Heigh ho, Heigh ho...

I have been keeping busy lately trying to get together my plans for the coming ‘year’. There have been little offers of work from here and there and I am trying to create a situation where I can work and still be at home enough to cook and clean my heart out. We had an amazingly healthy winter, not a single cold or flu, despite the lung hacking and fevers moving around us. We feel rested, vigorous and happy. I really think so much of this has to do with my being able to focus on our home, diet and marriage rather than being so engrossed with my work ‘families’. Since I overdo just about anything I pick up, not having work has allowed me to throw all my love and energy into our family of two (and all of you who I have had time to write to again!!). So when I have been presented with offers to return full time to work I have been hesitant to accept them.

The government further complicates things. If I am earning over a certain amount of money per year, I have to pay my own health insurance and pension. If I stay under that amount, I am fully covered under Craig’s workplace, at no cost (yes, you read that right, no matter how many kids we had, we would all be covered free of charge under his health/pension plan at no additional charge. This is true for most Japanese companies if the wife is earning under a certain amount of money.). If I go back to work, I need to stay under the mark or overshoot it by quite a bit so we don’t feel like we are giving the whole amount back to the government.

The current plan includes continuing teaching at Aishin High School (although my three classes were reduced to two) and for Shichida Educational Research Center (a few hours here and there throughout the year). I will start assisting with one of Craig’s colleagues’ courses at the University during spring semester (two 90 minute classes a week), possibly renewable for fall term. And I just completed negotiations with the local board of education to assist with elementary school English classes (foreign language activities become mandatory for fifth and sixth graders starting in 2011. Schools have the next two years to implement their curriculum). I am hoping to take on three to five schools, including Yasaka Elementary (a beautiful new school with about 80 students) and Mikawa Elementary, which is becoming a national research school from this April. I will work at the schools probably half day, once a week.

At first, the board of education (the city), to my frustration, was not expressing much interest in truly investing in their foreign language program (i.e. not putting aside adequate funds to hire the help they need or run the training programs teachers desperately require). I was so shocked by their first offer of employment that I told them I would rather volunteer (only at our local school) than work for a salary like that. I didn’t go to university, gain six years of experience in Japanese schools and become fairly fluent in the language to work for the equivalent of a convenience store salary! But at our meeting this morning, they had drawn up a document outlining the goals and elements of the curriculum they will implement and their plan for developing the lessons/content, a significant improvement. They also greatly increased their offer, so I accepted and am really looking forward to being back in school. Classes start in about two weeks.

In the time I haven’t been in meetings or translating documents, I have been finishing up my name change in Japan. I spent four hours at the bank on Thursday finishing up the last step. One week from now, hopefully, all official Japanese paperwork, licenses, cards, etc. will carry the name- Kathryn Zaksek Manning. On the US side of it, I have my Social Security card and passport. I am hoping to complete everything else American (banks, drivers license, credit cards, etc.) when I visit in June for the twins’ graduation and Erin’s wedding! It has been the pain in backside that I expected it to be but Craig is happy that we finally share a name (as am I, you cynics!).