The Maz Blog: Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

They say life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. Just when you think you've got it worked out, you suddenly find your life heading in a different direction.

Can't argue with that. About a month ago, I was 95% sure I'd be finishing my crazy, exciting adventure here in Japan in May 2013, and be going back home to Australia. The plan was to then earn a Diploma of Laboratory Technology, and work my way up in the science industry.

However, I now have my eye on a different diploma. The Postgraduate Diploma of Teaching (secondary) to be exact. That's right; I want to be a Japanese teacher!

Now this all started as a "maybe" floating around in my head, spurred by the fact that I love my funny/shy/cheeky teenage students and have found this job as an ALT to be the most satisfying of any I have had. I find language teaching to be very interesting, and now finding myself in the "real world" trying to apply the Japanese I learnt at school, I'm very excited to try and teach others in a way that is fun, practical and most importantly, productive. Every day this "maybe idea" become a bit more real, and now the idea of doing anything else seems so strange. And so, we have a change of plans.

Now at this point, I still assumed I'd be going home in May. But when my company asked recently if there was anything they could do to convince me to stay, I decided to give it some serious thought. I had played with the idea, but despite 'loving my job' there were still many frustrations that came with it, and the thought of enduring another year of it seemed unbearable. But after discussing some possible changes which could lessen my frustrations, I really began to consider it.

I recognised that since my career objective has now changed, I have a greater priority to learn Japanese, and learn it well. After the progress I have made (though still far from fluent), another whole year on top of that sounded wonderful, and got me feeling quite excited and relieved. I asked and was granted the wish of finishing the next contract at the end of January 2014, instead of March, so I would be able to go home just in time to start university in February. And seeing as I have to wait almost a year to begin my teaching studies anyway, I might as well spend the time in a relevant job as an English teacher, and in an environment where my Japanese skills, now important for my future job, can continue to improve greatly.

With all these benefits, even my current job frustrations didn't seem so bad after all, and I recognised there was much more I could be doing to possibly resolve the problems, and was willing to take this on as my challenge for this year.

So, realising that there wasn't really much to come back home for just now (except for wonderful, glorious, normal food!!), my decision to stay became quite clear too. And so I have now informed Interac that I will be accepting their offer to stay on until January 2014.

To my delight I was told I could take some leave after January this year (as my permanent assignment at my schools goes from June - January each year), instead of working until the end of March.

And so the life plans of Maz have now become thus:

January 2013:

Finish teaching in Nerima for the school year, endure the cold winter, now made more fun with snow;

February 2013:

Escape the rest of winter and take a trip back to the land of Aus, catch the last month of summer and eat copious amounts of mum's delicious home-cooked meals and many other foods I recognise and love;

March - April 2013:

Enjoy the beautiful cherry blossom season of Japan, do a bit of travel around the country;

June 2013:

Recommence the early mornings and ~~frustrations~~ fun! Work on my proactive skills...

July 2013:

Take the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficency Test) level 3;

August 2013:

Head over to Estonia and meet up with mum for a 2 week summer holiday;

December 2013:

JLPT level 2? Would probably fail that one but worth a shot, right? Also, enjoy Christmas and show mum the sights of Tokyo;

February 2014:

Tearfully bid fairwell to my friends and my second home of Tokyo, Japan, and move back to Australia to begin my Postgraduate studies (I'm hoping to get accepted at the University of Melbourne);

2015: