2004-04-30
Slow down, ya move too fast
I don't have a terrible lot to update, but I thought I'd just drop in and say hi to everyone before the weekend. The Campus Ministries group (at least, what's left of it since most of the students are gone for Golden Week) is heading to Yokohama tomorrow. There's a special service of some kind at the Kamenokoyama church (I can never say that right). Some of the group are speaking at an afternoon meeting, and as of right now I'm not scheduled to do anything. You never know, though--like I told my folks, they may ask me for a forty minute sermon at 10:30 in the morning.
I'm pretty excited about this trip, since it will be the first time I have gone to Yokohama, and even though Yokohama is the Art Garfunkel to Tokyo's Paul Simon, it IS where the Japanese SDA headquarters is. I know there's some borderline-sacrilegious joke in there someplace but I'm a little too tired to find it. I'll leave this one up to you all. After the service I've heard rumours about heading into the Yokohama Chinatown.
Oh, yesterday afternoon John and I took Violet, Satsuki and one of their friends into Mobara to do some shopping. I'd foolishly told them that I would see about taking them shopping since they're marooned here on campus for Golden Week, then thought twice about it and decided to get the obligation out of the way immediately. Besides, Amanda was tired and opted not to go, so there was plenty of room in the car (read: No excuse for them to do something outrageous like climb into my lap or something.) The trip went well, although my initial impressions about their similarities to my aunties were most definitely CONFIRMED. The entire trip they were talking in rapid-fire Japanese and occasional broken but equally rapid English. I'm inoculated to it because of my interactions with my aunts but I think it started to wear on John's last nerve. I think they picked up on it and predictably turned all their attention on him the last fifteen minutes of the trip while I sat back and laughed like a turncoat hyena.
Well, we went to the market today and I picked up, among other things, cheap salmon sashimi and NAAN! THEY HAVE NAAN IN MY GROCERY STORE! I think I'll go home right about now and fire it up.
Happy Sabbath to all, and to all a good night.
Friday, April 30, 2004
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
"Son, a woman is a lot like a refrigerator! They're about 6 feet tall, 300 lbs. They make ice and ... um ... Oh, wait a minute. Actually, a woman is more like a beer! They look good, they smell good, you'd step over your own mother just to get one! But you can't stop at one. You wanna drink another woman!" --Homer Simpson's advice to Bart on women
2004-04-29
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you
Tuesday saw an enormous storm come ripping through here. One of my students (well, she's not actually in my class, but she's a first-year English student) was walking around outside and had her umbrella get destroyed when a big ol' gust of wind grabbed it and bent a couple of the spokes. It was insane. I was a little worried about Amanda because she has to go out to the SDA elementary school on Tuesdays, and the school is a 45-minute drive from here. People drive really slow (I think the speed limit on the road is 40 km/h, which is right about 25 mph) but the car she was driving makes a Honda Civic look like a Humvee. She got there and back fine, though, and I guess she's enjoying working with the kids there.
Ugh. My early morning class began today. Thursday and Fridays I now have class from 7:30-8:30 am. The students don't like it either--they were all dead tired in my conversation class today. I had them play a game which they seemed to like, and I'm not afraid to admit that I shamelessly pilfered it from my Greek I class. It was a vocabulary game which was designed to improve their vocab and spelling in anticipation of a unit quiz today. From a cursory scan of the quizzes, they seemed to do better than last time so I guess it worked. The one thing was that I played the game a couple days ago with them, and part of the game involves me acting out the vocabulary words "go biking", "go swimming", etc. Some old guy was observing classes that morning and walked in just as I was draped across a desk miming the action of "swimming". I don't know what his impression was--like I said these people have never seen anything like me.
Well, Satsuki and Violet--two of the Okinawan girls who have been following me around--embarrassed me again today, but that's okay because I got them back but good. They started asking me all these questions like "Do you have a girlfriend?" and such and then Violet points to herself and goes, "Me?" and I turn crimson and start laughing nervously. This time, though, I was ready, and I told them that they should go after boys their age, like maybe some of the other first-year English students. Of course, they started making faces and things and stating in no uncertain terms that it was the worst idea they'd ever heard. I kept pressing the issue, though, and then (glory!) Satsuki turned all Judas on her partner in crime and confessed that there was one boy in the class that Violet kind of likes. Of course, being the big ol' jerk that I am, I promptly jumped all over that and started saying that oh yes, he's a nice boy, and if I see him I'll definitely drop her name into the conversation and suggest that she's nice and SOMEBODY ought to date her, and hey, HE doesn't have a girlfriend, and how 'bout that...
Of course, Violet didn't think this was so much fun anymore (actually, I think she liked it, but she was legit embarrassed) and I was laughing like a crazed maniac at how evil I was being. Haw haw. Maybe I am getting settled in after all. Yeah, this American teacher gots a little wasabi in his blood after all, eh? How you like me now? Of course, you know I've got a big smile on my face and am saying all this as lovingly as possible. I'm just giddy that maybe all this stuff will in fact blow over and I can get on with a normal teacher's life.
Unlikely, yes. But a brother can dream.
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you
Tuesday saw an enormous storm come ripping through here. One of my students (well, she's not actually in my class, but she's a first-year English student) was walking around outside and had her umbrella get destroyed when a big ol' gust of wind grabbed it and bent a couple of the spokes. It was insane. I was a little worried about Amanda because she has to go out to the SDA elementary school on Tuesdays, and the school is a 45-minute drive from here. People drive really slow (I think the speed limit on the road is 40 km/h, which is right about 25 mph) but the car she was driving makes a Honda Civic look like a Humvee. She got there and back fine, though, and I guess she's enjoying working with the kids there.
Ugh. My early morning class began today. Thursday and Fridays I now have class from 7:30-8:30 am. The students don't like it either--they were all dead tired in my conversation class today. I had them play a game which they seemed to like, and I'm not afraid to admit that I shamelessly pilfered it from my Greek I class. It was a vocabulary game which was designed to improve their vocab and spelling in anticipation of a unit quiz today. From a cursory scan of the quizzes, they seemed to do better than last time so I guess it worked. The one thing was that I played the game a couple days ago with them, and part of the game involves me acting out the vocabulary words "go biking", "go swimming", etc. Some old guy was observing classes that morning and walked in just as I was draped across a desk miming the action of "swimming". I don't know what his impression was--like I said these people have never seen anything like me.
