I guess as of tomorrow I’ll be the Unofficial Primary School Senior Foreign Teacher? Or perhaps just the Unofficial Primary School Foreign Teacher with Seniority?
F. and I spent this afternoon helping D. clean his apartment – Mk. was heading the operation, and it was part of our working hours. Well, you’d be amazed how much dirt and dust accumulates after only seventeen months. But it wasn’t so bad after we got underway; we did a pretty decent job and still had tons of time to spare.
F. and I went back to work (D. had taken the afternoon off), and then the heavens opened up with rain and thunder and lightning strikes a stone’s throw away. I got one report finished and was working on another when O-sensei advised turning off the computers. But there were only a few minutes left of work anyway.
Despite using a little orange umbrella that one of my predecessors had ganked (and left in my apartment when I moved in), I still got quite soaked on the way back. I lost my other ganked umbrella back when we were frantically piling out of the rental van we brought back from Ehime. I don’t think I’ve ever seen rain so heavy as the rain I sometimes see here.
D. remarked that his last minutes at work felt rather anticlimactic. I think I know how he feels. I remember how melancholy my departure from TeleTech was – I handed in my badge and headset and five seconds later I was walking to my car. I had given three week’s notice (“And they let you stay?!” some people exclaimed) and was on an internal countdown, but when it was over, it was just over. The feelings of relief and gratefulness (for no longer having to be there) came later, mostly when I was back on PEI digging my toes into the sand at Basin Head.
Day care is running smoothly so far. I haven’t banged any 300kg foot lockers into my ankle, and H-sensei and the others have been exceedingly accommodating.
D. leaves for Kansai tomorrow morning. My own little departure time ticks near. I wonder if I’ll really be able to “travel” for most of the holiday? I only have so much budgeted spending money left, and the trip to Mastuyama took a bit of a chunk out of that. (On the plus side, I know how to save time and money and stress if I organize a trip like that again.)
You know, I really like travelling alone, though. It’s really the best option for nerdy, solarphobic determined cheapskates. Travelling in a group is trickier, because you have to accommodate so many people, but there is usually the potential for consensus. For my money, the hardest way to travel is in a pair – it’s like being the Two-Headed Monster!