what i do

new bloggy blog

2009-07-23T10:30:00.001-07:00

mollyjohnson2.tumblr.com

bookmark it bitches.

blah blah blogging

2009-07-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Today I took Arlo to Forest Park and I was reading and he was digging a hole. It was fun, except I almost fell asleep reading my book... so we left, because I thought it dangerous to fall asleep in the park.

I have decided to stop reading this book (Kaleidoscope) because I get super sleepy every time I start reading it. So I'm just done. and I've had it for a week and I'm only on page 74. Clearly this book doesn't capture my interests very well.

I had a silly week day off this week because I'm working this weekend. Boo for working weekends. I want a job with a desk and a rolly chair that makes more money and doesn't have to work weekends. One must have experience (and advanced degrees) to get one of those jobs. Thus I work in the hospital and then will go to school and one day I will have my chair and desks and free weekends.

I am going to start writing my statement of purpose for graduate school applications. That's always a fun process. I really need to sit for a while and figure out exactly what my purpose is.

Components:

Mental Health Reform

Psychosocial Rehabilitation

De-stigmatization

Helping people

Teaching people

Learning

I just don't really know how to say WHY I want to do these things and THAT is what I need to figure out. Right now I just feel so tired. But I'm going to get to work.

Until Later.

I almost forgot I had a blog.

2009-07-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

So, it's that time of year when I start applying to Graduate Schools again. I honestly hate grad school shopping. I have recently gotten a job and apartment in St. Louis, so I'm looking for places around here. I'm taking suggestions and recommendations, specifically for an MA in Clinical Psychology. Here is my list so far:

SIU-E

Murray (I know thats not close and would require a move to Kentucky)

and (maybe) SLU if they offer a lone masters degree...hopefully they will email me back about that.

I thought for a little while that I would just go to nursing school, which may still happen if I don't get into grad school again. But I'm realizing that I would prefer to not work (ultimately and forever) in a Psychiatric hospital setting. I want to help people, like really help them ...people who want to be helped and help themselves. I want to be in Outpatient PSR.

**If I get one comment about being a Social Work major, I will kick your ass**

So my job:

I am a Psychiatric Therapist....which is a Psych Tech....which means I work on a Psych Unit at a hospital where I watch people with serious Mental illnesses and keep them from hurting themselves or others. I have interesting stories and I've only been on the unit for three weeks. I've seen lots of people who have really needed to be there...and some who really DID'T need to be there. The ones who didn't need to be there are the ones I feel the most sorry for. Imagine if you were on a locked unit with a bunch of people who are responding to internal stimuli and experiencing delusions of nuclear attacks on Carbondale...and you were sane...but the doctor tells you you have to stay there. They get kind of angry.

So far, one of my patients tried to strangle another patient, a guy had a seizure like experience (the nurse swears it wasn't a seizure) because the nurse wouldn't do anything about his chest pains, a man shouted at me because he thought he lost his refrigerator (which he didn't really have), one of our patients was an accused rapist of young girls (3 specifically) and one apparently, was recently released from prison for murder. Everyday is an adventure...let me tell ya.

Apartment is good, dog is good. Dog has been barking a lot lately. The other night there was a cat outside the window and he was just going crazy. And I was trying to sleep it was like 3 am and I had to get up at 5.

This American Life

2009-03-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Everyone Who Reads This:

I am officially back. I've been back for like 3 weeks now maybe. It honestly feels like I never left. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but whatever. I have been able to see many friends and many more visits are to happen soon. Hilary and Michelle tomorrow! SO EXCITING! Apparently we are going to a windmill for brunch. And then Nashville next week! Nashville friends, let's hang.

Since I have been back I have been doing many things, but at the same time doing nothing. I feel a little restless. I did not get in to graduate school this year, so that is sad, but really it just means I need to readjust the plan a little. I'm wanting to move to St. Louis. I'm excited to have a real space of my own. Japan just doesn't really count, cause I always new that it wasn't really mine. Ya know? But anyway, in order to move to St. Louis one has to find an apartment that is both available and not in the less fortunate part of town (I am trying to be politically correct, am I doing it?) And perhaps more importantly....a job. I have applied for a few, and I am waiting to hear back. However I did this before my lovely friend Kristen reviewed my Resume and made some fabulous changes.... so we'll see what happens.

