Friday, December 20, 2002

*... all i want for christmas ...*
... is a hug.
9:08 AM

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

*... i'm leavin', on a jet plane ...*
cross your fingers, say a prayer, and wish me luck. In one week I will be leavin' on a jet plane, destination: Hong Kong. 3 days after that I will be in Singapore, and then 3 days later I will be in Taipei... by myself.

eek!

okay, probably not the wisest idea, but if need be, I can just hide out in my hotel (but that's no fun!). Looks like I have a couple of great challenges ahead of me, namely (1) how to get back to Niigata when I come back to Japan, since my flight comes in 2 hours later than the latest train leaves, and (2) who to spend New Year's with, since it's bad luck to be by yourself. I've pretty much resigned myself that Christmas is "just another day", mostly b/c I keep hearing Kelly saying it. Sort of a mantra to dull the pain of missing the fam, friends, strangers...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the kids, DOC and CYNTHIA!!

They are both growing up so fast! Cyn will be legal and everything! My my, how time flies...
4:03 PM

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

*... classic christmas songs ...*
I had to write out the lyrics to about a million christmas songs today for one teacher. The sad part was that she was WAY more interested in the Santa-based ones than the Christ-based ones, which makes sense, but is a huge reminder that Christmas is COMPLETELY commercial over here. When I tried to explain the story of "O Holy Night", it was like she didn't even hear me, b/c she was too engrossed in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer echos, like "like a lightbulb!!" She kept making me demonstrate "Ho Ho Ho" to the kids (apparently Santa is mute on this side of the Pacific). Later she asked me which song was my favorite Christmas song, and I didn't have the heart to tell her it was, of course, "Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)", a song with the most blatant country twang I have ever heard. Despite that fact, I have loved this song since forever and a Christmas ago, and I remember singing it at school and having my elementary school teachers thinking there were "problems at home." The reason for my self-censoring in telling my teacher this was because yesterday I was telling her I thought she had a sweet-tooth, and I explained what that was. Then I said that I had a HUGE sweet-tooth, but my brother, on the other hand, didn'T, to which she replied "Oh, so he really likes alcohol then." Err, what?! I took a moment of recovery, then said, "No, no, he just doesn't care for sweet things as much (I mean besides his girlfriend... awww...)." Turns out that it's a bit of a Japanese idiom to indicate someone's a lush by saying they don't care for candy. So, because of all this, I told her my favorite song was "O Holy Night." This woman keeps me on my toes, to say the least.
3:34 PM

Monday, December 16, 2002

*... with the coldness ...*
The snow is all but gone (for now) and it was even a balmy 10 degrees today, so tell me why my apartment INSISTS on staying at 2 degrees?! Yeah, that's 35degrees F for those of you who don't want to do the math. I fired up the kerosene heater for the first time this weekend (after hauling 36 quarts of kerosene 2 blocks and up 2 flights of stairs... ouch), and I noticed after awhile that everything in my apartment had a sort of slimy feel. Turns out it was only condensation...!!? HUH? Ah, the new experiences.
All this week are parent/teacher conferences, so we only have morning classes. That would have been nice to know beforehand, so at least I could have brought a book or a deck of cards or a knife for hari-kari or SOMETHING, but no, no prior notice. But for today it was okay as I spent the majority of my free time on the internet doing research as well as using the fax machine every 15 minutes, keeping in touch with my travel agent. Looks like I have somewhere to go (somewhereS, I should say), but I ain't saying till it's confirmed (ie, paid for). Right now the big decision is deciding whether to spend New Year's in Tokyo with my friend Carol (from SD) and hopefully a corresponding Tokyo Disneyland trip, or spending it in a foreign country. Of course, I should probably ask Carol...

ps Dad - don't worry, I have a window propped open when I use the heater. Actually, it's my kitchen window which has been closed maybe once in the 4 months I have been here, since I would like SOME fresh air in my little shoebox...

5:14 PM

Sunday, December 15, 2002

*... brittle and foo ...*
No, those aren't new nicknames. Just an easy way to sum up classes this week. One of the teachers I work with speaks English all the time, and I usually can't understand most of it. We were teaching the grammar point "so-and-so is a person WHO does nani-nani" and she was using her sister as an example. But this is what came out

"My see-stah... ees a oooman... FOO... rikes-sue to-ooo-ah cooooku."

I don't think it does much for the lesson when the kids are distracted by me gaping at the teacher with complete confusion coupled with a look of "this woman's nuts" b/c most of the time she walks around going "okay, yah! heh heh heh heh" in this weird forced laugh. Weird. Another listening challenge comes in the form of a vocab game another teacher plays with her students, where I am supposed to call on them and they shout out a word. 9 times out of 10 I think they are saying dirty words, and I am shocked, but Ms. Inaba turns around and rights something completely innocent like "house."
And speaking of hearing incorrectly, sensei #3 (whom I currently despise b/c she keeps making me sing 'head/shoulders/knees/n'toes' despite the fact that both the students and I HATE it) wanted me to tell about American Christmas, and one difference I pointed out is that in America, we don't have "Christmas cake" like they do in Japan. (After a little recon work, I came to find out that you can't just go into a store and pick up an already-made cake. You can't just make a cake at home, either, really. The cakes here are way more elaborate, and thus are only sold by the slice. At Christmas, however, they sell whole cakes so you can take one home and share with friends and family.) I explained that at least in my house, Christmas was more of a time for cookies. I also told them that this year, I made peanut brittle and sent it home to the fam. No one had heard of peanut brittle before, so I told them what it was like. I asked if anyone had eaten it before, and all of a sudden a very genki boy in the back shoots his hand into the air and starts excitedly jabbering in Japanese about how he has had it before, he got it at the convenience store and it was very very delicious. He was going on and on, until finally I caught in his jabber the lone phrase of "Ham & Cheese." As soon as I heard that, I fell on the floor in a huge, laughing heap. NO ONE knew what to do with me, and a good 5 minutes later I was able to compose myself to write on the board "BRITTLE" and right underneath that "BURRITO". And then for fun, I wrote under that my name in katakana, which turns out to be "BURITTO". Then I pronounced each of the words so they could hear the difference. Sadly, I had to explain the actual physical difference between them too, as if it isn't completely obvious that I am not a tasty Mexican food or confectionary treat!
And on a more disturbing note... I passed by one of the department stores today when I was walking around downtown, and I was nearly scared to my death. In one of the displays was a row of 4-foot tall standing mechanical bunnies, dressed in plaid. Their heads followed you as you walked by (several would follow different people) and if you were REALLY "lucky", you would be the one to set them off into a horrifying can-can dance while voices that sounded like a mix between the Chipmunks and AC/DC reached out and grabbed you, wishing you a Merry Christmas. Little kids love 'em. Parents love that little kids love 'em. In fact, I seemed to be the only one more than slightly terror-stricken.
5:08 PM