*... everyone around me is a total stranger...everyone avoids me like a psyched lone ranger...everyone... ((turning japanese, i think i'm turning japanese, i really think so)) ...*
Thursday, April 10, 2003
*... the trickle down effect ...* it was so windy in my kitchen last night, i could fly a kite.... until it was too bashed-in from running into the refrigerator all the time.
The balance of having to work with such a whacked-out staff is the school is right on the Sea of Japan coast. You can see it from the windows, although all the class windows face away from it, which is probably a highly strategic move. I went running along the trail by the water and it was absolutely gorgeous. Okay, I ran a little, walked a little, played on the swings, chased some pigeons... but it was good to get some exercise in such a beautiful setting!
Speaking of running, I was asked to coach the hurdlers on track and field. WHAT?! Turns out that everyone talks to everyone over here, and it started out as a question a student asked me in class (they were being forced to ask me questions). One student's question was "how fast do you run 50 meters?" which I didn't know, but I told him that I would race Kaori-sensei and find out. I then told them that I didn't really like to sprint, I liked the 200m b/c it was a good pace, and I liked hurdles. I didn't say I DID hurdles, I just said I liked them. The teacher of that class told the track coach that I was a champion hurdler and so now they want me to coach. HAHAHA, right. Oh, wait, they're serious...
By the way, I feel it necessary to tell you all that i now have pink hair. I was considering not saying anything in the hopes that i could get away with it, maybe it would go away, but no such luck. Everyday it seems to be getting more and more prominently pink. Darius was very Pollyanna-esque in pointing out that I have always wanted pink hair (true, but not this way!!). Back in December I put red streaks in my hair, and then when I was in Korea and got my hair lightened, and... well... the red didn't bleach out. I was going to grow my hair out anyway, but now I can't b/c I need to cut out this silly clown hair (It's orangeyred and pink. Charming). The comforting thing is that I told Kaori-sensei and Tamura-sensei (a boy even!) that I was going to grow out my hair and they were horrified. They think I'm too cute to have long hair... hard to argue with that. 5:54 PM
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
*... the house began to twitch, and then to pitch ...* The wind was SO out of control last night that my entire apartment was moving. Stuff flying off the walls, glasses being knocked over, it was crazy. Even crazier was the fact that it rocked me to sleep! YES! But then Nat called waaay early, so there goes that plan of getting rest. But I would much rather talk to Quadzilla then waste my time on silly things like sleep. Not that I have much to be resting for over here. This new school i am at is so so soooo odd, even by Japanese standards. I have one lady who practically SCREAMS when she speaks, and unfortunately she sits right behind me and screams right in my ear. She also hit me yesterday, slapped my back with a ruler or something b/c a little bit of my skin was showing when I was bending over a desk (yeah, i am soooo risque, don't you know?). Not to mention my supervisor who is smiling this evil grin (like the top part of her dentures are baaarely staying in? But she doesn't have dentures....?) all the freakin' time (and she high-step marches wherever she goes!), the other English teacher has it out for me (Sneaking up on me and accusingly asking me questions like "what's my name? I just told it to you, now what is it?") and I have had to sit through 3 days of the most ridiculous school ceremonies i have ever seen (filing all the first years in, calling their names, parading them back out. Doing the same for the new teachers (that's me!), having basketball team show us their warm up drills...) These are all SEPARATE ceremonies, each with some singing, 10 billion speeches, and even more bowing. Not to mention the principal who shouts "GOODNIGHT!!" to me everytime he sees me...
*... updateable, methinks ...* well, i have decided to stop spending the night laying awake thinking silly thoughts. Besides, what about all those times i have lamented about not having enough time (okay, so not so many of those, but that's not the point). My first nocturnal project: teach myself how to do a backhand spring. I've always wanted to know how to do one. And now I've got time to learn! And Liz is probably the only one who has first-hand experience in knowing how laughable a project this is, considering the size and layout of my apartment. But if i open that one door, I should be fine, right? Hope the neighbors don't mind.