I have also recently decided to go to RLC to take a CNA course. It's a free 8 week class and there are always a ton of jobs in the nursing field. So I figure it can only help and who knows. I may end up loving nursing. We'll see. My primary goal here is to get involved in the Behavioral Health field however possible. If that means starting out as a CNA in a hospital that has a Behavioral Health department, then that's what I'll do. I'm pretty excited about it.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing lately.

Oh and I've been painting my room at home. For those of you who have been to my house, I am not painting the jungle room. My mother is actually making me move to another room just so she can keep the jungle. Ridiculous I know. So I am now back to my very first room in this house. I have lived in every bedroom here except my parent's room of course.

2 weeks

2009-02-09T08:41:00.000-08:00

I'm coming home in two weeks. there are some new pictures up on my flickr page. I haven't really organized them yet, but you can see them and they are labled. I'm going to write more later but it's late and i need to sleep. work tomorrow!

www.flickr.com/mollybeth7

3 weeks

2009-02-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Danielle's blogging inspired me to update. Though she is my only follower.

Right now I'm cold. I've been packing all day. And I've packed everything except stuff that I need this week. I moving out next Saturday. It's so weird. I always hate the last week of things, but I get a little nervous about doing everything, so I just want it to be over. But I don't like wishing to be leaving Japan. I've been telling my students that I am leaving. That is sad. I think I will cry alot during my last week. Ew, I don't want to think about it.

My friend Yuka asked me last night what I will be doing when I get home. She said to choose 10 things here they are in no specific order. Also spending time with family goes without saying so it's not on the list (Katie, Danielle, Amy. you are family.)

1. Jerry's Bigger Jigger- PRIME RIB, i miss and love you.
2.Subterranean Books
3. Watch French movies
4. Italian food on the Hill
5. Learn Spanish
6. Research Spanish Speaking countries
7. Go to school/get a job
8. Talk to people on the street, in the bookstore, at starbucks, in the supermarket.
9. order coffee with soy milk and be able to say that i want it without stuttering and stumbling and worrying that i'm saying the wrong word.
10. Go to Nashville and Portland

So that's that. If there is something I should do that I didn't list let me know what that is.

Ok goodbye

I'm coming home 5 weeks...

2009-01-18T03:27:00.000-08:00

and my mom, grandma and aunts will be here in 4 weeks!! I'm soooo excited that they are coming here and I get to show them everything! It's going to be so awesome.

I am so full. I just ate a second bowl of veggie soup...because I'm addicted to it. Its just so yummy. Last night I had a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed party. I cut out candies and decorated my apartment (in fact there is still a construction paper lolly pop next to my front door, that probably looks funny) and had so much candy here and my friends came over and dressed up. I was Willy Wonka of course. Dani was charlie. she did a great job looking like a poor child.Emily was Violet... she wore blue and chewed gum. The others chose not to participate, but I treated them like characters anyway. Miyachi (new friend from my hair salon) was the oompa loompa, he even did the dance for us. I wish I would have had my camera ready to record that moment, but...I failed. It was amazing. This morn...afternoon, I woke up craving veggies like none other, so I went to the supermarket and literally spent 20 dollars only on veggies. Wonderful.

I took some pictures of my students. I'll get those up sometime soon.
Ryo, or as I like to call him, Satan, licked my hand the other day in class because I was taking the cards away. LICKED my hand. isn't that gross. then he proceeded to eat his eraser and a sticker. SICK.

I can't believe I'm coming home next month. I will be able to drive again.... and see my friends and family. and eat at Jerry's. BWAHHH! its going to be great.

I think i was going to write about something important or sentimental, but I have forgotten. Oh well!

Library Crisis over.