Well, Satsuki and Violet--two of the Okinawan girls who have been following me around--embarrassed me again today, but that's okay because I got them back but good. They started asking me all these questions like "Do you have a girlfriend?" and such and then Violet points to herself and goes, "Me?" and I turn crimson and start laughing nervously. This time, though, I was ready, and I told them that they should go after boys their age, like maybe some of the other first-year English students. Of course, they started making faces and things and stating in no uncertain terms that it was the worst idea they'd ever heard. I kept pressing the issue, though, and then (glory!) Satsuki turned all Judas on her partner in crime and confessed that there was one boy in the class that Violet kind of likes. Of course, being the big ol' jerk that I am, I promptly jumped all over that and started saying that oh yes, he's a nice boy, and if I see him I'll definitely drop her name into the conversation and suggest that she's nice and SOMEBODY ought to date her, and hey, HE doesn't have a girlfriend, and how 'bout that...
Of course, Violet didn't think this was so much fun anymore (actually, I think she liked it, but she was legit embarrassed) and I was laughing like a crazed maniac at how evil I was being. Haw haw. Maybe I am getting settled in after all. Yeah, this American teacher gots a little wasabi in his blood after all, eh? How you like me now? Of course, you know I've got a big smile on my face and am saying all this as lovingly as possible. I'm just giddy that maybe all this stuff will in fact blow over and I can get on with a normal teacher's life.
Unlikely, yes. But a brother can dream.
Monday, April 26, 2004
2004-04-26
It's can't be boring if the spaghetti's blue
This weekend was relatively light. At least compared to the last two weeks. The only speaking-type appointment I had was running an English Bible Study that we've started up on Saturday afternoons. It's kinda not so good because the weather is turning really nice now, and I'd like to be outside taking walks and macking on women and such. But then again, it IS a time that the students don't have anything else going on, and there are lots of non-Christian students here, AND we've been advertising this as a chance to practice English. So it's a good thing.
Satsuki, one of my English students, showed up this week. Her grandparents are apparently SDAs, which is how she got introduced to this school. She's one of the girls who's kinda fond of me and in spite of that, I gotta admit I'm a bit protective of her because one, she's from Okinawa and we gotta stick together and two, she's not hugely fat but she's not skinny either. Don't get me wrong, I think she's the cutest thing ever, but I've heard bad stories about how kids here can be unbelievably mean to other kids who are different and being overweight is one major Difference. The good thing is that she's super-nice to everyone so all the students love her. At least, nobody's talked bad about her yet so that's good, 'cause then I'd have to go all gonzo medieval on someone's behind. Anyway, she showed up to the Bible study and stayed on the English side. I tried to gear the study towards her, keeping in mind that she didn't know anything about "The Bible" or "Christianity". I hope I didn't put her in the spotlight too much and make her uncomfortable, but it seemed at the end like she was planning on coming back so that's good.
John has two friends visiting from the States so we took them into Mobara to do some shopping on Saturday night. We hung out at a used electronics store and then went to eat at the only cheap restaurant I've ever seen in Japan. One of the guys ordered some god-awful spaghetti concoction that was BLUE. I guess it was some kind of squid or shrimp or some freaky thing kinda sauce but it looked horrible. He didn't seem too displeased so hey, whatever floats yer boat, but that was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.
THEN yesterday I did some laundry and went down to the office to get caught up on the news since I am dead to the world from Friday afternoon until Sunday. I also burned a CD of songs that Amanda wanted and took them over to her office. And we ended up talking and sorta losing track of the time. We started talking around probably 2:30 and I didn't leave the office until after 7. Good heavens. There was never any period of awkward silence or dead air or anything. I tells ya, that is one incredible woman. Now the trick is convincing her of that. I've got a little less than four months to do it.
It's can't be boring if the spaghetti's blue
This weekend was relatively light. At least compared to the last two weeks. The only speaking-type appointment I had was running an English Bible Study that we've started up on Saturday afternoons. It's kinda not so good because the weather is turning really nice now, and I'd like to be outside taking walks and macking on women and such. But then again, it IS a time that the students don't have anything else going on, and there are lots of non-Christian students here, AND we've been advertising this as a chance to practice English. So it's a good thing.
Satsuki, one of my English students, showed up this week. Her grandparents are apparently SDAs, which is how she got introduced to this school. She's one of the girls who's kinda fond of me and in spite of that, I gotta admit I'm a bit protective of her because one, she's from Okinawa and we gotta stick together and two, she's not hugely fat but she's not skinny either. Don't get me wrong, I think she's the cutest thing ever, but I've heard bad stories about how kids here can be unbelievably mean to other kids who are different and being overweight is one major Difference. The good thing is that she's super-nice to everyone so all the students love her. At least, nobody's talked bad about her yet so that's good, 'cause then I'd have to go all gonzo medieval on someone's behind. Anyway, she showed up to the Bible study and stayed on the English side. I tried to gear the study towards her, keeping in mind that she didn't know anything about "The Bible" or "Christianity". I hope I didn't put her in the spotlight too much and make her uncomfortable, but it seemed at the end like she was planning on coming back so that's good.
John has two friends visiting from the States so we took them into Mobara to do some shopping on Saturday night. We hung out at a used electronics store and then went to eat at the only cheap restaurant I've ever seen in Japan. One of the guys ordered some god-awful spaghetti concoction that was BLUE. I guess it was some kind of squid or shrimp or some freaky thing kinda sauce but it looked horrible. He didn't seem too displeased so hey, whatever floats yer boat, but that was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.
THEN yesterday I did some laundry and went down to the office to get caught up on the news since I am dead to the world from Friday afternoon until Sunday. I also burned a CD of songs that Amanda wanted and took them over to her office. And we ended up talking and sorta losing track of the time. We started talking around probably 2:30 and I didn't leave the office until after 7. Good heavens. There was never any period of awkward silence or dead air or anything. I tells ya, that is one incredible woman. Now the trick is convincing her of that. I've got a little less than four months to do it.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
2004-04-23
It's Yer Birthday, Baby
Today was the birthday of one of my students. I thought about borrowing a guitar from the Campus Ministries dept. but got lazy. So I got onto my handy-dandy new copy of WinMX and did a search on "happy birthday". Amazingly enough, there WAS a recording of the traditional "Happy Birthday". I was sorta afraid that I'd only find Jay-Z singing Happy Birthday to himself with Kelly Clarkson or something. So I dragged my computer into the classroom and played the recording. I think the students liked it, and it embarrassed the heck out of the dude who had the birthday, so of course it was a huge success. I threatened the rest of them with similar displays later on. The next birthdays aren't until June, so I hope I remember. Oh yeah, one other weird thing about Japanese culture: A bunch of the guys threw a birthday party in the dorm last night. They started it at midnight, which I guess is technically correct since his birthday DID start at midnight. So anyway, they didn't get to sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning and thus were all bleary-eyed today. I guess we did stupid stuff like that when I was in college so I don't have room to rag on them excessively.
