Thoughts Before Bedtime September 20, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Culinary Pursuits, Cultural Exchange, Gym Adventures, Japanese GET, Just Bizarre, sports festival, Student Moments, Taking Initiative, Weekend Recap.Tags: beyond marshal, countdown, David Bowie, Elementary Enkai, enkai, evil endorphins, fc bayern fangirl, Joey, mukade, New Kids on the Block, sports festival, TGTIDNLBIDLHE, the guy that i like a lot, the gym, the super young guy, Ultimate Win
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Who needs clever titles? Not this Dragonette. I simply call it like it is.
So, given the rather volatile (read: packed like sardines) nature of my schedule, I think that you can probably anticipate updates on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and the occasional Saturday. Thursdays are rough because I usually spend the early evening feverishly writing letters to my Friday elementary school students. Late evening is reserved for band practice. Fridays are also a bit troublesome because I go to the gym right from work and don’t get back home until 10 o’clock. By that point, I’m barely awake enough to find my toothbrush, much less write a coherent and even remotely entertaining blog post about the day’s activities.
So, thereyago. Monday – Wednesday and quite possibly a day on the weekend. Perhaps even two if I am feeling particularly inspired. Consider this my promise to you.
So, it’s Monday, and we have serious recapping to do.
Thursday
There are two new students at Thursday’s elementary school. They’re brothers, with one in the third grade and the other in the sixth. For some mysterious reason I have made it my mission in life to get the third grader to laugh by whatever means I deem necessary. It’s still early in the term and he’s having some problems adjusting and making friends. He and I also did not get off to the best start because my English class is a lot more advanced than anything he’s ever experienced before and he was super lost when we had our first lesson a couple of weeks ago. Since that (slightly unfortunate) experience, however, I do believe he’s begun to warm up to me. I find that saying really random and absurd things works well with him, because it gives him something to react to and then I can challenge his reaction.
Observe:
Me: Hey. Do you know why the swings at this school are so great?
Him: No…?
Me: Because the ones at the other elementary school are too small for my butt. But the swings here are just the right size!
Him: O_o I can’t believe you just said that.
Me: Why not?
Him: Nobody says that kind of stuff.
Me: But I just did.
Him: But, your butt isn’t big.
Me: Really? Why, thank you! You’re so nice! But, that makes me wonder: how big does a butt have to be to be a big butt?
…Etcetera.
This isn’t exactly the conversation for the intellectual elite, and perhaps it does cross into the realm of vast absurdity, but it gets him talking and laughing, which is the whole point. I suppose we should go ahead and give him a name, since I feel that he will come up again in future posts. I think we’ll call him Joey, since he was also a New Kid on the Block.
(Don’t judge. All girls have their boy bands and that one was mine.)
(Even though I was only five.)
(Shall we move on?)
Friday
Friday was a day that will go down in the annals of my time in Japan. It was a day that I experienced an event so momentous, so significant, and so utterly unbelievable that even as I type these words I have to remind myself that it wasn’t a dream.
On Friday, September 17th, 2010, after over four years working in my town, I was invited to an elementary school enkai.
For those who don’t remember, an enkai is a dinner held by a group of people (usually office workers or people who do some kind of extracurricular activity together). There is often a significant amount of celebration (think alcohol and karaoke) associated with these events, and although I regularly attend these functions with my middle school, the Board of Education, the dance troupe, The Band, or the gym group, I have never (NOT ONCE) been invited to one at either of my elementary schools. It has been a point of frustration and depression for me over the last four years.
But no longer!
This enkai will take place next Saturday which, fittingly enough, will be the day of my 17th and final sports festival in Japan. I suspect that I’m going to be feeling rather sentimental and emotional, so it’s nice that I’ll have the opportunity to mark the occasion in a special way. The whole day will be a mark of achievement for me and I’m really looking forward to it.
BREAKING NEWS: I have spoken with this school and we have come to an understanding. This understanding being that this year I do not have to participate in the mukade championship relay race. Imagine being told that you have to subject yourself to joint injury, unwanted and uncomfortable bodily contact with your teammates in front of parents and students, and public humiliation for the fifth year in a row. Now imagine that you don’t. That is my world right now, and what a wonderful one it is.
Saturday
I had a sports festival on Sunday and so I chose to go to the gym on Saturday so I wouldn’t miss the entire weekend. I’ve never been on a Saturday night before, and I was pleasantly surprised to find both The Super Young Guy and The Guy That I Like A Lot both working. In addition, TGTIDNLBIDLHE was nowhere in sight, and so that helped me to relax. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he and I are Having Issues, but I won’t say that we’re not having issues. He still greets me with a tone that is more appropriate for the phrase: “Please go away!” as opposed to “Welcome! Please enjoy your stay!” This is of course assuming that he greets me at all, which he often doesn’t do.
Ah, international relations. How I love you. How you love me. How much we love each other.
Moving on.
Anyway, I spent the evening working out and chatting with my favorite trainers, as well as some other gym personas that showed up for the evening aerobics classes. It was fun. The Super Young Guy tried to convince me to stay until the gym closed, but I had to get back home to bake dessert for Sunday’s festival and watch the FC Bayern Munich VS FC Köln game. It was, unfortunately, not the glorious display of Bayern glory that Wednesday’s game was, but at least we didn’t lose. I will take a tie versus a defeat any day of the week and twice on Saturdays.
Sunday
The day of my second to last sports festival. To be honest, this was a very low-key day for me. I went, I took over 400 pictures, I talked with everyone from students to parents and I lent my strength to the after-festival cleanup. The weather was gorgeous – sunny with a slight breeze – and everything went off without any problems whatsoever. I’m going to risk sounding cliché and say that I feel that this day will remain in my mind forever as a snapshot of perfection. I understood everything that went on around me and (dare I say it?) I felt a part of it all.
