Saturday, September 02, 2006

How did I get the job in Japan?



It is my sisters birthday tomorrow, she is turning 20. Ebony lives in Bendigo (a country town in Victoria) as she goes to uni there. She lives in a College dorm and it is just like those USA teen movies with Frat parties, nude runs and general obnoxious behaviour! Anyway tomorrow we are all driving down to Bendigo (by we I mean my mum, nanna and pa and Henry) for a special Birthday picnic. It is going to be the last time I visit Bendigo for at least a year, and I get to meet Harry the Japanese guy who helped buy me my Madonna Confessions tour concert tickets for Tokyo Dome September 21. I was so lucky to find him because it was impossible to buy the tickets unless you can read Japanese as the only website to buy the tickets from was only in Japanese. I also get to pick up the tickets as they got sent over from his parents house to him (you also needed a Japanese address for the tickets to be sent to)....I have to get him a thankyou present today. Speaking of presents I got my sister an ipod nano 4gb. Well me, mum and Henry got it for her...I'm not that genorous!



I have always wanted to teach English in Japan. I first found out about it when I was in Brisbane staying at a backpackers there were flyers around everywhere. At the time I was too young and didnt have enough experience to be able to do it. In order to tach part time you need to have succesfully completed 1 year of a degree, to teach full time you need to have completed a BA in anything. I have completed 1 year of a fine art photography degree at The Victorian College of the Arts. I quit that half way through 2nd year due to the insanity of the place (art school students are CRAZY) and have been working full time at various call centre jobs for Telstra and travelling to Japan, NZ, Tahiti and NYC. When I returned from NYC in January I started a new job for Telstra in credit management. It is actually a really good shit job because the hours are set instead of working a 24/7 roster and the money is amazing!


But I started to get bored and restless. Then the Madonna Confessions tour dates were announced and she wasnt coming to Australia, but she was going to Tokyo. As I had promissed myself that if she tours this album I would go no matter how much it costs I decided that I would take 2 weeks leave to go to Tokyo for the concert with Henry. However as Henry had uni he didnt have any time to save for the trip I decided to go alone, but what was the point of going for just 2 weeks when I could live and work there for a year? Thats when I decided to apply through AACE to teach English in Japan.


I was really nervous for the interview as you had to do an English grammar and spelling test, but it all went fine. You also have to do a role play exercise where the interviewer pretends to be a student. That was actually really fun and made me excited about the job not just the fact that it is in Japan.

When I found out I had the job I danced around the office I was so excited. Now the date I leave is getting closer and closer (17 days and counting) I cant believe it is happening. It is too good to be true! I am going to live and work in Tokyo and see MADONNA in concert! It all feels like a dream. The only sad thing is Henry wont be there to share the experience, but at least he will visit for 2 months, and it might do him some good to live alone for a while and see how much I do for him.

Anywayz I have to go and get a thankyou pressy for Harry, some picnic food for my sisters birthday and go to the Costume hire shop to look for a Geisha costume.

Sayonara!



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