Ugh. Yesterday, I sat in a meeting for an hour and a half not understanding anything. I did get to work on a side-project I've been trying, which is memorizing the Sermon on the Mount. I worked on Matthew 5 all last week and got ALL of chapter 6 in the hour and a half. I've got the KJV on my Visor Edge so that's what I did in the meeting. I'm going to ask them to take me off, though. I can't understand anything anyway, so I don't feel comfortable actually voting--which they do.
Despite the long meeting of incoherent babbling, I've been on this job for about two weeks now and my verdict so far is I LOVE THIS JOB! The classroom stuff is challenging, particularly with the language difficulties, and I'm sure there will come some rough sailing in the future, but so far it's been great. I like being in a campus setting again, with all the programs and activities and such going on. And the one major source of anxiety before I started--the socializing part of the job--has gone remarkably well. The students have responded to me better than I ever imagined. And I sincerely enjoy having them in class. I'm actually looking forward to working with them more throughout the year. I don't know what they think of me, though. They probably haven't seen anything quite like me in their lives, so I do wonder just how effective I am as a teacher. I hope the difference doesn't end up being a distraction, like "So what crazy stuff do you think K will do today?"
Just wait and see, folks. Just you wait. YA AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET!
It's Yer Birthday, Baby
Today was the birthday of one of my students. I thought about borrowing a guitar from the Campus Ministries dept. but got lazy. So I got onto my handy-dandy new copy of WinMX and did a search on "happy birthday". Amazingly enough, there WAS a recording of the traditional "Happy Birthday". I was sorta afraid that I'd only find Jay-Z singing Happy Birthday to himself with Kelly Clarkson or something. So I dragged my computer into the classroom and played the recording. I think the students liked it, and it embarrassed the heck out of the dude who had the birthday, so of course it was a huge success. I threatened the rest of them with similar displays later on. The next birthdays aren't until June, so I hope I remember. Oh yeah, one other weird thing about Japanese culture: A bunch of the guys threw a birthday party in the dorm last night. They started it at midnight, which I guess is technically correct since his birthday DID start at midnight. So anyway, they didn't get to sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning and thus were all bleary-eyed today. I guess we did stupid stuff like that when I was in college so I don't have room to rag on them excessively.
Ugh. Yesterday, I sat in a meeting for an hour and a half not understanding anything. I did get to work on a side-project I've been trying, which is memorizing the Sermon on the Mount. I worked on Matthew 5 all last week and got ALL of chapter 6 in the hour and a half. I've got the KJV on my Visor Edge so that's what I did in the meeting. I'm going to ask them to take me off, though. I can't understand anything anyway, so I don't feel comfortable actually voting--which they do.
Despite the long meeting of incoherent babbling, I've been on this job for about two weeks now and my verdict so far is I LOVE THIS JOB! The classroom stuff is challenging, particularly with the language difficulties, and I'm sure there will come some rough sailing in the future, but so far it's been great. I like being in a campus setting again, with all the programs and activities and such going on. And the one major source of anxiety before I started--the socializing part of the job--has gone remarkably well. The students have responded to me better than I ever imagined. And I sincerely enjoy having them in class. I'm actually looking forward to working with them more throughout the year. I don't know what they think of me, though. They probably haven't seen anything quite like me in their lives, so I do wonder just how effective I am as a teacher. I hope the difference doesn't end up being a distraction, like "So what crazy stuff do you think K will do today?"
Just wait and see, folks. Just you wait. YA AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET!
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
2004-04-21
I bow down and pray to every woman I see
So last Sabbath was the English worship service. I spoke about one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of my dealing with women. I now have another chapter to add to that dubious history!
Some of the staff here spent time in Korea and apparently learned some Tae Kwon Do. This Monday they started up a TKD club/class/group. I have meetings on Monday nights so I can't go, but last night I was free so I told one of the instructors that I'd be there. Now, from what I read on the 'net about the relative merits of various martial arts, TKD is pretty much the last thing you want to know if you're in a real fight. It looks cool and all, with the emphasis on jumping/spinning kicks, but people say that it's not the greatest thing against someone else trained in fighting because there are all kinds of ways to counter kicks and hurt someone. But hey, it's exercise, and besides I developed my own martial art a long time ago. It's called "throw spare change at the other guy's face and run away". I'm not planning to get into a fight with anyone soon, so why not get some exercise and practice kicking things?
Well, I walk into the class with John and we're the only two guys in this room full of girls. Great. What's more, when the class starts the instructors are talking in Japanese so I couldn't understand anything! When you get down to it, though, it's pretty much just "fighting stance", "kick forward", so it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on. We went through some basic stretches and simple kicking motions, and that's when the mischief started.
See, read the heading for this entry one more time, then take one guess as to who was teaching the class. Hint: She spent time in Korea and is now working with Korean people here. I also had an awkward run-in with her a few days ago. Yes! The teacher (or one of the teachers) was none other than Ms. M, who never fails to derail my brain train whenever she's around. But everything was cool--I figured this might be a nice chance to redeem myself by actually, you know, acting like a human being around her. So it was going great until we got into the real exercises.
The first exercise was a "kakato otoshi" which is actually a term I know from watching Japanese pro wrestling. It involves lifting your leg above your head and bringing it down. The idea is to kick someone in the face with your heel. Anyone who's ever seen me do anything athletic knows that I can't lift my leg above my head, so this exercise would be something of a problem. Full of zeal and enthusiasm, however, I decided to give it a try. Moromizato-san was holding the target we were supposed to kick at. It came to my turn, I stepped up and kicked at the target she was holding. And then, well, I ended up on my back. RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER. I don't know if I was so enthusastic I kicked both my legs out at the same time, or if I'm so terribly not flexible that raising one leg caused the other to go forward too. Whatever the case, I hit the deck. Hard. This whole gym full of girls let out a huge gasp.
Fortunately, I remember how to fall from my self-defense course in college, so I automatically threw my arms out to the sides so my back and head didn't get hurt. I did land on my posterior, though, so I'm having a little bit of trouble walking today. The worst casualty by far was my pride, but that's probably okay. Just in case I'm getting too used to groups of college girls following me around, this happens and reminds me that I'm still a clumsy, awkward geek at heart.
As for M-san, she smiled all prettily and said hi when she saw me today, so apparently we're cool with each other. At least until the next time I lose my mind.
I bow down and pray to every woman I see
So last Sabbath was the English worship service. I spoke about one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of my dealing with women. I now have another chapter to add to that dubious history!