Monday
Today is a national holiday in Japan, and so I didn’t have to go into work. Thanks to Sunday’s sports festival, I also don’t have to go in on Tuesday and so I am relishing the prospect of a very easy week. Next week will be a different story, but let’s stay focused on the present.
So, today was kind of interesting because I tried a class at the gym that I’ve been thinking about joining for a while. The class is called “Beyond Marshal,” and it’s a combination kickboxing/karate/aerobics class. Normally, TGTIDNLBIDLHE is the instructor for this class and so my fear (disdain?) has kept me away despite my interest. Tonight though, another (kindler, gentler) trainer was in charge and so I decided to give it a try.
Now, going into this class after already having worked out for two hours with weights and a cross trainer was probably not one of the most intelligent things that I’ve ever done. This goes to show you that endorphins can be nasty, tricky, and deceitful little beasts.
After my thirty minutes on the cross trainer, they were the ones saying, "GO FOR IT! WE CAN DO IT! WE AAAAAAAAAAARE POOOOOOOOOOOWEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR!"
I’m happy to say that despite the less than accurate ability of my endorphins to judge how much energy I honestly have left in my body, I think I did well with the lesson. After class, the trainer told me that starting in October she’ll be running this class every Saturday night. Since now we now know that Saturday is a time when I can see lots of people that I like, I think that this class will fit in to my schedule quite nicely.
That brings us to now, which is truly the time right before bedtime. The last five days have been rather busy (when it is not?), but now with David Bowie on iTunes and a nice breeze coming in from my balcony, I think that it’s time to rest.
And The Countdown? Yes, well, we have 190 days to go.
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
Introducing: Phun Photo Phriday! January 15, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre.Tags: elementary school, fall term, Japan, mukade, phphphriday, shame, sports festival
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So, in the interest of variety, I’ve decided to introduce something new into the blog. Occasionally (as in “not every week because life gets busy and, also, Thursdays are usually Fievel and Monkey days and I wouldn’t want to rob you of those memories”), I’d like to go into my Vault of Pictures from Japan and pull out a photo from the past that holds some special meaning for me.
Then, using my phenomenal, cosmic powers… I’ll write about it. It’s nostalgia and culture exploration all in one!
Phriday + Photo + Phact = Phun
Let’s start out with this one first, shall we? After all, it’s long overdue.
EVIL.
You might recall this photo from this post.
You might be thinking to yourself, “Why, self, these look like long wooden boards with vinyl straps on them! That’s so cute! Maybe you could, you know, put your feet into the vinyl straps and walk around with the boards on your feet! Hey, you could even have other people put their feet into the straps, too, and you could try to walk together! Like a centipede. That would be so much fun!”
If that was in fact what you were thinking, go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back. You were amazingly accurate in your analysis as to how these devices are normally used.
Unfortunately, you are just a little off with respect to your general conclusion about the “fun” derived from using these objects in such a way. I now tell you that their true significance is so dark and sinister, that I hardly dare to share it with you for fear that you will never again know the pleasure of a peaceful night’s sleep. Take heart, gentle readers, that what I’m about to say will have stunning and piercing effects on your psyche.
Are you ready?
Okay.
These are, in fact, the Slats of Satan that have been instrumental in my most devastating moments of humiliation since I came to the Land of the Rising Sun nearly four years ago.
I know what your response to the above statement was: “Surely you jest!” Or, if you haven’t been listening to as many Reduced Shakespeare Company recordings as I have, perhaps it was more along the lines of: “That was a little intense.” Or maybe your thoughts are more to the point and your cognitive processes simply spat out: “You lie!” (Which is to say, maybe you’re from South Carolina.)
Whatever form your disbelief took, I counter it with assurances that I speak the truth. Here, for your examination, are four separate entries that I made in my private journal following each sports festival I have attended at Friday’s elementary school. This is the only school that makes me run in the PTA Centipede Relay Race (I run for the teachers), and each year has left me feeling so victimized and spiritually destroyed, that I have repeatedly sought comfort from the fragrant, soothing arms of Microsoft Word.*
October 3rd, 2006
…last Saturday was a fantastic sports day at (Friday’s) elementary school, with the exception of the mukade race, which was a small slice of humiliation and hell because I had no idea what I was doing and I fell on top of the third grade home room teacher…
October 2nd, 2007
…On Saturday, I went to the (Friday elementary school’s) sports day and it was work, but fun. That school is always so nice about welcoming me. I did a few events, talked to students, and had a lot of the first and second years crawling all over me. I was also horribly embarrassed in the mukade event thanks to falling four times….
October 2nd, 2008
…Last weekend was nice – I had the (Friday elementary school’s) sports festival on Saturday, which was just very intense. I intensely took pictures. Intensely made rice balls. Intensely talked with the students. Intensely lost all respect I have for myself by falling on top of the principal when we did the mukade race…
…as far as I know, last Saturday’s sports festival should be my last one. This is probably a good thing, because the two falls I took during the mukade race were enough to make me the laughingstock of the teacher’s room for the rest of the day…
Here’s how the races work: the parents are divided up into teams depending on what part of town they live in, and then the teachers have their own team as well. I think that the track is about 150m long or so, and each team is divided into two sets of groups, which are positioned on opposite sides of the track. When the race begins, the first group from teach team goes about halfway around the track (so about 75m, I think), after which they hand off the Satanic Slats to the next group, who completes the rest of the circuit around the track. There are four groups to each team, and the first team to cross the finish line wins.
Sounds simple, right?
Wrong.
