Friday, April 18, 2003

April 18

Thank heavens this week is over! Man, not too bad today...just 4 hours of teaching but it was a heavy week. At least I can now have some attempts at a good weekend's sleep. I got some Z's in on the sofa in my school's lounge in advertently this afternoon. I guess even coffee and vitamin drinks couldn't do the trick.

Tokyo finally hit the big time in temperaure this year. Nice balmy 26 degrees. It won't be too long now before the mugginess creeps in.

Chicago blows into town this weekend. I will definitely have to catch that sometime in the next couple of weeks. I'm not quite sure how well it'll fare here. Musicals, or at least the Japanese-casted versions, have done OK but the only big face in the movie is Richard Gere. But I'm sure the PR folks will have the gang come in to do a bit of promotion.

I think all of us were amused by the North Koreans this week when they quietly rescinded their demand for only bilateral talks with the US over the nuclear problem. Now, after Gulf War 2, they seem only too happy to tackle multilateralism.

Thursday, April 17, 2003

April 17

8 hours of teaching today. I was looking pretty ragged by 9 tonight. However, I'm happy to say that I'm over the hump and that I only have to face 4 hours tomorrow. So far, this new crew seems OK but the gelling factor is not quite kicking in yet. However, since I won't be seeing these guys past the middle of this month probably, I'm not too worried. I'm wondering if I will be kept on even as a part-timer.

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

April 16

Well, my first full day has passed, and it was full. After 7.5 hours of teaching yesterday, I was a tired little boy last night and I look forward to the same amount of hours today as well. It's still too early to say about how the dynamics are, but it is definitely an older and more staid crowd although I did meet a 20-year-old guy in the group. At least I have a few hours of time between my first and second classes today.

Monday, April 14, 2003

April 14

It's the eve before payday, and after doing the budget for this past month, I'm proud to say that I managed to save quite a bit in March/April.

The new kids are in the House now, and I've just done my first class with the low group today. Not a bad bunch so far, but I'm sure there will be a few "characters" to find. But I do hope that some of my classes will be passed onto other teachers; it's a monster of a schedule this week.

Caught CSI's pilot episode tonight on TV Tokyo. Pretty darn good...there's already quite a bit of tension and drama in it.