Some of the staff here spent time in Korea and apparently learned some Tae Kwon Do. This Monday they started up a TKD club/class/group. I have meetings on Monday nights so I can't go, but last night I was free so I told one of the instructors that I'd be there. Now, from what I read on the 'net about the relative merits of various martial arts, TKD is pretty much the last thing you want to know if you're in a real fight. It looks cool and all, with the emphasis on jumping/spinning kicks, but people say that it's not the greatest thing against someone else trained in fighting because there are all kinds of ways to counter kicks and hurt someone. But hey, it's exercise, and besides I developed my own martial art a long time ago. It's called "throw spare change at the other guy's face and run away". I'm not planning to get into a fight with anyone soon, so why not get some exercise and practice kicking things?
Well, I walk into the class with John and we're the only two guys in this room full of girls. Great. What's more, when the class starts the instructors are talking in Japanese so I couldn't understand anything! When you get down to it, though, it's pretty much just "fighting stance", "kick forward", so it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on. We went through some basic stretches and simple kicking motions, and that's when the mischief started.
See, read the heading for this entry one more time, then take one guess as to who was teaching the class. Hint: She spent time in Korea and is now working with Korean people here. I also had an awkward run-in with her a few days ago. Yes! The teacher (or one of the teachers) was none other than Ms. M, who never fails to derail my brain train whenever she's around. But everything was cool--I figured this might be a nice chance to redeem myself by actually, you know, acting like a human being around her. So it was going great until we got into the real exercises.
The first exercise was a "kakato otoshi" which is actually a term I know from watching Japanese pro wrestling. It involves lifting your leg above your head and bringing it down. The idea is to kick someone in the face with your heel. Anyone who's ever seen me do anything athletic knows that I can't lift my leg above my head, so this exercise would be something of a problem. Full of zeal and enthusiasm, however, I decided to give it a try. Moromizato-san was holding the target we were supposed to kick at. It came to my turn, I stepped up and kicked at the target she was holding. And then, well, I ended up on my back. RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER. I don't know if I was so enthusastic I kicked both my legs out at the same time, or if I'm so terribly not flexible that raising one leg caused the other to go forward too. Whatever the case, I hit the deck. Hard. This whole gym full of girls let out a huge gasp.
Fortunately, I remember how to fall from my self-defense course in college, so I automatically threw my arms out to the sides so my back and head didn't get hurt. I did land on my posterior, though, so I'm having a little bit of trouble walking today. The worst casualty by far was my pride, but that's probably okay. Just in case I'm getting too used to groups of college girls following me around, this happens and reminds me that I'm still a clumsy, awkward geek at heart.
As for M-san, she smiled all prettily and said hi when she saw me today, so apparently we're cool with each other. At least until the next time I lose my mind.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
2004-04-18
If I might be serious for a moment...
I'm glad that this can be a source of amusement for the people I know and love, because I like to help people laugh. This update, however, I'm intending to be fairly serious. Not because I'm in a terrible mood or anything, it's just that something happened over the weekend that's caused me to do some reflecting on heavier issues. I guess it's appropriate, though. The Bible itself says "there is a time for everything under the sun". A time for recording silly stories about overzealous Okinawan girls, and a time for serious thinking. That's the plan, anyway. It might unravel into a giant fart joke parade or something by the time I'm done.
As I detailed in an earlier entry, we had our first English Dept. Worship Service of the year. I found out one week in advance that we would be doing this on the 17th, and a few days after THAT discovered that I was in charge of getting the whole thing together. All this while I was dealing with the beginning of classes, preparing short mid-week worship talks, and battling an evil Voice Stealing Disease. It became obvious on Friday that the service was going to have a very thrown-together feel to it. Example: Our bulletins were simple half-sheets of plain paper with the absolute bare-bones details of the service. At best, it was gonna be a little...ragged. At worst, well, I didn't want to think about the worst.
The morning of the service I discovered that the PA system was ridiculously "hot" and the mikes were feeding back like crazy. We had no offering plates or songbooks. These got taken care of but such developments did nothing for my confidence. Then at the start of the service we had maybe 7 people in the congregation. Not a big deal to me--I'll speak my heart out for 7 people or 7000 people, but I was thinking it was probably not what the administrators had in mind. At about 11:10, though, a big gob of mostly first year students came in so by the time I got up to speak the small chapel was pretty full. I'd guess that at the peak there were maybe 50 people there. I know we had 30 songbooks and ran out.
So my talk...I did a rehash of my talk where I illustrate the Prodigal Son parable with the story of me running face-first into a door because of a girl at WWC. This is normally a fun talk for me to give because 1) it's a really silly story and 2) the message is truly what I'd want to say to people if I had only one talk to give. UNfortunately, however, I ran into some complications. Because many of the people in attendance have only a rudimentary grasp of English, and because this sermon is super-heavy on colloquialisms and cute little phrases that are even unique to me, I had to change the wording. Massively. What resulted was me talking veeeerrrrryyyy sssllllooowwwlllyyy and using simple language, which completely killed the flow of the talk. I also ran over my usual time by about 15-20 minutes. By the time I was done, my voice was destroyed. Even with the watered-down language, I don't think most of the students could follow what I was saying. If they got 25% of the message I'd feel lucky. And because of the simplified language I'm not sure how meaningful it was to the native/expert speakers. I walked out of the service feeling okay but like I missed the target on most of the audience.
We had an English bible study session in the afternoon so I didn't get back to my apartment until about 4:00. I was so exhausted I tried to sleep but for some reason I couldn't get to sleep. I guess I was focusing on the service, what could have gone better, and what to do for next time. Finally at 5:00 I gave up on sleep and decided to go for a walk. And that's where it happened. Just as I started the walk, up the main road into the college where the long line of sakura trees stands, three people were coming back my direction. Turns out they had been at the service and heard me speak. They said I'd done a good job, and then one of the ladies said in halting English, "The message touched my heart. I had to leave at the end because I was crying. Jesus spoke through you today."
THAT stopped me dead in my tracks. I thanked them profusely for their kind words and let them go on their way. As I turned to continue on, I was the one with misty eyes. Ever since the first time I got up to speak in front of people what, 10 years ago at senior week of prayer at WWVA, I've prayed the same short prayer. Just that through my talk, God will touch one person in the congregation. Just one. If he gives me more that's great, but my goal in each talk is for one person to hear God speaking to them. Well--he gave me one. Even when I was all stressed out over the thrown-together service. Even when I had all these misgivings about the language, the time, my awful voice giving out, etc. Hearing that lady say that restored my focus. Hey, if I'm here to have people say I'm doing a great job, then I might as well go home. Period. People said that in Sacramento. People said that in Loma Linda. People said that in Walla Walla. And it's sure easier to communicate what I want to say back home! I came here because of one thing: I felt like this was the center of God's will for me at this time, that he had some reason for working it out that I could be here. And if I am truly here to give glory to God and discover what "being in the center of his will" means for my life, then the Charlie Brown bulletins, the hot PA, the Phlegm Phairy partying like it was 1999 in my voice box--none of those things mattered. Even the fact that most people there couldn't understand what I was trying to say didn't really matter. God had a message for that woman that morning, and the message (at least the message I tried to give) was that God loves her. Whatever hurts she was carrying around, whatever secret pain or guilt was weighing on her, if she was rejected and betrayed by everyone who mattered, there was and is someone who looks at her and says, "That's my girl! Whom I love! I will never give her up."
