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Friday was another last, this time at Higashikawanobori Elementary School. This school is so special to me, probably because the kids are unbelievably wonderful. They high-five, hug, and squeal with delight when the see me, even after two years. And quite frankly, this celebrity-like status has really gone to my head. It’s going to be disappointing in the US when kids don’t even notice my existence. Hopefully I won’t try to hug them, because that would not only be awkward but could also spark some sort of lawsuit. I shall try to keep to my unfreaky ways the best I can.
After another wonderful ceremony filled with songs, games, speeches and presents, I was given a grand exit through a human tunnel (think London Bridge) made by all the students and teachers. Adorable. I’ll really miss this one! I’ve already gotten promises from a bunch of kids that they’ll write me letters in America, so at least I have something to look forward to! After school, while I was hanging around taking pictures (another activity to avoid upon return), some kids invited me to a local gion festival. Basically, a community dancing festival. More on that later! You can bet that it was adorable, precious, and cute– apparently the only adjectives I have been using lately.
July 14th, 2006
In lieu of my sarcastic musings about my super exciting job and life, I have instead provided pictures of cuteness. Possibly not as cute as Sarah’s swim kid, but since I know these ones personally I can attest to not only adorable faces, but adorableness in most everything they do. (By the by, it’s nearly impossible to catch them with the camera before they flash the obligatory Peace/Victory/I’m Posing sign. Alas.)
Cuteness at Higashikawanobori
Cuteness at Nishikawanobori
Cuteness at Takeuchi
Cuteness at Wakaki
July 13th, 2006
And my, how the pachinko parlor gleams beautifully in this light. Another sunset means another day closer to the 25th, which I have been anxiously anticipating more than I have ever, in my whole materialistic life, ever looked forward to Christmas. Now that I have accepted the fact that I’m leaving, I suddenly cannot leave soon enough. And if I have to read and respond to ONE MORE journal entry, I will put my pen through my eye. I just spent two hours responding to such gems as: “I get up ten. I am going to shopping Youme Town. I shopping is comic book. very happy.” and “I got up at six. I play kendo. It’s tired.” and “I got up fifteen. In the morning. I had rice for breakfast. VERY INTERESTING!!!” These are 9th graders! I believe we did go over the lessons about telling time, and I might have also mentioned that unless this is very special rice, breakfast is never, ever, VERY INTERESTING!!! Maybe if they did something other than club activities and cram school, breakfast wouldn’t be the best part of their day.
July 11th, 2006
Summertime! My favorite season, coming in right behind spring, fall and winter. A typhoon is headed vaguely this way, it’s hot and muggy, and the bugs are bigger than ever. Summertime is what happens when it isn’t raining, which unfortunately is not very often. Trips to swimming holes, fireworks, snowcones covered with sweet beans, condensed milk and green tea syrup. Girls in yukatas with cellphones and iPods. Yes, lovely indeed. However, summertime this year for me will include– packing while sweating, teaching while sweating, performing the piano while sweating, trying to look respectable during farewell ceremonies while sweating (perhaps I can pass off the sweat as tears of sadness? Yes, I am that sad to be leaving you. I’ve been this sad to be leaving you since May!).
July 9th, 2006
Think back to the days when you had a class pet… If I had to guess, my money would be on a hamster, gerbil, fish, or if you were in my fourth grade class, a rock. (Never worry about killing the class pet again!) Oh Japan, how you put us to shame. This second grader is proudly showing off her baby kabutomushi, which is some sort of fighting beetle that is HUGELY popular among school children. There are large sections in grocery stores devoted the drove of beetle lovers; cages, sawdust-like filling for the cage, tiny containers of jello that they eat/drink, and oh the T-shirts, pencils, pencil cases, and erasers you can buy with beetles on them. Beetles are the new puppies! Maybe I can satiate my desire to see PUPPY by buying myself a beetle!
July 7th, 2006
Possibly the most useful sign ever, especially if moving at highway speeds. Usually road signs translate the meaning, not the sounds, so that stupid foreigners like myself know that “kanjikanjikanjikanji” means “livestock testing center” and the like (have not visited yet, though). This sign eludes me. Super helpful!
Ah, and I’m happy to report that for the most part I avoided doing anything remarkably idiotic today. Just the usual, thank you very much.