I don’t know how the teachers manged to win this race my second year, but it’s a feat that hasn’t been replicated since, and will most certainly NOT be replicated while I am still an active member of the team. For the life of me, I cannot match my stride to the other teachers’ to save my life, and no matter how hard I concentrate, Something Bad always happens and my group falls. And by “fall,” I don’t mean “we stumble slightly to the gentle amusement of the crowd.” I mean, “I spectacularly trip over a cluster of air molecules and cause the person in front of me to lose their balance when my face smashes into the small of his or her back. Using all of the momentum that we’ve gathered from running around the track, the edges of our slats clip the edge of an adjacent dimension, fan out at 90 degree angles and cause muscle tears in sensitive regions before we somersault into a pile of my blood, sweat, and tears. Then the crowd laughs as we unsuccessfully attempt to pick ourselves up off of the ground. Eventually, we drag ourselves to the finish line where I curl up into a ball and try to forget the world.”
You can probably understand why I am going to do my best to (not seriously, yet significantly) injure myself before the sports festival rolls around this year. It’s my only hope.
*And about four cans of Heineken.
It’s not someone else’s fight
Only you can make it right
Don’t look away, you life is right here
Monkey Up! October 18, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Dance Troupe, Julie Gets Philosophical, Just Bizarre, sports festival, Student Moments.Tags: dance practice, Dance Troupe, elementary students, fall term, festivals, field trips, fievel, hannah montana, Japan, Japanese, late posts, old middle school, Rocko, sports festival, The Savant, typhoon
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The blog! It’s alive!
IT’S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!
So, hello and welcome again after 12 days of Silence. Since I last posted, we’ve enjoyed the following:
~ A swine flu outbreak in my middle school that shut us down for an entire week
~ A typhoon
~ A field trip to The Ghetto Version of Epcot (Still fun, though!)
~ Not one, but two nearly three hour dance practices
~ My first and second festivals dancing with the troupe
~ Intense Apartment Cleaning
It’s kind of funny, because I have the beginnings of ten posts in my drafts folder. I really was trying to get caught up, but Life is a Finicky Creature and I just couldn’t pull things together before it became demanding and I was forced to abandon my efforts to take it for a walk.
For the moment, however, I’ve managed to distract Life for a while, and it’s off in the corner gnawing on its chew toy. It’s going to want play again in around an hour, but until then my friends, it’s just you and me.
I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to go about getting us all caught up. I hesitate to go into long, drawn out Paragraphs About My Life, because I really want to keep the blog from becoming bogged down by my every day activities (which really are very ordinary). So, what I think we’ll do, is stay true to form. This blog is about Collecting Memories, as it were, and we seem to be lacking twelve of them.
So, I hereby present to you twelve memories from the past twelve days!
(In no specific or meaningful order. I’m just writing them as I recall them.)
1) Monkey Up!
The title of today’s post, and most definitely deserving of some Context.
You may perhaps recall the character that I’ve named My Little Monkey. He’s loud, he’s persistent, and he’s convinced that I am a jungle gym.
Well, recently (I think he started this around October 7th), his new thing is to use English to tell me what he wants. Specifically, if he wants a piggyback ride then he says to me, “Julie! Monkey up!” He then attaches himself to my back for, oh, I don’t know – 20 minutes or so? During that time, his favorite thing to do is rest his head on my shoulder and mock the other children who come to talk to me in English. On one hand, it’s kind of rude and ever so slightly obnoxious, but on the other hand, it’s pretty funny and he ends up learning a lot of new English as a result. Anyway, as soon as we’ve had enough of Learning, he taps me on the shoulder and says, “Julie! Monkey down!” and then goes about his business. This has been entertaining me for the last twelve days.
2) Why yes, there was a typhoon
I live in the mountains, so I don’t tend to get all that worried whenever a typhoon heads toward my village. I grew up in Florida, and so I have a Fondness for storms. Whenever one approaches (preferably with Lots of Thunder and Lightening) I buckle down and enjoy the tangible feeling of Mother Nature’s Snark. On this particular occasion, my town was worried because it looked like we were going to be hit directly. So, I got to leave work early on Wednesday. I stocked up on some non-perishables and liquids, put up my storm windows, and snuggled with a blanket in front of the computer. At some point, Rocko called me, and we celebrated the storm via Skype. Isn’t technology wonderful??
3) And swine flu as well
So, this started on October 6th. I walked into school and over the course of the morning we discovered that five of the second years were at home with The Flu of Satan. By the end of the day, the entire second year class had been sent home, and then by the end of Wednesday, the first and third year classes were gone as well. All three classes resumed their normal schedule last Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), but we still have some kids out. I am convinced that I’m going to get this disease, since it’s at the elementary schools as well and thus I’m exposed to it every single day of the week. In addition, most of these children getting sick are the ones who enjoy climbing on my back.
Oh, well. It’s nice to go into the holiday season contemplating illness.
4) Field trips are fun
After postponing the fall field trip on account of Rampant Absences and Typhoon, we finally had our chance to go out and about last Wednesday. I went with the first years to Little World, a small theme park outside of Nagoya that really does aspire to be some kind of Epcot Center. It’s essentially a 2.5km circular road with small areas scattered around it that are dedicated to various countries. Some areas are more elaborate than others, but generally each area has a building, store, and/or restaurant associated with a given nation. Last Wednesday marked my third trip to Little World, and my game plan was simple: walk into the park, dash to Germany, find a bench, and read Anna Karenina while waving to my students as they wandered by.
Unfortunately, I didn’t plan on Hannah Montana and Co. They kidnapped me as soon as we got into the park and through a series of tricky and devious acts, convinced me to walk around with them the entire day. So much for Russian literature.
