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I’m still unemployed. I’m looking for jobs and travelling between Bournemouth and London weekly for interviews. It’s getting to the point where I don’t care what I do as long as I can get a job to get the visa application for my wife into full gear.
Skype is being a real lifesaver. It allows for daily chats and videocalls where I can see my family and sing to my baby. There’s a great post over at my favourite blog lifehacker about the best online file sharing services which was well-timed. With those services we’ve shared pictures of my baby suffering through chickenpox which I was powerless to do anything about and a video of her post recovery squealing with delight on a teacup ride at a local playland.
My old school friend is getting married June 28th and that’s the target we’ve set for the family to join me. I went clay pigeon shooting and go-karting on the stag do last weekend which was great fun.
I borrowed an old point and shoot camera off my friend last night that I’ll be able to take everywhere I go and which should mean I can put up more photos of England soon.
I’m having lots of interviews and finding that the people who interview me are looking positively at my time teaching English in Japan. After analysis, I can agree. There are stories about teachers who come back to their country four years behind other graduates in their career. Personally I found I had more transferable skills coming back than I had when I left there. Especially:
Presentation Skills: Teaching a lesson is a 45 minute presentation which I did 5-8 times a day.
Leadership Skills: Leading up to 40 students through activities.
Teamwork: Experience of working in a cross-cultural team.
The thing I got the most out of it is LEARN JAPANESE!!!. This skill alone sets you apart from 98% of the other jobhunters on the market. You should be aiming for at least level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Each level up you pass, there are 4, the greater your ability to get jobs where you can use that skill and the better your time in Japan will be too.
I’m entering my second week back in England and I’m starting to get used to it all again. I’ve had a couple of setbacks - I still bow when I say sorry and I’ve walked into an office and said, “Konnichiwa”. On the whole it’s all flowing back.
4 years is a long time. Friend’s faces have changed - getting longer, wider, losing hair, gaining hair it’s very disconcerting.
And the food. I’m eating much more heavy food - roast dinners, fried breakfasts and fish and chips. I walked into what used to be a fish and chip shop and found I’d walked into a Chinese. I asked them if they did fish and chips and they did but it wasn’t great. I played pitch and putt with my friends and afterwards we went to a proper fish and chips restaurant. I had a pea fritter too which was heavenly. It all was. Rule of thumb: If you put it to your mouth and you don’t semi gag on the vinegar, you haven’t put enough on.
I’m having daily conversations with Reiko and the baby through Skype. If I didn’t have that, I think I’d go crazy. It’s great seeing Belle on the videocall and we can chat through it discussing jobs and other business.
I’m back in the UK and experiencing some reverse culture shock:
Bowing every time I say thank you or sorry.
Mourning the lack of vending machines.
Pleasantly surprised at everyone’s politeness.
Seeing differently coloured naturalhair
Marvelling the open size of the bins on the street
Seeing cherry blossom on the street
Admiring the general greenery. Even in London.
Trying not to say, “Ah there’s a foreigner over there”, every time I see a Western-looking person.
Feeling the gap before I start eating where I should be saying “Itadakimasu” (I humbly receive)
Taking off shoes the moment I enter a house.
Shocked at paying the same price for a drink in pence in England as I paid in yen in Japan.
I’m also infuriating myself and I’m sure many other people by starting every statement with, “In Japan…” or, “When I was in Japan…” I guess that I have little knowledge of daily British affairs recently that I am compelled to do this. I hope Japan interests my friends enough that they don’t tell me to get over myself.
It’s one week until I go back to England to look for a job. I’m burning through my social insurance before it runs out with trips to get fitted for contact lenses - they’re tricky to get used to - and I hope to go to the dentist before I go back. Things like that are a lot cheaper here than in England so I’m using it while I still can.
I’ve bought suits for interviews. I try to spend allotted computer time searching for jobs on agencies but that can be pretty overwhelming. Plus a billion interesting pages are available through a quick detour via Digg or Del.icio.us or equivalent.
I’m trying to spend some time with the baby and wife. I have a couple of farewell parties from friends and students.
I’m also giving my books and CD’s away and decluttering. At least in theory. It’s a good time to work out what is important to me. What can fit in a suitcase and a couple of international parcels and what can be left, thrown away or sold without too many tears shed.
