The 'Real Deal' pt 1

The next day we were off, to embark on our journeys into the real world-to teach in an actual classroom with real Japanese children! It was all happening very fast, even though the rest of the training was moving slower than molasses. We were given maps and told to show up hours early. Why would I need to be so early, I thought, and soon I found out. Aside from our 50 textbooks of curriculum guidelines we had to take along side us, the only other aid was an actual company employee that would observe and critique our performance. Stressful!  I had the lowest expectations of myself and how the kids and classroom would actually run, knowing that I had micronapped throughout most of training, but I wasn't expecting it to go this badly.

I got up 5 hours early (as the company lifer told us he did as a ritual over the last 10 years of his employment) to be able to find the place and set it up properly. I had a pretty smooth, but still unnerving experience on my own, coming from the airport-so I wasn't sure what to expect with this. The classrooms are in the most remote areas and are not schools or big landmarks that are easy to spot, but tiny run down classrooms off the side of a road or in a back alley even (this is when I again questioned the credibility of the company I had signed a contract with..damn it!). I parted ways at the train station with Merran and wished her good luck. I had a false sense of security while being with the others that quickly disappeared once she left my side. I held my bag tightly and forward mushed, looking bravely onwards.

I jumped on the train, I think I was supposed to be on...double check... triple check the kanji characters match up and hopped on (I had two seconds of crunch time to be able to do this before the train departed). I sat there squeezed in beside several others, secretly trying to glance at my instructions at every stop, just to make sure I haven't missed it. I've somehow overnight become an obsessive compulsive checker! My paranoia about the horror stories and threats of getting fired and deported if I miss this class, made my stress levels start to peak.

My OCD state of travel to the unknown
classroom in the middle of nowhere.

Ok 8 stops away.. looks like my stop to change over at...I get off and check the train times with the matching skills, I was now wishing I paid attention for in kindergarden. It started to get more confusing, as there were several lines to take and different speeds and stops each train goes to. One is express only stopping at all the major points along that line, which wasn't mine, semi express is next which again has limited stops but more of them and then the local line which stops at every single station-damn looks like that's the one I needed! I eyed all the different jibberish strokes as fast as I could and crossed my fingers and got on.

Ok I'm nearing the end of my journey, well not quite, as it's another hour and a half on the train but at least I don't need to get off again, I can just sit there quietly and obsessively check over my map instructions. The classrooms are not anywhere near the main areas and I guess for the newbies they want to try us out on the real locals in the middle of nowhere, so if we really mess up-word doesn't spread too far...