28/12/06 2:35pm

OMG!

My modem just arrived!

Internet Day

So the guy came about my net... Everything checked out ok and he doesn't need to come again for anything...

However, I have no modem...

Skipping ahead a bit, I saw Masami (one of the real estate people, and the one who speaks english) in my building so asked her if she knew anything about when it would be delivered etc from the paperwork I had.
She told me what I'd already figured out, which was that the modem will be delivered sometime after now... From personal experience, she said it'll take about a week for the modem to get here and for my account to activate.
So a week from now is the 4th of January where my New Year break finishes and am back to work on the 5th. Good timing...

Skipping back to the bit I skipped...

I went to check my mail (for my modem) and another Nova teacher was standing there. Julieanne, who is Scottish, is now moving in next door (since the German chick moved out last week from who I got all the free stuff). I find Julieanne to be rather annoying. Kinda loud-ish, and just annoying...
Hence why I saw Masami.


Anyway...

So now I've a week of leave with nothing to do other than go out each night (not that having the net gave me anything specific to do anyway, but I'm guessing I'll be down the net cafe again sometime this week as well as hiring some more DVDs to pass the time; $$$).

Kazu (my teacher) sent me a message to see if I wanted to go skiing/snowboarding sometime in Jan/Feb, which sounds great. Not sure where to, possibly Nagano, but I said I'd talk to him next week about it.

It's a clear, sunny day today, but it's one of the coldest days I've had here. The wind has picked up a bit in the last hour though, I'm wondering if it truly will snow.

Snow?

According to the weather forecast, it's supposed to snow nearby tomorrow. The max temp will be 7 and min of 4...
I heard from a few people that back home was rather cold for Christmas too.

There hasn't been a lot of snow yet this year. Many people (staff and students) have their annual snow trips to Nagano etc over the New Year breaks, but there's literally no snow to actually go to unless you travel far north to Hokkaido at the moment.

Christmas went by quietly. I had class in the morning and then worked in the arvo, but finished at 6:30pm.
Next class is Saturday week.

I get my net tomorrow morning sometime (finally), so I should be able to stop complaining. Tomorrow is also the first day of my week off over the New Year. I go back to work on the Friday the 5th (with an early start and finish) and then have my Sat/Sun off as usual.

Cold-ish

It just started hailing.

I didn't really have much time during my last post to add detail as I was in the net cafe typing it up (instead of at home and then taking it there to upload).

So...

As I said last time (although I can't remember everything I said, so be prepared to some repetition), I had just come from KICC and the first meeting with my teacher.
I'll mainly be learning language used between friends (slang etc) rather than Formal language (Formal language is basically used toward people you don't know, and is incredibly different).
In addition to this, everything (as I've been getting a better grip on since getting here) is in Kansai dialect. 'Kansai Dialect' being grouped roughly as the south-west of Japan, but within which you find more 'sub-dialects'. In other words, anyone from Kansai regions sound very different from Kanto regions (such as Tokyo). It's not a simple accent difference, but completely new words and grammatical differences. (Think like it's Aussie vs American vs British etc but 10x more different, and it's definitely not a slang-only difference.)

Anyways... it's fun stuff breaking the 'rules' of the language we learnt last year (textbook Japanese always being Kanto/Tokyo dialect. Kinda odd considering there are more people speaking Kansai dialect than any other in Japan).

Next class is Wednesday, but there's some kind of monthly gathering from 4pm-6pm tomorrow and I said I'd come in for a bit before work.


Barbara came the day before that and, as I said, we went shopping for a few hours until she had to catch the train. She lived nearby until she was six years old before moving to Aus. She hadn't been to Kobe since the earthquake and so much of the city is new to her (excluding that she would have forgot it anyway).
Had heaps of stories to tell, of which I barely told any, but I heard many of her own anyway.
She came and checked out my apartment on the way home (which I'd decided to clean up just in case).


So...

I've our Christmas party tonight from 7:30pm. It's all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink We've got a 'Secret Santa' running, but someone in Voice told me what I'm getting... and from that it was pretty easy to guess who was going to buy me a tie. I drew Colas, who is one of the French teachers and so got him some imported beers that I think he'll like.

I'm not sure if I've ever really mentioned the non-English teachers at our branch. We've about three or four of each French and German teachers who all have classes as often as the English ones. The majority of them are fluent in Japanese as well as, of course, English (but they don't teach English).


So, it's cold here and I'm yet to find a new jacket I like (but I did get a new bag for carrying my books etc around in).

