Journal 3 - Ahhhhh ... so that's what a Typhoon is like.....

Ahhhhh ... so that's what a Typhoon is like.....

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing fine. Well, it's now been 2 weeks and I'm still alive. I finally met all my students and actually managed to complete an entire week teaching by myself without any help (The first week I had a trainer most of the time). I really like my students a lot ... the age ranges from 3 to 50+. But, my manager just signed up a new student, his name is Ippei (ee pay) and he's almost 2. I think I now have the youngest student out of all the teachers. But, he seems like a pretty smart kid, just ... active!!! I'll certainly be earning my money with this one. Speaking of kids ... all you theatre people will know this term, "Stage Mom's". To you non theatre types, a stage mom is a parent who feels their child can do no wrong and is often around questioning the director and asking why their child is not the star or doesn't have more exposure on stage ... in other words a directors nightmare. Anyway, going back ... I have 2 stage moms. These mom's are housewives of very wealthy dentists and every week my manager is getting calls about their child wondering why they are not learning enough english or why they cannot talk in full sentences yet ... Their child is 5 and comes to english class once a week for 40 minutes ... hello? Give it some time here. Anyway, theses mothers are mine and my managers stage mom's. And to top it off ... 1 of the mothers lives next door to me ... oh lovely.

Anyway, enough of that ... So, I haven't had a chance to see much more of Japan, just my area and Shizuoka city which is 15 minutes by train. The weather has not been the greatest lately. Today is my second day off (I always have Sunday and Monday off) and it's rained like mad both days. So, I've been basically hanging around my area mostly. Which is actually fine ... I need to budget this month, I don't get my first real paycheque until the end of October ... yup once a month. I had that 1 other time and that was when I was working for Canadian Regional. So, back to the budgetting ... I guess that's not always a bad thing to do. So, back to the weather, as I mentioned in the first sentence ... I experienced my first Typhoon. It was funny, some of my students told me the beginning of the week that a Typhoon will be coming ... I think they were kind of excited that I was going to experience my first Typhoon or maybe just laughing at me. So, they told me it was going to come on Wednesday or Thursday, I'm thinking yeah right, how can you predict that this early (still use to Canada's weather system). Well, sure enough Wednesday night, I'm walking home at 11:00 pm and right in the middle of a Typhoon. Apparently it was a mild one ... but lots of wind and rain. I got absolutely drenched (Itaught all my students this word). The next day I wake up and there isn't a cloud in sight. Very interesting. So, I was telling my students that was the first time I ever experienced a Typhoon ... they were amazed that there aren't any in Canada. I said no, but we do get the snow storms. I think they all agreed that a Typhoon is better then a snow storm.

Anyway, I better get going. I did want to mention however that I finally got my phone today ... now I feel like I can keep in touch with the world. Those of you who didn't get my address information, here it is again as well as my phone number.

Joe White
LeosPalace Yaizu II #202
1-8-25
Yaizu
Yaizu City, Shizuoka
Japan

phone# 011 81 080 3659 9670.

My phone is a cell, so I will have it all the time and you should be able to get a hold of me starting tomorrow. Remember I am 15 hours ahead MST, 13 hours ahead EST and 12 hours ahead AST. Sorry, I don't know what it is for you people in Europe.

I better go ... hope all is well with you. Again, keep on sending the emails and eventually I will get back when I can actually set up my internet at home ... maybe this week or early next week, hopefully.

Take care everyone,

Joe