Training Day 2

I can't say if today was worse or better than today. There was less public humiliation time, however the whole thing was so overwhelming and discouraging that I ducked into the bathroom during lunch and cried for ten minutes before I had this other meeting to which I had to go.

This whole experience is just very discouraging. I'm a good teacher and I KNOW how to explain the rules of a game by showing only and yet when I did my demo I got very poor marks. (Their grading instrument uses 3 negative marks and one positive) HEY!!! My whole room is shaking! I think I'm in an earthquake!! COOL! YAY! My first cool thing about today! :D In any case, I can't remember the exact word, but it was something along the lines of "dismal." -- It was after that experience that I ducked into the bathroom and cried. I'm a great teacher. I know I am. I worked really hard and YES there are things that I can learn and things that I can improve. But dismal??? That's just cruel.

I'm feeling better about the main trainer. He seems to be easing up and actually HELPING rather than ridiculing. Oh man... one guy LOST IT. He argued with the main trainer in front of everyone and it was so bad my group and I were hiding our faces. The whole experience was scary. In a way he was saying what a lot of us were thinking, however we've been trying to keep it in and stick it out. He was invited to leave and did so. I'm not sure what is going to happen to/with him.

On the bright side, I do have friends though they're closer to one another than me. It's a side effect of them all going out for drinks after each night and me going to my hotel room to blog, email family, and practice. I just am feeling lonely tonight I guess. :/

Funny moments:

(Warning: some or all material will be inappropriate for young uns!) There was a "women's meeting" today about general girl stuff (OBGYNs, contraceptives, safety at night, etc) and one girl asked about onsens. (Onsens are the bath houses. You go completely nude and it's a group setting. Yay! Naked time with strangers!! ... wait..) She asked about tattoos: absolutely no go. If you have tattoos, you are barred from most onsens. She then asked about piercings: most are ok. THEN, she gestured to her pelvic area and said, "What about hair?" When my roommate and I were telling the other guys in our group this story (as they were all dying to know what happened in the super secret women's meeting), I made a comment about how indirect she'd been. Limor then said, "Ya, stop beating around the bush!" We all had a good laugh about it (she didn't even say it on purpose).

XOXO, A