Farewell Party...

Yesterday was my last day of work. It was a fairly uneventful day, other than the fact that I got some flowers and gifts. However, this day one of my greatest fears while working at said Establishment was realized. The school that I worked at was [and is] located above a store called Muji [Rushi--if you're Japanese]. This store sells all kinds of shit, from clothing to shoes to sheets and blankets to bikes. I've been thinking since I started working at said place that my dream job would be to work at a place such as Muji putting together their bikes. So yesterday I was out on the balcony, as I often was, above the line of Muji bikes. I had put my can of Coke on the ledge and was talking to the new teacher, J., about god knows what, when a strong wind came from out of nowhere and blew my Coke can off of the ledge. I screamed, "Shit!" and tried to grab the damn thing before its inevitable fall onto the bikes, but unfortunately was just too slow. I crouched down and J. jumped back against the wall to hide. After a few seconds I got up to see what had become of my can. None of the passersby seemed to take any notice and nothing was out of the ordinary, other than the fact that there was a banged up Coke can lying between the row of bikes down below.

It's important to note that a few hours later, the can was still there.

There was a party at the end of the day, at which point the alcohol and bullshit flowed. There were a lot of students there that I wouldn't normally spend a considerable amount of time with... One of these students, who was in one of my classes, was sitting next to me for a little while asking me about the phrase, "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." Of course, he had left out the, "I'm so hungry," part. Because I had been drinking what was the equivalent to malt liquor, I started telling him about my own take on that lovely little saying. I told him that when he's talking to native speakers he could say, "I'm so hungry I could eat a small child." I told him that the native speakers would understand what he was saying and think that it was funny. I think this will be my lasting impression on the school. They will eventually remember me as the vegetarian who ate small children.

Lying goodbyes

Of course, I can't tell my students that I'm quitting because of the school's mishandling of a situation with a budding sexual deviant... So instead, I have to lie to them. I am looking my students in the eyes and telling them that I have a family emergency and that I have to go home. If they ask--which some of them do--I'm telling them that my grandfather is in the hospital, that we don't know what's wrong, and that I have to go home. Only one person wanted more details, at which point I started talking faster and using words like, "Lymphoma," and, "chemotherapy." Lucky for me, I know a little bit about both.

I find that it's pretty easy to lie to these people. The only time that I have difficulty is when there's a student in the class who knows the real story. It's harder to lie to a group of people when one of them knows you're lying.

So I've been lying for four days now, and I only got choked up twice. Some of these people I'm really going to miss. It's not all jack off kids and hellish children... Part of me feels like I am making a mistake. [the same part that likes to point out that I'm going to be officially homeless in a foreign country for three weeks.] On the other hand, I've thrown down a rather sizable amount of cash on a multiple destination plane ticket, and I'm really looking forward to driving around Australia and laying on a beach in Thailand. [If you can believe what you read in the Japan Times, the beaches in Thailand are the cleanest they've been in 20 years, all thanks to the tsunami!]

I've only got two more days of this job... And five more days of a home. This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done.