Wind of change

In japanese schools, spring vacation is a synonym for spring cleaning. Et pas notre ménage de printemps à tout où on veut que tout étincèle. Nonon. Euh, oui-oui, en fait, mais c'est pas le sujet, là. It's time for the teachers to change schools. After 7 years (tout au plus, 3 if it's your first school), your time is done, on passe à un autre appel, emmenez le suivant.

The schoolyear is from April to March. The pinnacle of absurdity for my occidental brain is that up to this day, they don't know where they're going... yet. Il reste 2 semaines avant la nouvelle année scolaire. Vous imaginez?
In my big school, 6 teachers will definately switch, 1 might, and in my small school 2 are changing too. Si je regarde juste mon petit nombril, ça veut dire que je perds 2 JTEs (Japanese English Teacher), dont le seul à Honmachi, mon bébé école. It also means i will lose 2 (and possibly 3) of my good smoking-men-circle friends who teach me japanese involontarily everyday. :o( I'll keep you updated on this.
Utterly cute, some of my students are giving me thank you cards and everything, even if they know they will still have me next year... C'est bon pour le moral pareil.

You are classes very interisting [sic]. Thank you for happy time.

Spring cleaning also means i will get a new cleaning team(!). I appreciate your concerns, mais oui, je lave toujours les toilettes. Ça m'a pris du temps mettre les ptits gars (plus grands que moi bien sûr) à ma main, pis là on change. And the girls (ici Yuka et Shôkô) are very funny... mais en secondaire 3, tu ne laves plus les toilettes... So i'll have to teach students again how to wash toilets. Soooo motivating. Gotta love teaching.


Last weekend, i cooked with the english club girls. Super cool. Elles savent maintenant faire des crêpes, et je sais maintenant (du moins je me débrouille...) faire okonomiyaki, takoyaki et yakisoba. Derrrricious (comme disent les élèves). The only sad thing is that i have doubts i'll be able to find the right sauces in the future. Le secret est dans la sauce (excellent film) and japan is the kingdom of sauces... anyway, great times. Never seen so much cabbage in my life. Si jamais y'a une pénurie de chou un jour, je vous garantis que les soulèvements populaires se multiplieront au japon!


À tous les profs parmi vous, une pensée: j'ai pas de bulletins à faire, alors le temps est long... mais je compatis quand même avec vous... In those moments it feels weird to have what i call an "underjob", which means doing a sub-version (oh, le jeu de mots) of my own job. Pas sûre c'est clair, mais j'espère que vous suivez. I still check tests (+600 of them), don't worry for me!

Ah mon dieu j'oubliais: Mid-Year Conference est annulée. "mais qu'est-ce?" vous entends-je vous interroger. This is the annual free trip to Kobe organised each year for first year recontracting JETs (=me). Formation continue. And i would need it for new ideas. En 20 ans de programme, c'est la première fois que ça n'a pas lieu. Obviously they had to pick this year... MY year. Ça me rappelle la bourse pour l'argentine qu'on n'a jamais eue, mais cette fois c'est pas la faute de notre poodle national. The rumor says that the programme itself is facing a whole restructuration. My guess is that it will die in a couple of years... very sad, but it's so expensive for the japanese government... They have to understand though that it's NOT a good idea to merge positions like they are doing now to save money, because an ALT like me is no use if he sees his students 50min. a month. Just a thought. grrr...