[8/6]
Things are looking up.
Not that things were that down ever, but I’d say they’re definitely looking up at the moment. A positive first derivative, if I may be incredibly lame and geeky. Maybe even a positive second
derivative. Yesterday in the morning Mizuta-san took me to visit my two schools. I don’t have much to say about the first one; the people seemed nice enough. The second one, ìÒíÜ(nichu, short for ëÊìÒíÜäwçZ, Dainichuugakkou, meaning middle school #2), I felt a really strong affinity for. There were boy having baseball practice out in the field and they did some weird sort of unison greeting toward us. The coach is apparently the one English teacher at that school (it’s a very small school, about 60 students), and I was introduced to him and he seemed really friendly. Inside we met with the principal and vice principal, both of whom were very nice and asked me about my interest in Japan and told me I spoke good Japanese. At both schools I was immediately reassured that I could bring my own lunch, which is wonderful. Of course, I’ll have to learn how to make a good vegetarian bento...but better that than have to sit there picking at the school lunch pretending I can eat it. At ìÒíÜ one of the principals (vice, I think) kept saying “oh, I know all about vegetarianism” really proudly, and whenever someone would ask me whether I could eat a given thing and I would reply, he would nod knowingly and say “ǪǧǪǧǪǧÅAÉxÉWÉ^ÉäÉAÉìÇ™ÇÊÇ≠ÇÌǩǡǃÇÈÅB” (“Right right, I know all about vegetarians.”) It was oddly sweet. But the most amazing thing was the art. Apparently, ìÒíÜ is nationally renowned for the art of its students. And with good reason – it was amazing. I don’t know what the medium was of the stuff I saw – some sort of colored charcoal or pastel, maybe? – but there were these amazing drawings up on the walls, of local scenes of ships and mountains and people, some of them really poignant, all of them vibrant and dynamic as well as technically pretty much flawless. And these were made by, like, eighth graders. Not that I’m shocked that kids that age can produce amazing art – I’ve seen it my whole life. But it was clear that they put intense focus and energy into their art curriculum. So that was pretty cool.
Also, in the hallway was a little stack of stuffed pandas climbing on top of each other. We all know how I feel about stuffed pandas.
Meanwhile, I spent a bit of the drive complaining (in as passive and Japanese a way as I could) about not having internet for a month. (“Oh, I really do wish I could email my parents...I wonder why it takes so long...”) Mizuta-san said it was because there was a back-up of applications (probably other JETs, grrr), which is a fair enough reason. But he said “well you can always use the computers at the åˆñØäŸacross the street.” (Where the Kasumi BOE office is.) And I said uh, Miura-san told me I couldn’t use those computers for anything that wasn’t work-related...And Mizuta-san said “Hmm, really?” and something about asking his boss. Also, he said it looked like the upstairs air conditioner might not actually be fixed (shocking! I never saw that one coming...), and asked if I wanted my bed moved downstairs. I fought the urge not to cause trouble, because it really is pretty damn hot up there, and he said it was likely to get hotter before it started cooling down for the fall. So he called Nishimoto-kun (he seems more like a kun...although I wouldn’t call him that to his face of course), who said he’d help, and the two of them came over and dismantled my bed and moved it into the extra downstairs room that has the white board and tables. To be honest, while it has no closets or dresser, something about that room, as I watched them setting up the bed in it, felt more satisfying as a bedroom than the room upstairs. Maybe because it has bookshelves with books on them (albeit random books Zachary left in which I don’t have much interest). And I like the white board. (Although I failed to discover any dry erase markers anywhere; I’ll have to try to buy some.) And in that room I made a discovery that I quite enjoyed, although it may not sound that exciting: when I was getting ready for bed, I decided to put the lamp that was sitting on a shelf down by the bed. So I plugged it in, and the bulb came on really dim. I touched the lamp to look for the on/off switch, and the bulb got brighter. Then even brighter. Then went off. Confused, I unplugged it. I searched for a switch and found none. Odd. I plugged it back in, and it was off. I thought, there must be a switch – who ever heard of a lamp with no way to turn it on or off? I picked it up to look again and it turned on. Got brighter. I put it down. I poked it. Brighter. Poked it again. Off. Again: dim. You control this lamp just by touching it! It made me laugh. I’d never seen that before.