Okay, I just thought of something really amusing to close with. A priest, a rabbi and a minister are in a Mexican restaurant...just kidding. It's not a fart joke, I promise. After the service, I was in the back shaking hands and stuff, when these three girls come up to me with those aforementioned crummy bulletins. They've got pens in their hands and they ASKED ME TO AUTOGRAPH their Pic N' Save Charlie Brown bulletins. Since this is a first for me, I wasn't exactly sure what to do, but I went ahead and signed them. I SWEAR, when I come back I am so gonna be a total big-headed diva. I'll pastor your church, but I want my office painted all white and decorated with white orchids. And a bottle of Evian on my desk every morning. Thanks, dahling. And yes, I am counting on some of you to slap the taste outta my mouth if I do that.
If I might be serious for a moment...
I'm glad that this can be a source of amusement for the people I know and love, because I like to help people laugh. This update, however, I'm intending to be fairly serious. Not because I'm in a terrible mood or anything, it's just that something happened over the weekend that's caused me to do some reflecting on heavier issues. I guess it's appropriate, though. The Bible itself says "there is a time for everything under the sun". A time for recording silly stories about overzealous Okinawan girls, and a time for serious thinking. That's the plan, anyway. It might unravel into a giant fart joke parade or something by the time I'm done.
As I detailed in an earlier entry, we had our first English Dept. Worship Service of the year. I found out one week in advance that we would be doing this on the 17th, and a few days after THAT discovered that I was in charge of getting the whole thing together. All this while I was dealing with the beginning of classes, preparing short mid-week worship talks, and battling an evil Voice Stealing Disease. It became obvious on Friday that the service was going to have a very thrown-together feel to it. Example: Our bulletins were simple half-sheets of plain paper with the absolute bare-bones details of the service. At best, it was gonna be a little...ragged. At worst, well, I didn't want to think about the worst.
The morning of the service I discovered that the PA system was ridiculously "hot" and the mikes were feeding back like crazy. We had no offering plates or songbooks. These got taken care of but such developments did nothing for my confidence. Then at the start of the service we had maybe 7 people in the congregation. Not a big deal to me--I'll speak my heart out for 7 people or 7000 people, but I was thinking it was probably not what the administrators had in mind. At about 11:10, though, a big gob of mostly first year students came in so by the time I got up to speak the small chapel was pretty full. I'd guess that at the peak there were maybe 50 people there. I know we had 30 songbooks and ran out.
So my talk...I did a rehash of my talk where I illustrate the Prodigal Son parable with the story of me running face-first into a door because of a girl at WWC. This is normally a fun talk for me to give because 1) it's a really silly story and 2) the message is truly what I'd want to say to people if I had only one talk to give. UNfortunately, however, I ran into some complications. Because many of the people in attendance have only a rudimentary grasp of English, and because this sermon is super-heavy on colloquialisms and cute little phrases that are even unique to me, I had to change the wording. Massively. What resulted was me talking veeeerrrrryyyy sssllllooowwwlllyyy and using simple language, which completely killed the flow of the talk. I also ran over my usual time by about 15-20 minutes. By the time I was done, my voice was destroyed. Even with the watered-down language, I don't think most of the students could follow what I was saying. If they got 25% of the message I'd feel lucky. And because of the simplified language I'm not sure how meaningful it was to the native/expert speakers. I walked out of the service feeling okay but like I missed the target on most of the audience.
We had an English bible study session in the afternoon so I didn't get back to my apartment until about 4:00. I was so exhausted I tried to sleep but for some reason I couldn't get to sleep. I guess I was focusing on the service, what could have gone better, and what to do for next time. Finally at 5:00 I gave up on sleep and decided to go for a walk. And that's where it happened. Just as I started the walk, up the main road into the college where the long line of sakura trees stands, three people were coming back my direction. Turns out they had been at the service and heard me speak. They said I'd done a good job, and then one of the ladies said in halting English, "The message touched my heart. I had to leave at the end because I was crying. Jesus spoke through you today."
THAT stopped me dead in my tracks. I thanked them profusely for their kind words and let them go on their way. As I turned to continue on, I was the one with misty eyes. Ever since the first time I got up to speak in front of people what, 10 years ago at senior week of prayer at WWVA, I've prayed the same short prayer. Just that through my talk, God will touch one person in the congregation. Just one. If he gives me more that's great, but my goal in each talk is for one person to hear God speaking to them. Well--he gave me one. Even when I was all stressed out over the thrown-together service. Even when I had all these misgivings about the language, the time, my awful voice giving out, etc. Hearing that lady say that restored my focus. Hey, if I'm here to have people say I'm doing a great job, then I might as well go home. Period. People said that in Sacramento. People said that in Loma Linda. People said that in Walla Walla. And it's sure easier to communicate what I want to say back home! I came here because of one thing: I felt like this was the center of God's will for me at this time, that he had some reason for working it out that I could be here. And if I am truly here to give glory to God and discover what "being in the center of his will" means for my life, then the Charlie Brown bulletins, the hot PA, the Phlegm Phairy partying like it was 1999 in my voice box--none of those things mattered. Even the fact that most people there couldn't understand what I was trying to say didn't really matter. God had a message for that woman that morning, and the message (at least the message I tried to give) was that God loves her. Whatever hurts she was carrying around, whatever secret pain or guilt was weighing on her, if she was rejected and betrayed by everyone who mattered, there was and is someone who looks at her and says, "That's my girl! Whom I love! I will never give her up."
Okay, I just thought of something really amusing to close with. A priest, a rabbi and a minister are in a Mexican restaurant...just kidding. It's not a fart joke, I promise. After the service, I was in the back shaking hands and stuff, when these three girls come up to me with those aforementioned crummy bulletins. They've got pens in their hands and they ASKED ME TO AUTOGRAPH their Pic N' Save Charlie Brown bulletins. Since this is a first for me, I wasn't exactly sure what to do, but I went ahead and signed them. I SWEAR, when I come back I am so gonna be a total big-headed diva. I'll pastor your church, but I want my office painted all white and decorated with white orchids. And a bottle of Evian on my desk every morning. Thanks, dahling. And yes, I am counting on some of you to slap the taste outta my mouth if I do that.
Friday, April 16, 2004
2004-04-16
The more things change...