Still, I got to eat a taco, some pizza, and some gelato, and that was exciting. I also picked up not-easily-obtainable foreign food, and I enjoyed that, too. At one point, Hannah Montana stole my iPod and spent about half an hour examining the R&B list. I think I might be on the road to getting her away from Sugary Pop Music. We can only hope.
5) The Savant likes to break things
We haven’t mentioned him in a while, but he is still among us – causing trouble and asserting that He “MUST MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY.” Recently, his cleaning group has moved to a set of bathrooms on the first floor of the school, and they are as unproductive as (if not moreso than) they were when they were supposed to be cleaning outside. I try to stay away from them at least 2/3 of the time, though, because as soon as I show up it looks like I’m to blame for them not actually cleaning what they’ve been assigned to clean.
The first day that I went to hang out clean with them, The Savant got it into his head that he needed to use a wooden broom to show me how great his batting form is. What he didn’t count on was the broom being kind of weak – it snapped into two pieces the moment he swung it through the air. We spent about ten minutes arguing as to whether or not he should fess up to the Vice Principal:
Me: No, I will not tell him for you.
The Savant: BUT I’M PERFECT. YOU MUST.
Me: You broke the broom
The Savant: NO.
Me: Uh, yes?
The Savant: NO
Me: Uh, yes?
The Savant: Maybe, Julie, YOU broke the broom!
Me: Oh, don’t even think about going there.
And so forth and so on. Eventually, he was persuaded to To the Right Thing, and he was only mildly chastised for his mischief. I thought the whole thing was hilarious.
6) and 7) It’s a good thing I like dancing
Because it seems to be the main thing I’ve been doing recently. We had our practice canceled on the night of October 7th because of the typhoon, but we rescheduled it for the following Sunday so that we could get our routine down before Monday’s festival. The festival was in a town (city? kind of a city? a very small city?) about an hour to the south of us, and although not very large, it was definitely very cute. I had my debut there, and overall I think that things went well. I’m definitely a Curious Item, being a Foreigner and thus a Celebrity, but it seems to be a good thing for the group, so I’m glad I can help.
So we’ll dedicate one memory to Sunday’s and Wednesday’s practices, because both really are a blur in my mind. They both lasted almost three hours and I thought I was going to die by the time that I got home. Still, because last Wednesday’s practice took place after my official welcome, I noticed that the mood was significantly warmer towards me (not that it was ever cold). I actually feel as though I’m a part of the team now, and I really enjoy that.
The second memory we’ll dedicate to the two festivals, as they were both part of My Dancing Debut. Last Monday’s was my General Debut and then today’s festival was my Town Debut. Last Monday’s was fun, but today’s was significantly more personal. My students were super excited to see me dancing, and I had a lot of them come up afterwards and drag me around the festival to see their favorite foods or to meet their parents.
Also present, to my delight and entertainment, were a large number of The Really Horrible Third Year Class from three years ago. They were also amused to see me and tried to say horrible, mocking things about my dancing. What they didn’t count on was that I can actually understand their Japanese now, and I snarked back at them in not one, but two languages. I think we both enjoyed that, and it entertains me that they still have an interest in crossing swords with me. I told them point blank that they were horrible children (except for the girls), and I think that won me points. We spent a great deal of time together.
8) Rocko indulges my whimsical notions
Two Fridays ago (so, right after the typhoon), Rocko invited me to his neck of the woods for homemade curry and so that we could investigate this international bar that he’d discovered. I’m torn about this experience, because there are two memories that I really like from it. The first was just the conversation that we had – Rocko is a very interesting person to talk to. He’s really good about listening to other people’s opinions as well as clearly explaining his own perspective.
The second memory (which is more in line with the way that I’ve titled this section), happened the following day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I had a fanatical desire to find a swing set. Although we had to walk twenty minutes, Rocko managed to produce one for me and I got to be five years old again. ^___^
9) A new character! Introducing: Fievel
If you’re familiar with the movie An American Tale, then you will also be familiar with Fievel, the main character. He’s a shy, mischievous mouse and through the course of the movie he becomes brave and self sufficient. This is a lot like one of my students at my Thursday elementary school, and one of my New Favorite People on This Earth.
This student is currently a third grader, but I really only noticed him last April, when his class started the “Talk to Julie and Get Stickers and Eventually Prizes” program. He is one of the smallest, sweetest looking children I’ve ever met, and last April he was also Painfully Shy. I could tell that he wanted to talk to me, but it was very difficult, and he always spoke in a very soft, hesitant voice.
Still, despite the shyness, over the last six months, he has been without question the most consistent elementary school student in my Sticker Program. Every week, without fail, he writes me a very short (but cute) letter, and he always, ALWAYS comes to talk to me during breaks.
I think it was about two months ago that we saw a huge change in our interactions. He suddenly became a lot more outgoing, and after I spent some time with him and his family at the Sports Festival in September, he became almost as much of a companion as My Little Monkey. It is not unusual to see me walking around that school with both of them firmly planted in My Personal Circle of Space. He is actually more polite and English-inclined than the Monkey, and he takes conversations a lot more seriously. Recently, Fievel’s brother has started to hang around me a lot, too, and it’s funny to watch them to compete for stickers during recess.
10) Fall is the time to read Anna Karenina
Well, fall or summer…
I first read Anna Karenina the summer before my senior year at St. John’s. This was done while also reading War and Peace, so you could definitely say that the summer of 2005 was the Summer of Tolstoi. Of the two, I infinitely prefer Anna Karenina, and I’m now reading it for the fourth time. The second time was in the fall of 2007, the third was the fall of 2008, and seeing as now is currently fall of 2009, you can kind of see where this is becoming a tradition.
