Nail Biters: Working, Waiting, Expecting (??)

The last few weeks here have been a little hectic. I've been teaching classes as usual, reserving hotel rooms for my family (coming to Japan today!), and finishing off my medical school application. By the time I turned in the application last week, it was easy to tell that I was a bit stressed out.

Exhibit A: My apartment, which I had cleaned so beautifully two weeks ago, once again became a wasteland of dirty clothes, yogurt containers, and cold medicine wrappers. Fortunately, on Tuesday night, I successfully carried out an emergency cleaning session and order has once again been restored.

Exhibit B: I now have (almost) no fingernails. There is something about the incredibly anal med school application system that makes me doubt every move I make. (Did I send in the right transcript? Did I format that paragraph right? Should I enter this in all caps? Where is my legal residence again??) And as I flipped through the 100+ page AMCAS (American Medical College Application System) Manual the other day trying to decide how to input my transfer credit, I slowly and unconsciously picked every single one of my fingernails off. I definitely need to stop that. On the bright side, my application apparently cleared the preliminary processing step today, so I guess I entered everything right after all. よっしゃ！

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At the medical school, every where you go, there are guys in suits and ties standing in a line in the hallway with briefcases. They stand there all day doing absolutely nothing (as far as I can tell) besides smoothing their ties and looking at their watches. For the first few weeks I was here, it kind of creeped me out a little bit, because they would stand there and stare at me every time I walked by. I spent a lot of time speculating about the mysterious men (inspectors?....but what are they inspecting besides the gaijin walking down the hall?? yakuza [Japanese mafia]?? naw...no tattoos...hosts??) until I finally asked Ikuko, who told me that they are representatives from pharmaceutical companies waiting to meet with professors in the medical school. I guess if the professor's not in, the men in suits just stand there and stand there and wait for him to come...

By now, the men and I have gotten used to each other. Actually we're pretty good buddies. We nod to each other as I pass them in the hallway. But I still can't help but wonder why they stand outside the professors' doors all day instead of just going in and making an appointment. It seems like the most inefficient and boring job in the world. :(

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The other day, on the way to the copy machine, I ran into a student of mine in the hall. At the beginning of the year, all of the medical students were terrified of being forced to speak English with me, so most of them would pretend not to see me if we happened to pass each other. But now, I am proud to report that they have gotten used to me, and so we have conversations like this:

Student: Hello. What are you doing?

Me: Oh, hi! I am going to the copy room to prepare for my lesson. Today, I have a lesson with three children.

Student: .... ?

Me: (gesturing and speaking more simply....or at least trying to....) I have three children...my students. I will teach them English today.

Student: (She thinks and then her eyes get absolutely gigantic. Points at me and gestures in the shape of a pregnant belly.)

Me: ... Huh?

Student: You have a baby???!!

Me: Hahaha....no no no no. I have students. I teach them English!

Student: Oh, oh, oh. I see. I see. Sorry, sorry!!