...the more they stay the same. I've been documenting all these new experiences here, and it is true, a lot is changing. Some people have written to me telling me how entertaining it is to read all my fish-out-of-water stories. And I have to admit, it has been interesting if nothing else. Japan does keep me on my toes.
However, there are some things which never change. Here's a little story to show that even though I'm in a new place, doing a new job, meeting new people, I'm still the same person inside.
Yesterday evening there was a Welcome Party for the new faculty and staff. Yeah, I know, it's a little weird to do this two weeks into the new year, but hey--who am I to argue. So I head on out there and they want all the new teachers to sit in these special seats. They didn't stick us in front of everyone on a platform or anything, so it wasn't quite as brutal as the Valentine's Day party where Kathy and I got shoved up to the front of the CHURCH. But it still was a little weird. And it was about to get WEIRDER~!
I was the second one of the new teachers there. The first one there was Ms. M, who's the super-gorgeous teacher I mentioned in one of my old entries. She's working with this group of five Korean families here to get training in Japanese. I've detected numerous people who might think it cute for the two of us to get together, and I think she's picked up on it too because we're weirdly shy around each other most of the time. Anyway, she got to this party just before me, and sat down in one of the designated seats. When I heard that we had to sit in these certain seats, and she was sitting there looking all beautiful and stuff--I PANICKED. I guess I could (should) have sat down next to her and tried to make conversation, but I don't know how much English she speaks and there's that shy weirdness between us anyway. Plus we'd be in the spotlight and all these people would be looking at us and it'd be the Valentine's party all over again. I can just imagine the president of the college and all the English teachers tapping on their glasses like punks trying to get us to kiss or something. So instead of sitting next to her, I pretended to watch the sunset outside, look at the food they'd prepared, all the time praying that someone else would come and sit next to her and break up the weirdness. But NO ONE CAME BY! I ended up taking a seat like two seats down from her, which in hindsight was probably the most bizarre thing I could have done. She likely thinks I hate her or something. And of course that's not the case, it's just my Japanese isn't good enough to say "It's not that I don't like you, it's just that my train of thought gets completely derailed if I look at you too long, 'cuz you're so pretty and classy and women like you make me scared."
If anyone wants to hook me up with a Japanese translation of that, I'd owe you my firstborn and 2 1/2 cows.
So yeah, I'm still the clueless idiot when it comes to dealing with beautiful women. Nice to know that some things never change. Then right after the party I had to go and do a dorm worship--get this--IN THE WOMEN'S DORM. I am SO sure the campus ministries group set that up with evil intentions in mind. And now for more disturbing news: My fan club has seemingly expanded beyond the English department. The dorm I did the worship in last night is exclusively for nursing students. They make up like 80% of the student body so I guess they do warrant their own dorm. I get there for the worship and several girls start calling out my name trying to talk to me, and of course I don't know their names because they're not my students. THEN I get up to speak and all these giggles ripple through the audience. This is getting very disconcerting.
In happier news, the three Japanese hostages in Iraq were freed, apparently unharmed. I got home last night and saw footage of them. I couldn't understand the news report, but they looked relieved and stuff so I figured they didn't have guns pointed at them anymore. I've been praying for their safety for the last week so I was very happy to see them okay. One of them was an 18-year-old guy, which is like one of my students being held hostage so it was great he's fine. And the woman cracks me up. She said she wants to go back and help the Iraqi people, so she's one brave and tough lady even though her mannerisms are mousy and timid as all get out.
Well, I'm almost done with everything I needed to do for today. I may check and see if the cafeteria is open. I'm out. Happy Sabbath to anyone who's reading.
The more things change...
...the more they stay the same. I've been documenting all these new experiences here, and it is true, a lot is changing. Some people have written to me telling me how entertaining it is to read all my fish-out-of-water stories. And I have to admit, it has been interesting if nothing else. Japan does keep me on my toes.
However, there are some things which never change. Here's a little story to show that even though I'm in a new place, doing a new job, meeting new people, I'm still the same person inside.
Yesterday evening there was a Welcome Party for the new faculty and staff. Yeah, I know, it's a little weird to do this two weeks into the new year, but hey--who am I to argue. So I head on out there and they want all the new teachers to sit in these special seats. They didn't stick us in front of everyone on a platform or anything, so it wasn't quite as brutal as the Valentine's Day party where Kathy and I got shoved up to the front of the CHURCH. But it still was a little weird. And it was about to get WEIRDER~!
I was the second one of the new teachers there. The first one there was Ms. M, who's the super-gorgeous teacher I mentioned in one of my old entries. She's working with this group of five Korean families here to get training in Japanese. I've detected numerous people who might think it cute for the two of us to get together, and I think she's picked up on it too because we're weirdly shy around each other most of the time. Anyway, she got to this party just before me, and sat down in one of the designated seats. When I heard that we had to sit in these certain seats, and she was sitting there looking all beautiful and stuff--I PANICKED. I guess I could (should) have sat down next to her and tried to make conversation, but I don't know how much English she speaks and there's that shy weirdness between us anyway. Plus we'd be in the spotlight and all these people would be looking at us and it'd be the Valentine's party all over again. I can just imagine the president of the college and all the English teachers tapping on their glasses like punks trying to get us to kiss or something. So instead of sitting next to her, I pretended to watch the sunset outside, look at the food they'd prepared, all the time praying that someone else would come and sit next to her and break up the weirdness. But NO ONE CAME BY! I ended up taking a seat like two seats down from her, which in hindsight was probably the most bizarre thing I could have done. She likely thinks I hate her or something. And of course that's not the case, it's just my Japanese isn't good enough to say "It's not that I don't like you, it's just that my train of thought gets completely derailed if I look at you too long, 'cuz you're so pretty and classy and women like you make me scared."
If anyone wants to hook me up with a Japanese translation of that, I'd owe you my firstborn and 2 1/2 cows.
So yeah, I'm still the clueless idiot when it comes to dealing with beautiful women. Nice to know that some things never change. Then right after the party I had to go and do a dorm worship--get this--IN THE WOMEN'S DORM. I am SO sure the campus ministries group set that up with evil intentions in mind. And now for more disturbing news: My fan club has seemingly expanded beyond the English department. The dorm I did the worship in last night is exclusively for nursing students. They make up like 80% of the student body so I guess they do warrant their own dorm. I get there for the worship and several girls start calling out my name trying to talk to me, and of course I don't know their names because they're not my students. THEN I get up to speak and all these giggles ripple through the audience. This is getting very disconcerting.