July 6th, 2006
Crappy day part two! BRING IT! I can literally feel myself going insane.
You know it’s a bad sign when you watch Felicity (circa long-time-ago, since that’s all we get here) and all of their problems pale in comparison to your own. Yes please, I would rather my long-lusted-after boyfriend get his one-night-stand girl pregnant and threaten to move half way across the country to be with his bastard child while taking pre-med classes at night. This would be more of an ideal situation than my life! I could deal with that!
Work is insanely busy, I have something to do and somewhere to go every single evening, and absolutely no time to pack, prepare, fill out mindless paperwork, say goodbye to friends, and find myself a little piece of closure. I feel like the only time I have to myself are the moments I update this freaking blog and apparently watch Felicity. Seriously, I’m losing it. Last Friday I killed the battery of my car because I forgot to turn of the lights after the tunnel and had to get it jumped after school. Today after eikaiwa I stopped at a convenience store to get a snack in lieu of dinner and I locked my keys in the car. Stupid stupid stupid. Not only that, I wasn’t even in town! Last night I dreamed I got deep-vein thrombosis while doing front handsprings in a field and had to be emergency airlifted to the U.S. to see a specialist. Time to go? I think so. I am terrified to see what tomorrow will bring. I can guarantee I will do something stupid, though, so check back tomorrow night and find out what it was!
July 5th, 2006
Days like today make the thought of leaving this country positively ecstatic. Jump up and down, cry from happiness, run through the streets shouting, ecstatic. It wasn’t a good day. Let’s break it down:
• I hate how my desk is the community crap pile. I leave it clean when I go home, and I come to school the next morning and have to clean other people’s crap off it. Behold, the above picture. Things that are mine on this desk are the computer bag and the blue basket full of odds and ends on the left. Everything else isn’t mine. ANNOYING.
• I hate how coming home after school to my stink-ass apartment makes me want to gag. Sometimes fish smells like raw sewage, though I’m not sure how or why. But it would be really nice not wanting to puke upon returning to my home.
• I hate how my teachers are trying to use me up before I leave. Yes, I do believe the next ALT will be able to use a computer, make circles with red pens, and maybe even make worksheets! Let’s not make me plan classes for the next year while at the same time fitting in extra “Sarah time” so the students can see more of me before I leave. Every school is making me busier, but what each school doesn’t realize is that every other school is doing it too. I’M TIRED.
• I hate how the classrooms have no air-conditioning. Adults should be able to work in climate-controlled environments. My life goal is just that.
• I hate how teachers don’t discipline their students. Not at all. The kids know this, and they exploit it. Don’t want to try your homework, that’s fine! Feel like practicing your fastball with your buddy with a wadded-up piece of paper while the teacher’s explaining directions to you, fantastic! How about you run down the hall, make farting noises into the next classroom and then run back to your seat, SWELL! By all means, entertain me! I find it as hilarious as you do!!
• I hate how old people walk in the middle of the road when the road isn’t wide enough for two cars to begin with.
• I hate that after I get ready for work, walk to my car in the rain, sweat inside my car for 20 minutes without air-conditioning on the way there, I get to school and look like I’ve just spent the previous evening camping in the wilderness and then bushwhacked my way through the forest to the junior high. Why bother trying in the morning at all?
• I hate how I have to carry three bags with me wherever I go. School bag, computer bag, lunch bag, with umbrella and sometimes an extra pair of shoes (it’s Japan, I’ve got school shoes and outdoor shoes). This is the minimum. It’s SOOOO frustrating!
Here’s hoping tomorrow will be a better day. Ha!
July 4th, 2006
WE GOT A PUPPY! And by “we,” I mean my family. Her name is Chloe and she’s a Labradoodle. Hilarious! Part lab, part poodle, apparently she’s all brains with the hypo-allergenicness of a mini poodle. AND COMPLETELY ADORABLE! I am in love. Puppy wuppy wuppy! Wuga wuga booga!
July 3rd, 2006
Summertime means new rice and a lot of rain. The fields flood, the rice is planted, and the colors are amazing. They’re the most vibrant green I have ever seen! This scene is on the way to school– this stretch is really dangerous because it’s a two-way street that’s only one-car wide. When I pull over to creep by a car going the opposite direction, there’s a real risk that one of us is falling into a rice paddy. Fold those side mirrors in!
July 2nd, 2006
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