Pride and Prejudice

At the end of training tonight our trainers told us about a tasty pizza/pasta restaurant nearby and recommended their calzones. So Kirk (co-trainee) and I decided to give it a shot. We found the place okay, it was just past the mcdonald's on the other side of the hall, also happened to be just next door to a dried octopus hanging outside some restaurant like a wearied kite, presumably enticing hungry customers in to its sinewy embrace. Yes, table for two (used fingers not words). The man made sure we understood the no smoking policy and took us directly to a table around the corner in the very back. I thought if it was a western food establishment it would be good for business to see westerners enjoying the wares. Silly me. We managed to order a beer and a calzone apiece with little incident, despite not knowing what ¾ of the words our waitress said meant. When she brought my calzone she said something long-windedly, the only bit of which I understood was “gomen-nasai”. Somehow our meals had not arrived at readiness at the same time. We worked past it. The calzone was all it was promised to be, and when we were done we thought the leftovers might make a nice lunch tomorrow. I thought I had remembered something about taking leftovers not being a good idea around here, but I wasn't sure and I had enjoyed my calzone enough to want to continue enjoying it tomorrow, so I agreed that Kirk should try. Which he did. She made a noise and said something quickly before leaving the table. Several looks back at us around the corner and a few minutes later she came back and said something that seemed to be in the affirmative and took our plates. Well. Guess we learned our lesson on that one. We got our leftovers (after several more minutes waiting), we got the free after-dinner tea our patronage earned us, and we even got cards for a free drink the next time we come in. But it was clearly not the thing to do. All we could do was laugh to ourselves, pride already swallowed. I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow.

Training was long. I went to bed too early last night and woke up at 7 this morning, almost 2 hours before my alarm was set to go off. Dammit. I have been looking forward so much to not having to be at work until 10 or after (I got my real schedule today and I start at 11 on Tuesdays, 12 Wed-Fri, and 10 Sat), and now that it's here I'm still stuck in 8-5 work mode. Dammit. It's going to be difficult adjusting to this thing I've been craving. The training is intense, but the trainers are doing their best to only put pressure where pressure is necessary. The atmosphere is convivial; jokes abound, even if they are downright hokey. Wearing slippers for most of my day is so awesome. It is SO much more comfortable than shoes all the time. I have already noticed my feet continually looking uncharacteristically clean. We have a lot of work to do tonight, a sample lesson to prepare and packets to read. Singing ditties is a considerably more significant portion of this job than I was led to believe. Every transition between activities has its own song, some of them two. It all feels very overwhelming right now, but I know it will fall in to place when I'm actually having to do it. Preparation only takes me so far, as I learned when I moved to Japan after mentally preparing for it for so many months.