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. (And I have to go in like five minutes so I’d better hurry...) I was done with scheduled things as of lunchtime, and I settled into a lazy afternoon of sitting around the house by myself. But I wasn’t feeling lonely; I was actually in a mood where I looked forward to being alone, which I haven’t felt in a while, so that was comforting. But after a little while I saw Murashima-san walking up my path. I opened the door. He said, in his slightly broken English, “Please, you want to send mail, you send from my machine.” I blinked. “ñ{ìñ?ǢǢÇ≈Ç∑Ç©ÅB” “Yes yes, come.” He walked away. I put my shoes on and scurried after him. I wonder if Mizuta-san had talked to them. Anyway, when I got there he started to show me how to send email from the account on the computer, which was a Kasumi BOE account or something. I kept trying to politely ask why it was I couldn’t just use my own gmail, but he obviously didn’t understand about webmail, until fortunately another guy who was there explained to him in better Japanese than I could. I showed him the gmail site, and then he left me alone. Unfortunately I had 22 new messages, and I was feeling quite like an imposition, and I had the feeling I was really only expected to shoot off a quick email to my parents saying I was alive...and meanwhile I was sort of flustered by the keyboard, which had things like the shift key and the apostrophe and the backspace in places my fingers didn’t go to automatically, so I kept typing the wrong thing and then trying to backspace and ending up with \\\. But I managed to send really abbreviated emails to my dad, Andrew, and Liz, and have hurried IM conversations with Mark and Adam, so it was simultaneously immensely satisfying and quite frustrating.
But then, around supper time, Jarryd came and visited, the Kami-cho ALT who’s been here for years and years. I guess you don’t realize how much you miss speaking English until you can. Words positively tumbled out of me. He was so nice and reassuring and friendly and told me I could stay at his house after the welcome party they’re having tonight (oh yeah, there’s a welcome party tonight, at which there will be seven or eight of the local ALTs – yay!) and use his internet to my heart’s content. So if I can find a way either to use it from this computer, or to transfer files, there’s a chance I could actually get this post up on my blog by later tonight! Yay!
Okay, it’s 10:57 and at 11:00 Mizuta-san is supposed to show up; he and Jarryd and I are driving down to meet the other new ALT today. And then the welcome party and internet will happen in the evening. Things are definitely looking up.
Fushigina kotoba de ohanashi shimashou!
Things are looking up.
Not that things were that down ever, but I’d say they’re definitely looking up at the moment. A positive first derivative, if I may be incredibly lame and geeky. Maybe even a positive second
derivative. Yesterday in the morning Mizuta-san took me to visit my two schools. I don’t have much to say about the first one; the people seemed nice enough. The second one, ìÒíÜ(nichu, short for ëÊìÒíÜäwçZ, Dainichuugakkou, meaning middle school #2), I felt a really strong affinity for. There were boy having baseball practice out in the field and they did some weird sort of unison greeting toward us. The coach is apparently the one English teacher at that school (it’s a very small school, about 60 students), and I was introduced to him and he seemed really friendly. Inside we met with the principal and vice principal, both of whom were very nice and asked me about my interest in Japan and told me I spoke good Japanese. At both schools I was immediately reassured that I could bring my own lunch, which is wonderful. Of course, I’ll have to learn how to make a good vegetarian bento...but better that than have to sit there picking at the school lunch pretending I can eat it. At ìÒíÜ one of the principals (vice, I think) kept saying “oh, I know all about vegetarianism” really proudly, and whenever someone would ask me whether I could eat a given thing and I would reply, he would nod knowingly and say “ǪǧǪǧǪǧÅAÉxÉWÉ^ÉäÉAÉìÇ™ÇÊÇ≠ÇÌǩǡǃÇÈÅB” (“Right right, I know all about vegetarians.”) It was oddly sweet. But the most amazing thing was the art. Apparently, ìÒíÜ is nationally renowned for the art of its students. And with good reason – it was amazing. I don’t know what the medium was of the stuff I saw – some sort of colored charcoal or pastel, maybe? – but there were these amazing drawings up on the walls, of local scenes of ships and mountains and people, some of them really poignant, all of them vibrant and dynamic as well as technically pretty much flawless. And these were made by, like, eighth graders. Not that I’m shocked that kids that age can produce amazing art – I’ve seen it my whole life. But it was clear that they put intense focus and energy into their art curriculum. So that was pretty cool.
Also, in the hallway was a little stack of stuffed pandas climbing on top of each other. We all know how I feel about stuffed pandas.
