the screen is both 2D and 3D, it has TV reception(!), Amazon Kindle, a 3D camera, web browser, Android operating system, and much more crazy high-tech stuff. It was free with the 2-year contract I signed, and my monthly bill for unlimited internet/TV and messaging with 10 hours(?) of talking is only $70 a month!

Aaaand, here are some random photos of my life for you~ Mostly food~

 Avocado and Shrimp Pasta! Sauce was avocado, lemon and mayo~

 With a baguette and Camembert cheese~

 This is the view from the train from when I still went to the school in Sanda. (far away school)

There was some festival the other day, and when I went grocery shopping that night, all this party food was half off!! So we got a 3 day meal for $15!~

 Honey Prawns and Egg Green beans! I used the egg whites and cornstarch as frying batter, and then used the left over egg yolk with the beans!~ Waste naught, want naught~

Mondays after my private student are shopping days. This is what my bike tends to look like once I'm home...














Now, the shocking thing that happened today..
When we got Princess, she as a little over 5 months old and had been housed in a cage with two other males. 30 or so days later... Today... well...

I had opened her cage around dinner time, having left her alone  until then because she sleeps during the day. I took the cover of her hut off so I could pull her out and play with her a bit. She hissed and popped and fluffed her spikes like she normally does when she's irritated at being woken up, so I gave her my finger to sniff. She licked said finger, which normally means she might soon chomp down on it because it smells so yummy. I moved my hand away and shockingly, she followed.
And then I saw something pink. And white. And squirming. And it felt like Deja-Vu for some reason, but I realized there were 3 baby hedgehogs underneath where she had just been standing.

I freaked out for a good 10 minutes.

"Oh my god, oh my god, what do I do, what do I do?!?"

All that good stuff.

And then I calmed down and looked up what to do on the internet. Leave them alone apart from food and water for the next two weeks. Stress, loud noises, disturbances will cause the mom to freak out and possibly kill her hoglets.

Ok, I can do that, but I think I already stressed her out by removing her cave once to look the first time, and then again because J didn't believe my that she had given birth. But I think they'll be okay..
I hope.
I hear them squeaking and they sound so adorable. I got one picture of them before I stopped going to the cage. So here you go!~

And thats all I've got for now. I'll try and keep you all update more, but its been completely hectic transitioning to a new job and then planning tons of lessons and material. I'll try and post when interesting things happen, but atch my facebook for more day to day events! Love you all~

Shufu-H