Library Crisis over.

I have returned to the library and gotten a new card! I CAN READ. So I'm reading 1984. it took a while to get into, but i'm going to stick it out.

It's parents week again. Gross. I hate parents week more than i hate peas. But less than I hate fish. Day one √ (that's supposed to be a check mark)

I'm going to bed.

HAPPY ELECTION DAY!

I'm not a voter...because I got lazy and didn't register. Yes all you voters can reprimand me if you so desire.

Anyway.
There was a festival in my neighborhood this weekend. It lasted for 3 days. It was great. I will upload a video eventually. But i have to download and maybe figure out how to edit it first. I made this really awesome video by accident. By awesome I mean not awesome. It's half festival half inside of my jumper pocket. WHOOOPS! Go figure. Anyway, Pete and I met this old guy at the festival and he gave Pete free beer and then tried desperately to make his grandaughter speak to us. we communicated for a while in 1/2 broken english and 1/2 broken japanese. And I'm pretty sure he told me that I should have a child...or that I looked like I was going to have a child. Either way i was a bit offened and it was really awkward. So on that note, we left. But I think that Japanese festivals are pretty much the best thing in the world. Aside from the pumpkin pie that i made the other day.

I have this student (good transition there, I know) his name is Shohei. He is eighteen years old and says the funniest things in class. 1st of all, he can't make a complete, correct sentence to save his life. Anyway I would like to tell you some funny things he says.
One time we were talking about how his "stamina" has gone down since he stopped playing baseball....meaning he's gotten lazier. After telling me about his stamina, he said, "I'm fatting now, too. I should diet"
Then today, we were playing "Would You Rather" and he asked me if I'd rather eat a Mexican or a Chinese. but then he caught and corrected himself. We both had a good laugh about that.
Oh such a silly boy.

Tonight I drank a cup of Espresso blend coffee...in like 1 minute... I've been shaky and over caffienated ever since. EEK! Hopefully I will be able to sleep tonight.

I returned my library books that I had had for a year yesterday, so I could check out more. Buuuut... after I returned them, I realized that I had lost my card. Tragedy. Maybe I can get a new one. we'll see.

I'm finished.

I'm really going to miss it here

I'm sad about leaving already.

The other day Pete and I were having our lunch down at the port and this old man walked up to us and introduced himself to us in English. He then began to give us a history about Kure during the war. It was so interesting. He told us about the building of the Yamato and how Kure used to be a secret area and was just a big white spot on the map, and about all the mines that were dropped in the waters and the local people from his island would go out and pick up the parachutes and make clothes out of them. He also shared with us that at the time of the war he was a child and his friend had just gotten into a junior high in Hiroshima but he hadn't gotten in himself, which turned out in his favor. His friend died when the bomb was dropped. He said that he and his wife give a kind of tour around the Kure area to foreigners...I think the ones that come to stay at the Navy base. It was a very interesting lunch, a wonderful meeting. He was a good storyteller. I wish we would have been able to stay longer.

I've decided that possible my very favorite thing about being in Japan is the bell at the temple behind my apartment. It is rung everyday at six o'clock in the evening. It's beautiful. I'm really going to miss it. And the best part about it is its a real bell. So there will be no disappointment like that time I found out those bells in Greenville are just on a cd. I can actually see the person ringing it from my balcony.

I woke up yesterday morning and I was overcome with sadness. It's like it just hit me, in 4 months this will not be my apartment or my futon or my yellow chair, it's all just going to go to someone else. I'm going to be a complete wreck my last week, leaving all of my students. I'm going to miss them so much.

Before I die

I found this website that was full of polaroids with a statement of what the person in the photograph wants to do before he or she dies. Some of them were very simple and some were very inspiring and some maybe a little disturbing. Please see them for yourself.

Anyway, it made me think about what I want to do before I die....and at first I thought, I've really done alot already. I'm very satisfied with my life so far, but then my next immediate thought was "what's next?"

On the website, as you will see, there are a few pictures that that say they could die now and be fulfilled. I found these to be my least favorite. Though they were most likely meant to be show happiness and fulfillment, they made me think of all the dreams and goals these people are not having. And if one does not have dreams, what does one have?

