Saturday, February 5, 2011

Spring Break!

Thursday was the day I handed in my two final essays. Twenty pages worth of essays in total. One was eight pages and the other was twelve. What a pain in the butt that was. Did all this while suffering from my cold too. Luckily today I'm only coughing a little bit now. Daniel's all recovered too. However, this means now that my spring break has begun! Yay!

I still have two or three posts I want to write about concerning notable things that happened to me last month, so I'll probably be going back to last month's happenings soon. But for now I'll talk about some more recent experiences of mine.



I celebrated on Thursday by going to Shibuya 109 and picking up a few items for a customer at my shopping service. I managed to do some job hunting at a few nearby stores, too.

The first one I asked at told me that the deadline for applications had already passed. While disappointing, I did appreciate the fact that she didn't act surprised that I could speak Japanese and just spoke to me regularly.

The second store I asked at the manager wasn't in, so they took my resume and said that the shop manager will call me about an interview whenever she gets in. Well, that was Thursday and today is Saturday. Hopefully the manager has a several day break or was sick or something. I wonder how long I should wait before moving on? Though I think they'd at least send my resume back sooner or later. Unfortunately my picture is kind of plain looking, a lot different from how I looked in real life when I asked about a job. First appearances are everything, so I hope the manager will wait until the actual interview to judge me, and doesn't just judge me based on the picture. Maybe I would have been better off just leaving my phone number.

It was funny though, because I asked one of the workers who had actually spoke to me in English beforehand. She didn't seem too surprised I was speaking to her in Japanese, but she told me she had only started two days earlier and took me over to the other three girls working there at the time. I wasn't sure what to say, so after a few seconds of silence the lady whom I had assumed was the manager says, "Can you speak Japanese...?" It was funny, but from there I think it proceeded smoothly enough and I think I managed to appear charismatic and eager enough. The other two girls seemed excited, so hopefully that was a good sign?

In any case, my heart couldn't take asking at a third place that day so I ended up going home. It's so nerve wracking to ask for a job here! But at least I feel comfortable that I have the correct phrase to ask now and I feel like I'm enunciating cheerily and loudly.

I did, however, get the whole "wow your Japanese is great!" thing when I went to a store called d.i.a. This could have to do with the fact that some other foreigners were shopping in there and trying to talk to the shop staff. I really dislike it when I get lumped in with the tourists.



Yesterday I went to the post office to weigh the items for my customer and an old lady stopped halfway while crossing the street to gawk at me. I know I wasn't wearing any makeup because I was just going a few blocks down the street and home, but I don't think I looked too weird. The funny thing is that I feel like this rarely happens to me. Sure. on the train some people will look at me a few seconds longer than normal and some little girls will look at me with some wonder in their eyes, but most don't care at all and I've never felt like people try to get away from me, try not to sit next to me on the train, or just make me feel alien.

Silly old people.



On Thursday I got a message from Maki inviting all of us who went on the Nogal trip (which I participated in on October 1, October 2, and October 3, if you don't remember) and live in the Tokyo area to get together once again. The other girls in my immediate group all agreed and it seems a few other girls who also participated will join us as well. I really hope I can go, I've been wanting to see them all again.

Speaking of Nogal, I guess a documentary of the whole thing aired during the last week. I didn't get to see it, but maybe it's better that I didn't see what a fool I probably had made of myself.

8 comments:

  1. Reading about your adventures is so fun. :)

    If you don't mind me asking, what are the steps to being able to work in Japan as an exchange student? And how do you ask for a job?

    日本語が話せるから、日本語で返事してもいいです★

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  2. @macro-micro prescott:コメントくれて本当に有り難うございます(・∀・)

    まずは「資格外活動許可」を手に入ることが何よりも必要です。
    あたしは英会話以外のアルバイトをしたいので、次に日本の履歴書が必要です。コンビニ、本屋でも買えます!
    最後は、履歴書を持っていながら「募集中」の看板が出された店のスタッフに正直に、「アルバイトをしたいですけど・・・」って聞いてみることです★
    後は面接・・・面接って怖いんですね(;.;)

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  3. 答えてくれてありがとうございます!

    うわっ 本当に日本語が上手です! 何か、羨ましいですw
    どのぐらい勉強していますか?

    あぁ、分かりました。 私の考えより簡単そうです。 ;; でも、怖いそうだね、ほかの語で申し込みますから。頑張ります、ジュリーさん!

    一学期しか留学しなかったら、アルバイトが出来ますかな... まぁ、まだ承諾書を待ってますぞ。 (ノ; ;)ノ

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  4. 言ってくれて嬉しいです(〃'▽'〃)
    今まで5~6年ぐらいかな~
    頑張ってます^^

    でもmacro-micro prescottさんの日本語も上手だと思います!

    まぁ、履歴書の書き方はちょっと面倒くさいです(^^ゞ
    けどアメリカの書き方より簡単だと思います

    macro-micro prescottさんはどのアルバイトを捜してみたいですか?
    アルバイトに応じてできると思います~
    一学期だから、英会話の方がいいかもしれませんね
    でも日本語能力に応じてコンビニ、レストランでもできると思います^^

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  5. そうですー 私も頑張ります! 
    日本に戻る前に本当に上手になりたいんですが。
    今まで、2年しか日本語を学びません。 辞書を使わないで、まだ複文を書いてない、話せません...多分。 笑

    何でもアルバイトはいいです。 (^^

    ショップスタッフになって、かっこいいだと思いますけどもっともっと勉強しなくてはいけませんねぇ。 でも、ジュリーの言うとおりは一番とおりかもしれません。

    PS この次から、「マイクロ」か「prescott」か本名前の「ヨルダン」を呼んでもいい、macro-microなんとかは長過ぎますから。

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  6. 返事遅れてすみません><
    でも追加コメントありがとうございます~

    ヨルダンさんは
    どうやって勉強していますかな?

    そっか・・・

    接客のアルバイトなら敬語を使わなければならないので
    ヨルダンさんにとって英会話の方がいいかもしれませんね(^^ゞ

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  7. [add Japanese text here]

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  8. あぁーっ 私も返事遅れます!すみません。

    今までも、大学で勉強してて、日本語の音楽を聞いています...。
    相談してから、いい気分です。
    怠け者だから、辞書を使わないで、返事しています。笑
    そのために...簡単な文を書いています。
    ふーーーーん。

    Hi, queennepy. :D hehe

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