Meanwhile, I spent a bit of the drive complaining (in as passive and Japanese a way as I could) about not having internet for a month. (“Oh, I really do wish I could email my parents...I wonder why it takes so long...”) Mizuta-san said it was because there was a back-up of applications (probably other JETs, grrr), which is a fair enough reason. But he said “well you can always use the computers at the åˆñØäŸacross the street.” (Where the Kasumi BOE office is.) And I said uh, Miura-san told me I couldn’t use those computers for anything that wasn’t work-related...And Mizuta-san said “Hmm, really?” and something about asking his boss. Also, he said it looked like the upstairs air conditioner might not actually be fixed (shocking! I never saw that one coming...), and asked if I wanted my bed moved downstairs. I fought the urge not to cause trouble, because it really is pretty damn hot up there, and he said it was likely to get hotter before it started cooling down for the fall. So he called Nishimoto-kun (he seems more like a kun...although I wouldn’t call him that to his face of course), who said he’d help, and the two of them came over and dismantled my bed and moved it into the extra downstairs room that has the white board and tables. To be honest, while it has no closets or dresser, something about that room, as I watched them setting up the bed in it, felt more satisfying as a bedroom than the room upstairs. Maybe because it has bookshelves with books on them (albeit random books Zachary left in which I don’t have much interest). And I like the white board. (Although I failed to discover any dry erase markers anywhere; I’ll have to try to buy some.) And in that room I made a discovery that I quite enjoyed, although it may not sound that exciting: when I was getting ready for bed, I decided to put the lamp that was sitting on a shelf down by the bed. So I plugged it in, and the bulb came on really dim. I touched the lamp to look for the on/off switch, and the bulb got brighter. Then even brighter. Then went off. Confused, I unplugged it. I searched for a switch and found none. Odd. I plugged it back in, and it was off. I thought, there must be a switch – who ever heard of a lamp with no way to turn it on or off? I picked it up to look again and it turned on. Got brighter. I put it down. I poked it. Brighter. Poked it again. Off. Again: dim. You control this lamp just by touching it! It made me laugh. I’d never seen that before.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. (And I have to go in like five minutes so I’d better hurry...) I was done with scheduled things as of lunchtime, and I settled into a lazy afternoon of sitting around the house by myself. But I wasn’t feeling lonely; I was actually in a mood where I looked forward to being alone, which I haven’t felt in a while, so that was comforting. But after a little while I saw Murashima-san walking up my path. I opened the door. He said, in his slightly broken English, “Please, you want to send mail, you send from my machine.” I blinked. “ñ{ìñ?ǢǢÇ≈Ç∑Ç©ÅB” “Yes yes, come.” He walked away. I put my shoes on and scurried after him. I wonder if Mizuta-san had talked to them. Anyway, when I got there he started to show me how to send email from the account on the computer, which was a Kasumi BOE account or something. I kept trying to politely ask why it was I couldn’t just use my own gmail, but he obviously didn’t understand about webmail, until fortunately another guy who was there explained to him in better Japanese than I could. I showed him the gmail site, and then he left me alone. Unfortunately I had 22 new messages, and I was feeling quite like an imposition, and I had the feeling I was really only expected to shoot off a quick email to my parents saying I was alive...and meanwhile I was sort of flustered by the keyboard, which had things like the shift key and the apostrophe and the backspace in places my fingers didn’t go to automatically, so I kept typing the wrong thing and then trying to backspace and ending up with \\\. But I managed to send really abbreviated emails to my dad, Andrew, and Liz, and have hurried IM conversations with Mark and Adam, so it was simultaneously immensely satisfying and quite frustrating.
But then, around supper time, Jarryd came and visited, the Kami-cho ALT who’s been here for years and years. I guess you don’t realize how much you miss speaking English until you can. Words positively tumbled out of me. He was so nice and reassuring and friendly and told me I could stay at his house after the welcome party they’re having tonight (oh yeah, there’s a welcome party tonight, at which there will be seven or eight of the local ALTs – yay!) and use his internet to my heart’s content. So if I can find a way either to use it from this computer, or to transfer files, there’s a chance I could actually get this post up on my blog by later tonight! Yay!
Okay, it’s 10:57 and at 11:00 Mizuta-san is supposed to show up; he and Jarryd and I are driving down to meet the other new ALT today. And then the welcome party and internet will happen in the evening. Things are definitely looking up.
posted by Ashila at 5:42 AM
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