VP's birthday party

I didn’t really have much of a plan for today other than to go to school so I could go to the VP’s birthday party tonight. During the day to keep myself busy, I did some cleaning around the apartment. It’s not clean at this time and at this moment, but I can sense that it will become clean within the next few days. Since summer vacation is going to come to an abrupt end very soon, I have to get my ass back into gear with a hectic semester coming up. So I decided to get that bookshelf I was eyeing for the past few days. It was very cheap and something that I needed to get all the books off the ground and onto a place where I can find them easily. I also took the time to get some laundry done too. I think it wasn’t very necessary to do, but since school will start soon and I won’t have much time to get them cleaned since I will be on a trip this coming week with the 11th graders, I should get it done today. So I took care of that too. All this was coming a bit too quick too because I needed to leave to go to school around 3pm and arrive around 5pm. So getting it all done was a bit tight.

I had awakened early today, but I fell back asleep. That’s really not good since school is about to start. But I left a little bit late, so I had to take the bus and go to Totsuka instead of walking to Hongodai station. But I also didn’t feel like walking to Hongodai station since I was wearing a full on suit. It would have been too hot for me to do it and I would have died on the way, for sure. So I opted to take the bus and get the AC treatment for the heat. Today was a bit warmer than the rest of the week and because I had to wear a jacket with my suit, it didn’t make it any better.

When I arrived at school, things changed on me again. I noticed that things change very frequently and suddenly too. I finally got a schedule for my Saturday classes, and it turns out that I don’t have to really prepare anything yet because I won’t be starting it until November since that’s when I’ll finally have time to teach her. So that relieved the stress and pressure on me today since that was the only thing that I planned to do today. But I learned that I needed to get some other things finished for another teacher as well that we will need for this week. Soon after all this, all the teachers began to disappear and I think it was because we were all leaving the teachers’ office very late. I was lucky enough to get a ride to the dinner with another teacher. We arrived at the restaurant like 5 minutes late, but we were lucky because it was a large group of us that arrived late and it was before the principal and the VP arrived.

We had an Italian dinner in Aoyama called Ristorante Portuna. It wasn’t that great considering it cost me 8000 yen, which is around $80. I got a discount too since it cost the other teachers 10,000 yen, which is around $100. It wasn’t that much food either, but I’m not one to be complaining about it. It was just that I couldn’t eat much of it. They had steak that looked good, but it was a bit rare for me, so I had to pass it on to another teacher. That was a bit embarrassing for me and then we got into a conversation about what I can eat and what I can’t. I hate those conversations, and they always happen with my co-workers. There was one co-worker that I was talking to most of the time. She wants to learn English since she’s going to America next year with the 9th grade students. So she wants to use English before she goes so that there won’t be any trouble. I feel kind bad for her because she is always picked on by the other teachers. She’s very nice and almost to the point where she’s too nice and that’s why they do it. But she’s cool and funny too.

I hitched a ride back to home with another teacher; it was the usual group that I get a ride home with since we all live next to each other and very far from school. The other teachers hung out at a café and drank together I guess. I wouldn’t know since I didn’t go. I would have to get up early tomorrow anyways because I’m going to watch the girls’ tennis team at the tournament for Meguro. I hope they win and I’m not sure they will because I don’t think they are ready enough. But I’ll take notes and see how I can help out the students, when and if I have time in the next semester, which I’m sure I won’t.