It made me think about my goals and dreams and what I can do to start working on them. At the present moment I can't think of much other than going back to Guatemala. I've wanted to go back since I went the first time. The steps that I have taken so far are looking into different opportunities in Guatemala. I found one working at a guesthouse that is partnered with an orphanage and also I looked into Helps International, the group we worked with when we built stoves. They have an education program, so I sent an email inquiry to them about possible opportunities they have opening up. I hope to hear good news from them.

I should start studying Spanish again in preparation.

I felt that I couldn't sleep until I wrote this down. I need it out there. I like to speak my goals, it helps me make progress.

This is so cheesy, but yeah, I'm going there:
I'd love to hear about your goals and dreams that you will accomplish before you die. Please tell me if you feel so inclined.

Love, molly

Atleast we don't have night feeders coming after us every night...

So I'm watching Deep Blue for the second time this week. I've decided that I absolutely love documentaries and Jellyfish. I think that jellyfish are hands down the most beautiful sea creatures. Seriously. They are so interesting looking. I'm sure I wouldn't like them so much if I had been stung by one.
I apologize for the picture quality. There was a bit of a reflection from the glass of the aquarium.

Polar bears are pretty awesome too, but I haven't seen any of those, so I don't have any pictures for you.

Last night, Lewis was rolling around in his hamster ball, and it came apart and fell down...it scared the crap out of him. The look on his face was like "OH GOD, what just happened? Do I move....maybe I just stand really still" it was funny. Then I rescued him and everything was better.

This is the last week of my absurdly hectic schedule. We move to our new school soon. Which is awesome...but I also get to work on my precious day off from 8-4 moving all of our crap to Youme town. I'll be quite tired though. The night before is my friend going away party.

This whale just made me want to watch Free Willy. Aw, I haven't seen that in ages.

Ok, I will leave you with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ND9A-icfpo

Isn't her dancing just amazing.

Bike situation update

came home with new bike it's silver.  I even bought a good lock...it's orange and has 3 keys. THREE

I've already lost one key.....

It's been an hour and a half.....

 

I'll keep you updated. 

A few things

I officially have the worst luck with bicycles.  A few days ago, I decided to go to the beach. So I rode my bike to the station and I LOCKED IT. I never, ever, ever, ever, lock my bike (it's only been stolen once, but it was returned to the place from which it was stolen), but I did this time.  Turns out I lose my key on the train, so now my bike is locked and stuck at the station. crap.  So I spend a few days pondering how I'm going to solve this problem.  Finally, today I remember that Yuka has a dad.  A dad that probably has tools. Tools that she could probably borrow.  So I email her and of course she's willing to assist me with the cutting of the bike chain.  I go back to the station to check on biky...he's not there.  So I go to the place that they put bikes that have been parked illegally (because my bike hasn't moved in a few days) I didn't see it there either. I'm going to check again in the morning to make sure I didn't just miss it because it was dark.  BUT, it's entirely possible that someone has stolen my bike the one time that I choose to lock it.  How ridiculous is that.  But if i don't see it in the morning, I'm just buying a new bike and taking all measures necessary to keep it from getting stolen. 

I'm watching the olympic closing ceremonies right now, and I'm a bit perplexed by the red tower with dancing people on it. All of the voice over things are in Japanese, so I don't know what it is supposed to be....if anything.  And hey, isn't David Beckham playing for an American soccer team now, or is he back in England? 

The tower has gotten more interesting now. It's kind of awesome. 

So there is a place down the street that smells like bacon grease and cigarette smoke. It reminds me of my grandma's house.  I realized that a while ago...but funnily enough Holden said the same thing when he was here. 

Drummers are so rad.

Lewis tried to escape last night. He almost made it, luckily I heard the cage open and came down and caught him.  poor little booger. 

It's still kind of surreal to me that I have actually seen the Beijing Olympic Stadium in person. I feel bad for not really watching the olympics. But then again, I never saw the American teams, unless they were playing Japan. 

Maybe she's popular in America, but I just heard of her: Ximena Sarinana.  She's a Mexican singer/songwriter. She's cool. Her songs are in spanish... obviously. 

What if I only listened to opera music.  I might try that for a week. See how I feel. What language should I choose.  You guys have to help.  French? Italian? Spanish? Chinese? Russian?

Anyway. I guess that is enough ranting and raving for me right now.   Let me know about the language thing.  

Catch up time.

So the brother visit was excellent.  I'm just so sad that he is gone. BAH!

