(no subject)
On Friday, I was told that there was a meeting I would have to attend regarding the school budget; essentially, money is getting tighter so they were raising the monthly price of the school meal. Kitsune and I agreed that there didn't need to be a meeting about it; everyone understood and accepted it anyway, but Japan likes to be formal about these kinds of things.
Anyway, the meeting was to be held at 6:30pm, and, since I was informed about it at 6:00pm, that meant that there was no time for me to get to the supaa and buy dinner before it closed... and considering there was fuck-all in my fridge, this posed a rather serious concern - besides, I doubted very much that I would understand much of anything in the meeting anyway. I voiced my eating concern to Takako-sensei, who is essentially the junior high school administrator besides being a teacher, and she told me that it was okay for me not to go; though Kitsune and Neko-sensei still had to. I would've felt guilty about it but it meant that my Friday night was free again and I would have an opportunity to buy dinner. Whoo!
Even so, I only got a tiny bento and some Mitsuya cider and went home and played on my computer. Seven o'clock, the time that I would usually get a call to go out, came and went, so I figured kyouikuchou was in Naha as he often is at the end of the month. At 7:30 though, I got a call from Yoseda-san ("Beer, nomu?") to my delight, and set out to have some drinks with my adoptive mom. But when I got there, kyouikuchou and Miyagi-san were there too, hooray!
A Note on Island Parties
These kinds of evenings are in general very low key; some drinks, some hanging out, some talking; but honestly they're my absolute favorite, because usually I have a better opportunity to talk one-on-one with people, and, unlike general island parties, I don't have to worry if I'm meeting strangers for the first time that they'll get drunkenly weird at me. Now I don't mean actual harassment, but sometimes when people get drunk personal space bubbles start rapidly shrinking, and when I'm in a situation where I don't know everyone well - but everyone is demanding my attention - it can be hard.
That's why after the island undoukai I was really grateful that Matsuda-sensei and kyouikuchou were there at my table (even though never at the same time); because in times like that, people I know and have met more than one become a liferaft.
Teacher parties can be fun too, but also lonely sometimes as people get caught up in conversations with each other. While it's nice that I know everyone, at the same time it's hard for me to bring up topics and feel like I have a grip on the conversation.
But iinkai enkais, now, that's the absolute best kind, because I get to talk about things I know with people who are genuinely concerned about my lifestyle and state of mind, where I come from, etc., and I can just smile and relax even when the conversation isn't about me, because I always get included. And if there's someone I am meeting for the first time, oftentimes Yoseda-san or kyouikuchou can act as an intermediary, which takes a lot of pressure off of me.
I Have the Best Kyouikuiinkai Ever
When I sat down on Friday, we got a round of beers and Miyagi-san (and Yoseda-san) asked if I had eaten dinner. I said I had had a small bento, and she kind of laughed and kyouikuchou had Tomoko come over so that he could order some food. However, was it just my imagination, or did they only order food that I like? They got those potato french fries, the delicious crepe thing, pasta... all food that's been tried and tested positive with me. So I feel like they just ordered the food for my sake.
Also I was wearing a sweatshirt, so when my beer came (the glasses are kept in the freezer for cool refreshment) kyouikuchou took my glass and wrapped a tissue around the handle so it wouldn't be too cold. He also got up and got me another pair of chopsticks for serving the crepe pieces since he saw that I was having trouble flipping my chopsticks around.
Little things like that, like getting me coffee when we were hanging out on Monday, or Yoseda-san coming to my house every day when I was sick to check up on how I was feeling and bringing me stuff... yeah, they're small actions, but I definitely notice them.
It was wonderful and happy, and kyouikuchou and I traded (eye) glasses (he put mine on and just said "No." ahahahaha), and when his wife came I talked them into letting her stay for a few drinks, even though they'd both have to walk home then.
The best part though? When someone's niece from Tokyo joined us with her aunt and kyouikuchou didn't introduce us, just said "Boku no musume," (literally, "my daughter") and just jogged a thumb at me, without saying anything else. Ahahahaha. The girl looked rather confused. She also said that I have "Tokyo intonation", o.o; and we all talked about how I studied Japanese at school, and then I lost the conversation but kyouikuchou brought me up to speed and it turned out that we were talking about religion in the US (my most typical response these days is "Are?") and what religion I was brought up with. Hilariously, his explanation I didn't get at all since we were both on our way to getting drunk, but I appreciated the effort.
At the end of the evening, he and his wife walked me home (which was really on their way), and he reminded me to put the chain on my door. It's always something like that, or like after I got sick he'd remind me to bundle up at night since it was getting colder. Ah, what sweet, sweet people.