2008-11-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-04T06:02:00.001-08:00

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

2008-10-19T02:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-25T04:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-08-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-08-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-08-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-25T07:41:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-05-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-04-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-04-17T08:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-14T04:26:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-01-29T07:56:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-11T06:33:00.000-08:00

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.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

2007-12-23T06:23:00.000-08:00

It's almost been a month since I typed a blog. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I can't believe it! In some ways my friend and I decided Japan is more Christmasy than home...which at the time seemed true, but I just realized he's from Canada, so I guess we can't really agree on that can we? Thats hilarious. Oh well. It's real weird that it's not really cold here and I haven't watched A Christmas Story. I did walk by a church today and saw a nativity scene. That was Christmasy, and there is Christmas music playing in the streets of Hiroshima, but it just isn't the same. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I actually have to ask my students if they exchange gifts or even celebrate Christmas. Some of them don't, to them its just another day. Which I understand, but that doesn't make it any less strange to hear.

My friend Megan had her baby! Mallory Claire. I'm so sad that I couldn't be there with her! =(
Her baby will almost be a year old when I get home, that's so bizarre! Aww, sad.

Work is fine, Japan is still fun. I'm going to Tokyo next week! I'm leaving Friday actually, I'm so excited! WHAAA!
Last weekend I was hanging out with my friend Niko in Hiroshima, we decided to go on a search for ridiculous t-shirts (an ever so popular commodity in Japan) **I'm pretty sure it's a major stretch to use commodity there, but I'm going to do so anyway** Anyway, this is what we ended up with. Niko's has the same santa face, but sometimes blurred. And mine says " The hippopotamus barks at the rainbow". Just think about that for a while.

The weekend before that, I went to Miyajima to hang out and on my way, I had a little adventure (some of you have already heard this, but here it goes again): It's a beautiful, slightly chilly day, I'm wearing my fantastic bright green skirt and a sweater and a jean jacket and some black winter boots. I've spent the first part of the day being a kind person taking my new co-worker out to lunch for her birthday. But my friend Patrick (who lives like 5 hours away) is visiting Hiroshima, so I'm kind of in a hurry to go and see him and my other two friends. So after lunch ends, I scurry on over to the station and see that a rapid train, which will get me to Hiroshima in 20 minutes instead of 45, is about to leave, So I run down the stairs and get there just in time to see the doors close and the train leave. This lovely old Japanese lady sees this misfortune of mine and tries to comfort me in Japanese, I assume she's saying something like "oh no, it looks like you just missed it, oh well, another train will come my dear" but I have no idea really, so I just say "Hai, hai, ok, desu" (yes yes it's ok or I'm ok, or something is ok) and take a seat. Not 2 seconds later another lovely old lady comes and offers me an orange. So I sit there with two old ladies and eat an orange. It was so cute.
Another train finally comes and I arrive in Hiroshima 45 minutes later. I look at the screen and see that my train is leaving from track one in 2 minutes (I'm at track 4) So I again take off running (which is highly discouraged in Japanese train stations) I make it down the stairs, see that the doors are still open and think to myself "YES!! I have done it, I will make this train," and as soon as this thought goes through my head..BOOOOOOM I fall down to the ground, on my hands and knees. My head phones fly off, stuff spills out of my purse. All these people are like "diajobu desuka, diajobu desuka" (are you ok? are you ok?) and I stand up and shout "HAI, DIAJOBU DESU! (YES I'M OK!) and run on to the train fully packed with people who just saw me crash to the ground. Oh my goodness it was so hilarious! If could only you have seen it. Here is a picture of the bruises on my knees. They have just now gone away.

Ok, one more quick thing and one more picture before I go. I tried to make cookies.. and I have no oven... the following is what happened... I have no words.

It's that time of year...

