busy bee

Things have been a bit hectic around here. With only two weeks (!) left in Hokkaido, I've been getting ready to leave: packing, sorting, trashing, cleaning, goodbye-ing, planning, booking, and all the other assorted things that go along with leaving the country I've lived in for the last two years.

And then there's the eikaiwas.

My office asked me in May or so if I wouldn't mind teaching an adult English conversation class in my last month here*. At the time, it seemed reasonable. How much extra work could a few eikaiwa sessions be? HA! True, it is only four, two hour classes. But that involves a lot of preparation work. And beginners require a lot more preparation than advanced learners. And those extra 4-5 hours a week of teaching (plus prep time) are hours that I could better use for other things.

That's in addition to my regular eikaiwa at the high school. And even my JTE, who is generally loathe to give me anything to do outside of explaining obscure grammar and usage points at random is having me "teach" conversation at the Junior High.

So, the moral of the story is I'm really ready to go to meet up with the sister in Nagoya and Kyoto this weekend. Even if it's a super short trip and I'll be spending more time in transit than anything else.



*Do they want the new ALT to teach eikaiwa? Nope. It's a "last chance to talk to the current ALT before she leaves" kind of thing. I've been getting a lot of that lately. Quick! Quick! We've only got this one for another few weeks! Let's invite her to do things! Surely she can't be busy?