The daily life of an apricot leaf
Apr. 7th, 2013 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apricotleafHello!
At last, I have internet! I've had it for a little while now, but the last two weeks were incredibly busy and even my weekends were full of errands that needed running. But, at last and as promised, I am sitting down to share some pictures and talk a bit about what's going on!
Daily life (which is mostly work)
My work week is Tuesday through Saturday. The first four days the hours are 11:45 to about 9:15, and Saturday I work from 9:45 to about 8:15. Most of my classes are in the evenings and on Saturday, when the kids are not in regular school. During the time when I'm not teaching I am planning the classes. This is a very difficult task for me (which I'm constantly being assured will become easier as time goes on).
I am teaching 27 classes a week, most of which are 50 minutes each.
On Tuesdays and Fridays I'm taking a Japanese language class that starts at 9:30 in the morning, and goes for one hour.
In the evening I usually don't get home until well after 9:30; usually after 10 if I go grocery shopping. By the time I have dinner and feel a bit unwound from work, it's time to go to bed and do it all over again! I'm going to sleep around 1am, sometimes sooner.
Food - Eating is good.
Breakfast consists of either frosted cornflakes or fruit granola with sliced banana, which has been working out pretty well. We don't have a microwave or fridge at work, so lunch is usually either a peanut butter and jam or a ham and cheese sandwich. I want to expand my reportorial of what I can make for dinner, but just about every night I'm having something with rice. (*Gasp*, I'm eating rice!) Actually, the rice from Nagaoka is famous for being the most delicious in Japan, and the bag I bought certainly was delicious. I went through a 2kg bag in just over a month.
Grocery shopping is getting to be a slightly less stressful task every time I go, but there always seems to be some new challenge that takes extra energy to sort out. For example, one of my lights burnt out yesterday. Even though I wrote down all the information on the fixture and took the bulb with me, it still took me a long time looking at the wall of light bulbs to figure out which one was the correct replacement.
On the plus side, I have found out that stores put lots of things on discount late at night! And, seeing as I get off work so late and am not often able to go shopping any other time, it works out very well for me. My favourite things to get on discount are donuts and breaded fried chicken with tomato sauce. (My coworker would swear that they put something addictive in those doughnuts, and I'm very inclined to agree with her.) I can also get veggies and fruit on discount if I'm lucky.
However, even better than the grocery store was the street market! On Friday I got 5 thick carrots and 6 cucumbers for 300 yen (about 3$). It was an excellent deal!
Getting around
Now that the snow is gone I'm using my bike a lot more. It is very useful, because some of the places I like to go are a long walk away, but not too bad of a bike ride. Here, there is a side of the sidewalk meant especially for pedestrians, and a side for bikes. It makes it pretty easy, so long as people don't walk on the bike side!
It takes me only about 15 or 20 minutes to walk to work. I rather wonder how it will feel doing that walk at the height of summer, but I will deal with that when it comes.
I like riding my bike around as long as I have somewhere to go, and I've taken some rather long trips in the course of my errands.
I shall leave it here for now, but add that I have uploaded some pictures to my flickr photostream! Please enjoy~
At last, I have internet! I've had it for a little while now, but the last two weeks were incredibly busy and even my weekends were full of errands that needed running. But, at last and as promised, I am sitting down to share some pictures and talk a bit about what's going on!
Daily life (which is mostly work)
My work week is Tuesday through Saturday. The first four days the hours are 11:45 to about 9:15, and Saturday I work from 9:45 to about 8:15. Most of my classes are in the evenings and on Saturday, when the kids are not in regular school. During the time when I'm not teaching I am planning the classes. This is a very difficult task for me (which I'm constantly being assured will become easier as time goes on).
I am teaching 27 classes a week, most of which are 50 minutes each.
On Tuesdays and Fridays I'm taking a Japanese language class that starts at 9:30 in the morning, and goes for one hour.
In the evening I usually don't get home until well after 9:30; usually after 10 if I go grocery shopping. By the time I have dinner and feel a bit unwound from work, it's time to go to bed and do it all over again! I'm going to sleep around 1am, sometimes sooner.
Food - Eating is good.
Breakfast consists of either frosted cornflakes or fruit granola with sliced banana, which has been working out pretty well. We don't have a microwave or fridge at work, so lunch is usually either a peanut butter and jam or a ham and cheese sandwich. I want to expand my reportorial of what I can make for dinner, but just about every night I'm having something with rice. (*Gasp*, I'm eating rice!) Actually, the rice from Nagaoka is famous for being the most delicious in Japan, and the bag I bought certainly was delicious. I went through a 2kg bag in just over a month.
Grocery shopping is getting to be a slightly less stressful task every time I go, but there always seems to be some new challenge that takes extra energy to sort out. For example, one of my lights burnt out yesterday. Even though I wrote down all the information on the fixture and took the bulb with me, it still took me a long time looking at the wall of light bulbs to figure out which one was the correct replacement.
On the plus side, I have found out that stores put lots of things on discount late at night! And, seeing as I get off work so late and am not often able to go shopping any other time, it works out very well for me. My favourite things to get on discount are donuts and breaded fried chicken with tomato sauce. (My coworker would swear that they put something addictive in those doughnuts, and I'm very inclined to agree with her.) I can also get veggies and fruit on discount if I'm lucky.
However, even better than the grocery store was the street market! On Friday I got 5 thick carrots and 6 cucumbers for 300 yen (about 3$). It was an excellent deal!
Getting around
Now that the snow is gone I'm using my bike a lot more. It is very useful, because some of the places I like to go are a long walk away, but not too bad of a bike ride. Here, there is a side of the sidewalk meant especially for pedestrians, and a side for bikes. It makes it pretty easy, so long as people don't walk on the bike side!
It takes me only about 15 or 20 minutes to walk to work. I rather wonder how it will feel doing that walk at the height of summer, but I will deal with that when it comes.
I like riding my bike around as long as I have somewhere to go, and I've taken some rather long trips in the course of my errands.
I shall leave it here for now, but add that I have uploaded some pictures to my flickr photostream! Please enjoy~