I think I said something about the net being installed sometime Christmas week ('sometime' because they insisted it had to be in the afternoon when I working and it took a very long time to make them understand I wasn't going to be able to get Christmas day off from work to have my internet installed and that it would be the case for every weekday. So they'll try and 'fit it in' sometime in the morning of a day that week.
What that means is that I should have my internet sometime next week!

I'm spending a fortune going to the internet cafe once or twice a week (out of boredom as much as anything), in addition to hiring 3-4 DVDs a week. (I got into Prison Break, since I can't watch Lost.)


I'm on leave from work from the 28th to the 5th (I think, sometime like that). No plans as yet, but there's talk of a snow trip. See what happens.

Barbara, Shopping and Study

I met my Japanese teacher today at KICC.

I was stressing out... I got in the lift with 3 older ladies who were all headed to the same level as me, so I assumed one of them would be my teacher.
I stood looking out the window over Kobe (from the 20th floor; awesome view) while I waited for KICC to open. I then sat and waited for the staff to come and set up the introduction to my teacher etc and re-explain the `rules` etc.

I`m sooooooooo relieved. My tutor`s name is Kazutaka, 一孝, and is a 21 year old university student who is in his 3rd, and 2nd last year, of his Engineering degree. He lives in Nagata, which is a few stations away from Sannomiya.
He`s a really great guy. I was terrified that I`d end up with a 60 year old retiree with nothing better to do with their time.
He lived in Sydney for about 8 months and then travelled up and around to Cairns and then to Melbourne. He has great English, but we spoke 95% Japanese for the 2 hour `lesson`. He also was able to directly translate any new words into English when I needed.
It will be the same thing next Wednesday at 10am (and so on for the next 6 months).

Such a relief.


Barbara came yesterday! (My teacher from last year at TAFE.) She only had a few hours here, and it was cold and wet, so I took her on a tour of some shops. (`Some` because I doubt anyone could explore all the shops in a single day within Sannomiya/Motomachi, let alone within a few hours.)
Was great to catch up and see a familiar face to cement the reality of this country with. This place seems so perfectly surreal sometimes that I`m simply waiting to wake up.
We basically talked and walked constantly, but she also saved me from any big delays with my internet installation when the company rang without any English speaking ability. The lady on the phone asked if I had any Japanese friends nearby and that was my cue to grab Barbara.

So anyway, my internet was going to be installed between 1pm and 5pm on Christmas Day... however, work closes earlier then so I also have to start earlier. This all means that it`s not possible to install the internet then. So, after much bargining and persuading, she`ll try and see if it`s possible to do it during the morning of the 26th, 27th or 28th. It`s the first situation I`ve had in Japan that has been less efficient than back home.

I`m thinking about lunch...

It`s so cold that...

On Thursday (the 30th) I went down to my landlady to find out what was happening about my internet. I was told that there would be an indefinite number of weeks before it's done...
I went down to a computer shop in Harbourland and set myself up with ADSL. It'll be installed by the 20th of this month. Problem solved...

I went down to KICC on Friday and arrived as No. 13. I waited there for 30-45 mins before I had my interview. I had had this form given to me to fill out and then a handful of other questions. My interviewer was fluent in 'Aussie' after having spent a year or so in Perth doing homestay; is always odd to hear a Japanese person with an Aussie accent.She'll call me sometime next week to let me know who I get. I'm kind of hoping it's a guy around my age, but then that could be hit and miss. Learning from a woman would teach me too much female language, though...
I'm hoping for someone young, at least. (Everything at KICC is man-to-man/one-on-one)

According to my air-con's thermostat, it's 10 degrees in my room at the moment... and was 9 degrees when I got home from work last night. My air-con can heat up to 30 degrees though, so it takes the chill off (and stops me from seeing my breath).
I'll be looking for a new jacket soon. Something that stops both the wind and the cold. Should have brought my ski jacket (and pants). To think that winter has just begun...

I'm going to head down to the net cafe in a few mins and upload all this into my blog. (I bought a little flash drive the other day)

There'll be plenty to keep you entertained until I get back online in two weeks and get back to real-time updating. (26/10/06 is my first new post)

EDIT:
There`s a lot of formating that didn`t copy over on these pages I`ve added, so just live with it. I might slowly go over it all one day and fix it back up, but I can`t be bothered at the moment.

Still Waiting

So...

I'm alive!

I went and told my landlady I would go and set up the internet myself after I was told the installation would take an extra indefinite number of weeks.
So I'll be back in action by the 20th of December!

Until then...