Andrea's Rambling Notes - once from Japan, now from Canada

::Andrea's Rambling Notes - once from Japan, now from Canada::

My notes and my memories: sometimes about a mom - sometimes about a wife - sometimes about a woman - sometimes about our life

::Author::

Name::Andrea
From::Small city/town, B.C., Canada
I am a short girl from the west cost of BC, Canada and I am a proud Canadian. I went to Japan in 2000 because my Dad told me I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't. He was right. I lived a good life found my husband from the other side of the world and have a beautiful daughter. Basically we lead a pretty normal life filled with normal ups and downs. We both come from different cultures: me Canadian, him Chinese. Living in Japan was a real eye opener about who I am and about the people I associate myself with. I lived and loved in Japan but the time to move on came upon us and in May of 2006 we left and moved to Canada: a huge move for us all. We are now trying to start up again, remodel our lives and create our future for our family. I now feel like a tourist in the country of my birth, my eyes see different and my life will be forever changed. This blog is my notes and observations of our life, our changes, our adventures and new beginnings. Welcome.
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::Recent Entries::

::Personal Links::

My Japanese Culture Teaching Notes

::My Family's Sites::

Alisha - a site set up by friends and family of my little sis

Phrax - my step-brother

Blue Mountain Stable

::Index::

An Index of past posts - the Japan Years

::Archives::

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My Image Event Photo Album

::My FlickR Photos::

www.flickr.com

::Tech Sites::

Tech2all

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::Extra Internet Info::

Canadian Atlas

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Wikipedia

World TimesZones - please check this BEFORE calling me!

Currency Converter

eigoNavi - a pretty good language converter

The Samurai Appliance Repair Man - a funny repair site for N

::World News::

Generation Woman

Japan Times

Counter Punch

Japanese General Union - a must! read before working in Japan

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Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Filling you all in.

On Sunday we did a bit of a window-shopping walk in the Apita store. They had a sale on men’s suits. Normally we don’t look but Li decided to browse just to see. He had troubles looking for a suit when he was in China. Li is a ‘Y’ cut and for some reason has trouble finding this cut in China. The other cuts look terrible on him. Well these suits were 100% wool and only 100bucks. The same as if we were buying in China! We decided to get one. Li found a very snazzy looking blue pinstriped that looks very yummy on him. The pants needed to be taken in so they were sent off to do that.
Well I just flew to the shop during my working break on my bike to pick up the damn suit and it WASN’T READY!! They did not have to understand English to read the look of pissed on my face. I was obviously coming from work as I was wearing my damn uniform. Riding a bike in a skirt raises the difficulty factor quite a bit but multiply it by at least ten when it is a tapered in cut knee length skirt work uniform. Then add another ten to the difficulty factor due to a baby seat positioned above the knee area.
AUGH!!
Have to go back after work to get it now. Grrrr.

So ya.
My bad news meeting lasted for about 15 minutes and I was surprisingly calm and thinking clearly through the whole thing. I told him that I would be really happy if my contract was finished out but that I understood and thanked him for being so patient with me and my visa problems up to now.
My manager is not responsible for my contract and in the end even the plant manager has little control. It was the big giant boss up in Tokyo who swung the axe. I am not the only one standing in the swing line.
Thank fully I seem to now be at the end of this line.
Drastic cuts were decided for about three sections here and unfortunately that included the entire English program. I am really unhappy that they are not going to continue the English classes. These men need it for many reasons and the business needs it for tons.
Unfortunately the boss is old and, I believe, thinking along old school lines that are not going to benefit anyone or the company. Unfortunately I am not a businessperson and not in control.
I feel really bad for the people that are loosing their jobs and for the others that are being transferred into the wind. I feel REALLY bad for the poor folks who are stuck with double the already heavy workload.
I was all panicky about my apartment (which is in the companies name), my medical insurance (which is company not city), and wanted my pension paperwork dealt with. My manager understood all of this.
Last night I was going through the list of people I could ask about possible private classes and substitute classes to get some extra cash. I went through our finances and how much we may be able to save by January and what we would need to move. We are going along the lines that a shipping container will cost us 3000bucks, then the airplane tickets and our visit to China. Ouch!
Surprisingly there were no tears involved and Li and I were just batting ideas around all night as on how to handle it.
I even slept well last night.
I wasn’t complaining and in a way not surprised: I had actually given my notice to them way back this spring and I am still here due to stupid government screw-ups and bureaucracy. I am surprised about the non-continuation of English classes and am now more relieved than ever that we are leaving the country. I realized a long time ago that my job was the only English teaching job that I would want here. The idea of being a JET or working for Aeon or Nova did not appeal to me in ANY way.
I was all prepared to email my manager this morning to have him look into getting me a letter of reference in both Japanese and English but he had already emailed me with the WONDERFUL news that the boss had agreed to finish out my contract but not renew it.
Having a job until April has almost made me float while walking.
What a relief!

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/11/2005 :: 4 Comments:

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