M: So Bill, do you tend to enjoy change or are you one of those people who can't stand change?
B: I hate change, actually. I do everything I can to avoid it.
M: Why?
B: I don't know. I just get used to things being a certain way, and when I have a big change, it just disrupts
everything and I kind of have a shock to the system.
M: Well, tell me about a time you had a big change.
B: Hmm. Well, the biggest changes you can go through are moving to a new place, changing jobs, or having your first child. I had all three of those things happen at the same time.
M: Wow!
B: Before I came to Nagasaki, I was living in Kagoshima prefecture in a small city called Kokubu.
M: Uh-huh.
B: Kokubu is a really nice, quiet, peaceful town. It's got really beautiful scenery, especially Mt. Sakurajima, which you can see from anywhere in the town.
M: What were you doing in Kokubu?
B: I was teaching English to elementary school students as part of a special three-year program to introduce English language classes at the elementary school level.
M: Oh yeah? What was that like?
B: Oh it was great. Children are a lot of fun to teach. They're all happy and full of energy, and they really get into speaking, especially with a foreign teacher.
M: Right, I've had a lot of experience teaching small children myself.
B: Oh yeah, that's right. So you know how much fun they are.
M: Oh yeah!
B: Well, when I finished teaching my three years, I moved to Nagasaki to teach English to university students.
M: Wow. Big change, huh?
B: Oh yeah, huge! Elementary students are so responsive, an university students are a lot more quiet and hesitant to speak.
M: Yeah.
B: And, of course, Nagasaki is so different from Kokubu. Nagasaki is a big city, there's less scenery an just less land space compared to Kokubu. It's very crowded here, and I still miss the flat land in Kokubu.
M: Right. It's hard to get used to the slopes here.
B: Yeah, it really is. So I had two big changes at one time - a new home and a new job.
M: Right. So, how did you feel when you moved.
B: I had a rough time moving, actually.
M: Oh really? What happened?
B: Well, being such a cheapskate, I chose the very cheapest moving company. The company promised to move all our furniture, carry it into the apartment and put it where we asked them to.
M: Right.
B: But they didn't tell the workers in Nagasaki that!
M: Oh no!
B: So when the truck got to our apartment, they just dumped all our furniture into the parking lot and said, "Okay, good luck!"
M: What?!!
B: So there we were. My wife, 8 months pregnant, me and her 65 year old father. Our apartment was on the fifth floor, and there was no elevator!
M: Oh wow!
B: I had no idea what to do. I was completely at a loss. Luckily, her father was with us, because he really let them have it and when he was through with them, they'd agreed to move all our stuff up there.
M: Wow! That was a stressful move!
B: It sure was!

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