When I read through the novel the first time, it was done as part of a study group with a tutor at St. John’s. I remember that he once made the remark that if people would read Anna Karenina when they encountered relationship problems, then they probably wouldn’t need to go to a counselor. To a large extent I agree with him about this – Anna Karenina is fantastic for portraying a wide range of characters in extremely common and accessible situations. There are themes of love, lust, betrayal, adultery, reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, revenge, and wrath. I am as dazzled by the novel’s structure as I am by the characters, and I inevitably find something new to appreciate each time that I go through it.
I could go on about this for quite some time, but we’ll go ahead and leave it at that for now. Just know that my daily ritual has now shifted to accomodate this monster of a book, and that it makes me very, very happy.
11) Fall is also the time to Make Things
Specifically, I’m talking about food, although I’ve been knitting (poorly…) again as well. Recently made dishes include:
~ tofu/spinach/mushroom casserole
~ whole wheat focaccia bread
~ chicken soup from scratch
~ adzuki/pumpkin stew
~ sweet potatoes in a variety of dishes including curry, casserole, and root stew
~ apple pie – dear God, apple pie
12) No More Sports Days! (Along with subsequent thoughts and reflections.)
Ah, yes. So, something that has not been happening over the last twelve days has been Sports Festivals! We are in fact done with them for the year. As I have said before, I am also probably done with them For Good.
It’s unfortunate that I never was able to get around to writing the big Sports Festival-centered post. I’d wanted to take the opportunity to explain more about them, and to muse a bit about the role that this festival has played in my life in Japan.
I’ve been to fourteen … maybe fifteen … of these festivals since I arrived here in 2006. Each year has been a different sort of trial by fire. The first year I was simply trying to wrap my mind around the concept of a sports festival, and I was trying to find a way to participate and make it an event that was relevant to my life. The second year I was able to appreciate individual student achievement, and I was less shy about entering PTA events since I understood how the majority of the events were run. The big challenge last year was trying to learn how to sprint so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself in a relay race that I ran at my other middle school (the one that closed down). I also started a tradition last year where I brought handmade rice balls in for the faculty and staff on the mornings before the festival started.
This year’s overall theme seemed to be: Let’s Embarrass Julie As Much As Humanly Possible And Them Some. From the bizarre relay race that I ran with my sixth years at the middle school festival, to a really unfortunate partnered relay race that I had to run at the Thursday elementary school’s festival (I was injured in this race because of what I had to do), to the absolutely disastrous centipede race that I ran at the Friday elementary school’s festival (my group fell twice), I did not manage to display myself as quite the athlete that I feel I have the potential to be. -_-;;
Still, if I’ve learned anything over the last three years, it’s that the people in my community appreciate valiant efforts as much as (if not more than) successful efforts, and I know that it meant a lot to them that I wanted to participate. So, in the end, everyone won – including me. I think what’s also nice about this situation is that it is another indication of how I have become accepted in this community. I don’t feel as though they were laughing at me during these events. The truth is that all of the participants looked ridiculous, and so it was a celebration of, well, our collective absurdity. I did it for my students, because I knew that they wanted to see me perform on the field in the same way that they’d been performing. It was us coming together to celebrate each other as a community.
Don’t get me wrong, I still hate that centipede race. With a passion.
But, it’s part of the Sports Festival experience, and I can recognize that. Sometimes, you do things just because it really is the right thing to do. This year more than any other, I believe I’ve learned that lesson. This is a good thing, and it’s a fitting way to end this chapter of my life in Japan.
289 days to go.
Recovery and Plotting September 27, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, sports festival.Tags: fall term, late posts, sports festival, suffering
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Am currently recovering from Saturday’s torture sports festival, and am also Up To Tricks. Elaborations and Recaps are forthcoming, but will have to wait until (hopefully?) this evening.
In the meantime, I give you this – a picture of Saturday’s torture device.
Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. It is an instrument of suffering.
TORTURE
In Preparation Mode September 25, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in sports festival, Student Moments.Tags: cooking, elementary students, fall term, general preparations, sports festival, sports festival preparations, The Japanese Best Friend
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As I write this, I’ve got rice cooking so that I can make rice balls for today’s elementary school sports festival, there’s an overnight bag on my bed that I’ll be using this evening so that I can celebrate The Japanese Best Friend’s birthday, and I’m also listening to The Daily Show (continuing this week’s theme of Checking in With America). I feel as though I’m trying to cover three major areas of my life at once: My Work, My Friends, My Eventual Return to The Homeland. And it’s only 4:48 in the morning!
So, Friday! Because it’s still Friday in most areas of the world where this blog is perused.
Friday was the one day of the week where I actually had to work, and since that only entailed one class with my Baby Buddha Fifth Graders, it wasn’t overly stressful. I was particularly pleased with the lesson, though, because I gave them their first “let’s read and write actual honest-to-goodness English” worksheet and they all did extremely well. Also, because the reading section used sentences and expressions that The Enlightened Ones already know how to say (in the context of conversation), I think that their reading and pronunciation skill was at least as good as my middle school students’ (*cough*ifnotbetter*cough*).
The actual memory that I want to take from the day happened after lunch, when I joined the teachers and the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to set up for Saturday’s sports festival. Quite simply, it was extremely entertaining. I was able to help with erecting tents, and then I also carried an ungodly number of tables and chairs from the second floor of the gym to the field. (Unfortunately, my ability to carry a table all by myself only served to provoke the fifth year boys, who promptly decided that THEY TOO could carry a table all by themselves. Sometimes, I wonder if I will ever fully grasp how impressionable children are.)
