Finals week

This week is the last week of class for this semester and wow am I surprised with the finals! They are ridiculously hard judging my the amount of study material that we were given. And here I thought I left all my all-nighters behind in Hawaii.

Our own internet!

We finally ended up getting our own internet to use at our apartments. Me and one of the other exchange students are sharing internet which is surprisingly cheap here. For the speed we're getting now, we'd be paying double the price in the US than what we're paying now. It was a bit of a hassle to get the internet though. Apparently, the carriers and providers are two separate companies here which caused us a lot of confusion. I think it's silly. It's like going to an ice cream parlor to get ice cream, but the store only sells cones and you need to get your ice cream at another store. Anyway, we finally got it so yay us.

Teaching Job

So my teaching job is pretty awesome. It pays quite a bit and I like all of my students. Being a teacher is definitely what I had expected it would be. I've been teaching my students for almost 3 months now and I can see how much they have grown and improved in speaking English. It makes me happy to know that I am helping them improve in their language skills. We've also all gotten pretty close. We go out and have parties every now and then and even while we're having the parties I still have them practice their English and so they're always learning. I can't wait to graduate and start a real teaching job with my TESOL degree.

Saving money

So the snow is really strong or something, because it’s even messing with the school’s internet. The connection kind of floats in and out so it’s been really difficult to do anything that requires internet; this blog included. However tomorrow the office people will be back at school and they will help us sign a contract for our own internet to have at home, so that will make things a lot easier and more convenient. So, I’ve been trying to save up as much of my money as I possibly could in order to buy my plane ticket to go back home. I’ve come to the realization that in the winter, you will probably, no matter how much you don’t want to, will spend ALL of your money. I figured I didn’t need to spend the money to heat my room because I can tough out the cold. While it’s true that I can tough out the cold, my pipes can’t, and so they completely froze over. I had them unfrozen which cost about $150, and then they froze again a couple of days later. That being said, you will either spend the money keeping your room heated, or spend the money to unfreeze your pipes.

Unless you’re me.

After the second time my pipes completely froze over, I decided not to pay to get them unfrozen. I also decided not to attempt to use my heater to keep my room warm in order to keep my pipes safe. So, my room is without heat or water. However that’s not a problem for me. The school has showers in the gym that I can use as well as heaters. I’ll just wait until it’s warm enough for my pipes to melt naturally.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Japan! At 11:30 me and some friends headed down to the shrine near our apartment as is customary in Japan on new years. At the stroke of midnight, we all lined up in front of the alter in the shrine. We threw 5 yen coins in a box for good luck. Then we rang a giant bell and prayed for a good year. We got to hit Japanese drums and we bought fortunes. My fortune said I would be very lucky this year, but on the way back home that fortune along with my earphones fell out of my pocket. I guess my luck was supposed to start on the next day.

Freezing pipes

Soooo my pipes froze. Luckily my friends in the apartment let me use their showers and such until someone came and unfroze my pipes but unfreezing your pipes is expensive. I was really disappointed seeing as how winter has just started and my pipes have already frozen. To make things worse, only about 6 hours after my pipes were unfrozen, two of them froze again! I was not about to call for them to be unfrozen because I figured it was a waste of money and they were pipes I could live without. As long as my hot water pipe in my shower works I'm good! Luckily a few days later (last night) they unfroze by themselves. Today is pretty warm. Warm to the point where it's raining rather than snowing. It's really odd.

I emailed the advising office to register for my classes next semester but they have yet to get back to me. I'm hoping it's because of the holiday season and that they will get back to me soon after New Years.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Japan! So last night I walked for about an hour and a half in -11C weather. It's an experience I think you'd all best be without. I have never felt so much pain in my life. Buy gloves everyone! Apparently, Christmas day isn't really much of a big deal here. Everyone is all about Christmas Eve. I have work tonight though so I'm missing a pretty big chunk of the Christmas party sadly, but it's fine cuz I like my job and I'll at least I can make the last bit of the party. I have no real plans other than that. Anyway Merry Christmas everyone!