Tria no Tabi: February 2010

Friday, February 26, 2010

Darn rain! Trying to kill me again!

Weather apparently hates me everywhere.

So, essentially, I have a class in Okazaki, about 15-20 minutes away. It's pouring outside and windy, so I gear myself up for a somewhat bothersome drive, but don't really think about it.

Until I try to go the speed limit and some JERK decides "Hey, we're all blind, why don't I ride the tail of the car in front of me". This car he decides to tail gate is me, of course. when I finally get him off my tail, I'm happy but I can't see very well still. This is not helped by the fact that the stretch of road that I'm on has no street lights. So, it's raining, I'm blind and the street is pitch black.

That's when I hit the puddles of doom. Seriously. Remember how Japan has stairs of death? Their puddles are also death. The roads are pretty old so they accumulate these HUGE deep puddles that go way out into the street and sometimes you have to swerve into oncoming traffic to not be drowned in them. So I hit one of THESE puddles. The car feels like I've hit something and the water gushing over the windshield makes me wonder if I've somehow managed to drive into a lake. I go WAH! then calm down, right in time...to hit ANOTHER one. I hit three on the way to juku.

The drive back was better. The rain had let up a little in spots, but the wind was having a field day. I could actually feel the car rocking when I stopped at lights and the rain was blowing sideways. At least I had no one behind me most the way home.

I fear what a typhoon is going to be like....

Friday, February 19, 2010

Ponderings

So, out of all my pictures, I only have Kyoto left to post on Facebook. and hopefully, I'll get that done before my next vacation, that will probably lead to MORE pictures that I'll have no time to post ^_^;;;

I'm thinking that I'm not posting as much here as I thought because, well, things in Japan just aren't as surprising to me. Maybe I studied enough, or got acclimated to all the parts I didn't know before but... I feel pretty much at home here. Even though my spoken Japanese SUCKS PANTS, I remember enough to get around. You know, in stores and such. I can't have an in depth conversation on, well, anything, but I can get around. I'm learning numbers a lot better, for one. But, even though I still get stares when I go out and even though I look different from most everyone here, I don't feel any more out of place than when I moved away to college, or lived in Madison. So yes. Things that seem normal in my eyes may be totally fascinating for some of you people, so I shall attempt to explain a few things that feel normal and boring to me. And I'll try to write things down more often ^_^;;; ( didn't buy a notebook until after I went on trips, so I'll have to use it next time I travel.

Mostly, my weeks consist of being cold, teaching, cross stitching, reading or drawing, driving to classes and teaching some more and eating food.

I will note that the pizza here has this strange need to always have corn on it. I mean, jeez, corn is great, but it's not THAT great. Needless to say, the pizza buns (which are AWESOME) also have corn in them. The Japanese really love corn.

Also, hilarious note, I was at juku last night and some how something sounded like "tin" to them, to which someone yelled "Tintin" and I started drawing him on the board. They all DIED of laughter, it was great.

Going to a party tomorrow night, with other foreigners! It will be so exciting. New friends! ^___^

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

High school classes

Last day of high school classes! So sad! They were, by far, the high point of my last 4 weeks. In fact, I was having so much fun, that I even forgot the homesickness that was starting to build! It really cheered me up and made life a lot more fun.

So, the class today was questions for me and a game. From both classes, I got: "What's your favorite type of man". HEHEHEH. There was one girl who wanted to ask me how many kids I planned to have, but she didn't manage to ask (it was on her paper). There was another girl who asked me what the words of Brad's proposal were. I bet they were disappointed by how un-romantic it was (Brad is very practical, thus he was very practical in asking me). I got the usual "what's your favorite food, do you like Japan or America better, where's your favorite place to travel in Japan, etc. They determined that I was a "Rekishijo" or history girl (a girl who likes history- it's a thing now in Japan). We played the game, that was fun.

Then, after pictures, at the end of the second class, the first class came in and presented me with flowers! I was so surprised! A potted plant for me to take care of, oh deeeear ^_^;;; Ma, help! But the class rep gave a speech thanking me for coming and saying that my English was very easy to learn, and if I wasn't understandable, it was ok b/c my Japanese was so good. (ha). But yes! They want me to come back again ^__^

I really think I'm in my element there. I don't know what it is, though it's probably idea of having coworkers to talk to between classes and all the students… turns out I'm more of a social butterfly than I thought. Who knew?? ^____^

Here are the pictures. I was going to post them here, but Blogger has the STUPIDEST way of handling pictures, so I said screw it and posted them on FB.

So, enjoy! Picture link here