It's Obon this week here in Japan, where families spend time remembering those who have passed, more on that here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/obon if you're interested.  But I had nothing planned, so I have literally done a whole bunch of nothing this week. It has been great and boring all at the same time. Today was the first time I really left Kure all week. I went to Hiroshima to do some window shopping and search for a particular present for one of my friends... I didn't find it. I wore heels allllll day. Millions of Japanese girls do it everyday. So I though I must see what all the fuss is about.  And while I did feel pretty and girly all day, I will probably NEVER do it again.  I have blisters in places on my feet I didn't even know you could get blisters on.  I don't understand how they do it. Maybe they're crazy... or maybe they just can't feel their feet anymore. climbing the latter to my bed tonight might be a bit of a challenge.  

In a couple of weeks I'm going to go up and see my friend Brenna in Himeji, because she will be leaving soon.  As would I if I hadn't renewed. I'm a bit sad about that, but I'll manage.  One of my friends that I used to work with, Kristen, is thinking about coming for a visit in January. So that will be very nice, if she can make it. 

I am a little bit obsessed with Sweeney Todd right now. I enjoy it very much, even though it's a bit disturbing. I don't mind the grotesqueness that much. 

I'm finished.

AHHHHHHHH.

I have 170 something days left in Japan.  I have mixed feelings about that.  I will be really sad to leave when the time comes, however, I just keep thinking about everything that is happening at home that I'm missing.  2 of my bestest friends are getting married (i'll be home for them...BUT) I'm missing out on all the planning and the celebrating =( Also, since I've been gone on of my friends has had a little baby girl and another is due on October 25th. BAH.  The first will be over a year old by the time I get home. Sadness for real yo.

Anyway. I'm going to dye my hair red today. That is, if I can find a suitable colour. So I'm going to go begin my search....hopefully before it begins to storm again. 

I put up some new pictures.  They are just some snapshots from mine and holden's trip to Kyoto/Tokyo.  Check them out:

www.flickr.com/mollybeth7

This and That

The brother and I are still having fantastical adventures.  This past weekend we went to a glass museum and tried our hand at blowing glass.  We made beautiful glass bells. I will post pictures of the experience when I get chance to upload them.  But for now I have some pictures of Lewis the hamster.  So far he is still alive, which is good.  

Brother and I are going on an exciting adventure this weekend.  I got to take two days off while he is here, so we're going to Kyoto and Tokyo, in 3 days.  WHOA. This trip is going to be on speed.  But it will be great I think.  We are both very excited.  We wanted to stay in a temple in Kyoto, but they are closed right now for a conference.  LAME. Oh well, you can't always get what you want.  

I got a yoga mat the other day from my friend who i

s leaving. It's purple. I'm hoping that it will make me do yoga more often.  Although doing it once a week would be more often than I do it 

now, so we'll see.  Anyhow.  Here a picture of Lewis.

Brother and Cousin

Brother and cousin are here for a visit.  This is fun! I like them.  Mostly they just hang out in my apartment, or go shopping.  Thats my life really.  But seriously, we went to Miyajima and hiked on a mountain and looked for some monkeys, but we didn't see any, which was really sad cause thats pretty much why we went there.  Anywaaaay.  Phillip just farted in his sleep, thought everyone should know.

We also went to Hiroshima and the A-bomb dome and museum.  We were going to go to the castle, but the boys were tired, so we got cake instead. We will go to the castle another day.  On Monday we ran some errands and ate at one of my favorite restaurants. I also bought a pet.  I have a little hamster now called Lewis.  He is cute and I love him.  But sometimes he makes this creepy sound like a bug.  But it's cool.  Well it's time for me to complete the process of getting ready for work.  So. I'll write more at a later date.

Goodbye.

oops.

two days ago I stole trash bags.

i went back in like 10 seconds later and paid for them.  

it was funny and completely unintentional. OOPS.

Some of my old students!

