Scribbler's Cafe

Among the men

The school term ended. Whew! I felt like I was flinging myself towards the finish. Tonsilitis didn't help. At all.

Last night the junior and senior high teachers had dinner at a Chinese restauraunt in Kobe. I had a really great time. I have been here long enough that I have many friends among the teachers. The gathering events have transformed from the awkward, lengthy toture sessions that they were when I first came to truly enjoyable social events. I was able to speak and laugh with everyone at my table and it was simply assumed that I'd be in the after-party crew.

The after-party. There were two, actually. The first was led by my crazy boss. He took a large group of us down some winding underground alley to a bar called "Rawhide". Yep, Rawhide. Two other women from the senior high came along and both spoke excellent English. We lectured my boss about how to better respect his wife. He got flustered and lectured me about drinking bourbun while suffering from tonsilitis. We all made good points. My boss has taken to referring to himself as my Japanese father. This is mainly sweet, but also a bit annoying when he decides he needs to chaperone me.

The after-after-party took place in my neighborhood (near our school). All the teachers had parked their cars at the school and taken the train into Kobe. So, after catching the last train back to my neighborhood a much smaller group of us detoured over to the Irish pub. Two of the teachers I have only been out with once, at a karaoke party over a year ago. One was a math teacher and the other a Japanese language arts teacher. Both are very hesitant in speaking English. But last night, we started talking about my favorite Japanese authors and all got terribly involved in the conversation. They did their best with English, I slaughtered some Japanese and my science teacher friend translated the rough parts. I have become close with most of the young teachers, but this was my first opportunity to really connect with a couple of the older crowd. We were all at ease and the conversation was interesting and not stuck in shallow, easy language topics. Highly satisfying.

posted by Scribbler @ Tuesday, March 21, 2006