Trip to Japan, new teaching job
Hi, guys!
Lots of stuff has been going on lately!
I had about 8-10 sources of minor income last year. But it was better than nothing. Besides my UFC fight purse, I gathered like ten 1099s. I paid a lot of money to my accountant to do our taxes this year, which makes me sad, but I’ve got good news. I found a new job so hopefully in 2023 I don’t have to hustle so hard! No more subbing or dog walking. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to sub, and I loved petting doggies, but it was tiring. I got hired as a teacher of English as a second language at a school in Vegas. I am SO impressed and excited with how they’re treating me so far. The wages aren’t horrible and they’ll reimburse me for a certain amount of necessary prep-time. The reasons I didn’t want to settle into a teaching career were the fact that I’d be doing lots of unpaid overtime to do a good job, and winging it for certain aspects of teaching and testing.
I think that won’t happen here.
I’m teaching a morning shift so I’ll still be able to teach kids in the evenings at Tribe, and Nomad on Wednesdays. At Tribe, things are going well. I have a few former students training with me now, which makes me really happy. I know distance to the gym is a factor, and also cost, but it’s nice when the parents of my students are loyal to me. Casey and I are opening up a pre-teen/teens class at Tribe on Thursday at 6:15 PM. We have a bunch of kids who are too big for my “big kids class” and too small and young for the adult’s class. We’ll probably switch to two days soon, but I wanted to start with one day to encourage people to come to that day.
I’m trying to figure out training. I have a few friends/ teachers/trainers who can probably meet me in the mid-afternoon. Then, I can do classes on Friday and weekends.
Welcome to the non-fighter life, Roxanne. I haven’t been able to train much this past month, with being sick for a week, work, and traveling. It feels…unpleasant.
Chris and I just came back from our trip to Japan! I couldn’t see all my friends, but I enjoyed seeing a few people! I got to introduce Chris to my host mother from college, who is basically my grandmother. She just turned 89 but still took the train to meet us for sushi. She was sharp and strong. Didn’t seem like she aged at all over the three years I wasn’t able to visit her!! She’s been asking me every time, “Are you married yet?” I got to finally say, “Yes, ma’am, here he is!” *hand gesture* She then said, “Oh good, now are you going to have kids?” lol
The first place I took Chris to was Kawasaki Daishi (temple) in Kawasaki, relatively near our hotel. I go here every year.
We traveled to Kobe after a week and went to Awaji Island where there was a Naruto Village, and Godzilla park.
We ziplined into young Godzilla’s mouth! It was exciting! I’ve only ziplined once or twice before. I enjoyed the Godzilla museum, too! I’m glad Chris suggested it or I might not have done it.
The Naruto activities were kind of hard. I had to make ninja hand signs in front of a computer screen, it had to read it to see if I was doing them properly, and then unlock a door to an obstacle course I was trying to get through. IT WAS DIFFICULT! I kept forgetting how to make the signs and didn’t want to stand there practicing. I felt VERY proud of myself when I made it through. I was supposed to meet up with a Naruto Statue at the top. I whooped out loud when I got there.
I couldn’t open Sakura’s dang door. A recording of her said, “up up down up down up up.” There were four doorknobs that just spun endlessly. I stood there for like fifteen minutes frustrated. Then a Chinese family who had entered around the same time as us came over. A little 9 year-old-ish girl spoke English and came over, so I asked her about it. lol She and her mom couldn’t figure it out either, so I felt better. But also sad. Then the girl said, “You can just go upstairs that way!” Oh, thanks, kid. lol so I progressed without getting through.
There was another activity where the directions said, “Choose which symbol is the correct one!” only I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to determine which one was correct. I looked for any kind of directions explaining and couldn’t find it, so I just randomly chose one of two symbols every time I came across the market. It was still fun.
Chris really loved Zen Steahouse where the chef cooked us lobster and Kobe beef teppanyaki style! Super fancy restaurant!
This was the second steakhouse we went to. Chris’ cut of the meat was so heavenly it wouldn’t show up in the picture. lol Sorry, guys.
I made it to Groundslam a few times. I only really knew Kimura-san. Didn’t see any of my former pro training partners, but that’s alright. Everything’s changed after ten years. Everyone is old, retired, and has families. lol I wanted to show off my husband, though. ;-; Look, guys, I finally found a man! Oh well.
Well, now we’re home and I’m trying to focus on my new job which starts next week.
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