Sandwiches! Sandwiches! Barely even human...

Hiyo! Since last we spoke, I've met my supervisor, Satomi-sensei. She's really cool, and apparently is insanely busy. I'm not exactly sure, but I've heard she teaches both English and Korean. That makes for a hectic schedule, but it also makes for a convenient means to learn Korean! She's just now getting back from her honeymoon (she used to be Kojima-sensei!), and the pile of stuff on her desk was about a foot (erm, about 30cm) high. She also had me fill out some paperwork. Apparently we're supposed to sign in every day we work, so they can track if we miss any days. Not having known this, I had to fill in about twenty blanks--according to their records, I hadn't worked since I got here. No worries, though--I still got paid.

Payday was yesterday, too. They gave me an envelope fat with cash, explained what's taken out of my gross pay (rent, FICA-ish stuff), and also gave me an envelope with money to cover traveling expenses this weekend. I was kinda nervous on the walk back home, carrying that much cash, but that's just out of habit--I haven't seen anybody remotely shady or sketchy yet.

So they tell us to set some goals for ourselves, both to give us direction in the beginning, and help us straighten up if/when the homesickness/depression sets in later on. To that end, I figure here's as good a place as any to try to list them.

My main goal during my stay here is to help people learn stuff. As underwhelming and inauspicious as that phrasing is, it's true. English is obviously the main thing I'm teaching, but it isn't the only thing I hope to teach. Among other things, I hope also to teach the people around me that (not all) Americans are the fat, lazy, arrogant cretins that more and more of the world sees us as.

My second goal touches more on my big plans for life. Right now, my ultimate career goal is to end up teaching something, somewhere, to somebody. I usually assume that means teaching in a formal capacity, such as high school or college, but I could just as easily see myself working as a diplomat, a worker bee for the U.N., some form of foreign affairs advisor at the State Department, or just a writer. Every job I dream of doing entails teaching on some level.

I have such a desire to spread knowledge because I feel that most of the major problems with the world stem from ignorance. Every single manifestation of cruelty and injustice I have found--things such as sexism, racism, pollution, religious extremism, and homophobia--can be explained almost entirely as products of ignorance. As idealistic as this may be, I am convinced that with proper education, with a truly effective spread of knowledge, problems such as these would be greatly diminished, if not erased all together.

Before I can truly begin teaching in the way I'm talking about, I need to learn more--a lot more. Above all else, I need to learn simply whether I'm any good at it. All I've been since college is a waiter and a restaurant manager--neither of which afforded me much chance to see what, if any, teaching ability I have. Sure, I'm crazy about the idea of teaching, about being able to help cure those seemingly intractable diseases of modern society, but I might just... suck at teaching. Though I hate to think of it, I must accept that as a possibility. Seeing as that would sort of throw a wrench in the whole plan, I need to test my mettle, and being here is a great way to do just that.

My other goals while in Japan, while not quite as broad in scope, are still ambitious. I aim to take full advantage of my (relative) proximity to so many freaking amazing countries: if, by the time I leave this area, I haven't been to at least five other countries, I should consider the mission a failure.

I also hope to learn as much Japanese as possible while I'm here. This will give me a chance to see just how good I am at learning a language. While I seem to be fairly adept at picking up the basics of a language, I've never actually devoted time to intensely studying one.

I'm also looking forward to being outside of America, as this will give me as much of an outsider's perspective as I can ever hope to have, being born in the country. Such a perspective will, I hope, help me better understand exactly how so many things could go so very wrong with what was until recently such a beautiful experiment in government. If I can get that far, then hopefully the problems will seem somewhat more surmountable.

...Oh, and it'd be swell to fall in love while I'm here, too. :)

So that's a list of some goals I've got. I've been meaning for quite some time now to elaborate in writing on what I was talking about up there. Now that I've got this nifty thing, I might just post about it.

Nagasaki on Friday!