So, as you probably know by know, I started a new job this past April. I am now working at a fairly large professional post secondary school. Technically, it's two schools, but the two share a campus and offices. We have all sorts of majors, the majority being related to medical fields. There are others as well - most notably the pet service/animal handler major, which is majority of the smaller of the two schools.

And I am the English department. I'm a teacher without a department. Which has both pluses and minuses. It means that I have a fair amount of freedom. But it also means that any problems that come up? I have to solve them. And just about anything English related? It ends up as my responsibility, with a few notable exceptions. There are, apparently - I've never met them, other part time teachers who teach English for the major type classes. Presumably, these teachers are more familiar with the specific fields and the sorts of medical English required.

As the only full time English teacher, and the only one teaching basic conversation classes, I have somewhere between 13 and 18 lessons a week. Each lesson is 90 minutes, and each one is only once a week. Which means, I have to keep track of approximately 15 classes at any given time. The plus of this is that I get to meet a lot of students and any problem students? I only have to see them once a week. The down side is that I frequently feel slightly unprepared or confused about which class I'm about to teach. It's getting better as I'm getting more and more accustomed to everything.

Honestly, even given these minor stresses and headaches, overall, this job is pretty near ideal for me. At least for the time being. The other teachers are friendly, and I have gotten to see all sorts of things up close and personal that I would normally have no reason to see up close and personal. An emu. A Patagonian mara. Prosthetic limbs. An ambulance.

And the students are, by and large, interesting and entertaining. There are a few problem individuals, and a few difficult classes, but by and large, they are fun to teach. I really like teaching this age group. So, unless something goes horribly wrong, I imagine I'll be hear at the very least a few years. Maybe a longer.

Doesn't hurt that Sapporo is a 20 minute train ride, and Shin-Chitose airport a 10 minute train ride away.