Hey folks. Once again a filler post, sorry! Just to keep things fresh and updated!
So yesterday when I was waiting for the train to get back home from school, some japanese fella' decided it would be appropriate to jump in front of that very train, effectively ending his life in the fraction of a second. Therefore, they suspended the line to clean up all the body parts and blood, so I walked to Shinjuku instead and did some brief shopping and general strolling-around. I got really frustrated since I found this great clothing store with an awesome collection, but about 90% of it was too small for me to wear! I mean, their "L" sizes would barely fit my nephue (Who, by the way, sent me an awesome embroidery as well as a Melvin-themed mousepad)
Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to this weekend! The whole class, along with all of our teachers, are going out to a Shinjuku izakaya on Friday! It's been a while, so that'll be fun for sure. Also, me and a crazy french guy are thinking of going to Roppongi on Saturday night. I haven't been to Roppongi for about four months, so I'm looking forward to that as well. I'll try to get many pictures as possible and post them here later.
Until then.
onsdag 28 januari 2009
fredag 16 januari 2009
A new day, A new dawn
Yesterday the second semester kicked off, only to be interrupted by a 3-day weekend. To my surprise we still have the exact same class -- with the exception of a few Korean people who've fled the country. The new teacher we will have on Thursdays from now on I didn't really care for to be honest. She's like... old and has an ever so annoying high-pitched voice. It's difficult to explain but I kind of get the feeling that she is dumber than a box of rocks for numerous reasons; Mainly though because she confused my name with Kuritorisu (Instead of Kurisuchan) which is the Japanese phonetic equivalent of "Clitoris". So that set my mood off during the day a bit. Thankfully she told us she will retire in three months, so it's alright I suppose. Although some people should really kick the bucket just a bit ahead of time...
Anyway!
I won't complain more. Well actually, I just want to point out that the Swedish currency hit a new time low at 9,6KR for 100 Yen yesterday which got me really concerned because rent is coming up, and if it stays at this level then my rent just went up a great deal, as well as all my expenses really. Okay, now I won't complain anymore (Until my next blog entry).
I have spent my school-free day very productively. I've built a small little tower of chopsticks and eaten a broken-down gingerbread house sent to me from the Motherland. I've also been watching some japanese drama on TV which I don't understand at all. I admit... I'm seriously bored today. Some friends are going to an Izakaya later tonight but I don't even know if I want to break my chain of laziness right now. Besides, who'd watch my TV? Although I am leaning just a tiny bit towards insanityyyyyy.
The voices are telling me to kill youuuu ----
Anyway!
I won't complain more. Well actually, I just want to point out that the Swedish currency hit a new time low at 9,6KR for 100 Yen yesterday which got me really concerned because rent is coming up, and if it stays at this level then my rent just went up a great deal, as well as all my expenses really. Okay, now I won't complain anymore (Until my next blog entry).
I have spent my school-free day very productively. I've built a small little tower of chopsticks and eaten a broken-down gingerbread house sent to me from the Motherland. I've also been watching some japanese drama on TV which I don't understand at all. I admit... I'm seriously bored today. Some friends are going to an Izakaya later tonight but I don't even know if I want to break my chain of laziness right now. Besides, who'd watch my TV? Although I am leaning just a tiny bit towards insanityyyyyy.
The voices are telling me to kill youuuu ----måndag 12 januari 2009
Femme Fatales and The art of getting screwed (the bad kind)
First off -- hold your horses! I know I've been extremely lazy when it comes to updating this dreaded blog, but I've been pestered no end of times by various people to keep writing, so I will. I will however focus more on current happenings than recapping old news, although I'll briefly guide you through my holiday. So, without further ado, *Dramatic voice* PREVIOUSLY, ON THE LIFE OF CHRISTIAN ERHAMO:
Christmas was as expected a shadow of its true self. My girlfriend at the time was working on Christmas Eve (Evil japanese work ethic) so I spent a 'fake' Christmas with her on the 23rd. I was very glad, though, that one of my very good friends hosted a big Christmas Eve party for 20-30 people, including classmates, teachers, people from various guesthouses and a guy from Switzerland! (There's only one of them). The party was a great success in my opinion, as we had glögg, gingerbread cookies, Swedish chocolate and... well, some questionable South korean dish. We ended up having a great time! I guess being with good friends while having a great time is what Christmas is all about, right?