2007-11-30T05:18:00.000-08:00

Where I begin to turn to Ryan Adams...and all that that entails. It's rather unfortunate that, as of yet, he will not be making to Japan. However, if anyone hears otherwise you had better let me know!
Anyhow, parent observation weeks are officially over! Thank God! I went and got tacos an a delicious little drink after work, I ran in to Yuka and Yuki, that was great! We are going out again in celebration tomorrow night. Hurray!
In my last class last night, I had these two 13 year old boys, they're totally my favorite, anyway. They get on these kicks were they say the same answer for every question, like
Me:" why is the grand canoyon famous?"
K &K : Because it's big.
Me: Ok, why is the Golden Gate Bridge famous?
K & K: Because it's big.
This goes on for like one more question and then i change the topic to the Tokyo tower, we talk for bit, then as kind of a joke, I ask "how big is the tokyo tower" obviously expecting.. "Its big" but no... One of them responds with.." It's 333 Km". Totally random.. who just knows that? Kaito, thats who. Crazy kids.
There's going to be a hairstyle change this weekend! It's about change. I'm so bored with the fact that I have to wear drab working clothes all week, I think i'm going to be as outrageous as possible this weekend. (Mom thats for you).
God, rereading this makes me sound about as interesting as a 2x4.
I'm reading 2 books right now. Thats impressive, yeah? I can't believe I have never read the Chronicles of Narnia. They are so good! My kids seemed pretty excited when I gave them the first section to read . I have two classes that are going to read them. some 10 year olds and 2 17 year olds.
By the way I got to eat three Thanksgivings. I even got to eat turkey, which was clearly not expected, but very well appreciated. And I helped bake a pumpkin pie. It was even kind of good. Brenna and I had to make it super fast. We had one hour until we had to be where we were going and it takes 55 minutes to bake and we hadn' t even started. by the way did I mention we baked it in the microwave? Yes, the microwaves in japan have an oven function. I haven't the slightest idea how to make mine work, but it's there.

Ok, I'm going to go read now.

Goodbye Blacky

2007-11-18T03:49:00.000-08:00

I left today for Hiroshima and Blacky was alive. When I came home...he was almost gone. He was just there, floating on his back not moving unless Orangey or Brownie bumped into him and even then he would only flap his little fins. It was a very sad moment for me...being that Blacky was my favorite of the three. =(

Anyway. As I said I went to Hiroshima again this weekend. Last weekend I went, with the intention of only being there for one night, however I ended up staying the whole weekend. Instead of coming back Sunday morning, I came back Monday afternoon. Crazyyyy! I had a glorious time with Niko and Keriann, just hanging out and doing all the touristy things like going to the castle and the A-bomb museum and the Garden. I loved the garden, I thought about going again today,just to sit outside and read, however it was much too chilly. Today I decided to go to the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. The collection was much smaller than I was expecting and many of the works were from Japanese artists (which was to be expected) I liked them more than I thought I would. It wasn't stereotypical "Asian Art". I did, however, get to see a Dali, up close and personal. It was a huge painting, a variant of Persistence of Memory. It was amazing.

I love art.

Then I came home and made guacamole. I'm determined to start cooking meals for myself. Tomorrow I'm going to try to make eggplant and tomato grautin. We'll see how that goes.

Hisashiburi

2007-11-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry for the length of time that has passed with no update. I'm doing well, I've been busy. Last week we had Saturday off in lieu of a holiday. My friend Ayako, Patrick and myself went up to Kyoto, we also met some other friends (Keri, Jo, and Candace) -- I'd just like to say that I feel like i'm typing a 5th grade essay about my summer vacation-- we had a great time.

We were so hard core! It actually took us a while to get out of the station. A) we had to make reservations and what not, then we were hungry and then we just flat couldn't figure out where to get out. We finally made it out and hopped on a bus to Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion) it was beautiful. However I did have a little mishap with the bus...I went to pay the 220 yen but all I had was a 500 yen piece. I screwed up and instead of putting it in the change thing I dropped it in the pay hole... Not good. The bus driver had to give me all my change back in 10 yen pieces... yep, thats 280 yen in 10 yen pieces. Awesomeness. He could have kept it, honestly. It was totally worth it though the place was beautiful! We went to many other temples and shrines on Sunday as well. Everything was gorgeous, I'm not kidding. We met up with Jo, Candace and Keri on Sunday night and had dinner. Have I mentioned yet that we literally had pasta for every meal except 1? Cause we did. It was good, but very unjapanese.
On Monday we totally overslept and didn't checkout on time which resulted in like a 50 dollar fee. Whooops. But then we saw Patrick off, and all the girls continued on. We only went to one more shrine, as we got there we saw a scooter wreck. It was so scary! They sideswiped each other and one stopped but the other flipped. It was awful. I think he ended up being ok, he was ok enough to sit up to wait for the ambulance. But on a lighter note, this place had 4km of vermilion torii gates. it was amazing! I bought a kimono-ish thing, for 5 bucks.
hopefully if you click this link, you'll be able to see my pictures. That other website sets a limit to how many pictures I can upload per month. Lame...

