Fail! ―(T_T)→ サクッ

So, today, I failed.

I failed EVERYTHING.

Thank God it was a half day or else I would have cried in the bathroom at work... or faked sick and left.

Today I woke up to a phone call from my supervisor...Yep Margaret slept through her 3 alarms and woke up at 8:40, 20 minutes after I should be at work. Also, it was my day to lead the morning meeting, so my failure meant that someone had to do my job.

If you know me at all you know that one thing that makes me the most uncomfortable is being late. I take time very seriously.

So after apologizing profusely to my supervisor and telling him I couldn't take the day off because I had to prepare for my presentation the following week, I jumped up and tried to get ready, but couldn't keep from crying from frustration.

When you are startled awake by a phone call it is hard enough to think clearly, let alone think clearly in a foreign language...so I struggled to explain that I wasn't sick, just tired.

I show up at the office, having skipped breakfast and dashed out the door the moment I got my clothes on (cold clothes since I had no time to warm them under the kotatsu...), and my boss (Ito-kacho) bursts into a huge smile when he sees my "oh so humiliated face" walk in the door. I bow low several times and apologize and then ask who did the morning meeting for me, and then repeat.

Then, I have to get color copies for my Girl Scout presentation on Sunday. I figure my supervisor could tell me what company I should go to...instead he takes me to the mayor's office to get color compies, the whole time muttering about how I should have had the Girl Scouts do this for me (technically this was private work, which I didn't quite realize, so using office supplies is a no-no). Failure #2

Then, I passed out my completed newsletter. However, it takes me a long time to read all the kanji names and put them in the right mailboxes, so surrounding people saw me and jumped in to help. Failure #3.

Finally 11:30 came around and I got to go home.

I worked on my presentation, finishing the gifts I was giving out (See post on Girl Scouts Presentation), before heading back into work at 6pm for the lecture series.

This is where my day got a bit better. The lecture hall was sort of full so I sat in the front row (eek, intimidating even in America).

The presentation itself was fairly difficult. It was about equal rights in the workplace, etc. The speaker had us line up in order of our birthdays, without speaking. It was here that I learned how different gestures can be. I tried to tell them my birthday was November 24, and I somehow ended up as December something. But, this did put me close to my friend crush….
I have this friend crush in my office. He is this adorable, younger guy who just seems like he’d be nice, but I am too nervous to strike up a conversation, and rarely have the time seeing as he is in a different department. So we ended up in the same group for the next activity.
We went to grab our things then group up, and since I knew him I tried to stay near him so I didn’t lose the group (not to sound insensitive, but sometimes people do look a LOT alike here, especially with uniforms). So I went and stood next to him… our conversation went something like this…

Me: You’re group 13 right?
Him: Right
Me: Ok Good.
Him: Do you know where everyone went?
Me: No, but I have a very memorable face, so let’s just stand here and let them come to us (笑)　
Him: laughs (⌒▽⌒)ノ＿彡☆バンバン！

He he, I made a joke in Japanese. You see it’s funny because I was the only foreigner there…and people were staring

So we ended up in the same group and I got to learn a few things about him. He is in a band, and plays the guitar and bass guitar. In the group we played a game where we had to talk to our neighbors and then introduce them to the group (woo hoo, public speak in a foreign language…eek, I signed up for this expecting a lecture, not group ice breakers). Don’t ask me what that had to do with human rights…I got lost.
Everyone seemed quite impressed that I was there…yay.

Then it was home for some Arrested Development and Love Shuffle with the foreigners.

So I survived...