stuff that's been happening lately

Well, another week over. I guess it has been life as usual, although that isn’t saying much considering how strange it is to live here.
So anyway, on Sunday, my bank card died. I have no idea why, but somehow it got de-magnetised and the ATM machine kept spitting it out. I called my supervisor, but we couldn’t do anything until Monday. I only had 2000 yen in my wallet (about $30), and in a cash society where there are no EFTPOS transactions or credit cards, I was a little worried. OK, I was a lot worried. Sunday night I couldn’t sleep, and eventually I worried myself sick over the whole thing. This meant I took Monday off work and my supervisor and I went to the bank to try and sort it out. They told me I had to wait 10 days until I could get a new one. Luckily, I had my bank book and could withdraw enough money for the next couple of weeks.
Crisis averted.
Until I woke up on Tuesday and found myself head first over the toilet. Yay, I’ve managed to catch a stomach bug. So that was Tuesday down the drain. I ended up sleeping, studying and playing Playstation.
Wednesday I still wasn’t right, but I figured I couldn’t take another day off, so I checked my schedule and realised I was at Meirin Elementary School (the biggest elementary school in Hagi; we are talking classes of 40+ children). Not the greatest news, but it could have been worse. I went to Jo’s house and together we headed to Meirin. After sitting in the office for almost an hour (and throwing up in the staff toilets once), one of the office ladies came up to us and asked why we were there because there were no classes for us. WTF?? So off to the BOE only to find our supervisor had forgotten to tell us that we were meant to be at Hagi Higashi Junior High School instead! By this time, it was too late to go, so Jo and I ended up staying at the BOE for several hours playing snap and memory with a pack of cards. Let’s just say we were not impressed.
Thursday and Friday were only slightly better. At least I made it to the right schools. My stomach still wasn’t right, but I　 がんばって　–ed (stuck it out) and had some good lessons.
On Saturday I went to Hiroshima with a big group of ALTs to watch baseball. My favourite team, the Softbank Hawks from Fukuoka, was playing the Hiroshima Carps. It was a really good game, especially because the Hawks won – よしあー！
I caught the shinkansen (bullet train) back to Yamaguchi that afternoon – it was great. I was on the super express which travels around 250km/hr. That night I went out in Hagi with Matt, but neither of us were up to drinking, so we basically chatted for a couple of hours, met some random Japanese people and talked to them then went home around midnight. Tame night, huh?
Sunday was nice because I did sweet F.A. Caught up on sleep, cleaned the house a little and watched DVDs. I don’t think I even left the house. Sometimes you just need to forget that you are in a foreign country. I’ve had days where I only speak Japanese, and days where I can’t stand the sight of anything Japan!
Here’s hoping this week is going to be better :)