http://greenville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008185&l=275f7&id=152400334

Anyway. This week I had follow-up training. I thought it was going to be boring, but it was sooo much fun! It was good to see everyone again as well as meet awesome new people. Loved it! The place was pretty isolated so we were comparing it to the hotel in the Shining, minus the snow. At lunch we were talking about who would be the one to go crazy... we decided Kurt, one of the trainers...then during my personal interview with him, he leans in and says "do you hear voices" It was hilarious! I did hear the voices so it was ok, but had I not heard them I would have taken off running. They had fish for 3 out of 4 meals (dinner, breakfast, lunch). I was really hungry the whole time. It still makes me gag to think everyone ate that fish. Yuck.

Ok, time to hop in the shower, I'm going to Hiroshima! bye now!

Crunky Popjoy

2007-10-31T05:45:00.000-07:00

This is the name of the chocolate candy I just ate. I think crunky is supposed to be crunchy.... and popjoy, who knows.

Anyhow, my bike lock is very temperamental as of late. Sometimes it won't lock and therefore I have just been leaving it unlocked and unsupervised. I have been worried that it would be stolen. Today my fears became a reality... I came out of work to go to lunch and my bike was gone! I was shocked! And I thought to myself "you have got to be kidding me!" so I begin to walk home and I see it! By the vending machine, not even half a block away! My bike is rather noisy, so maybe they decided they would steal another one. My lock worked for the rest of the day.

One more bicycle anecdote. The other day it was raining, not just a little, alot. And I had to bike to japanese lessons and work. Luckily it stopped by the time I got downstairs to leave, but I had to bring my umbrella anyway in case it started up again. So I had my umbrella attached to my bike...and of course as I'm biking it slips, and get's stuck in my front wheel. Go figure! It was almost exactly where I ran into the stair case! Que sera sera! I suppose I should stay away from that place!

Things are good! The weekend was good, went in to Hiroshima...which kind of reminds me of St. Louis a little bit, on Sunday and then Yuka came over on Monday. It was fun, she and I talked about how we both miss studying...among other things! She's cool, it's good to have friends.

I bought a bright pink scarf. i like it. because its bright pink.

Molly Does Crazy Things in Japan...

2007-10-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

By now many of you have probably heard of my little collision with the staircase. I was biking to my Japanese lesson, being a bit adventurous and taking a new route, when I came around the corner to see that I was about to crash into a fellow bike rider. I had no choice but to swerve left as he had already begun to swerve right. However, directly to my left was a large staircase...which I crashed into. Here is a picture of my bent up basket: it maybe hard to tell, but if you look closely you will see that the side closest to you is dented on both sides...this makes if difficult to put my groceries inside the basket. Oh well.

Anyway, more on biking...

Today I rode to work in a pencil skirt and high heels. Cars and people stayed out of my way so it ended up being fine, but at lunch I totally changed back in to flats, that was just an added complication that I'd rather do without. I also learned that that particular skirt is definitely a no no on days when I have floor classes (babies). Sitting on the floor proved rather difficult.

I leave you with an update on my Japanese lessons:

The day of the collision with the staircase, I was on my way to lessons, as I mentioned. I got there and my teacher had not arrived, so I take my seat in the international center and begin to read my book, to pass the time. My phone rings. It's my teacher. She says, "Tomita speaking" and then begins saying things in japanese, I caught "train" and "10:20". Then she begins saying " I'm sorry I'm sorry" I assume she means she has missed the train and can't catch another until 10:20...which by that time would be too late for us to have a lesson, so I said "it's ok" and then leave the international center. At 10:25 she calls back and speaks in japanese, "Doko desu ka?" meaning "where are you?" I say, in english, I am at the park, but she thinks I mean "Parco" a department store in Hiroshima, I try to explain to her that I am not in Hiroshima, and I'm not shopping, but this proves very muzukashii (difficult). After much confusion and the final decision to just tell her I'm at work, we reschedule for Friday and I am on my way.

