monkey. 

Yes, that is me....errr...the CLOTHES were cool...? 

Beppu and Halloween

This will be much shorter than the rest. A while back I went to Beppu with a teacher from my school, his family, and some other teachers. Although the hot springs are what make beppu famous, what made our ryokan (Japanese inn) stand out, was the costumes. That's right. Costumes. They turned me into a samurai. I begged and pleaded to just let me be a white dude in Japanese garb like Tom Cruise was, but ooOh Noooo we are really good with make up, so we'll make you into the real deal. Yeah right. They tried. That is all I will say. I will let the disturbing picture I post say the rest. I will say from a distance it looks so-so. From close up I looked more like a crack-addicted Charley Chaplin. The other picture is from Halloween, I was a monkey.

this was AFTER the typhoon. What can I say, it was a good muffin! 

Don't Come In = Where are you? you are LATE!!

I am including a picture that has absolutely nothing to do with this blog aside from the fact it was taken in/around the same time period as the events I will now relate.

Typhoon #23 graced us with it's wet and blustery presence last week. As it was taking aim at our end of the island, apparently a meeting was held at my job. Since I had already gone home for the day I get a phone call...no I get 2 phone calls from BOTH of my supervisors. Both of the phone calls contained the exact same message: "School is cancelled because of the typhoon, there will be NO classes tomorrow, and if you feel it is dangerous DO NOT COME to school, stay home." Right!! Good advice. I said thank you and hung up. Fast forward about 14 hours or so. I am laying in bed finally starting to nod-off despite the howling winds that are shrieking through my poorly insulated apartment. PHONE RINGS. I answer. "Hi Matt, are you taking paid vacation?" Ummm I start to wake up a bit and realize it is my supervisor..."No....I'm not taking PAID vacation, there's um...*I check out the window* yeah, there's a typhoon outside my apartment, and you said not to come in today." Supervisor: ".....um yes, but we had a meeting this morning and now there is school.....so are you staying home and taking vacation?"

This conversation goes back and forth for a while, I point out that although I don't want to take paid leave, I was TOLD to stay home, and that in fact since there are NO classes, and NO students, and I have absolutely NO other work to do....even a slight risk from said natural disaster that was testing out my apartments not-so-great weather proofing, is NOT worth taking and ask what exactly the point of me coming in was. I get sympathetic agreement from my nice supervisor...but no dice. Come in or risk taking paid vacation for sitting at home in a rain storm. Myself and the other ALT at my school brave the typhoon. Get to school......and......play cards for 7 hours. During the 1 hour we didn't play cards, we ate lunch. While at work the other supervisor decided to ask me why I was late for work. I explained I was told not to come in. "Yes, but that was yesterday. We had a meeting today and the principal changed his mind." OoOoh RIGHT!! Umm wait.... "So if something changed from the last time we were called LAST NIGHT, why weren't we CALLED AGAIN and informed of it?" I asked. Answer "....well we were busy and....FORGOT about you, so next time please call us." That made me feel like a million bucks. Well we FORGOT about you, and then we decided to tell you to brave a typhoon! Talk about feeling wanted.

The good news is the time we were late was NOT taken as paid leave. SUper. Yippee skippee!! We were told "The GOOD news is, the almost 2 hours you were late...yeah, don't WORRY, we smoothed things over and you won't have to take that time out of your paid leave!! You are sooOo LUCKY!!" Right. Lucky. 30 minutes later I was handed recontracting papers for next year. HahaHAha!!!

*Note. I am having a great time here. I work with some fabulous people. The JET program over all is a good program. This was just one bad day. Funny sort of....a little...to look back on it... now. I just thought it was a bit over the top. I was pretty sure I was done after 2 years, but this last episode helped seal the deal. I am looking forward to enjoying the staff and students and other perks this job affords me until the end of this year....and then I am looking forward to NOT having to go out into a typhoon for NOTHING!!