On my way to the GTA!!!

I got accepted by Osgoode!! Woohoo! So I'm officially moving to Toronto in September. Now that the anxiety-ridden wait is over, the exciting/stressful part can finally begin--spending the entire day googling Toronto neighbourhoods, figuring out where to live, browsing online for a brand new laptop (perhaps I'm ready to join the iBook craze), debating how to break the news to Scruffy that he's gonna have to move back east again, etc.

The thought of going back to school is exciting and terrifying at the same time. I only have six months of freedom left--yikes! I'm really gonna miss being able to spend hours in front of the TV watching old episodes of Ally McBeal and The O.C. I guess I better enjoy it while it lasts...

Happy Love Day :)

These showed up at my door today:



They were delivered by a very persistant Japanese delivery man who didn't give up, even after the third time I ignored the doorbell thinking he was just someone trying to sell me stuff. Ohhhhh Adamski, you truly are the best. I REALLY CAN'T WAIT to see you again soon!!! Just six more weeks to go...

Oh my goodness...

...look who's part of the A-crowd now:



"My name is Scruffy. I eat caviar, drink wine, and sleep on sheepskin rugs at night."

"Because of sake, I can change myself..."

...so says one of the JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English) at my technical high school. I just got home from an "unagi" party with 4 other English teachers. I have to say, I think it was one of the most culturally revealing experiences I've had in Japan so far. It's amazing how much these teachers are suddenly willing to reveal after just a few cups of sake.

One of the teachers got really drunk and started talking about all his failures and regrets throughout his career. Last year, six of the students in his homeroom got expelled before they were able to graduate, and apparently he's never quite forgiven himself for not having "protected" them. Another teacher didn't sleep for weeks and lost 6 kgs after he couldn't figure out how to get the "wild boys" in his class to stop bullying a girl who was too weak to defend herself.

It's really interesting to see how involved Japanese teachers are in the lives of their students. They're pretty much secondary parents. I wonder how shocked these students would be to find out that their teachers spent last Friday night getting drunk over sake and agonizing over how to reform the school's worst troublemakers. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure my teachers in high school never did the same thing...

My feel-good moment...

I taught my last third-grade class for the school year today (that's the equivalent of Grade 12, so these students are graduating at the end of the month). I wasn't really too sad about it until I ran into one of my students at the grocery store tonight. She was so eager to speak English, and she was all excited to tell me she was going to L.A. for 5 days in March. I know I can get pretty frustrated with my students sometimes, but some of them are just so darn cute, especially the ones who actually try to make use of what you teach them. It just made me so happy to have an actual conversation with that student. I guess this is what some people call "fulfillment"--I've never actually experienced that before :)