Update 4: The First Day Back

On Friday January 11th, I reported in for my first day back at work.

I had been told my schedule via telephone by one of the area managers, and arrived to work in my shirt and tie for the first time in over 2 months, hopeful that we would have enough students to justify keeping the school open.

The staff was surprised to see me when I walked in the door. Apparently they weren't expecting any teachers to show up that day. "I was told to come here today," I assured them.

The old Japanese staff was gone. I had heard rumors that they weren't coming back, but hadn't stopped in to see for myself. (During the first few weeks after Nova's collapse we kept in touch with the Japanese staff and still met socially occasionally. Gradually I lost contact with them. Which is too bad because I considered -them friends, but so help me I guess I've never been good at staying in touch. I had heard through other people though that the old Japanese staff had been either transferred to other branches or were seeking jobs elsewhere.

The new staff explained to me that the fax machine had been down for several days now, so they hadn't received any information and didn't know when us foreign instructors would be showing up for work. (Why it never occurred to anyone to pick up a telephone I'm not quite sure). As a result they hadn't taken any student reservations, because they didn't know what our schedule was. I jotted down my schedule on a piece of paper and gave it to them.

They were also unaware that only 2 of us, not 4, were going to be returning to work. And, as they were new to the branch, didn't really have an idea of what went where, or when classes start, or what we could throw out and what we needed to keep. They really didn't seem to know much at all.

But they seemed nice enough at least. They were slightly cold at first, but warmed up to me after a while. (I think we both took each other off guard. I came in expecting to work only to learn that they hadn't reserved any classes, and they weren't expecting me to come in yet at all).

Since I had nothing to do for the day, I set to work cleaning out the staff room.

This was no easy task, as years of junk had been accumulated.

Also, the way the company had shut its doors in October suddenly and without warning meant that nobody had a chance to do simple things like clean out their lunch out of the fridge. And some lazy soul had left unwashed dishes in the sink, no doubt thinking they'd just be able to get it the next morning.

I rolled up my sleeves and started on the disgusting work.

Actually to be honest, it was a bit gross but not near as bad as cleaning out my own apartment during my bachelor days. However it was probably not a job I would have thought necessary to wear a shirt and tie to.

I made slow but steady progress. The staff eventually found a free moment to show me where I could take the garbage to dispose of it (something that the previous Japanese staff had kept hidden for me) so I walked back and forth through the mall carrying several bags of garbage and went into the back room where I interacted with all the other Japanese mall workers. It felt just like Meijers again.)

We ended up having only one lesson the whole day.

My co-worker came in at 5, and I showed him my progress. "All the frost ice in the freezer is still melting," I said. "I've had it unplugged with the door open for 4 hours now, but apparently ice takes a really long time to melt."

"Yeah, it does that. Usually you have to leave it off overnight. You should be old enough to remember the days before freezers had automatic antifrosting."

"Apparently I've had a privileged upbringing," I said.

"Apparently," he said.

Snarky comments aside, he took over the cleaning where I left off.

Link of the Day
From the Washington Post: U.S. Boosts Its Use of Airstrikes In Iraq
The U.S.-led coalition dropped 1,447 bombs on Iraq last year, an average of nearly four a day, compared with 229 bombs, or about four each week, in 2006...UNAMI estimates that more than 200 civilian deaths resulted from U.S. airstrikes in Iraq from the beginning of April to the end of last year, when U.S. forces began to significantly increase the strikes to coordinate with the expansion of ground troops