On Saturday, I came in to help Kitsune with the spelling contest preparation, which turned into a big waste of time for three hours as all the tapes I recorded for her turned out to be useless. However, we (Takako-sensei, Neko-sensei, Kitsune, and the fourth grade teacher Yoshie-sensei) all went to a place I'd never been for lunch, and I got some delicious shougayaki chicken (aka "mahou sauce"), so that was nice.
Vegetables
Then, when I got back I got a call from Yoseda-san to go pick some vegetables together, which she had mentioned the previous night. Happily, I sped back to my house on my bike and she picked me up, and together we drove out deep into sugarcane land.
I honestly had no idea where we were going, haha.
But we ended up in the middle of the sugarcane jungle, and at the edge of the acres were some small vegetable fields, maybe about a third of an acre or so. Yoseda-san and I got to work picking some, including negi and garlic, and I asked her if this plot was hers. "Iya, kyouikuchou da yo." Then, with our modest bundle, we went to another plot, where kyouikuchou, his wife, kyouikuchou's sister, Miyagi-san and his wife all drove up. While presumably he had come to get vegetables for himself, he immediately got to work grabbing quite a bundle, and putting it in our box.
Yoseda-san and I washed them together at the culture center, and we kind of laughed at how much we'd gotten from him and how it was waaay too much. We ended up splitting the lot in half, but even so, it was quite a bit.
My half. You can't really tell, but those vegetables are about the length of my arm, if not longer. The big leaves are about the width of two of my palms.
I got so much I couldn't fit it all in my fridge. x.x;;
Light Stories and Taiko and Sanshin
Then I had to meet Kitsune for a storytelling thing that all the teachers had to go to. It was interesting, and it was great to see Yoseda-san and kyouikuchou again, but I didn't really understand the stories being told. However, once the main part was over, Kitsune, Neko-sensei, and Takako-sensei and I headed for a performance and party by some of our students, of taiko and our sanshin group, which is actually apparently a somewhat famous group considering they are all still in junior high - they were amazingly good, and Saori and Momoko were hilarious playing guys, and Mizuki was there playing guitar. All in all it was a good time, made even more satisfying by the day I had had.
Now today I came in to work early (6:00) on Sunday to re-record all those tapes. We're going to have a grand golf charity game today, which all the teachers will be doing. Hopefully made more fun by the appearance of my most favorite people ever? We shall see!
Anyway, the meeting was to be held at 6:30pm, and, since I was informed about it at 6:00pm, that meant that there was no time for me to get to the supaa and buy dinner before it closed... and considering there was fuck-all in my fridge, this posed a rather serious concern - besides, I doubted very much that I would understand much of anything in the meeting anyway. I voiced my eating concern to Takako-sensei, who is essentially the junior high school administrator besides being a teacher, and she told me that it was okay for me not to go; though Kitsune and Neko-sensei still had to. I would've felt guilty about it but it meant that my Friday night was free again and I would have an opportunity to buy dinner. Whoo!
Even so, I only got a tiny bento and some Mitsuya cider and went home and played on my computer. Seven o'clock, the time that I would usually get a call to go out, came and went, so I figured kyouikuchou was in Naha as he often is at the end of the month. At 7:30 though, I got a call from Yoseda-san ("Beer, nomu?") to my delight, and set out to have some drinks with my adoptive mom. But when I got there, kyouikuchou and Miyagi-san were there too, hooray!
A Note on Island Parties
These kinds of evenings are in general very low key; some drinks, some hanging out, some talking; but honestly they're my absolute favorite, because usually I have a better opportunity to talk one-on-one with people, and, unlike general island parties, I don't have to worry if I'm meeting strangers for the first time that they'll get drunkenly weird at me. Now I don't mean actual harassment, but sometimes when people get drunk personal space bubbles start rapidly shrinking, and when I'm in a situation where I don't know everyone well - but everyone is demanding my attention - it can be hard.
That's why after the island undoukai I was really grateful that Matsuda-sensei and kyouikuchou were there at my table (even though never at the same time); because in times like that, people I know and have met more than one become a liferaft.
Teacher parties can be fun too, but also lonely sometimes as people get caught up in conversations with each other. While it's nice that I know everyone, at the same time it's hard for me to bring up topics and feel like I have a grip on the conversation.
But iinkai enkais, now, that's the absolute best kind, because I get to talk about things I know with people who are genuinely concerned about my lifestyle and state of mind, where I come from, etc., and I can just smile and relax even when the conversation isn't about me, because I always get included. And if there's someone I am meeting for the first time, oftentimes Yoseda-san or kyouikuchou can act as an intermediary, which takes a lot of pressure off of me.