This is getting crazy!! But I want to learn so bad! EHHH!

ok, time for bed!

His heart was two sizes too small...

2007-10-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I will be teaching seminar lessons this winter on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which is fantastical because I love Dr. Seuss (this is the plan as of today). However, I must say that for the past several years I have believed that Dr. Seuss was a philosopher. This is not true. He went to Oxford to get his doctorate in literature, but he dropped out and got married instead. Thus he was never actually "Dr." anything (this part I knew, which in turn should have made me realize that he clearly was not a doctor of philosophy). On the other hand, one does not have to hold a doctorate degree to be a great thinker. From this point of view it would be quite possible to argue that Theodor Seuss Geisel was a philosopher, judging by literary themes and his artwork.

Also, I didn't really realize that "Oh the Places You'll Go" was meant to be a book for adults written in the same style as his children's books. Oh the things you can learn by reading biographies.

On a not so exciting note, my manager told me that I looked sick today. Seeing as how I'm not sick and thought I actually looked kind of cute today, I wasn't really sure how to take that. Yesterday she told me that putting my hands in my pockets doesn't look very nice and I shouldn't do that when parents are around. She also told me that I need to make the parents laugh after class (boisterous interaction with children and parents is one of the reasons she hated to two previous native English teachers at the school, so I don't really know what to do about that). I just go with it, we'll see what happens.

Other than that, school is going pretty well. Students are still good, however they are starting to get pretty comfortable with me...which for some is good and others is bad (acting up, etc.). No big plans for the weekend, mostly just relaxing, and laundry. I seriously need to do laundry so bad! Eek!

Kure Fall Festival

2007-10-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went back to the fall festival. It was so much fun! I won some gold fish, which I let some of my students name (Aoi, Shion, and Kanon). They named them Blacky, Orangey, and Brownie. I'm not sure where Brownie came from since 2 are orange and 1 is black, but hey, whatever works.

The people I went with bought me a bowl, some food, and water purifiers for a gift. Gift giving is so common here and I don't always know how to respond. It's so nice of them. I mean they had already spent the whole day showing me the festival and teaching me about it and not making me pay for anything, and introducing me to people. It was fantastic!

I met a member of the Japanese Diet... part of parliament, I wasn't sure how to act! But he just shook my hand and didn't make me bow.

During the festival there was big fight between a "Lion, dog thingy" (this is how Ayumi explained it too me) and the ooni and then there was a man on top of something that other men were holding and they had to barge through the ooni and get into the shrine. It was difficult to watch because there were so many people, so my pictures aren't great, but it was still fun! I also got to pick my fortune which said in learning, I should set a goal of some sort, I could have an easy birth (so applicable...I just laughed and said well, thats good, but I won't be needing that), I shouldn't move, the place I am in is good, and I should hold off on investing money in the stock exchange. Since it wasn't considered to be an excellent fortune you are to fold it up and tie it too a tree. So I did. SOO cool! I also touched an ooni for good luck. I'll have to put that picture up later though I have to get it from Ayumi and Midori's dad. It was amazing.

I thought of a great name for this entry but I forgot it...

2007-10-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned that I'm loving Japan?

This weekend is Kure Fall Festival. It's when all the people go to the shrine to thank the gods for a good harvest. There are also "ooni" (japanese ghosts/demons) that walk around the city with large sticks that they hit people with. If you get hit, it means you will have good fortune and health for the next year. This morning I was in class with my Tiny Talk class, the kids are probably 4 years old, and I hear drums and flute coming down the street. The kids get super excited and I say "What's that? Let's look!" so we all run to the window and Ryousuke starts screaming "ooni! ooni!" the boys thought it was awesome, but one little girl ran to the middle of the room and just said "no, no, no" She was so scared, it was cute.