1. Kayoko and Katsunori 2. Hatsuki, Ato, Manaka 3. Serika, Kaoruko, and
                                                    Ayane and Takuya                    Masaya


4. Kouki, Hibiki, Aya, Ryuuta, and Takuro                               5. Moeka and Aya
*kokomo*biscuit*eyeball*onion*taco roll*


6. Ryosuke 7. Miho, Akihito, Kento, 8. Nonoko, Yugo, and Mao
                                 and Satoshi


9. Asako, Shin, and Akiko 10. Chisato 11. Yukiko and Rui

1. Kayoko and Katsunori were two of my high school students, they are gone now to go to college. I miss them so much! They were wildly entertaining. Katsunori would do almost anything I told him to do for homework, ie, eat a muffin. On the last day of class, they were both saying incredibly sweet things to me and Katsunori (who is mostly very serious) said, "I learned so much from your class, like, about muffins and I just want to thank you" it was so awesome.
2. These crazy kids were so energetic, I couldn't get them to say anything in English on most days, but they were just too cute for me to care. Manaka and Ato loved to dance, so we would sing twinkle twinkle little star and we made up a dance to it. It was just so precious. I'll show you when I get home, cause I know you are dieing to see it. My favorite thing that I taught this class was how to be sneaky. We would walk around on our tippy toes saying "shhhh" it was precious. It started because I needed a cd player and I couldn't just leave them there alone, so we went on a sneaky cd player search.
3. This picture is missing a student named Honoka. The class actually used to have 6 people in it but two moved to a different day. There were 4 girls and 2 boys and they loved to compete against each other. OOOOOOR, everyone against me. Which, even with my impeccable english skill it was virtually impossible to 6 people. They also liked to pick a theme and give everyone nicknames according to that them. Ie. vegetables, fruit, animals, etc. I miss them too. The are now Kim's students. =(
4. Ok, I have like a gazillion favorite classes, but this one was definitely top 3. I posted two pictures because the second one is just cute and the first one completely sums up their individual personalities: Kouki is the little trouble maker, pesterer, booger, who you just have to love. Hibiki will do anything you say he is just so much fun. I could say, Hibiki, act like a monkey, and he was on it. I mean full out jumping around the class room and making sounds, it was awesome. Aya, is just a little angel. She was my little assistant. She loved helping other students, or me during class. I just love her. Ryuuta is just sweet quiet little boy that's just kinda like, "hey yeah, i'm here, I'm cool, whatev." Takuro was just like "huh?" half the time in class. He just wouldn't be paying attention and I'd say, Takuro, what color is this and he's all..."huh?" These students are now Kim's too, which I almost cried over because they were just so much fun. I loved this class so much! I mean, I still see them all come in, but it's different now ya know?
5. Aya and Moeka, when I first started teaching them, it was hard to get them to say two words in class. But it gradually got better and then they would say hilarious things in class. Like we were talking about our favorite things and I asked what their favorite fruit was and then we just kept talking about fruit and I asked if they liked a particular fruit (for the sake of the story we will say papaya) and Moeka responded very seriously and a little louder than she intended i think, with " I HAVE NO CHANCE!" meaning she's never tasted it. but it was just so hilarious we all cracked up. And then I asked about another fruit, pineapple (?) to which she said " NO PINEAPPLE!" a little angrily, so we pretended to be on strike against pineapples. We were also practicing interjections and one of them drew a card that said "______! He's tall" correct response would have been, wow, whoa, goodness, hey, oh, etc. but they choose "oh no" so then I acted out the sentence to convey the meaning of what they had just said, they found it very funny and corrected themselves immediately. From that point on when we saw each other we would say, "Oh no! You're tall"!
6. Ryosuke was just a silly little booger! I told him to make a silly face, which he did, but then changed back for the picture.
7. I taught this class how to say "one more time" when they wanted to sing a song again and then they said it all the time, it was so precious. We had this song about chicken noodle soup and they loved it! So I would sing it once and if they wanted to do it again they had to say "ONE MORE TIME" which the did. I swear those kids would have sang that song over and over and over again if I let them. I also taught them to poof out there checks and count to three and smash them together so all the air comes out and makes a funny sound. they loved it. it was the easiest way to get them to sit down and pay attention.
8. Mao was one of the students in the class I was talking about earlier. This class was one of my quieter classes (until Mao and Kenshin*not in the photo* came). But towards the end of the year I did everything I could to make them compete and sometimes Yugo would just get sooooo excited about trying to be first to answer that he would run up to me yelling "teacher teacher" and smacking my arm. It started to hurt, so I told him that if he kept doing it he couldn't get any points, but he would forget every time and just get so excited again. it was funny. but a little painful for me.
9. Asako and Akiko were one of my adult classes (obviously). They are both pretty fluent in English so we would just spend the time talking and making corrections as needed. I also taught them the word lackadaisical which was really difficult for them to say, but it is just a brilliant word and was perfect for whatever we were talking about. One day we talked about toilets for the entire hour. Shin, Asako's son, was also my student he's the one I wrote about once telling me that his mother was a pirate. I love that kid to death. I went to lunch with Asako last week and we picked him up from kindergarten and he was just so excited to see me, but totally trying to pretend that he wasn't. And he had told his kindergarten teacher that he was maybe going to get to see me. Precious.
10. Chisato was my student along time ago when I first came to Japan, but she came back for a couple lessons before she left for school She has such interesting perspectives, we usually talked about interesting news articles, or art, or travel. Her big dream for life is to write a children's book and I've never met a high school girl who would say that without even having to think about it for more than a second.
11. Yukiko and Rui: Yukiko brought me cake for valentines day! I included her in my previous anecdotes. Rui....i have no words. seriously.

