Where I Intended to Be

Monkey Up! October 18, 2009

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.