So…..it’s official! I turned in the paperwork to my supervisor this week, and the Reeds are slated to be home in August 2013. Woo-hoo! I emailed my supervisor to tell her about my decision at the end of last week, and she said that she would be sad for me to leave but understands and respects my decision. Whenever I gave her the paperwork, she wiped her eyes in a pretend cry. I wonder how much of her sadness is for real and how much is just put on. I wonder if she’ll actually be sad to see me go. I feel like I cause a lot of problems for her and am not exactly sure of her sincere feelings. On one hand, I’m sure she’ll be happy to see me go so that she won’t have to care for the bumbling foreigner anymore. No more lost-in-translation mix ups, no more me going to her when I have a problem, no more “Can you make me a dentist appointment because I don’t have the abilities to….” I’m sure that she’ll be happy about that. On the flip side, the BOE has to shell out more money to pay for my flight home and to bring in a new foreigner. Once they pay for travel expenses for both me and the new kid, hotel accommodations for the new ALT during orientation, visas for the newbie, and everything else that is required, it’s not cheap. I’m sure that the BOE would like me to stay if for no other reason than expenses. Plus, they’ll have a new kid who may or may not speak Japanese and have to set up and train that person. To constantly bring in new people isn’t cheap or easy, and I wonder if my BOE and supervisor would want me to stay for that reason or because I’m actually a good ALT. Hmmmmm……
The national broadcasting system here is called NHK. However, instead of it being like ABC, NBC, CBS, or PBS and being free like in the States, it costs here. If you own a TV, then you are required to pay a bi-monthly bill. Even if you don’t watch Japanese TV (like us), you are still required to pay the bill because you can receive the transmission signal. It’s crap! Plus, it’s not cheap! It’s about $35 every two months….for something that we don’t use!! Every other month, we’ve received an NHK bill and paid it even though we don’t watch Japanese TV. However, back in August we were talking to a few friends here who said that they don’t pay for theirs, and nothing has ever happened. Joe has lived in Taragi for the past 4.5 years and never paid his bill. He said that legally they can’t do anything to MAKE you pay. Joe said that the worst that could happen would be that some NHK guys would knock on our door and ask us to pay the bill. IF that happened, we could do one of two things: 1) play dumb 2) deny the fact that we have a TV in the house. We heard from other friends as well that they don’t pay their NHK bill because it’s a waste of money, and nothing has happened to them. Awesome. We thought that we were set. We received a bill at the end of August and another in October. We both darn well knew what they were, but chose to ignore them, thinking that we were pulling a fast one on NHK. Well, NHK bested us. Instead of knocking on our door, they went above us. My supervisor emailed me yesterday and said that a NHK guy came to the BOE looking for me about the bill. 
Oh no! I played it dumb about overlooking the bill, but she asked if I would like her to set it up so that it would automatically withdraw from my account like most of my other bills. I said yes……and just like that NHK won!
It has finally happened. It’s starting to get very cold. Today was the first day that I could actually see my breath in my house. Outside of our one warm room that we’ve converted into our bedroom/living room/office/dining room/multi-purpose room for the winter months, it’s pretty much the same temperature as outside…..hence being able to see your breath. Last night we were sitting in our one warm room just feeling the cold roll in from our single pane windows. 
Our floor length black curtains kept billowing at the bottom, and at first I thought that the window was cracked. I double checked to make sure that this wasn’t the case. They were locked tight. Ian was the smart kid and realized what was going on. He theorized that it was a convention current. The heat in the room had risen to the top of the curtains, hit the cold window, and was forced down. He’s such a smart little fart to figure that one out!! 
Today in my 6th grade class we were going over professions….doctor, nurse, teacher, astronaut, etc. My 6th grade teacher was explaining about the cards that ended in –ist (scientist and pianist) by telling the kids that –ist is a common ending for professions in English. He asked me to give examples. I said journalist. They understood that one, and then I blanked. There are probably hundreds of jobs that end in –ist, but for the LIFE of me, I couldn’t think of ONE. MORE. EXAMPLE. UGGGHHHHHHH!!!! I HATE whenever things like that happen because it makes me look like I have no idea about English, and yet I’m supposed to be the authority on it. As soon as the textbooks were open, of course there were plenty of –ist examples: florist, artist, dentist, etc. WHY COULDN’T I THINK OF THOSE?!?! Why did I have a brain fart and look like an idiot?!!? Blarg!
Tomorrow morning I’m going up to Kumamoto City for the Skills Development Conference that happens every year. I’m excited because even though it’s technically still a work day, it’s not teaching and out of the ordinary, so it feels like a little vacation. Yay! Ian and I are staying along with other friends in the city on Friday night and are going to see the new James Bond movie on Saturday. That will be our first Japanese movie experience, so hopefully it’ll be something to blog about on Monday!
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