I woke up several times last night in the midst of several dreams in which I found myself chasing something, or having left something behind. Many people believe that the emotions/feelings we go through in our dreams are often connected to what we are feeling in the real world. A common dream that many people share is to be standing in front of an audience only to realize that they aren’t wearing any pants. This dream is often associated with feelings of being unprepared for something.I’ve been working on a PowerPoint presentation for my students this week. It’s going to be on Canada, Vancouver, and the Olympics. Not only is it a good opportunity to show the students a bit about my country and to give them some info on the coming Olympics, it’s also a good chance for me to learn more about how to use PowerPoint. Unfortunately, this has proved to be much more of an endeavour than I had previously anticipated. I’ve spent a great deal of time – I hope not to the detriment of my presentation, tweaking slides and layouts, and searching out photos on the Internet. I’ve also spent some time trying to figure out how I’m going to manage the hardware.
I think that I’ve got everything together for tomorrow, but I’ve still not been able to do a test run on all of this technology. It’s not such a comfortable place to be – hence all of the dreams. At least, that’s what I was thinking while I was riding my bike down Patterson st. in Vancouver through a swarm of bees, late for work, only to wake up in my bed at an hour that would be perfectly fine in Pacific Standard Time, yet ungodly here in Japan.
However, when I woke up in the morning, I realized that what my subconscious was stressing about was probably the fact that I forgot to set my alarm the night before.
Frantically, I caught my bus.
As for my presentation, the problem that I’m having in connecting my computer to the projector is that they use two different plugs. I managed to find a bag of adaptors in a room at school, but as it turned out, the type of plug that I use, happens to have two variants. As such, I have one of each – one that uses 24 pins and another that uses 29.
I went to the electronics store to see if I could find another adaptor, but I could only find the 29-pin adaptors, which were laid out on the bottom of the shelf. I had brought my DVI adaptor and the VGA cord that I wanted to connect it to, so I asked an employee about an adaptor that would work. With the help of a diagram on the shelf that showed the difference between the two DVI types, I showed him the problem that I had. He nodded to me like he understood me and then picked up one of the packages on the shelf that contained the wrong type. I said “no” and counted in Japanese the difference in number of pins for him and he nodded and said he understood. Then, he opened the package and tried to fit the adapter to mine while I tried to wait patiently. The piece would not fit and so the employee began to jimmy them together – and then he started to push them together with more force. I started to say “no, no,” but then just grabbed his hand and took my pieces back. I thought I better hold onto them for safe keeping. I then went back to the diagram and showed the two different types again. I pointed at the big 29 on the diagram, and the big 29 on the package and said “no, not good.” He nodded his head and said he understood and then picked up the next package on the shelf, which contained the same item. I told him “no, not good,” and he nodded and began to open the package. This went on a few more times before I left the store.
I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t find an adaptor for my computer. The other option was to use another teacher’s computer at school, but this hadn’t yet been arranged and the compatibility is still in question. My last option was that if I could order an adapter, I could maybe postpone my presentation till it arrived.
I found the item I needed on Amazon.jp, which was also eligible for free expedited shipping; if I ordered within 2 hours, it would arrive at my school the next day, which should work because my presentation isn’t until the day after. In order to make sure that I qualified for the free shipping, I made sure to order a few more books as well (just in case).
The package was to arrive at noon today, so I thought I better give the school a call to see if it arrived. Making a phone call from school is a bit of an event in that I need to ask an English teacher for help in what to say and then we need to go to the vice principal’s desk to use his phone because it is the only one with a line that goes outside of the school. He’s very nice about letting us use the phone and so I went to work.
When the lady picked up on the other end, I told her that I was Bryce and she said that she knew me. Then I asked “Amazon kara no kozukumi wa todo ite imasuka?” which I think basically asks, is there a package for me that arrived from Amazon? She sounded a bit confused and said that there wasn’t one. I was a bit disappointed, but it was only just after noon, so I asked for one of the English teachers to make some arrangements for the next day. She said that he wasn’t there and then I was the one that was a bit confused. She kept talking though about computers and school and the teacher that I was looking for and how he wasn’t there. This went on for a while and I pretended like I was sorting it out in my brain while the two teachers beside me sat and watched me awkwardly standing at the desk in the middle of the staff room. Eventually I gave up and handed the phone to one of the teachers.
After the teacher introduced herself, I could tell that the person on the other line knew her. We managed to figure out that I had not actually called my school, but the computer lab down the hall.
Japan is so strange.
Amazon.jp however, is awesome. My package has arrived and I’m going to remember to set my alarm tonight so that I can wake up extra early tomorrow and get to school and put everything I’ve prepared to the test. It should fit together beautifully, or fall apart disastrously. Once the day takes its course, either way I’ll be happy.
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