In happier news, the three Japanese hostages in Iraq were freed, apparently unharmed. I got home last night and saw footage of them. I couldn't understand the news report, but they looked relieved and stuff so I figured they didn't have guns pointed at them anymore. I've been praying for their safety for the last week so I was very happy to see them okay. One of them was an 18-year-old guy, which is like one of my students being held hostage so it was great he's fine. And the woman cracks me up. She said she wants to go back and help the Iraqi people, so she's one brave and tough lady even though her mannerisms are mousy and timid as all get out.
Well, I'm almost done with everything I needed to do for today. I may check and see if the cafeteria is open. I'm out. Happy Sabbath to anyone who's reading.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
2004-04-14
Well, today was a good day on several accounts. The entire population of the college--students, staff and faculty--all had to take health exams. This involved having blood drawn and doing a urine sample, neither of which I was exactly excited to do. However, I'd already taken a physical with Dr. Ozawa in Sacramento just before I left, so I have all the proper documentation and information. I asked my director if that would be sufficient and when he found out I had all the tests done, he said it should be fine. So I got out of it like a punk. While everyone was getting stuck with needles and peeing in what looked like a horribly flimsy makeshift paper cup, I was surfing the net looking at personal ads for eligible Japanese women! I kid, I kid. Nothing quite THAT fun. I was making lesson plans for my afternoon classes and furiously working out more details of this English worship service that's coming up.
Speaking of afternoon classes, I had three today. Well, only one proper class. The other two were private lessons that students can take. I guess they have to pay extra money so a lot of students don't take them, but they are extra time devoted entirely to improving conversation skills so the serious students do take them. I think some of the ones who are struggling may be required to, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the two students I have scheduled for Wednesday afternoon are Satsuki and Masako, who are incidentally two of the girls who follow me around and giggle. So I was a little leery of having them in my office alone, but everything turned out fine. Neither of them reached across the desk and tried to kiss me or anything, which even big ol' paranoid me didn't really think would happen but hey, I've made a living thinking up worst-case scenarios. They DID sit a little close for my comfort, but it wasn't anything too bad. Nothing a few cloves of garlic can't solve real good.
I'm starting to grow a real affinity for my students. And it's not just the ones who follow me around like I'm the Japanese American answer to Clay Aiken. Wait a sec, there are all those rumours about Clay Aiken being gay. I don't think I want to be the Japanese American version of HIM. Who's the other heartthrobby guy from American Idol? The one with the hair that looks like Sideshow Bob? Justin something or other? I don't watch American Idol so WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THIS I don't know. So yeah, anyway, I like my students. There's this one guy who's shorter than me by a LOT--he must be around five feet tall but that's not the main reason I like him, although it is kinda nice to tower over someone. He's a really nice guy and doesn't suffer at all from I'm Taking My Revenge For Being Short On All Of You By Being A Big Ol' Jerk syndrome. He even wears a cross on a chain around his neck and wants to take English bible studies which makes me think he's either a Christian or is curious about it. So yeah, he's cool. Several of the guys also work in the cafeteria and are always wanting to give me extra servings of rice and things like that. And today in the cafeteria, I was talking with one of the girls who wanted to get some extra tutoring in. She said she’d like to take this extra tutoring with me, and I asked why. After all, I’m no expert, and I ran down a list of everyone else in the language department, all of whom would be better tutors than me. “But,” she said, “K…is very kind.” I thought I was gonna cry. D’oh! I have failed at being the Ugly American!
I ate French fries with chopsticks last night. I’ve officially gone off my gourd. I need some rest.
Well, today was a good day on several accounts. The entire population of the college--students, staff and faculty--all had to take health exams. This involved having blood drawn and doing a urine sample, neither of which I was exactly excited to do. However, I'd already taken a physical with Dr. Ozawa in Sacramento just before I left, so I have all the proper documentation and information. I asked my director if that would be sufficient and when he found out I had all the tests done, he said it should be fine. So I got out of it like a punk. While everyone was getting stuck with needles and peeing in what looked like a horribly flimsy makeshift paper cup, I was surfing the net looking at personal ads for eligible Japanese women! I kid, I kid. Nothing quite THAT fun. I was making lesson plans for my afternoon classes and furiously working out more details of this English worship service that's coming up.
Speaking of afternoon classes, I had three today. Well, only one proper class. The other two were private lessons that students can take. I guess they have to pay extra money so a lot of students don't take them, but they are extra time devoted entirely to improving conversation skills so the serious students do take them. I think some of the ones who are struggling may be required to, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the two students I have scheduled for Wednesday afternoon are Satsuki and Masako, who are incidentally two of the girls who follow me around and giggle. So I was a little leery of having them in my office alone, but everything turned out fine. Neither of them reached across the desk and tried to kiss me or anything, which even big ol' paranoid me didn't really think would happen but hey, I've made a living thinking up worst-case scenarios. They DID sit a little close for my comfort, but it wasn't anything too bad. Nothing a few cloves of garlic can't solve real good.
I'm starting to grow a real affinity for my students. And it's not just the ones who follow me around like I'm the Japanese American answer to Clay Aiken. Wait a sec, there are all those rumours about Clay Aiken being gay. I don't think I want to be the Japanese American version of HIM. Who's the other heartthrobby guy from American Idol? The one with the hair that looks like Sideshow Bob? Justin something or other? I don't watch American Idol so WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THIS I don't know. So yeah, anyway, I like my students. There's this one guy who's shorter than me by a LOT--he must be around five feet tall but that's not the main reason I like him, although it is kinda nice to tower over someone. He's a really nice guy and doesn't suffer at all from I'm Taking My Revenge For Being Short On All Of You By Being A Big Ol' Jerk syndrome. He even wears a cross on a chain around his neck and wants to take English bible studies which makes me think he's either a Christian or is curious about it. So yeah, he's cool. Several of the guys also work in the cafeteria and are always wanting to give me extra servings of rice and things like that. And today in the cafeteria, I was talking with one of the girls who wanted to get some extra tutoring in. She said she’d like to take this extra tutoring with me, and I asked why. After all, I’m no expert, and I ran down a list of everyone else in the language department, all of whom would be better tutors than me. “But,” she said, “K…is very kind.” I thought I was gonna cry. D’oh! I have failed at being the Ugly American!
I ate French fries with chopsticks last night. I’ve officially gone off my gourd. I need some rest.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
2004-04-13
The surprises keep rolling in.
I've known since Saturday that we've got an English worship service to plan. The English dept. and Pioneer Mission project (teaching five Korean pastors and their families Japanese so they can serve as missionaries here) hashed out a schedule that had us doing our first service in May. However, because of a scheduling mix-up, they asked me on Sabbath if we could switch dates--to THIS COMING SABBATH. I took it up with the others in the dept. and they decided it would be good to go ahead and switch. That wasn't the nasty surprise--oh no. Said nastiness happened today, when I found out that I'm in charge of putting on this show! I thought, foolishly, that I'd only have to worry about speaking. Instead I'm the general coordinator. Boy how I hate doing this. However, I've got a great excuse if this service comes off as thrown-together and sorta bare bones. I had less than a week to prepare, so I won't feel too bad if it's not the greatest service in the history of the world.