Still, the kids were all in a really good mood and I was feeling playful, so we had about an hour and a half of goofy good times. My fourth graders were obsessed with climbing on to my back (what is it with these Monkey Children????), my fifth years kept tracking me down to recite tongue twisters (when they weren’t carrying those tables, that is), and I was cajoled into arm wrestling most of the sixth grade boys.
There is one particular student (currenly a sixth grader) who has been attached to me since the day that I arrived, and he has recently discovered that I am very ticklish. This means that in addition to the aforementioned goofy good times, I spent the afternoon looking over my shoulder and anticipating his attacks (which came about once every ten minutes). Unfortunately, as soon as he began to lose interest in the “Let’s Harass Julie” activity, some of his classmates started to help him corner me, and so then it became a communal “Let’s Harass Julie” extravaganza, which was even better. I called upon the 4th years to defend me, which they did by climbing on to my back…
Teacher? I’m a teacher? Zoo keeper, my friends.
And so, Saturday will be my last sports festival. It will definitely be the last one for this year, and I’m fairly certain that it will be my last one for quite some time. In some respects, I’m happy that it’s going to be with this school, because I am extremely fond of the students and I know that they will help me to do this day the right way. Unfortunately, there is a Very, Very, Very Good Chance that I am going to have not one, but two events that will shatter and remove all traces of my pride and dignity.
I seriously mean that. I won’t go into it now – it will be more worthwhile to include it in Sunday’s Sports Festival Reflections post.
For now, let’s just say that if I have to make a prediction as to how this will go down, I predict: Badly. Based on my experiences last year, the year before, and the year before that, in addition to this year’s theme of Let’s Embarrass Julie So Much That Her Very Soul Quivers, I do believe that the odds are stacked against me.
I’ll see you guys on the other side. -_-;;
“Heaven can wait, dance ’til you die.”
木金土日月火…水曜日 Recap September 23, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Me Time, sports festival, Student Moments, Weekend Recap.Tags: convenience store, dinner party, dj ozma jr, elementary students, fall term, Japan, my japanese sister, my little monkey, Nagoya, shopping, sports festival, the hippie, The Mentor, the Other ALT, The Supervisor
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*cough*
Since this is more or less going to be an “一週間 Recap” (“Isshukan Recap,” or ”One Week Recap”), I can only offer my sincerest apologies for falling off of the Blogging Wagon. Things have been more hectic than usual. I can only promise that I will strive against the forces that keep me from sharing the juicy tidbits of The Last Year. I continue to ask for your patience while I figure out how to be both a writer and one of my town’s Foreigners in Residence.
Now, groveling aside, let’s get on with it, shall we? \(^o^)/
Thursday ~ 木曜日
So, this was an elementary school day. I taught the first, second, third, and fourth grades, and so things were a little more frantic than they usually are at that school. The hectic pace was in part due to the Sports Festival preparations, which was really what was occupying everybody at the school.
My school-related memory from this day happened during recess, when the first year teacher (The Hippie) wanted me to stay and watch her class practice one of the events that they were going to do at the sports festival. Unfortunately, she hadn’t cleared this request with the rest of the student body, and the practice got completely disrupted by students rushing the first year classroom in the interest of:
a) talking to me in English
b) talking to me in English and getting stickers
c) redeeming puzzles and/or newsletters for stickers
d) sitting on my lap and generally antagonizing anybody who tried to do a, b, or c
(This was My Little Monkey’s one and only goal.)
This was all complicated by the fact that the student from Wednesday’s dance practice (I shall henceforth call him DJ Ozma Jr.) was completely beside himself the entire day with wanting to talk to me about dancing and wanting to practice the dance together. He made me promise that from here on out, we will always practice the dance at least once during recess on the days that I’m at the school. My Little Monkey is, as always, my little monkey, and so he insisted on clinging to me as I tried to do this dance. What’s funny about this situation (aside from the visual) is that My Little Money understands the nickname “My Little Monkey” (at least to some degree), and he likes it. So he walks around calling himself “Little Monkey” and he uses it to justify why it’s okay for him to latch himself onto my back whenever the whim strikes him.
Thursday was also significant because I went out to dinner with The Supervisor, The Other ALT, and The Other ALT’s mother. TOALT’s mother is a really sweet lady, and it was a great time. The Supervisor was also particularly entertaining, and it was just a great dinner.
Friday ~金曜日
Friday was, of course, the day for Friday’s elementary school – also known as The Insane Asylum. How crazy was it? I’ll tell you. It was so crazy that by the end of the day I was sick of hearing people say my name. In fact, I started to dislike the sound of my name so much, that I began to resent my parents for giving it to me. I became convinced that it was too easy to say, and that this is why the children kept using it. I began to pine for a longer, more ridiculous name that would make the children pause long enough in contemplating its pronunciation for me to escape and do things like, oh, I don’t know, use the restroom. Or swim to New Zealand – any place where there would not be rooms full of children demanding rewards for making efforts in a foreign language.
I love my job. But sometimes, it’s a little intense.
One thing that was entertaining about the day, though, happened when I first arrived. I was walking into the school when one of my sixth graders ran up to me and asked if I could spare a few minutes to play dodge ball with him and his friends. I had some free time, so I told him I’d be right out.
The thing about dodge ball, is that (generally speaking) Japanese children love it. Julie, however, does not. My aim is pretty good, but I’m just not very quick and so I’m a pretty easy target. [Although in my defense, part of the reason that I'm not so quick is that I'm a lot bigger than the children, and so I'm constantly worried about falling on them (they tend to crowd around me when we play)].
My lack of skill is pretty legendary at this point, although I didn’t realize how well known it was until I was on the court and noticed that the skilled players were actually positioning themselves to protect me from the ball. Luckily, they quickly realized that it was better for me to be out and trying to hit the other team’s members from the sidelines, and so I was soon able to contribute to the greater good of the team. Still, I’ll never forget that moment when I saw the students lining up to cover me, and how much it touched (and amused) me.
