06/11 - This too shall pass

Sometimes things go wrong

you want the day to be done

before it begins



But often the day

as it rounds into itself

grows good by its close


Today didn't start off the best. I checked my e-mail right after waking up to find an important message from UBC telling me I hadn't registered for any of my classes, even though I had registered for all of my classes, right after my registration opened, almost a full month ago. I even woke up in the middle of the night in order to register as early as possible and get my desired choices. Since I did it in the middle of the night I also double checked the next day to make sure everything had gone through ok. It had. Needless to say I was shocked and immediately stressed about the situation. How had everything disappeared? I e-mailed UBC right away. I am not unfamiliar with their registration system, having gone there for my Undergrad. I am returning in September to begin the Education program there.

I was feeling pretty crappy about the whole thing on the way to work, but luckily I had a good day of lessons ahead, as we were using comic strips to learn about order, then corresponding vocabulary. It was quite fun. Some of the cartoons were of Garfield. I was surprised to learn none of the Japanese students had heard of Garfield before, since cartoons, cats, and cartoon cats are all really popular here. I told them how he was a cat but that he loved to eat Italian food and they were quite amused. There's definitely an untapped market. Maybe even that crap movie where Bill Murray voices Garfield could be improved during dubbing or subtitling.

By the last class of the day my mood had come around. Things got even better, as I was greeted by my 62-year-old student. He almost always comes to the last class, with something prepared to tell me. He clearly rehearses it before he shows up, which is not the best way to learn how to speak a language, but is often quite funny. He works harder than any of the younger students, but often to no avail. I look forward to teaching him every day though, because he wants to speak English so bad and because he is incredibly animated. His facial expressions are absolutely hilarious at times. When we do listening exercises it looks as if he's being put through immense physical pain when he can't understand the recording. Other times, when he understands, he looks so happy his face could burst. I'm always in a good mood after a lesson with him.