JET Interview - Feb 16/80 days left

It's almost 10 days and I haven't posted an entry since! So many things have happened meanwhile..

I went for JET interview on Thursday morning. Everything went alright and I was for once not late. :) However, it was quite a bad stroke of luck when I realised that I was the last interviewee in the morning and it was compounded by the finally late time of the interview. Though I was scheduled at 1150 (and told to come 10 minutes earlier), I arrived at 1135 and and waited for 25 minutes at the front lobby. What an unnerving experience! After the wait, a lady who seemed to be the previous interviewee left and I was fetched by a Japanese lady soon after. The lady looked pretty composed and professional, so that sounds good news to her.

While walking up the flight of stairs to the interview room, the lady kept apologizing to me as the interviewers were taking a quick break and she asked me to wait in an adjorning room. That's pretty alright there, but the tiredness of the panel was evidently portrayed on their faces when I entered the room. The panel consists of a Japanese man right in front of me, with two Japanese ladies to his left, a caucasian man to his right and on the furthermost right another Japanese man. I was incidentally interviewed predominantly by the Japanese man right in front of me and the caucasian man.

The questions they asked caught me off guard. Gone were even the typical questions on why I was interested in JET. Instead, there was a strong emphasis on my exchange experience and what my exchange experience has brought (I said it changed my perspectives). There was another question on how my exchange experience might have been a significant factor by pitting me against the have-nots, something which I found difficult to answer. The caucasian guy asked me about my teaching experiences, cumulating in a "what are the differences in teaching English and Chinese". Goodness.

I left the room in jitters and lost all thoughts of decorum like wishing them good luck in their quest to select ALTs. I was told that results will be out in mid-April, which was a relief as it means that I can hang up my boots meanwhile and concentrate on getting a passing grade on my thesis project.

Kitto umakuyatte ikeru.. it's gonna work out fine.. I hope.

I then started to return to school, realising that I might actually make it for the Japanese mid term examination held in the afternoon. I had gotten an excuse from the teacher for a make up in the event that I couldn't make it. Frankly, I haven't prepared much so I was really caught at the crossroads. I decided to try my luck by returning to university for lunch, and for goodness I met a classmate who was heading for the exam! She agreed not to squeal on me and we chatted for quite a while on the bus. It was pretty enjoyable I guess, 'cos we got to talk more about ourselves rather than in class where any form of communication is mediated by the teacher. To make a long story short, I did a brave thing (in my opinion) by not going for the exam and had lunch with a friend instead. I took the replacement test yesterday. :)