Icciv's notes in Japan

Positive Vibes

Positive thinking is sometimes difficult for all of us. Being British, and inherently cynical, the job can be that much harder. Recently, I have been a touch grumpy with life and daily events. It's not Japan, or work, or my friends, I don't know what it is, but I've just been acting a bit like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh of late. However, today is different, today I'm happy. Just wanted to tell you why.

1, I'm going to China tomorrow! Me and four other ALT's are flying to Shanghai and then going on to Beijing. We'll be in China for a week ad I'm looking forward to seeing the sights, eating the food and going to a new country.

2, Cristin got a job in Japan! I'm very excited to hear that Cristin got accepted to teach in Japan by GEOS. She starts in July/ August and I can't wait to share my time in Japan with her. She's going to be a great teacher, I'm sure of that.

3, My P.E. classes are great! I have to admit that in my second P.E. class I was cursing myself for doing something as stupid as exercise with young kids full of energy. I am definately enjoying it though. I tried hudles for the first time yesterday and really enjoyed it. I did pretty well and I'm looking forward to the next class already. It works out that I should have one or two P.E classes a day, bring on the exercise!

4, I can speak more Japanese! In the past two months my Japanese has really improved. I found the most effective way to improve my confidence and vocabulary was to sit in a pub for hours chatting to people. The people Genki work with are lovely and always try to teach me new words and explain conversations. If I want to get my sentence and particles better I have to study, and my Japanese is still quite pants, but I'm using it more than ever now. That makes me happy.

5, My parents came to visit! It was lovely to see my parents, we all had a graet time. It's always reasurring to see someone from home, and my parents especially. We did lots of sightseeing and chatting and I was sad to see them leave for Kyoto. I'll write more about their visit when I return from China.

These are the reasons I should be smiling and many more. It's easy to get down about small events and situations in your life. I have a tendency to get wrapped up in my relationships and become consumed by insecurity and paranoia that reaches it's fingers out and makes everything else seem bad. It's a foolish way to be though, I'm lucky to have everything I do here, and so from today my grumpiness wil be reserved for extreme circumstances only. I'm also sorry to the island ladies who've had to put up with any moaning!

Life is what you make it!

For those feeling slightly ill by the positive nature of this entry, don't fear. Something bad did happen this week. Maggots keep crawling up though my toilet and I'm very very scared that when I return my house will be infested with flies. I'ev seem three so far. Stupid Japan toilets....(small tiny sulk)

posted by Icciv @ 11:46 am