I WENT TO SOUTH KOREA AND CHINA!

It was incredible, but it's taken me like a week to recuperate, thus I haven't written here yet. I don't even know where to begin. I guess with the first day. This is going to be long, but that's ok:
Day 1: I met Patrick and Ayako at Hiroshima station and we hopped the Shinkansen to the next prefecture. We got off the train too early, so we were delayed by like 30 minutes, but we eventually made it to our connecting station and then to Shimonoseki which is where we boarded the boat to Busan, South Korea. We had a great little nautical adventure. I mean it was really rather uneventful, and I had been up since early, so I ended up going to bed pretty early but I drank a starbucks frappaccino in a glass bottle which I hadn't had in 9 months. So that was awesome. Oh, and I was in some documentary that these guys were making about a guy going to Korea alone. He met us, cause we were cool foreigners, it was awesome.
Day 2: I woke up around 5:45 am to find that we had docked in Busan but couldn't get off the boat until 8 because the customs place wasn't open. I got packed up and washed up in the on board bath house then we all got some coffee. In the midst of the group bathing process I lost my socks. That was a pretty tragic ordeal. We eventually got off the boat and to the station with plenty of time to locate some muffins before boarding the train. We ate at Dunkin Donuts...how Korean. We caught our train and headed for Seoul! We arrived 2 and half hours later, and checked into our hotel, where Ayako and I set a goal of visiting 3 tourist things in our time in Seoul (3 days; maybe it was a little under ambitious of us since the goal was accomplished by like 2:00 the next day) and Patrick napped. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner (again, so Korean, but we were dying for real pizza: defined as pizza without corn or potatoes) and then on a expedition to Seoul Tower. We took the cable car up and enjoyed a view of Seoul from the top. There was also this weird visual art performance thing going on where a little mist fountain would spray while this loud music was playing and the tower looked like it was flaming. It was cool. I don't know if it always happens. We decided to get some coffee while we waited for all the city lights to come on and while we were drinking, some Junior High girls came up to the window next to us and started knocking, I turned around and they were like "Hello!" and waved excitedly. Then did the international sign for crazy and pointed to one of the girls. I agreed and said that I knew she was crazy, and then pretended to be shocked and confused when I saw who they were pointing at. Immediately retracting my statement. It was cute. Then we tried to get on a bus to get back to the station, on which we were tossed around and nearly fell out of our seats several times, Ayako and I were laughing so hard that everyone on the bus (mostly Korean business men) stared at us. We ended up in some bar area, so we decided to get drinks, but we totally ended up in some old persons bar, it was strange. But from the window we saw a drunk man make a seen and the pee in the street. It was disgustingly entertaining. Then we wondered around until we found a subway station to get us back to our hotel.
Day 3: We wondered around Seoul, and I fell in love with it a little. I told Ayako that it reminded me of America and then noted that it smelled a little funny and there was garbage everywhere, so I'm not sure what that means, but there's that. It just had an interesting dynamic. We went to some awesome places, including Jogyesa Temple and took a tour at Changdeokgon Palace and visited that location of the historical gate that was recently burned to the ground by an angry Korean man (everyone knows his name, but I don't). Later that night we went to the Chongdong Theater and saw a traditional Korean performance including singing, dancing, and traditional instruments. It was awesome! I wish I could have captured it on video, though that probably wouldn't do much justice. The performance was one of my favorite parts of the trip.