This day was also noteworthy because I think I managed to make peace with a teacher that I’ve had, not a bad relationship with, but a very odd relationship with for the past few months. We had a really good class together and shared numerous jokes throughout, so I think that things may be back on track. Hooray for keeping the peace at work. (*.*)
Oh, yes, and I almost forgot. In the evening, I went back to my middle school and did a two and a half hour class on relaxation techniques with the other female teachers and some of my students’ mothers. Part of this class involved giving each other foot massages, which was both surreal and a bit difficult. It was surreal, because I never thought I’d find myself laying on the floor of the gym while the science teacher rubbed my feet. It was difficult because I am an extremely ticklish person, and the effort of trying not to laugh (or kick the science teacher) did not exactly help to create a calming atmosphere. Still, I did learn a few things and it was great Japanese practice if nothing else.
Saturday ~ 土曜日
This was my Nagoya day! The morning started out with a lovely train ride, a trip to Starbucks, some shopping at Gap, and then a trip to my hair stylist (who has recently been voted one of the best stylists in Nagoya). Since moving to Japan, I’ve been to see him 13 times. This means that not only does he know me (and my hair) quite well, but it also means that I’m two appointments away from being a VIP member! (I have no idea what this will actually get me, but hey, it’s VIP!). After the appointment, I did some shopping and then eventually headed back home.
I always like going to Nagoya because it’s nice to have a day away from my town and, really, the entire prefecture of Mie. In Nagoya, although I’m foreign, I’m not the only foreigner and so it’s nice to be able to blend into the crowds for once. I can just go and do my thing; I don’t have to worry about my behavior or my purchases getting back to the parents, or my Board of Education, or my school’s principals. This means that running away from people who want to practice English or buying alcohol = OK!
I think this feeling may be the general effect of The City, and I enjoy it. I enjoy the sense of freedom, independence, and general well-being. It’s something that is most definitely present at the salon, too, which is one of the reasons that I keep going year after year. (Well, that, and the fact that my stylist is one of the most awesome. people. ever. He’s lived all over the world, is a semi-professional boxer, has his own band, and is the father of one of the CUTEST KIDS that I’ve ever seen in my life.)
Sunday ~ 日曜日
My second sports day of the year! This one was held at my Thursday elementary school. I got up early and made rice balls for the staff, and then arrived at the school around 6:45. On the way to the school, I stopped off at the convenience store to buy my usual bottle of water. When I went to pay for it, one of the nicest things happened.
I tend to frequent this store at about the same time every day, and so more often than not I encounter this one particular clerk. He’s always struck me as being a stoic sort of gentleman. He’s polite, but he rarely deviates from the Official Clerk Script, and always says the exact same thing to me when I enter the store, when I pay, and when I leave. A couple of weeks ago, I made him laugh because I bought iced coffee instead of water (he couldn’t help but comment), and then once I didn’t go into the store for two weeks and he asked me about it when I finally returned.
When I went to pay for my water on Sunday, though, he looked me right in the and said (with the most amazing, natural accent) “May I help you?” and then after the transaction he followed up with: “Have a nice day!” The effect that this had on me is almost impossible to describe. I was elated. Overjoyed. Touched. Tickled. Enchanted. I’m not sure what his motivation was for doing it. He could have always had an interest in English, he could have been trying to cater his services to my particular demographic, or he could have just been in the mood to do something different. Whatever the reason, whatever the cause, I found it to be a thoughtful and lovely gesture. As I was driving away, I thought to myself: “You know, even if I go to the sports festival and get shot, I’m still going to say that this was a good day.”
Luckily, I did not get shot at the sports festival. There was a mild instance of embarrassment in the afternoon, but since it actually caused me physical pain (long story, I’ll recap it some other time), my school was quick to apologize and help me out. So, in the end, I was right – it was a good day.
Monday ~ 月曜日
That injury that I mentioned from Tuesday? Yes, I spent the day on the couch resting and watching The Colbert Report recovering. Thank goodness for days off.
Tuesday ~ 火曜日
This was the day of the second dinner party that I’ve hosted in Japan, and this time it was for My Japanese Sister and her family. It was a slightly more toned down affair than the previous dinner, but it still took me most of the day to get my act together. We had a couple of frightening culinary moments, but things turned out remarkably well and I now know how to make an apple pie with a shortening-free crust. No transfats ~ hooray! Also, my apartment is now clean and I appreciate that.
I think that, specifically, the moment from Tuesday that I want to hold on to was the moment when they walked inside of my apartment. It’s the first time that they’ve been here, and I really enjoyed the feeling of welcoming them into my home. I liked having them see the furniture, the artwork on the walls, the dishes that I cook with. I liked talking to them, hearing what they liked about the food, hearing what their plans were for the rest of the week. It was, quite simply, a lovely feeling of being a part of something and bringing together different parts of my life – my Japanese family, and my home in Japan.
And that, generally speaking, is what’s been going on over the last week or so. It’s now Wednesday here, and I have today and Thursday off from work. Today, I have the task of trying to catch up on other bits of correspondence that have fallen by the wayside over the last week, and then there’s dance practice in the evening.
Still, as busy as things have been and as awkward as it is to try to juggle everything the same time, I’m content. I sense that I’m doing what needs to be done, and I’ve been enjoying myself. Even those moments when the children crawl on my back or make me hate the sound of my own name, I know that I’m lucky to be here.
