An Old Friend

To set the backdrop: 

 

This's my first week of "real" teaching. I mean, sure, I still have plenty of 自己紹介 (self-intro) to do in 6 other grade schools. I was pretty pumped about teaching actual lessons (if you count teaching the alphabet to 1st year JHS / 7th graders). I had an epic fail teaching present prefect tense (e.g. I "have read" the book) to 3rd year JHS students. This's hard enough to grasp for native English speakers, so trying to push this to Japanese kids through a language that they can hardly understand was a death sentence. Luckily, my JTE stepped in and set everything straight again. If anything, I learned to leave the hard stuff to the JTE from now on and just be an English prop; I get paid the same either way. But, I was really bummed out afterwards.

 

 

Earlier in the week, I spotted an old college pal on the desk of my other JHS JTE -- Red Bull! I had forcibly been on the wagon since leaving the States, mainly because I couldn't find it at the grocery or convenience stores. In college, I drank at least one a day, the whole 4-pack on exam nights. This is dangerous indeed.

 

Thursday morning. Quick stop at Lawson's for breakfast (2 onigiri). Right past the front door, on the energy drink shelf, a tall cold can of Red Bull for 275円. I chugged the whole can before driving off the parking lot. I was officially off the wagon, and off to great day at school.

 

By the time I went to bed around 3am, I had (only) 3 cans. My heart's pounding like a jackhammer when I woke up a few hours later for another day of teaching.