Day 4: We spend the bulk of the day (literally almost 5 hours) wandering around another palace after eating a delicious pasta lunch at the connected museum. Gyeongbokdung Palace was beautiful and there was so much grass! We just spent like half an hour sitting in the grass and blowing dandelions. It was amazing! Later we met Ayako's friend Monica and she took us out to dinner, this delicious chicken meal, Mmmmm! We ended the evening with some live music at the Live Jazz Club it was great!
Day 5: We woke up early, real early and took a cab to the airport, a few hours later we were in Beijing. After some settling in time, we headed out for a walk around the city. We walked to the Forbidden City and walked around the outer wall. It was beautiful. We sat on the side of the river and just watched people walk by, it was great. Patrick got suckered into buying like 3 books from a guy on the street. Not so good at ignoring the people who sell stuff. We wondered around, I bought a coke and an ice cream for less than a dollar. Then we wondered to a park, Beihai Park to be specific. Home of the White Pagoda (on the sign it said Dagoba, which led to an outbreak of laughter from Ayako and I. We climbed the hill to the temple, once we got there I saw a man meditating in a corner under some trees. He was perfectly still. It was amazing, so I watched for a while. The sun set while we were at the top of the hill. When we were heading to the exit we saw a taichi class taking place in the middle of the park. there was music playing that went perfectly with the class, I figured it was planned. It turned out to just be a man with a radio in his pocket, which is even more awesome.
Day 6: This day was fullllllll of sightseeing adventures, we went to the Forbidden City, Tianniman Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, the freshwater pearl shop and a silk factory. We wrapped up the evening with a Peking Duck dinner (which was incredibly delicious, and I want more, right now!) and the Peking Opera we saw A day on the River and The Monkey King Fights 18 warriors. The latter was the better one, but they were both wonderfully entertaining.
Day 7: We visited the Great Wall. Amazing! However, in my mind, I knew that the Great Wall went through the mountains, however, I didn't think that I would be climbing in the mountains when I was climbing up the Great Wall. But I was. Climbing up wasn't a problem, but stopping and looking down and then thinking about walking down made me real shaky in the legs. But it was an incredible experience. On the way up we met some guy making a video of his experience with his iphone, so I'm in his vacation video. I love doing that. It started to storm on our way back down , part of me wanted to stay outside and play in the rain, but I couldn't, I knew I'd be miserable in the van for the rest of the day. So I put up the umbrella that I bought at the entrance to this part of the wall (it's blue and says "boyfriend and girlfriend" on it. it's funny) and continued to slowly slowly walk down the wall, gripping the stone in my hands so as not to fall. By this time i was petrified. But it was more than worth it. After the wall we went to a jade museum and then to the Ming Tombs which are actually in there location because of the Feng Shui of the mountains and the river. We visited a Cloisonne Factory and saw how the made art out of copper and clay and paint, it was awesome and then we headed past the olympic stadium and to a tea hows for tea ceremony, then on to the market where I bought a gucci watch (knock off, obviously) for ten bucks and it doesn't even work. How awesome. And then we went to a kung Fu show.
Day 8: We left the hotel at 5:45 for a day full of transportation. Literally: van->plane->taxi->train->bus->boat and then we left for Japan and I arrived home around 2 pm the next day. It was an amazing trip. I will try to post pictures on my flickr, but for now they are on my facebook, please look there.

