Teaching assistant

One of the things that causing me both grief and joy these days is my latest parttime job: a teaching assistant position at the university. I am TA to three courses in the Economics department: Programming I (Java), Programming I (Visual C#), and Mathematical Programming.

The first two I can get by with, because I used to study programming in my junior college years, but the Mathematical Programming class? I am probably more clueless than the students. So I always dread being asked questions by the students because I have no idea how to answer them. I tried to weasel my way out by telling the teacher that I have no knowledge whatsoever in the subject, but instead he said that I can learn along with the students. No way out, then. Let the stress continue.

By the way, I forgot to mention that all these classes are conducted in Japanese. This was actually one of the most important reasons why I chose to take the job. I thought it would serve as a great experience and good practice also (oh, and it pays pretty well, too). Well, I'm getting both of that, but that doesn't stop the stress... lol

A day in the life of...

I woke up today at 6:30am
not because I had a nightmare
but because I'm working at the movers today!

Ryoutaro came to pick me up at about 6:50am
(thanks for sacrificing your precious sleep time to help me on my first day!)
and we arrived around 7:00am at the company

I changed into overalls (will try to take a picture next time!)
and the day began with us moving empty boxes, bubble wrap, and supplies into the van
staff members are divided into teams each day and you never know who and where you'll end up with
turns out males and females do not work with one another

What's special about the moving business in Japan is that females (usually) go to the client's house and pack up the client's belongings into boxes (nice huh?) and then stack them up at a certain area in the apartment/house
then the males take over and move the boxes from the old residence to the new residence
then the females take over again and unload the boxes (get this ->) and restore them in their original positions!
Talk about customer service!

So today I went out with four other females and spent around ten hours packing a couple's belongings into a mountain made up of more than 30 boxes
...and we're not done yet...
I'm surprised at the strength of the other females, two are middle-aged and two just graduated from high school
I feel weak... Orz

But anyway, today (oops, it's past midnight now) yesterday was a great experience
a unique peek into a slice of Japanese life if you will
I'm tired and sleepy but I haven't really done any exercise these days
so I look at this also a workout
and a way to make sure I don't go broke (hehe)

I'm not on duty tomorrow
I guess they'll call me again when I'm needed
(Please call me~!)

Anyway, tomorrow I'll take it slow and let my muscles rest a bit
and do some studying!
:D