Swamped

... and not in the usual way. Again I had my Japanese class on the Wednesday and we had our first listening practice test. Oh dear. I have so much work to do to shore up my ability in this area. Almost every question drowned out all comprehension with rapid incomprehensible streams of Japanese. I got a dismal 7 / 16 for the easier part of the test - partially due to test strategy and probability. I will put in twice the effort before the next class because even her instructions were losing me. One bright light was the fact I more or less aced the reading (an area which I didn't do well on in the previous year). And easily dealt with the vocabulary section. So, in a way, I am lucky. I only have one area to really push myself to develop.

One good thing is that I found that my pay was being paid further in arrears than I first thought, so the last cheque included some of my previous full-time work, i.e. a good sum of money. So perhaps I shouldn't be so frugal. Even so, I am planning to restrict myself to one bus-ride a day, and take my dinner whenever I plan to not be home for dinner. I am also making my way through my extensive stocks of grains and legumes to save money. It is actually a good idea, as I usually by stuff and hardly use them till their expiry date, so at least there is a bit of clearing out going on.

I also woke to the news that I could have been relieving a Primary class today. My mum received the call early in the morning while I was still fast asleep. I was already required for work today at the language school but I could have called unavailable. I do have a degree of trepidation about going back to a primary classroom right now, just because I have been out of there for 8 months. I should really get my head together about how I would go about gaining order in such a class, and make the arrangements so I can seize the chance should it happen again.

Anywho, back to work.