Love you all! and good night!

oooh. a new post already.

I'm uploading pictures right now for my flicker account:
www.flickr.com/mollybeth7
So, um, look at them.

Also. my new hairs:

Guess who sucks at blogging....

Yep, that's right, it's me! I apologize for the ridiculously long periods of time between my updates on here. I kind of forget about it from time to time. Let's see, what have I been doing lately...

I went on a beautiful picnic to Iwakuni with my students and their families. It was a wonderful time. There is a bridge that has been in this location for many many years, however the actual bridge has been rebuilt numerous times because it's wooden and there are typhoons. The original was built without nails. Amazing. Anyway, on the other side of the bridge is a line of cherry blossoms, big park, and a rope way up to the castle. We ate under the cherry blossoms. The moms, Ayako and Riyo, made delicious foods. I contributed grapes and cheese and crackers, you know really showed my cooking skills. Then we spent the rest of the day playing in the park and going up to the castle. It was a wonderful day, the weather was beautiful and the kids were so fun.

Other than that I've been working and sleeping and working and sleeping, and watching movies.

Yuka and I have decided to have movie nights. Actually, I decided because she never knows what movies I'm talking about. So, for our first movie night, we watched Black Snake Moan. It was really good. Mostly. There were some parts that were just a touch cheesy, but there is this one scene, with blues, and a guitar, and a thunderstorm, uhg. It was great. Next movie is Zoolander, I was having a Zoolander day the other day so I rented it and just realized that she is being completely deprived having never seen it, so it's my duty.

From NPR: apparently it really freaks some people out to receive mouth to mouth. "I may die without it, but gosh, it's just too weird." That's an interesting thought process.

Most of our classes have changed at work. It's taking some getting used to, and I really miss some of my students, Kayoko and Katsunori, they were two of my favorites and they had to leave to go to college. They're the ones in my new picture. Don't ask whats going on with that crazy peace sign I'm trying to give, cause I don't know. Anyway, it's sad.

From NPR: Japan has invented dieting sunglasses that turn everything blue.

I love NPR.

Ok, my last thing before going: For those of you who don't know, I've decided to stay in Japan until February. I'm enjoying my time here (due to some changes that are about to happen). But I love and miss you all very much.

I promise to try to remember to update this more often. I'm getting a hair cut tomorrow night, so I'll put up pictures of that. I have new pictures (of the picnic) on my facebook if you can see them, if not I'll try to post them on my flickr.

Peace!
mo

Making things

I spent the evening making things. I bought a plain canvas bag today and decided to paint on it. its turning out pretty cool. I like it anyway. And I found this do-it-yourself computer cozy online so I decided to do-it-myself, but I couldn't find felt big enough, so I had to be a little bit innovative, however it didn't workout so well. I'm going to try to salvage it in the morning, if not, will just make something else out of the felt. Like a little felt board like one of my teachers had in grade school.

Anyway. I had a rather eventful day. Kim and I ate Indian food for lunch it was delicious! I love it! Then we to the Yamato Museum. The famous Japanese warship "Yamato" was built in the Kure shipyards during WWII, so that is our claim to fame. The museum was nice. Very informative. I found out that Kure was completely obliterated by American air raids on Japan during WWII. And I also got to make a little origami spinner like the leaf/seed spinners that fall off the trees. I know you know what I'm talking about, I think I used to call them helicopters...but that doesn't mean anything. It was fun.

Well, I'm going to go to sleep now.

Happy Valentines Day!

Ok, so more ridiculous/funny things from the students:

Remember the girl (Kanon) who was crying because the boy (Shion) didn't come to class. Well, we were talking about initials yesterday, and I ask everyone their initials:
Kanon: Mine are KY
Misato: Mine are MKK
Shion: Mine are ST....hm, Kanon, Kanon Taniguchi, KT...see, it's a good fit
See, even they know they're going to get married. 7, they're 7.

One of my adult students brought me cake today for valentines day. She was nervous because she made it, and its chocolate, and chocolate cake is much harder to make than a regular cake. So, I thank her and ask her about her weekend. Her response is usually, "It was fine, my kid and my husband played baseball" (it's 30 degrees, and they play outside, insane!) But this week I say, "Did you do anything fun?" To which her response was an excited "Yes" followed by "Rui and his classmates played dodgeball. Oh, and my husband went to the dentist." I'm thinking, what...how is this fun. So I ask, "Why did your husband go to the dentist?" She says, "He was drunk, and he couldn't stand straight, and he fell down and no teeth" And then she laughed for like 5 minutes. it was hilarious! And then she said that Her husband was backing out of the drive way (Not drunk) and the back door was open and he didn't know, so he hit it on the fence and now it's broken. It was a great class. She has been quite talkative lately, which is good. She's so funny.

Another of my adult students came to class 40 minutes late. Class is only 50 minutes. So we had a ten minute class today. I like her.

ST from the story earlier was talking about the girl he likes who's in fifth grade (he's in first) and I said that she was a bit older than him. He responded with "Yeah, but it could work because my dad's 33 and my mom's....well, I can't tell you, she'd be mad."

I love my kids!

So, I have kids say and do ridiculous things all the time here are some of the stories:

2 weeks ago I was chatting with one of my 13 year old students the conversation is as follows:
K:" Molly, how did George Bush become President"
M: "I'm not so sure, why?"
K: "Well. he's not so good at English."
M: "I know, your English is better than his!"
K:"I know. That's bad."

Last week one of my students was sick with the flu so he couldn't come to class. One of the other students cried for the 1st 15 minutes of class because he wasn't coming. They're 7 and I'm convinced they will get married one day.

