six months down, how many to go?

in a few hours it will be march first. march, already?!

when i left portland, of course everyone asked me how long i'd be gone. i always said maybe a year and half, but definitely a minimum of seven months because that's how long my initial contract was for. here i am at the end of that contract, and i've signed on for another year. now when people ask me how long i'm staying i say, "at least until march 2008." the question, of course, is what next? i might stick with teaching for another year after that. the reason is time: my job offers me a lot of free time to study and a significant amount of time off. the biggst con? money. much of that time off is uncompensated (60% paycheck for august, 75% for december, pro-rated in march). i could make more money elsewhere, which i could use to travel more, buy fun camera equipment, and save money for future endeavors -- including education. additionally, while shiroi is a great city to live in, i'm not sure i want to stay here two and a half years. it's too much like the city i grew up in. an hour from the big city, but nothing much to do here. maybe i could transfer to another city.

my original very tentative plan was to teach for a year and a half and then start graduate school, but i don't think i'll be ready in march 2008 (if ever). if i'm going to take graduate courses in japan, i should probably be more fluent than i can reasonably expect to be a year from now. further, i'm still not sure what i want to do with the degree i'll get, and i'm hesitant to go into debt for something without a clear purpose. there is of course the possibility that i could get a grant -- but that possiblity will improve parallel to my japanese language skills. i'm not ruling graduate school 2008 out, but it's not likely.

meanwhile, in shiroi, they rotate the ALTs (assistang language teachers) every school year, so i'll be changing schools when my new contract begins. today was my last day at one of the two elementary schools where i teach. friday is the farewell party for my 3rd year students at junior high (9th graders by the american system). next wednesday is my last day at the other elementary school. the semester ends on march 23rd. i'm both excited and sad to be changing schools. it'll be good to get a fresh start, this time with a better idea of what i'm doing. changing just when i was getting to know my students and my co-workers, though, is too bad.

the board of education won't be announcing what schools they are placing us at until spring break. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's a school i can bike to. i'm not keeping my hopes up, though. there are three possible teachers they could send to the only school that's not reasonably (read: safely) bike-able, and i'm the only one with a car.

speaking of spring break, i'm going to osaka! i'll be there for about nine days, visiting a few friends and my host family.


coming up: i'll tell you about the bureaucracy i had to wade through to obtain legal ownership of my car, and the steps involved in getting a japanese driver's license.