Tripping Far Side

Wow, it's been over two months since my last update. Long story short, I got burnt out. I've never worked so hard nor had so much stress in my life. Awhile back, I had a post on culture shock that described a bit of what I was going through. Although I've only been posting mostly fun stuff, it hasn't been all that easy living in Japan. Well, I take that back. Living in Japan is fun, but my situation at work was, well, unique.

I really need to learn to say no. I accepted too many responsibilities, and combined with culture shock, it took its toll on me over several months. There were many days when I'd come home, and be so tired I'd start sleeping at 6 PM. Then wake up at 2 AM or so, then try to get a few hours of sleep again before I start work at 8 AM. And there were plenty of other nights that I couldn't sleep well because I was stressed and unhappy.

Anna was a huge support for me here, and I'm really thankful. The original reason why I came to Japan was to take an easy job and spend more time with her. In preparing for about 10 months before I came, I heard that the JET program was the easiest with most vacation time. It's just that I didn't get an easy job. The thing about the JET program is that before you accept, you don't know where you're going nor what you're doing. If I had known what I was getting into, I wouldn't have accepted. Well, they do say "every situation is different." Well, I certainly got something different that what I expected.

I got placed in a challenging place: in a Super English Language High School (SELHi) with a difficult curriculum where ALTs were expected to do so much and where there weren't enough of us. I have heard that another SELHi school had 5 ALTs! I did a lot of good though beyond my normal duties. Rewriting 2/3 of the debate curriculum for Term 2. Helping a student win 2nd in a speech contest. Helping coach our debate team go 2-1 at the annual national debate tournament despite it being their first time doing lots of new things. Helping to install wireless on laptops. Helping out with the cutting-edge text-to-speech generation software. Helping first-year students with PowerPoint to make third-year level work. Helping write a fun Jeopardy lesson, dress-your-own-character Shopping lesson with cut-out clothes and paper doll, staying after school to help students memorize a Martin Luther King speech, and trying to get kids in the English Club to do karaoke with English songs. Helping out with SELHi day where lots of professors, and administrators, and teachers visit our school. The school really impressed a lot of people and with the work of everyone, it was a really successful day. The climax was SELHi day, and after that, I just couldn't motivate myself to continue pushing and challenging.

So, the last two months, just decompressing and pretty much living like a hermit. But there's plenty of stuff to post up here, so I'll start updating this blog again. Thanks everyone back home for their worries, but I'm fine now. Here's to a new beginning--a picture of sunrise over the Port of Kobe.