Today was my last big topic voice class. I woke up early to transfer my resume presentation files to a disk. I then went through my usual routine of eating, showering, visiting, hanging out, and getting to work. When I got to work I realized that I had left my disk at home, and didn’t have enough time to go back and get it. Time well wasted.
Fortunately, in the 3 hours of preparation time, I managed to remember the key points. Without my visual aids I pulled a 90 minute presentation out of my ass. Overall it was well received. Resume voice allowed the students to practice past tense sentences for their accomplishments, and there was a lot of work with adjectives. The students were really surprised to learn that in Canada, you aren’t supposed to put information like your age, height, weight, and marital status on a resume. I was surprised that such information was common to include in Japan.
The other notable event today was my first typhoon. My students were explaining that it was the worst typhoon to hit the area in about 10 years. It was raining and windy when I got to work, but I had no idea what a typhoon could do until my dinner break came. I went outside with my umbrella into crazy winds so strong that the rain was coming sideways. My umbrella was instantly turned inside out and nearly pulled from my hands. When I walked around some corners, the wind was so strong it almost knocked me over. I had never experienced a storm so intense before!
Due to the strong winds and rain, several train lines shut down. This had a positive effect on NOVA, as students couldn’t really go anywhere, so they booked into any lessons that had space or hung out in the Voice classroom. Fortunately for me, Nanbu line was not affected so I could go home on my regular train.
My experience with the typhoon was relatively mild compared to other parts of Japan. There was property damage across the country and reports that two people died. Nature can really be terrifying at times!
Drinking in Japan 