Frustrations
Trip Start
Jul 26, 2008
1
18
98
Trip End
Aug 06, 2009
Tome, Japan
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
All this has somehow led to cabin fever because this Saturday I had an impulse to check out Café Gati, which is THE artsy place in Toyoma. I have a feeling I'm going to be going there often, and I'll use the fact that I'm learning katakana to justify spending 500 yen on a cup of coffee. Getting something loaded with caffeine will teach me how to read the katakana on the menu so that I can get something else next time.
Yesterday, the day before the beginning of classes, it was like Christmas or Valentine's Day back in elementary when you had to give everybody something. All the female teachers were delivering the omiyage (gifts) that accumulated throughout the summer. They were all of the edible variety. The most interesting was the "weiner" from Germany. The teachers actually cooked them in the kitchen for everybody.
Back onto the subject of frustration, I learned a very important lesson about it. You shouldn't get annoyed easily because there may be a reason for the way things are done. I was irritated that my self-introduction class, which I've been working hard on, was going to be pushed back a week. After asking, I found out that the students have a practice exam tomorrow. Plus, they just came back from break. It's like having a native Spanish speaker talk about themselves in Spanish right after you hadn't heard the language in a couple months.
It occurred to me that maybe my culture shock is coming sporadically. I've already experienced a couple days where I'm just annoyed at everything. Maybe I'll avoid the typical culture shock pattern of having a honeymoon period for a couple months, followed by a few months of frustration. Or maybe I'm just bipolar.