Tonight Manager, Bryan and I went to the night market. Which is like Japan + Shinto (a religion) + DuQuoin State Fair - the rides. I tried takoyaki which is a ball of tako (octopus) and vegetables. It was so hot it burned my mouth and it wasn't really my thing. Not big on the texture of fish. We also got to watch the traditional Japanese dance performed for the gods. It was amazing! I took pictures, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to put them up so I will have more of the festival.

Then we went out for a drink at the "Gaijin (foreigner) Bar" which is actually named Memories. The bar tender speaks English so that is quite handy. His Irish girlfriend was there, so I made a foreigner friend. They were both super nice. I'll definitely be going back there.

Well, I suppose I should be getting to bed here pretty soon, since it is 1:30 am.

later gator.

Crunchy rice

2007-10-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

So apparently I am titling my posts after what I am eating at the moment. Yesterday noodles, today rice. My rice is still a little crunchy...just a few grains, not all of them. I guess I didn't have enough water in there. OH well. I also just at fried mashed potatoes and corn. I'll take a picture to show. but seriously. fried mashed potatoes and corn. Holden would be in heaven. Work was fine today. Some of my kids were little boogers. but thats typical. One of my kids was 30 minutes late and then for his twenty minute lesson he decided to play soccer and hid under the table. it was awesome.

I also got to stamp things and fold and stuff things. It was like being at Greenville all over again.

I've decided I miss learning. I need some psychology/philosophy/religion books asap. My Murakami books are great, but I'm going to need some non-fiction soon I can feel it. Hopefully our bookstore has some...or I can find one in Hiroshima. If not, I guess its japanese amazon!

I heard about this used bookstore in Tokyo. I can't wait to go. its going to be amazing! I'm so pumped, but Tokyo's like 10 hours and a couple hundred bucks away. So its not like i can do that every weekend. =)

Eating Noodles with Chopsticks...

2007-10-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

I just finished eating noodles with chopsticks. I'm getting better, but it's still quite hard to eat with chopsticks. I mean seriously.

Today, work was fun. We had all special lessons because it was a Working Day. So.. Shion, Aoi, and myself played games like "Have you ever..." and "If I were..." it was fun! Then I had Misato...we pretended we were going hiking. We saw many things, such as a river, a waterfall, and a monkey. My last student was Ayumi, she and I did "Mad Libs". I gave her the papers to keep other wise I would post what we wrote in class. It was really funny. For instance, one took place at Disney Land and Ayumi and her friend Allie drove for 2 hours on a bus to get to this blue park, but they thought things were just a little to red. There were also people dressed in Red Panda costumes it was fun.

I also got invited to dinner and the festival next week, both should be fun. A lot of my kids are involved in the festival so it will be cool to see them!

It rained all day today after I got to work. It's still raining now. I like the rain, it's only rained a few times since I've been in Japan. Usually just a little bit of rain. No typhoons yet.

Well, this has been considerably boring. Looks like I need to have another adventure. I'll just have to get up early and do it in the morning I suppose. But every time I leave my house I some how end up shopping somewhere. I don't understand.

ok, I'm going to make some tea.

heiwa ,

molly

My First Blog

2007-10-08T03:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I thought perhaps it was time to start a blog, it just seems like the right thing do. Anyhow, I'm starting to feel better, my voice has come back a bit, this is very good, since I have to teach tomorrow! We have two working days in a row which means no group lessons (unless they are make ups) I also have 2 lessons with one of my students and his sister. Their mom came up with the curriculum. its really strange the way parents act at my school... they are very concerned with their children learning English. After every class we tell the parents what we did and most of them come in with their notebooks and pencils to write down everything we did that day. It's quite intimidating!

I didn't do a whole lot today, just tried to take it easy and get some rest. I did, however, go to this little coffee place, it was nice. It's called Golden Burns. I think the man that was sitting next to me was a bit scared of me. Every time I moved, he moved. And then he started humming to himself, but it wasn't a song. It was weird. But oh well.

Ok, I'm going to try to post something everyday, we'll see how good I am at that.

Love you all!