12/10/2007: "[At Work] Where did I go??"

So.. what's been up? Just been kinda busy as of late and haven't really felt up to writing a whole lot. As it stands, I haven't written in over a month. SO! What's happened in that month? Let's see what I can remember.

I celebrated Thanksgiving with two students from the school (the Korean and Japanese girls), I went to Las Vegas (over a weekend.. lots of fun), I went to a closing ceremony for the school (had to get all dressed up.. yes, I was adorable), took my Japanese final, wrote a hideously long paper, have two finals tomorrow and one more on Thursday. Gaaah. I'm tired. Technically work's done now, but I'm still coming in over the next few weeks during winter break to do assorted office work and stuff that's hard to get done while students are here. It's really strange to be in the building and only see staff and some teachers, especially strange to be in the lab with no one here. At least I have my nice little Christmas tree right beside me to keep me company.. with flashing lights, at that.

Now, I just need to make plans for the following semester, and get all the annoying stuff out of the way. Need to see two different people to get paperwork stamped and signed today to make sure I can graduate in May. Next semester's going to be my last one.. and pretty much chock-full of Japanese classes (all 5 are Japanese, actually.. and everyone is focusing on the language. Lovely). Need to start my visa stuff sometime in the next month or so in order to actually work in Japan, and ideally finalize the details of my working there. Too much...!

Oh.. and in January, I'm also going to start planning my trip to Korea (over spring break, should be there for about 8 days). Exciting, huh? I bet you're jealous.

Out of all the job functions I perform here, I suppose one of my least favorite would be administrative stuff. This morning, I had to go over my coworker's and my class schedules and try to fill in the holes for when we need workers to work in the lab. It's not so much a problem of getting enough hours or filling enough people, but more so that finding the people to fill the times gets tricky. I hate this stupid Excel spread sheet around now. Obviously, the times that are popular for the English school to provide classes are, SHOCK, times that it's popular for us university students to take classes. I also try to be fair and spread the hours out evenly, and to make sure people don't come in for only 30 minutes.. it's a waste. But.. eh, you do what you can.

If anything, administrative skills work out to being valuable, and it's not the first time I've served as manager and organizer for a small institution (I also did this in Japan at the school I worked at). But.. not exactly my cup of tea. At least it sounds good on a resume, though.

It also means that I serve as the Senior Lab Monitor. Haha! Feel the awesomeness. I'm climbing up the ladder of success..

So.. yeah. I'm tired.. been terribly busy as of late, and it's going to be even busier this week. But after that, just going to be here at work, doing office stuff, and generally trying to relax for winterbreak (due to work, I'll have a full week or so of actual 'vacation'.. but it's okay).

I'm gonna get running.. gotta meet with some advisors within the next hour or so, then study for exams tonight. I'm sure I'll be around soon.


School

On Monday, December 10th, Dad said:

Jason...

I need to visit this site more often. Interesting life you live. Glad you have a Charlie Brown tree to keep your spirits up. And life isn't all admin. The more you know, the more they pay other people to take care of the forms, filing and scheduling...thus leaving your brain to be creative...but you are right, controlling the admin stuff lends much power to the mover of the paper and people...

Hope I didn't embarass you by posting. Lots of personal Jason stuff coupled with great writing here as I read more...

Can't tell you how proud I am of you Your Most Honorable Dudeness...

Love,

Dad