2003-03-24

Strange experience today. I know, that's becoming a theme. Today was "the first day of school" even though no students have yet arrived. It was the first full day of meetings for the faculty and staff, however. Which meant that I had to sit through a whole mess o' meetings, all of which of course were conducted in Japanese. I had translators for maybe half the time, and there were big stretches where my translators weren't saying anything. I assume (a very, very dangerous thing to do in this place) that those times they were silent I wasn't missing anything important. In which case, Japanese meetings are FILLED with long periods of nothing important. The morning meeting was basically an extended version of the staff worship we've been having every morning this week. They introduced all the new faculty, which of course included me, and I had to say a few words. I stammered out a greeting in English and I guess most people understood because they didn't call up the Japanese translator. Then it was into the hardcore meetings. The most uncomfortable thing was when they went over the faculty bulletin, or whatever you call the equivalent of a professors "Minister's Manual". Lots of info about how the college runs, and I was totally dependent on a translator to understand what was happening. I'm still not sure how much I actually picked up. Of course, if it IS the rough equivalent of the Minister's Manual, then it'll be a whole lot of decent ideas that I mostly ignore.

In the afternoon, we had the first faculty meeting--apparently, they discuss students' grades and such. Probably very confidential, and in that case I'm the best guy to have around because again, I had NO IDEA what was going on. My translator was the Dean of Student Affairs, and he had some big ol' presentation to do which meant that he couldn't translate for me during those times. I picked up that the students can get rankings of A, B, and C--but you don't want these, and you REALLY don't want an A. That means "Recommended Withdrawal" so it's the polar opposite of the U.S. B and C are the equivalent of Academic Probation, with B being more severe. I have no idea what the sanctions are for such rankings or what triggers them.

I ended up getting sick of sitting there doing nothing and started jotting down ideas for teaching these kids. Came up with quite a few good-sounding ones over the course of the hour and a half. "Good ideas" but we'll see how they work.

One notable thing: As I found out in the worship/welcoming service, one of the new teachers is BLOODY GORGEOUS. Oh my. If there wasn't a language barrier and I wasn't feeling so discombobulated and I was more open in general to dating people here--I might be in trouble. (At least according to Billy, who's just about the only person I know who thinks of "Dating Possibility" as "being in trouble".) Anyway, I still might be in said trouble, since there are evidences of Let's Put The Cute Young Singles Together-type mischief afoot. The President of the college suggested that I might arrange to take some Japanese classes from Ms. Cute Teacher and I immediately smelled a TRAP~! Another person took special care to point out that she has some skills in English. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! It may have been an innocent suggestion in the hopes that I could pick up some Japanese and finally become useful in meetings, but I'm not sure. Still a little jumpy after the incident at the LLJC Valentine's Day party, I guess.

Last words for today: I LOVE THE WWC THEOLOGY DEPT! I went to the Probe website and listened to the lessons for both last week and this week. I ended up downloading the entire quarter. I want to be Bruce Johanson when I grow up. Seriously, I've been telling people that of everyone there (and all of my profs were awesome) I think he was the one whose thinking and teaching style proved most compatible with me. And I'm happy to say that hasn't changed. Awesome insights. Of course, that applies to everyone in the discussions too. So, much love to the Probe team.

Listening to: Mendelssohn, The "Elijah" Oratorio. Sang it in the WWC Choir, awesome piece.