And 10 things
1. Tonight is Ice Cream Sunday, I declared, as Grainne and I decided we will eat ice cream and watch Sex and the City because it’s Sunday night, the start of our weekend even though she’s actually doing an overtime shift tomorrow. I bought two little (they really are small!) cups of ice cream and I will eat both of them because according to Grainne who used to work for a dentist, it’s better to eat a bunch of sweet things at once then continually over a long time. And after this, I will make a vow to stop eating junk food. Again. After Pancake Tuesday at the Hula Café.
2. What is it about pizza that just makes you go wild? I mean really.
3. Yumi, the new Japanese staff at my Kotoen Nova branch called me kirei and kawaii (pretty and cute, and cute, by the way is the most overused adjective over here. Ever. Along with sugoi, great.). Thanks, I said, blushing. And then she told me many students say that after my lessons. It's good to hear when it's painful to go to work and I hate my job. Silver linings.
4. My school is closing on March 11th, 3 weeks before I leave this hell hole. That makes me sad for many reasons. One, I won’t get to finish at MY school. My last day won’t be MY last day; it will be everyone’s last day. Two, Nova will ship me off to some awful school like Nishikita AKA The Toolbox because it’s full of tools. Three, the students at my little school are lovely and I don’t want them to have to deal with larger more impersonal schools. Four, it just means that when I leave Japan Kotoen simply won’t be there anymore. Many students have asked me where I’m transferring too and that makes me happy because they want to follow me there.
5. I almost got in a fight with Toshiko a 65-year-old woman when I was doing a help shift at The Toolbox on Thursday. We were in Voice with 2 other people and we started on the Would You Rather questions. Would you rather be happy or rich? Would you rather be deaf or blind? Well, these did not sit happily with this old bag who made no sense when she was talking and she took offense to the questions. And then I got defensive because they’re just HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS. I was read to smack her. Would you rather I beat you up or threw you out the window? Finally, Reiko this university student blurted out, “Which is better America or Europe?” Toshiko, the cow, said she didn’t know about that but we moved on when I said, “Nara or Kyoto?” even though I still wanted to hit her.
6. Today at Okamoto, Ruben asked me if I found out about flights home and I said, no, not yet. “Are you going home for a vacation?” Caroline, a girl who talks because no one else wants to talk to her ever because she’s one of the most annoying people on the planet, asked. “No, I’m going home. Forever.” Everyone laughed. “You relish in saying that, don’t you?” Rob the Canadian AKA the guy who yells JUSTICE every time a justice lesson is open, said. Yes, yes I do.
7. I reread Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I finished it in like 3 days. The first time I read it was the summer of 2001 after my first year in college working as a receptionist for a real estate company. I loved it then, thought it was brilliant. And now? Ugh. Cheese galore. I was so bored throughout the whole thing except when Midori, the one character I loved, was in the picture. It’s funny how you can reread a book and just feel so different. Maybe I’m different?
8. In the Voice room we talked about movies, actors, actresses, and then books being made into movies. We got on The Da Vinci Code and the Louvre and how rude Chinese tourists are. I love when the Japanese Chinese-hate. Because I can totally agree with them. Because it’s so true.
9. It was one of my goals to write a story by the end of this month. I have two days left and I’m almost done, already up to 17 pages. 17 freakin pages! Before I could barely make it past 6 pages and here I am at triple that. Does that mean I’m getting better or worse? Probably the latter because seriously, I think my writing sounds like a ten-year-old’s except for some curse words like fuck sprinkled throughout.
10. I have become addicted to pre-made egg salad sandwiches. The biggest problem with them though? The damn Japanese cut the crusts off of all their bread. What the hell? No crust is for pussies.
2. What is it about pizza that just makes you go wild? I mean really.
3. Yumi, the new Japanese staff at my Kotoen Nova branch called me kirei and kawaii (pretty and cute, and cute, by the way is the most overused adjective over here. Ever. Along with sugoi, great.). Thanks, I said, blushing. And then she told me many students say that after my lessons. It's good to hear when it's painful to go to work and I hate my job. Silver linings.
4. My school is closing on March 11th, 3 weeks before I leave this hell hole. That makes me sad for many reasons. One, I won’t get to finish at MY school. My last day won’t be MY last day; it will be everyone’s last day. Two, Nova will ship me off to some awful school like Nishikita AKA The Toolbox because it’s full of tools. Three, the students at my little school are lovely and I don’t want them to have to deal with larger more impersonal schools. Four, it just means that when I leave Japan Kotoen simply won’t be there anymore. Many students have asked me where I’m transferring too and that makes me happy because they want to follow me there.
5. I almost got in a fight with Toshiko a 65-year-old woman when I was doing a help shift at The Toolbox on Thursday. We were in Voice with 2 other people and we started on the Would You Rather questions. Would you rather be happy or rich? Would you rather be deaf or blind? Well, these did not sit happily with this old bag who made no sense when she was talking and she took offense to the questions. And then I got defensive because they’re just HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS. I was read to smack her. Would you rather I beat you up or threw you out the window? Finally, Reiko this university student blurted out, “Which is better America or Europe?” Toshiko, the cow, said she didn’t know about that but we moved on when I said, “Nara or Kyoto?” even though I still wanted to hit her.
6. Today at Okamoto, Ruben asked me if I found out about flights home and I said, no, not yet. “Are you going home for a vacation?” Caroline, a girl who talks because no one else wants to talk to her ever because she’s one of the most annoying people on the planet, asked. “No, I’m going home. Forever.” Everyone laughed. “You relish in saying that, don’t you?” Rob the Canadian AKA the guy who yells JUSTICE every time a justice lesson is open, said. Yes, yes I do.
7. I reread Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I finished it in like 3 days. The first time I read it was the summer of 2001 after my first year in college working as a receptionist for a real estate company. I loved it then, thought it was brilliant. And now? Ugh. Cheese galore. I was so bored throughout the whole thing except when Midori, the one character I loved, was in the picture. It’s funny how you can reread a book and just feel so different. Maybe I’m different?
8. In the Voice room we talked about movies, actors, actresses, and then books being made into movies. We got on The Da Vinci Code and the Louvre and how rude Chinese tourists are. I love when the Japanese Chinese-hate. Because I can totally agree with them. Because it’s so true.
9. It was one of my goals to write a story by the end of this month. I have two days left and I’m almost done, already up to 17 pages. 17 freakin pages! Before I could barely make it past 6 pages and here I am at triple that. Does that mean I’m getting better or worse? Probably the latter because seriously, I think my writing sounds like a ten-year-old’s except for some curse words like fuck sprinkled throughout.
10. I have become addicted to pre-made egg salad sandwiches. The biggest problem with them though? The damn Japanese cut the crusts off of all their bread. What the hell? No crust is for pussies.