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lucy k
Joined: 06 May 2003
Posts: 82
Location: istanbul, turkey
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 Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:31 am Post subject: |
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| I agree with Red. I spent a year teaching in Chile. I found the people there quite nice. And the main benefit of teaching in Chile, as apposed to other South American countries, is that the pay is better and the economy is more stable. That means you'll be able to save enough to travel to the other countries you want to see. I doubt that that's possible in Bolivia (although that's just a guess!). I worked in Chile for one year and was able to travel for three months when I finished my contract. Go for it! |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:35 am Post subject: |
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Yaramaz, 2 more weeks  . I got my ticket yesterday. |
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biffinbridge
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 701
Location: Frank's Wild Years
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| Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:45 am Post subject: dmb |
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| Alright Damo...leaving the land that time forgot at last...u must b over the moon.Try not to blow all that hard saved cash on a sabbatical of booze and sin.Good luck mate.I'm in the east for a jolly before going to the south for not a laugh. |
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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 2:21 am Post subject: |
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Denise, most foreigners who eventually leave Japan always feel like they stayed too long. Everyone says, "I should have left last year, but the _____ was too good/easy." Follow your heart and walk away with a good experience.
The longer you stay in Japan, I think you will enjoy it more. Japanese culture slowly unravels and sometimes it is quite interesting. It also takes a long time to establish meaningful friendships with Japanese people. Of course the longer you live here, the more frustrating certain aspects become.
I think Nigata may be part of your problem. Nigata is a beautiful area, but I wouldn't want to live there. It is too isolated from reality. However, it does sound like you have a great work environment and that is a difficult thing to achieve in Japan. Obviously you have to look at a lot of factors when making a your desicion. Take your time and rationally look at what you have, what you don't, what you want and or need, and what you don't.
Oh, and end the colleague relationship. It's poisoning the one part of your experience that you could be enjoying. That's my take on things. Feel free to ingore the parts you don't like. |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 2:41 am Post subject: |
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Guest of Japan--
Regarding Niigata, when I first got here, a colleague of mine (affectionately?) called it "the armpit of Japan." 
I should have learned from my time in Prague that getting involved with co-workers is a nasty business...
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Aramas
Joined: 13 Feb 2004
Posts: 874
Location: Slightly left of Centre
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| Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 6:35 am Post subject: |
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I should have learned from my time in Prague that getting involved with co-workers is a nasty business...
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Not at all. We learn from our mistakes in order to recognise when we have already made the same mistake again, not before. If we only make the same mistake half a dozen times then we're way ahead of the curve. Most people continue to 'unknowingly' (yeah right) make the same mistakes over and over ad nauseum until the day they die. |
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khmerhit
Joined: 31 May 2003
Posts: 1874
Location: Reverse Culture Shock Unit
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| Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 8:57 am Post subject: |
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Enough of this worldly internationalist sophistry------shhheeeeeeesh. I want to know what the hotbaths are like. Anyone, please?
khmerheat
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Wolf
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 1245
Location: Middle Earth
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| Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:38 am Post subject: |
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| khmerhit wrote: |
Enough of this worldly internationalist sophistry------shhheeeeeeesh. I want to know what the hotbaths are like. Anyone, please?
khmerheat
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Rather relaxing as I recall.
However, they are segregated by gender most of the time, if that's what your driving at. |
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nomadder
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
Posts: 709
Location: Somewherebetweenhereandthere
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| Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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| I agree Denise that you shouldn�t set a time frame for a place before you know how much you�ll like it. Easier to add on years than justify subtracting. Wait till the personal problem blows over before making any hasty decisions. |
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khmerhit
Joined: 31 May 2003
Posts: 1874
Location: Reverse Culture Shock Unit
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| Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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Nelson' Rules spring to mind again. Note well--Do not Break the Third Rule --------if you can help it.
| Quote: |
Three rules in life, said the novelist Nelson Algren: Never play poker with a man named Doc, never eat at a place called
Mom's and never sleep with anyone whose problems are worse than your own. Jeanne (Elodie Bouchez), a Parisian bookstore clerk, breaks that third rule when she picks up Dragan (Serge� Trifunovic), an artist from Serbia who is living as an illegal alien in France. Actor Jean-Marc Barr filmed this low-fi Dogme '95 offering with compassion and intelligence; Dragan's sometimes irritating and impulsive qualities make sure that this courtship is never too smooth. With her tragic gaze, Bouchez (the grubby angel in The Dream Life of Angels) gives this story much of its sorrow. In the last scene on a staircase--prolonged and yet just right--Bouchez underplays her part like the master actress she is. (RvB) |
[/quote]The first two don'ts in Nelson Algren's warning-for-life, which were requested by Ian Wylie (Letters, 29 October), are 'Never play cards with a man called Doc; Never eat in a diner that offers "Mom's Cooking".' The third, as I heard the rules from an American journalist in Poland many years ago, was 'Never sleep with a woman who has more problems than you.' But did Algren invent these rules? They sound like postwar American fiction - but maybe not his.
Life is full of handy rules of thumb. Nelson Algren gave us the classic "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own." Food lovers have their own set of dicta, two of which would have to be "Never go to a restaurant based solely on its name" and "Never pick a wine based on its label." So I feel I have to make some excuses to explain why three of us ventured through the snow drifts on the coldest night of Chicago's winter to a restaurant called Tweet, carrying one bottle of wine with a possum on the label and another, labeled Blockheadia Ringnosii, with a picture of a multicolored ringnosed blockheaded figure." Both of the wines (Tweet is a BYOB establishment) were highly rated by Wine Spectator, and the kitchen of Tweet is home to not one, but two chefs who worked for Charlie Trotter, a man not known to tolerate second best.
As bitter as the weather was, it was probably the right
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Lynn
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 696
Location: in between
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| Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject: Re: a half-inebriated confession |
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| denise wrote: |
But still, something about What would you guys/gals do (or what have you done) if you realized that you weren't happy in your current position? Would you bail, or would you rationalize and stick it out? (I will be here for at least another year, since I've signed the contract and am not nearly unhappy enough to break it.) I tend to rationalize things--not always healthy...
Maybe I'm just having a rotten day. Maybe tomorrow I will realize how much I love Japan.
d |
If I were you, I'd put in a two month notice and move on. Life is too short.
I hope I don't come across too negative, but I just don't think it is worth it. I lived in Japan for 4 years. Sure, I had my ups and downs, but before I even stepped foot in Japan I was really excited. And when I did have my downs, there was still something about Japan that I really connected with. Why live in a coutry that you are lukewarm about? Denise, you are young, smart, and a very competant person who loves her students. Leave Japan on a good note, knowing you gave it a shot a learned a thing or two about life. Book that flight to SA and have the time of your life. |
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khmerhit
Joined: 31 May 2003
Posts: 1874
Location: Reverse Culture Shock Unit
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| Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2004 12:32 am Post subject: |
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Why, indeed, live in a country you are lukewarm about?
Malaysia? Ho-hum.
Canada? Snore.
Finland. Maybe
CZ? Yeah, OK.
Japan? Enh. Maybe.
Colombia? Hmmm.
Mexico? Maybe?
Turkey. OK.
Russia. Yeah.
Italy? Maybe.
China? Sure. Maybe.
Thailand? Ho-Hum. Beautiful country , however--Bunch a stuck-up prigs.
but----
But -------
But------------
BUT--------------------------
How could anyone feel lukewarm about
cambodia? try it and see. |
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