speechless
i have lost my voice
it could be from a combination of many things. mainly the ones that are not giving me any free time at all to rest.
last week i had helped interview 11 people in english, had two school visits, went to tokyo for a golf fair and then ran the first day of my movie seminar.
on the way to the first one school visit i didnt have a great time, i really wish i had caught one train earlier than i did. i was supposed to go to a station called ishioka, about 30 mins from mito, but i only made it as far as hattori, one station shy of ishioka, when the train stopped and sat at the platform for way too long.
finally when i realised we were not moving again, i took out my headphones (currently listening to many different australian podcasts, triple j ones are great, especially hack), and listened to the announcements coming over the train's PA system
"There has been an accident at Ishioka, the police have been called and the ambulances are on their way..."
Great. Another one of these. I pulled out my phone to call my office to get the number of the person who was supposed to be picking me up at Ishioka, (i had left it on the desk at home) and at that point my phone runs out of battery.
Luckily we were stopped at the station and not somewhere in the middle of the tracks. I got out and found a pay phone. Funny, cause i was just listening to how telstra will be getting rid of 5000 pay phones in australia over the next year or so..
I had to call my office 4 times till they got the right number and redirected my lift to hattori station. In the mean time i met a danish person who works for the same english company as Tom and a japanese guy who had just got back from NZ and was now running late for a job interview.
The school visit went fine in the end, but i missed out on teaching one class cause i was so late. sorry grade 5! They still gave me a big box of cakes to take home though.
It would have been faster to ride my bike there in the end. I have been really close to that school before cause it is almost next door to the golf course in Ishioka where tom caddied for last year.
my second school visit, the day after, was also in the same area, but this time we got there with no problems. i went along with Tod, the other CIR in Mito, and his tuba.
I am getting good at these school visits now, dont have to prepare anything cause i have a whole kit made up with photos, maps, games etc that i just take with me to all schools and choose the best bits for each one.
The golf fair in tokyo was something that tom wanted to see and i went along for the ride. it was very... golfy...
way too many golf clubs for my liking. its bad enough letting him loose in a golf store!
Sunday was the movie festival/seminar part 1. We showed "The Dish" and i think it went down well. Had about 20 people turn up and after a few minor hitches (the power not working until 10am on the dot) we got it started. Next week is "strictly ballroom" so if anyone has any ideas for the seminar part, yell out in the comments.
Today, Aurelien (french CIR) and i went to a Natto museum and factory to write about it for the E-Ibaraki Report. Veyr stinky but luckily we didnt have to eat any of it. They gave us some natto furikake as a present. i think we will give them away to people who like it rather than try it ourselves. Natto has to be the worst food in the world. But i did find out in the museum that there is anotehr 6 or so countries that have dishes similar. one even in africa! Aurelien describes it as "food from hell"
anyways, now i have written all this down i wont have to say it and use my voice. i sound very husky at the moment, but its hard to avoid talking. it better get back to normal by thursday as i have a radio interview to do! they want to ask me about australian stuff cause japan will be playing australia in the soccer world cup. the interview will be broadcast in 10 min slabs every day next week, so listen out if you are in ibaraki at lunch time anytime next week.
