The origins of Captain Surly Pants (Part 2)

With the problem of the two recommendations out of the way I was able to focus on the rest of my application and (theoretically) back on school work. I had collected all the other documents and had filled out the pretty straight forward online application. I decided to put the statement of purpose off until the end so that I could get some more experience under my belt to pad it with.

To help with the application padding, I began English language tutoring with the Japanese assistant professors for a few hours a week. First I helped Tokitake-sensei. She was an English major in college so her English was better than I expected and the tutoring wasn't much more than just having basic conversations with her and writing down words she didn't know. After she left, I did the same thing with Kikushima-sensei whose English wasn't as good, but I enjoyed my time with her much more. These sessions gave me the gist of the general problems with Japanese speaking English: they can read and write it just fine, but have real problems understanding spoken English. This knowledge would later come in handy for an essay for my Language and Culture class.

This time of year was also when the work load for classes becomes overwhelming, especially around the time of Thanksgiving break. I remember having two big papers to write: a big research paper for Medieval England and an even bigger book report for US history. I had been fairly preoccupied with the JET application and therefore I didn't put much thought into these topics until the last minute. Hell, I hadn't even bought the book for my history book report yet.

My research paper for medieval England became a source of great stress for me, especially since that was around the time the JET application was due. I could not even think of a topic to write about, so I think I just opened up my notebook and picked the first name I saw to write about. I finally got to the library and checked out all the books on whatever his name was 2 days before the actual paper was due.

I spent the next couple of days going through all the books I checked out thinking of an argument I could make about the guy I chose but with no luck. At about 10:00 PM the night before the paper was due I just decided to start writing, essentially just paraphrasing the poor sap's story. I just spit out words about fast as I could despite becoming increasingly tired. At about 1:30 in the morning I had about four pages written and I could barely keep my eyes open. I decided to go downstairs for a coke to try and stay awake.

That turned out to be the worst idea I had in awhile. I didn't turn any of the lights on in my house so that I wouldn't wake up roommate. As I went to go downstairs I caught my little toe on the frame of the door. My toe was stuck, but the rest of my foot just kept doing. It was dislocated and badly broken. It only felt like a bad stub, but when I turned on the light I noticed that my toe was sticking out at a 90 degree angle; to this day I wish I had a picture of it. To make a long story short I spent the night in the hospital and was given a ton of pain killers. Needless to say I didn't finish my research paper.

The next week or so is more or less a blur because of the pain killers I was on. I do remember that my Medieval England professor reluctantly gave me the weekend to finish my paper. I managed to spit out about 8 more pages in spite of me being so drugged up I had to concentrate just to walk up the stairs. To this day I'm afraid to read that paper to see just how bad it was. Thankfully the professor had mercy on me and gave me a generous yet undeserved B-.

I'm not sure what all this has to do with the JET program. I just felt like writing it, so bite me.