New Year's was downright crazy. Crazy crazy crazy. You'd expect the most populous metropolis in the world to offer some great fireworks when that digital "8" was substituted with a "9". No no, this is Japan, and they always *have* to be special, don't they? When the bell finally rang, billions and billions of pink balloons and bubbles crowded the sky while our ears were being effectively destroyed by the crowds. No fireworks in sight, amazing... I will leave out the 00:00 - 06:00 part and move on: At about 07:00 AM we went to Tokyo Bay to watch the very first sunrise of 2009. It was beautiful, and pretty cool too considering our locale; The Land of the Rising Sun.
Enough of the recap now...
So, what's on the horizon? Well, the second school semester is about to begin, that's what! I'm actually quite excited to go back to school. From now on I will have a much busier schedule than last semester. I don't have more classes, but I recently started working as an English teacher in Harajuku. It's loads of fun, and very educational for me as well. It's a great system; I meet my student at her cafe or restaurant of choice, where we practice everything from grammar, vocabulary to reading and conversation. I currently make Y2800 (~270 Kr) per hour, with transportation and food/drink costs fully compensated. So far so good, right? Well, it gets worse. Read on friends...
My first student was a 25-year-old rich little bitch who at first seemed really eager and motivated to learn English. The first lesson was very rewarding in every way possible, but the following day's lesson took a bad turn. Twenty minutes into the lesson she starts asking me if I had a girlfriend (which since after Christmas I don't, anymore). That's about the time when I started seeing red flashing ASCHTUNG lights before my eyes. The first thing they (my employer) told me on the interview was that dating students leads to immidiate termination. Since this company is actually the lesser of many bloodsucking capitalist services to be found by clueless foreigners like me, I had no intention on letting it pass through my fingers.
Anyway, back to that brat girl. I told her that I didn't have a girlfriend, and so after a few minutes she came with suggestions that would definately lead to me being unemplyed. Needless to say, I saved my own arse and reported the whole thing to my employer, and they let her go. As it stands right now I don't have a current student, which means I am not bringing in those precious Y5600 a day anymore (double hours). God knows when the company will assign a new student to me, or if they are suspicious of me and rethinking hiring me. Anyway, time will tell.
I though, "Wow, this is truly a day in reverse for me..." But luckily, I had some good friends waiting for me in Shibuya! We were planning on going to an izakaya, and after that hit some funky places. Little did I know that once again I was going to be bent over. Read on, read on...
We got to the izakaya. The gang this time consisted of me, Markus, Masa, Makoto and Akemi. A japanese-favoured ratio, always to my liking! Anyway, the latter caused me yet another downfall. Masa (an aspiring doctor, studying medicine) had to go after about an hour because he had school the day after, left us four people. Now, Makoto had just broke up with his girlfriend because he had a huge crush on Akemi, the only girl with us this time. And as always Markus was trying work his magic stick as well, so she was fully occupied to say the least. However, after a few hours of eating, drinking and having fun, we decided to go the the next place which was a street down from there. While on the way, Akemi suddenly broke free of the horny clutches of my friends and started walking with me instead. The following hour she kept asking for my email and my phone number, and this got Makoto really pissed off -- AT ME!!! What the fuck ?! I was already considering myself a victim this day, and now I was being held accountable for stealing his dream girl? I don't know who to be mad at right now, Makoto for being such an a-hole for misdirecting his anger or Akemi for disrupting my very good friendship with Makoto. It doesn't really matter, either way I lose. Hopefully he is just temporarily insane and we will once again be friends. Thank God I have other great friends who have proven not to be mentally unstable.
So, having survived the most counter-productive day of my life here in Japan, I am struggeling while hoping that the teacher agency will hook me up with a new student as soon as possible.
Oh, and I have a bunch of new pictures and videos too, including some Christmas footage with drunk teachers, glögg in extreme quantities and my favourite afro-american musician teaching everyone how a traditional Swedish Christmas is being conducted. I'm not going to share it with you though, just to be a bitch =] (Real reason: I'm too lazy to upload stuff)
What else, what else...? Ah! -- No, scratch that.
Christmas was as expected a shadow of its true self. My girlfriend at the time was working on Christmas Eve (Evil japanese work ethic) so I spent a 'fake' Christmas with her on the 23rd. I was very glad, though, that one of my very good friends hosted a big Christmas Eve party for 20-30 people, including classmates, teachers, people from various guesthouses and a guy from Switzerland! (There's only one of them). The party was a great success in my opinion, as we had glögg, gingerbread cookies, Swedish chocolate and... well, some questionable South korean dish. We ended up having a great time! I guess being with good friends while having a great time is what Christmas is all about, right?
New Year's was downright crazy. Crazy crazy crazy. You'd expect the most populous metropolis in the world to offer some great fireworks when that digital "8" was substituted with a "9". No no, this is Japan, and they always *have* to be special, don't they? When the bell finally rang, billions and billions of pink balloons and bubbles crowded the sky while our ears were being effectively destroyed by the crowds. No fireworks in sight, amazing... I will leave out the 00:00 - 06:00 part and move on: At about 07:00 AM we went to Tokyo Bay to watch the very first sunrise of 2009. It was beautiful, and pretty cool too considering our locale; The Land of the Rising Sun.
Enough of the recap now...
So, what's on the horizon? Well, the second school semester is about to begin, that's what! I'm actually quite excited to go back to school. From now on I will have a much busier schedule than last semester. I don't have more classes, but I recently started working as an English teacher in Harajuku. It's loads of fun, and very educational for me as well. It's a great system; I meet my student at her cafe or restaurant of choice, where we practice everything from grammar, vocabulary to reading and conversation. I currently make Y2800 (~270 Kr) per hour, with transportation and food/drink costs fully compensated. So far so good, right? Well, it gets worse. Read on friends...
My first student was a 25-year-old rich little bitch who at first seemed really eager and motivated to learn English. The first lesson was very rewarding in every way possible, but the following day's lesson took a bad turn. Twenty minutes into the lesson she starts asking me if I had a girlfriend (which since after Christmas I don't, anymore). That's about the time when I started seeing red flashing ASCHTUNG lights before my eyes. The first thing they (my employer) told me on the interview was that dating students leads to immidiate termination. Since this company is actually the lesser of many bloodsucking capitalist services to be found by clueless foreigners like me, I had no intention on letting it pass through my fingers.
Anyway, back to that brat girl. I told her that I didn't have a girlfriend, and so after a few minutes she came with suggestions that would definately lead to me being unemplyed. Needless to say, I saved my own arse and reported the whole thing to my employer, and they let her go. As it stands right now I don't have a current student, which means I am not bringing in those precious Y5600 a day anymore (double hours). God knows when the company will assign a new student to me, or if they are suspicious of me and rethinking hiring me. Anyway, time will tell.
I though, "Wow, this is truly a day in reverse for me..." But luckily, I had some good friends waiting for me in Shibuya! We were planning on going to an izakaya, and after that hit some funky places. Little did I know that once again I was going to be bent over. Read on, read on...
We got to the izakaya. The gang this time consisted of me, Markus, Masa, Makoto and Akemi. A japanese-favoured ratio, always to my liking! Anyway, the latter caused me yet another downfall. Masa (an aspiring doctor, studying medicine) had to go after about an hour because he had school the day after, left us four people. Now, Makoto had just broke up with his girlfriend because he had a huge crush on Akemi, the only girl with us this time. And as always Markus was trying work his magic stick as well, so she was fully occupied to say the least. However, after a few hours of eating, drinking and having fun, we decided to go the the next place which was a street down from there. While on the way, Akemi suddenly broke free of the horny clutches of my friends and started walking with me instead. The following hour she kept asking for my email and my phone number, and this got Makoto really pissed off -- AT ME!!! What the fuck ?! I was already considering myself a victim this day, and now I was being held accountable for stealing his dream girl? I don't know who to be mad at right now, Makoto for being such an a-hole for misdirecting his anger or Akemi for disrupting my very good friendship with Makoto. It doesn't really matter, either way I lose. Hopefully he is just temporarily insane and we will once again be friends. Thank God I have other great friends who have proven not to be mentally unstable.
So, having survived the most counter-productive day of my life here in Japan, I am struggeling while hoping that the teacher agency will hook me up with a new student as soon as possible.
Oh, and I have a bunch of new pictures and videos too, including some Christmas footage with drunk teachers, glögg in extreme quantities and my favourite afro-american musician teaching everyone how a traditional Swedish Christmas is being conducted. I'm not going to share it with you though, just to be a bitch =] (Real reason: I'm too lazy to upload stuff)
What else, what else...? Ah! -- No, scratch that.
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