Today one of my favs (whom I usually have to growl at like a bear, or talk to like i'm a pirate) told me that he didn't live in a house:
M: Is your house red?
S: No.
M: Is it purple?
S: No
M: Do you live in a house?
S: No
M: Do you live in a cave?
S: (smiling and laughing) YES!
M: What color is your cave?
S: It's grey.
M: Are there pirates in your cave?
S: YES!!
M: Is your mom a pirate?
S: YES!!!
Then I pretended to be deathly afraid of pirates. It was awesome, he loved it.

The same kid (5 minutes later) thought it would be funny to pull off my socks. so he steals my slippers and "hides" them in his bag and then starts pulling...but I was wearing stockings, so they weren't coming off. Needless to say he was really confused! So he keeps tugging and then gets the idea to tie my stockings together. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I didn't have a camera. It was hilarious. Then he tied his own together. He's 4.

This morning my one baby came to class and didn't do anything but run in circles and giggle. It was so cute.

One of my newest students accidently said "I like cupeppers" instead of cucumbers. it was cute. She stopped and made a silly face, like "what did I just say?"


Ok, i'm going to bed!

So I've been thinking...

Moving to the other side of the planet has a way of teaching you things about yourself that you may not have learned otherwise.
Lesson of the evening:
I'm either completely insatiable or I'm in the wrong place doing the wrong thing.

Don't get me wrong here, I really have very few complaints about living in Japan. It's teaching me things, I'm having fun, my job is easy, I'm accomplishing my one of my life goals ( to live in another country for atleast a year) **Side note, I'm 22 years old and accomplished all of my goals, pretty kick ass i must say** Anyway, my life here is very comfortable but I think that is the problem. I don't want to be comfortable I personally think that one grows more when they are uncomfortable.

Mom if you are reading this, yes, this is quite close to your out of your box theory. And somehow I've managed to move so far away and yet remain in my box. Not entirely. I mean I've had to make significant stretches in my personality, some people here think that I'm rather outgoing and god forbid, bubbly. So that's out of my box in some ways, but I'm not being challenged.

My weekdays are filled by mindless english lessons, teaching simple phrases like "I want a hamburger. I want a cookie. etc." My kids are fantastic and I love them, but I'm just not making the impact on the world that I feel like I should be.

Danielle brought to my attention that I am still doing meaningful work, I teach children. This comment was not lost on me. I agree, I do see that I am doing something, it's just not what I want to be doing. I'm not learning (mostly due to a lack of self discipline, so that I can't complain about), I make much more than my Japanese counterparts and do probably less than half the work, I go shopping...alot. I spend ridiculous amounts of money on food.

I should be feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, housing the homeless, hearing peoples stories, etc. But then I wonder if I'm desiring those things for selfish reasons? Or is that truly where my heart is...but honestly if I feel so emotional about it, I suppose that is a silly question. I remember telling someone once that I wanted to help people who had significant problems (yes I realize that all problems are significant in their own regard, but you know what I mean) I just don't see not speaking english in an asian country with no intention of leaving as a significant problem.

I need to get away...

short annecdote

It's been a while again, but my excuse is that I was on a week long vacation during which I actually did feel like I had vacated my life, I did hardly anything but eat, drink, and read books...Oh and then there was the day that Brenna and I walked from the middle of the island to the coast of the island just to find out that the restaurant we were going to go to was closed and didn't open until 6...it was 3. so we walked back. 3 hours of walking total. It was fun though.

Anyway, I can elaborate on that later although there isn't much to tell, so we'll see. Today at work is what the entry was inspired by. I have this little emotion face thing, its basically like a little smiley face flip chart made of construction paper circles folded and glued together with faces representing different emotions (angry, happy, sad, and sleepy), well some of my kids were fighting over it the other day and they ripped apart two of the circles, soooo, today I decided to glue them back together. I got out this glue: (which I remember having in like 2nd grade). I guess it had never been used before, but at the time I didn't know that, so I was squeezing it, but no glue was coming out. So I unscrewed the lid and examined it, I could see that there was a plastic thing covering the hole so I'm trying to poke it with some scissors and a razor knife but its not working so I just squeezed it and boom, off pops the little plastic thing and glue shoots all over my face and into my hair. of course.
i swear, my life is ridiculous.