On makeup-less days and flattery

I love those small moments when the teacher of my TEFL course is a little bit personal. He's always so correct and professional in his replies and reviews of your work, but then he comes to his own tips and personal experiences, and it's a bit harder to stay impersonal. I always crack up at stories like: "I've tried variations of some games with varied degree of success. I once made the mistake of playing monopoly with a group of 8 and 9 year olds. I won't be doing that again any time soon, it nearly turned into a minor war".

Anything getting them ready for the inevitable zombie apocalypse is good, I guess?

So it's Monday again, and once again the weekend has felt much too short. I think I might be getting a cold, last night I had a fever and a headache and was just plan slow. Puppy texted to congratulate me on International Sloth Day, which I had no idea was a thing until then, but it just went to show that it makes perfect sense that I was extra sloth-like that day. I did do some stuff, TEFL coursework for the most part, but there was a whole lot of bed-lying and staring into space going on. In my opinion, that's the best way to spend a Sunday.

 It's great having a phone finally, as it means that I don't have to listen to annoying people on public transport, but it's a little distracting and it made me late to work today, and I ultimately forgot my makeup at home. Yesterday evening turned into an exercise in 'Don't give a fuck', where I had to ignore that I looked just as tired as I felt, and far less cute than I wish I was. All things considered it didn't seem to make much of a difference though. The restaurant's pretty dark as is, so it doesn't really matter. Had my skin been better, this wouldn't have been an issue at all, but with my chocolate cravings as of late, my skin isn't taking prisoners - it's going in for the kill.

I've learned from working at the restaurant that I'm pretty good at using shameless flattery to get where I want to go. Yesterday a middle-aged woman and her mother came to eat with us, and when they wanted to pay the woman jokingly said "My mother here will pay for it all, because that's what mothers are supposed to do.", to which the old woman laughed and looked at me with an incredulous face, saying: "Can you believe it?" to which I answered: "Oh well, you know what youths are like. No respect these days."

The middle-aged woman scoffed, but was told by her mother to shut up and take a compliment. Due to the mother being old, and old people being notoriously bad at technology, she had some trouble with the credit card machine and couldn't figure out how to add the tip. When I told her not to worry about it, they gave me a twenty cash for 'being so sweet', to which the mother said that I had to say something equally flattering to her as I had to her daughter. I paused for a second, a little taken aback and unsure about what to say, when the daughter told me that her mother was turning 80. "Oh wow, you sure don't look it!" I said automatically (because she looked maybe 75 or so), to which they laughed again, said "You're really good at this!", pressed the money in my hand and left looking happy.

I guess I am good at it, and most of it comes naturally, but it feels a little bit weird when it's so clear that I'm performing for tips, like a seal at Sea World making honking noises for fish. I guess it's OK since it's making other people happy, as well as furthering my Japan fund and as such making me happy, but again, it's weird. I'm not used to being good at telling people what they want to hear. My service persona that I put on with my uniform is so completely unlike my normal self that it's like a whole different person - a person who knows how to flatter, make small-talk and not be a socially awkward introvert. I don't know if I like being that person. I just know it's lucrative.