“If I could make these moments endless
If I could stop the winds of change…”
Rainy days, Mondays… August 10, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Student Moments.Tags: Everybody's Favorite, Macho Man, sports festival, Stevie Wonder, summer, we are the world
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Did you know that Japan has a fascination with The Carpenters? I’m not exactly sure why, but they’re so popular, and so ingrained in the culture, that most of my middle school students can name at least one Carpenters song. Also, whenever I go to karaoke with my Japanese colleagues, they will usually request that I sing something from this group’s vast repertoire. I tell them that they need to thank my mother for gifting me with a (rudimentary) knowledge of Karen and Richard’s skillz.
So, today was back to business. Even though we’re on summer break, in Japan, the students still come to school for about three hours in the morning so that they can go to their clubs (typically some kind of sport, although art and music clubs are also popular). If they need it, students can also go through a couple of weeks of summer school during the last part of July. About halfway through the summer, the sports teams have their major tournaments.
As soon as the tournaments are over with, the third years stop attending club and they start studying for their high school entrance exams, which are held every January and February. (At least, that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. I have it on very good authority that that is the least of what’s happening right now.) Education in Japan is compulsory only through the end of middle school. If an individual wants to go on to high school, then he or she has to successfully navigate through a staggering number of exams and paperwork. It’s a super stressful time where everyone is on edge and frantic. Last year, it was so bad for Everyone’s Favorite, that he and his homeroom teacher (one of the Two Terrific Teachers) got into shouting matches every hour.
I kind of miss listening to those fights. ^o^
Anyway, although we’re still a few weeks away from the next term, I can see the beginnings of the transition into it. For one thing, my third years came in today so that they could do some work for the school’s Sports Festival, which will take place near the beginning of September. This week is also Obon, which is the Japanese festival of the dead and the climax of the summer vacation period. As of next week, people will really start to come back to work and life here will speed up.
So, in light of all of this culture and transition, what memory can I take away from today? I do have a few interesting ones to choose from – ranging from student interactions to the typhoon that should hit south of here sometime this evening.
Hmm. When in doubt, I do believe I should favor the students; there will be plenty of time to contemplate hurricanes when I get back to the States.
I spent most of my morning in the staff room, but around 11:00, I decided to take a break and wander around the school to see what the kids were up to. As I passed by the home economics room (more like the sewing room, as we have a separate room for cooking lessons), I saw my third years engaged in Sports Festival-related activities. I decided to go bother them, especially since Macho Man was with them.
I think one of the reasons that I like Macho Man – besides our camaraderie about strength and all things Macho – is that underneath his athletic bravado is a very genuine and earnest guy. I think that he’s a good leader, and there are a lot of kids that look up to him. He honestly cares about what he does, and I respect him for that. He was actually the impetus behind today’s memory.
After I walked into the sewing room, I spent some time talking to the students about what they were doing. Three of them were working on the 3rd Grade Class Flag and the others (including Macho Man ) were working on (actually sewing together) the flag that will represent the whole school. (So, there are flags for each class, and then there’s an additional flag for the whole school that has the Sports Festival slogan written on it.)
I can’t remember how it came up, but Macho Man started to talk about Stevie Wonder and the song We Are the World. The third year English textbook actually has a section about Stevie, and the students had just started to study it before we broke for summer vacation. Anyway, I asked the guys if they’d ever seen the music video to We Are the World, and they said that they had not. As somebody who literally drove her family to the edge of insanity with this video when she was a young child (and then pushed them over said edge with her need to watch The Sound of Music at least 3 times a day), this knowledge was unbearably painful for me. It was, if you will, the hangnail on the delicate fingers of my childhood nostalgia. Lucky for us, we have Youtube, and so this problem was easily remedied.
I wasn’t sure if they would be interested in the video – it has a lot of people that aren’t exactly popular in Japan (or arguably, the States) right now. I also didn’t want to take away from the song by exclaiming every three seconds: “Oh, it’s Lionel Richie!” “Oh, Michael Jackson!” “Hey, Diana Ross!” “Dude, check out Bob Dylan!” The guys solved this problem for me, though, by asking who all of these people were, and even hazarding a guess every now or then. (We were able to correctly identify Stevie, Michael and [although I have no idea why] Cyndi Lauper.) (Maybe it was the hair?) (They didn’t know who Bruce Springsteen was.) (That was upsetting.)
It was a nice moment. Well, actually, a nice seven minutes and nine seconds. Bless their snarky, teenage hearts, they actually watched until the very end.
And they liked it.
They actually liked it. They said that it moved them, and I could tell that they meant it. From the very beginning where all of the autographs show up behind the USA for Africa sign, I could see that they were engaged in the video. I think that seeing Stevie Wonder meant a lot to them, because he’s somebody that they know about. I’m sure that it made the experience even more meaningful.
I think what makes this memory so nice for me was that it was a very spontaneous interaction generated by honest curiosity. Before I came to Japan, I’d been around so many overachievers and academics that I think I lost some of my ability to believe that people would follow whimsical intellectual interests when around an authority figure. I grew very suspicious of angles and ulterior motives when I was a high school and college student. As a middle school teacher, I’ve found this suspicion to be helpful because these are the years when the kids are honing the fine craft of sucking up endearing themselves to their teachers for the purposes of personal gain.
But, that’s not what happened today. It was very simple and pure moment, and I was happy to share it with them. I’m not even going to qualify it as an INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF CULTURE, although I guess that’s what it was. I’d rather think of it as me showing them a video that I’d seen as a child and that was (for whatever reason) relevant to their lives here and now. I showed it to them, they enjoyed it, and I think that it had a real effect on them.
Perhaps what I’m trying to say here is that sometimes it’s just nice to be the person who has knowledge and experiences that other people can benefit from.
“When I see you smile,
I dare to believe again.”
