2 Weeks In and Lovin` It

Hi Everybody,

Well I`ve been a teacher for 2 weeks now and I`m having a great time. I have 30 classes a week and somewhere between 60 and 70 students. My school is huge and I work with 3 other foreign teachers, 3 Japanese English teachers and one manager (although we need 2, because she`s swamped with work). The GEOS head office likes to use our school for meetings and I`ve already met the company president once. He likes to smoke cigars indoors, so you can tell where he is throughout the day (eww).
I`ve been getting a lot of support from the other teachers and they`re all glad that I`m here. My apartment is a 10 minute subway ride from my school, and it is in a northern suburb of Sendai called Asahigaoka. The apartment has a great view, is larger than I had expected and the price is very reasonable. The only difficulty is that the nearest grocery store is a 15-20 minute walk away (which I just found last night), but it`ll give me some more exercise.
I`ve done a lot of activities already, such as exploring Sendai with one of my fellow Native English Teachers (Emma from England), I visited a picturesque coastal town called Matsushima, with a large Buddhist temple, I`ve seen the botanical gardens in Tohoku University, and I visited the Miyagi Prefecture art museum. This past weekend was also the Jozenji Jazz Festival, and I went with three of my students and 2 of my co-workers (Rachel from Canada and Emma). We spent the whole day listening to all sorts of jazz, big band and rock music. There were over 640 bands performing.
Well I`ve had a few emails recently saying, `Where are you? What are you up to???` Well unfortunately, things are a little slow in terms of me getting registered for my alien registration card. You need to be registred to get a bank account and then to get a phone and I won`t be able to pick my card up until September 26th. So please, have some patience. Until then, I only really have time to use the internet for a half hour every week. There is a free service in one of the downtown office buildings. So I`ll let you know when I`m more set up and when communication is easier. Until then, I hope you`re all having a great time and I`ll talk to you again soon.
Cheers,
Brian