I Have the Best Kyouikuiinkai Ever
When I sat down on Friday, we got a round of beers and Miyagi-san (and Yoseda-san) asked if I had eaten dinner. I said I had had a small bento, and she kind of laughed and kyouikuchou had Tomoko come over so that he could order some food. However, was it just my imagination, or did they only order food that I like? They got those potato french fries, the delicious crepe thing, pasta... all food that's been tried and tested positive with me. So I feel like they just ordered the food for my sake.
Also I was wearing a sweatshirt, so when my beer came (the glasses are kept in the freezer for cool refreshment) kyouikuchou took my glass and wrapped a tissue around the handle so it wouldn't be too cold. He also got up and got me another pair of chopsticks for serving the crepe pieces since he saw that I was having trouble flipping my chopsticks around.
Little things like that, like getting me coffee when we were hanging out on Monday, or Yoseda-san coming to my house every day when I was sick to check up on how I was feeling and bringing me stuff... yeah, they're small actions, but I definitely notice them.
It was wonderful and happy, and kyouikuchou and I traded (eye) glasses (he put mine on and just said "No." ahahahaha), and when his wife came I talked them into letting her stay for a few drinks, even though they'd both have to walk home then.
The best part though? When someone's niece from Tokyo joined us with her aunt and kyouikuchou didn't introduce us, just said "Boku no musume," (literally, "my daughter") and just jogged a thumb at me, without saying anything else. Ahahahaha. The girl looked rather confused. She also said that I have "Tokyo intonation", o.o; and we all talked about how I studied Japanese at school, and then I lost the conversation but kyouikuchou brought me up to speed and it turned out that we were talking about religion in the US (my most typical response these days is "Are?") and what religion I was brought up with. Hilariously, his explanation I didn't get at all since we were both on our way to getting drunk, but I appreciated the effort.
At the end of the evening, he and his wife walked me home (which was really on their way), and he reminded me to put the chain on my door. It's always something like that, or like after I got sick he'd remind me to bundle up at night since it was getting colder. Ah, what sweet, sweet people.
On Saturday, I came in to help Kitsune with the spelling contest preparation, which turned into a big waste of time for three hours as all the tapes I recorded for her turned out to be useless. However, we (Takako-sensei, Neko-sensei, Kitsune, and the fourth grade teacher Yoshie-sensei) all went to a place I'd never been for lunch, and I got some delicious shougayaki chicken (aka "mahou sauce"), so that was nice.
Vegetables
Then, when I got back I got a call from Yoseda-san to go pick some vegetables together, which she had mentioned the previous night. Happily, I sped back to my house on my bike and she picked me up, and together we drove out deep into sugarcane land.
I honestly had no idea where we were going, haha.
But we ended up in the middle of the sugarcane jungle, and at the edge of the acres were some small vegetable fields, maybe about a third of an acre or so. Yoseda-san and I got to work picking some, including negi and garlic, and I asked her if this plot was hers. "Iya, kyouikuchou da yo." Then, with our modest bundle, we went to another plot, where kyouikuchou, his wife, kyouikuchou's sister, Miyagi-san and his wife all drove up. While presumably he had come to get vegetables for himself, he immediately got to work grabbing quite a bundle, and putting it in our box.
Yoseda-san and I washed them together at the culture center, and we kind of laughed at how much we'd gotten from him and how it was waaay too much. We ended up splitting the lot in half, but even so, it was quite a bit.
My half. You can't really tell, but those vegetables are about the length of my arm, if not longer. The big leaves are about the width of two of my palms.
I got so much I couldn't fit it all in my fridge. x.x;;
Light Stories and Taiko and Sanshin
Then I had to meet Kitsune for a storytelling thing that all the teachers had to go to. It was interesting, and it was great to see Yoseda-san and kyouikuchou again, but I didn't really understand the stories being told. However, once the main part was over, Kitsune, Neko-sensei, and Takako-sensei and I headed for a performance and party by some of our students, of taiko and our sanshin group, which is actually apparently a somewhat famous group considering they are all still in junior high - they were amazingly good, and Saori and Momoko were hilarious playing guys, and Mizuki was there playing guitar. All in all it was a good time, made even more satisfying by the day I had had.
Now today I came in to work early (6:00) on Sunday to re-record all those tapes. We're going to have a grand golf charity game today, which all the teachers will be doing. Hopefully made more fun by the appearance of my most favorite people ever? We shall see!