And speaking of needing an update, i noticed that my bus this morning faithfully employs the use of 8-TRACKS. ((insert cheesy 70s music here)). Yeah, can you dig that?! 4:48 PM
Monday, April 07, 2003
*... who needs sleep? ...* it will come to little surprise to those nearest 'n' dearest to me that I have not really been sleeping lately. Sleep comes to me much like blonde hair comes to the Japanese; that is forced, and often with sketchy results. Although I have not broken my record (6 hours of sleep in 5 days, 2 hours on one night, 4 on another, and nothing in between), I am still averaging about 3 or 4 unconsecutive hours of light snoozing per night. I have yet to discover the secret formula to knock me out, and oddly enough Diet Coke makes me the sleepiest, alcohol keeps me up all night, coffee is unpredictably in between, and warm milk is just a tasty treat. Yeah, I'm all screwy, this isn't a new discovery. JP concludes that I don't sleep because I "think too much", but this is coming from the guy who can fall asleep minutes after sitting on the plane/bus/train/couch. It's an impressive and scary talent. (I wonder what happens when he drives?) But I do have to agree with him that I am thinkingthinkingthinking while I lie awake, but what else am i going to do? Thoughts range from life worries (like getting a job/apt when I get back to Cali), to sometimes silent, sometimes voiced prayers and shout-outs to my homies in the Middle East, to recalling funny events (my neighbors must wonder why i am laughing at 3 in the morning. But then again, they are probably asleep.). I also think about things like why in the heck did hotmail decide to erase everything in my account, including all my saved mail (job resumes! passwords! love letters! oh my!) and also all my contacts (so now I know no ones email address unless you have emailed me in the past few days). And of course i pondering such important things like 'what am i going to wear tomorrow?' and the Mr. Clean jingle ("Mister Clean gets rid of dirt and grime and grease in just a minute, Mister Clean lasts stronger longer 'cause there's Ultra Power in it... Mister Cleeeaaaeeen!").
any thoughts (b/c i'm apparently having too many of them)?? 6:40 PM
Sunday, April 06, 2003
*... urusai da yo!!! ...* it's campaigning time once again, and lucky me, Niigata has at least 10 people running for who-knows-what. That means 10 different groups of people riding around in vans with loudspeakers and shouting into microphones at all hours of the day. ARGH, SHUT UP!! There was a group of them standing on the street corner, and i stood right behind the guy speaking, with my hands clapped over my ears, making faces. Mostly that was just for the benefit of the camera people recording the guy...
Tomorrow I start at my new (and final) school... there are only 20 staff members total, and 10 of them are brand new. AND I am actually NOT the youngest teacher now... one of the English teachers is 22 and just graduated 2 weeks ago. This should be interesting... 4:43 PM
*a bit o' *britt*
In Niigata City, Japan it is:
* vItAl StAtS: *
* eYeS/hAiR/wEiGhT. brown/reddish?/yes. * cUrRenT wHeReAbOuTs. back back to cali, cali * bEdTiMe. my body has decided to forgo sleep for now. * fOoD. it has also decided it's anti-food. * pHrAsE. ahh! too many people speaking English! * mOoD. i feel weird, yo. Like twilight zoney, in another world weird. * tUnEs. i get to listen to the radio in my car again! * qUoTe: "whereas i am trying to read in the succession of things presented to me every day the world's intentions towards me, and I grope my way, knowing that there can exist no dictionary that will translate into words the burden of obscure allusions that lurks in these things."
*"One, seven, three, five -- The truth you search for cannot be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean; the dragon's jewels are found in every wave. Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, and in the next." Zen Master Hsueh-tou
* tHiNgS i WiLl MiSs... *
* kaori (kojima) and mariko, kaori (honma), marika and etsuko, setsuko, nakano and sakai (aka "the boys"), kelly, alan
* most of my students
* some of my teachers
* the Shin Ken Kan crew
* my granny bike (a little)
* speaking Japanese
* traveling
* tHiNgS i WoN't MiSs... *
* the staring
* the bus
* being bored outta my gourd
* sleeping on the floor
* the Japanese Way
* secondhand smoke
* the fashion
* jApAn, AkA tHe LaNd oF... *
* "We Don't Believe in Cilantro"
* "We Don't Believe in Towels"
* "Obscurely-Sized Paper"
* "Flouride is Foreign"
* "It's Rude to Eat on the Streets, but it is Perfectly Acceptable to Blow Smoke in your Face"
* "9am is Too Early for Stores to Open"
* "We Just Make the Technology, We Don't Use It"
* "Central Air? Never Heard of It. Central Heating? Nuh-uh. Heated Toilet Seats? Well duh, of course!!"
* "Deodor-what?"
* "Open 24Hrs = 7am - 10pm"
* "Our Knees Don't Freeze"
* "We Want to Speak Like Americans and Look Like Americans and Act Like Americans, But We Don't Actually Like Americans"
* "Hey, Free Beer!"