Class instruction started Monday. I've only had one "real" class so far, which went fine considering I'm green as Ireland in the springtime when it comes to teaching. Also making my life difficult is this dumb sickness I've picked up, which doesn't affect anything except--guess what--my VOICE. I had something similar back in February before I left Sacramento. It's really weird. I've got this terrible cough but it ends somewhere in my throat, so I'm not having any difficulty breathing but every so often I go into convulsive coughing fits. And my voice sounds like I've done some kind of study called Smoking Habits of Different Cultures by sampling every one of their smoking implements. So my students had some trouble understanding me. My next class isn't until Thursday, but my voice isn't getting noticeably better so I'm a little worried.
A positive: My students are all great. There's this Korean girl who's here in Japan to study both Japanese and English, and she's probably the most enthusiastic when it comes to participation. I also have this big Japanese guy who dresses in baggy, hip-hop-like clothes, has a buzz cut shorter than mine and wears a trucker's hat that says "LOSER". He looks for all git out like some sort of rebellious skater guy with a bad attitude, but in reality he's really nice and actually very quiet. Like a big fuzzy bear whose pants are about to fall off. I heard that he was working in construction but decided he wanted to get an education, so he went back to high school when he was 20 and just finished up. If I wasn't 100% sure that it would be very, very freakish in this culture, I'd want to go up and give him a big ol' hug, 'cause that sounds like it might be fun.
Well, to end on a happy note: I've had two really cool answers to prayer in the last few days. First, my brother and sister-in-law have apparently decided where they will be next school year after several months of hand-wringing and acceptances to various doctorate programs. This is especially exciting news since it will allow him to look for a job, which would need to start happening soon. My sister-in-law's program sounds nifty and it sounds like she had a good impression of the teachers. So YAY!
Secondly, the mother of one of my good friends had surgery a couple weeks ago and I found out today she's doing fine. In fact, she's doing better than expected. So a double YAY! and mucho props to the Man Upstairs In Da Big Ol' Hizzouse. And you better believe that I'll be looking for an opportunity to bust THAT one out in one of my English worship services here.
THEY LOCKED UP A MAN
WHO WANTED TO RULE THE WORLD
THE FOOLS
THEY LOCKED UP THE WRONG MAN
--Leonard Cohen
Sunday, April 11, 2004
For anyone who read this yesterday, sorry about all the identical posts. I was trying to post the last update and it kept insisting that the website couldn't publish it. Now today I see four or five posts all from yesterday. So IT LIED TO ME! I don't know what happened, and I cleaned it up just now. Boo to technology.
2004-04-10
This is gonna be long, so if you're reading, buckle up. This update's a doozy.
Japan is indeed different from the U.S. in many ways. Language, culture, prices, restaurants, etc...all of that stuff is easy enough to adjust to with time. I'm already getting in a groove of sorts and am starting to think of my apartment and this campus as "home"--not to be confused with home or Home. However, there's one difference that really caught me off-guard this past week. It's kinda silly, kinda funny and in many ways downright scary.
Tuesday was our English dept. introduction day so all the new students gathered in a classroom and the department head introduced all the faculty. Well, a few girls who had cornered me the day before and excitedly asked me questions about English heard my last name and that's when all you-know-what broke loose. After this meeting, they came up to me again and--very excitedly--told me that they were from Okinawa. When they found out that I indeed had Okinawan ancestry they jumped up and down and screamed so loud I thought my eardrums were rupturing. Anyway, most of the faculty were going to have lunch in the cafeteria with the students and they said--still very animated and excited--that they wanted to sit with me. From here on out, you will see a theme: I AM A VERY DIM BULB.
Yeah...lunch. I sat with the student missionaries and a group of five or so students and of course these two Okinawan girls sat with me. And that's...when it happened. One of them, who's apparently the more outgoing one, first announced "You are kawaii" and when I looked all confused she said, "I think you are very cute!" I think the look on my face at that moment was probably priceless--imagine clueless, but with my jaw on the floor. But she wasn't done. She then asked me, "Do you have girlfriend?" and in hindsight I SHOULD HAVE LIED. I AM SUCH A MORON. I should have should have should have lied, but hey, lying is bad, right? And these are my students and they're enthusiastic and adorable and all, and so I told the truth. I EVEN HAD PICTURES OF WOMEN FRIENDS IN MY WALLET I COULD HAVE SHOWED THEM but yeah, I told the truth, and the next question she asked was--I swear I am not making this up--she pulled out her electronic dictionary, punched in a Japanese word, and asked, "Can I be candidate?"
I think I turned about seven shades of red, pretended not to understand and changed the subject. I think she repeated "I think you are cute" several times afterwards and I somehow managed to steer the conversation into a discussion about the differences between ashamed, embarrassed and shy. Because I was feeling ALL OF THOSE AT THAT TIME but yeah, I did get my first English lesson in there and they did end up understanding, which of course prompted them to say "You are good English teacher" and just poured more gasoline on the fire. But I did feel good about teaching them something. I've actually got substance! I'm not just a pretty face! I'm more like Michelle Branch than Britney Spears!
We then had an orientation retreat over Wednesday night, which proved to be more of the same. Those two girls tried to sit by me at every meal and every bus trip and they'd get all happy when it'd work out. And then I seemed to pick up MORE "fans"! In fact, one of the second-year students, a girl who came as a mentor of sorts to the first-years, told me straight to my face, "You are very popular with the girls." What the heck is going on here? Did I step into a parallel universe thinking I was just going to Japan?
This is, of course, probably the fantasy of millions of American guys, and I won't lie--the attention is pretty nice. OK, OK, the attention is VERY nice. But it puts me in a really uncomfortable spot, seeing as I'm their TEACHER and I haven't exactly had this happen before and I don't know what to do, how to act, how to handle it, etc. Further complicating matters is that the whole Conflict of Interest/Teacher-Student Dating Taboo doesn't seem to be as strong here as it is in the States (although, I will go on the record RIGHT NOW, it IS a very big deal to me.) In fact, the staff members who have either heard this story from me or have observed that I am developing something of a "fan club" have either said "don't worry about it" or have actively egged the students on. Et tu, Brute...I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons they called me here was because they guessed that something like this might happen.
So what am I going to do about this? Well, with the students, I'm going to try and maintain an air of strict professionalism and hope this is just a matter of passing crushes. It's basically what I did on the retreat, kind of weather the storm and hope it goes away on its own. Because they really are SO cute and enthusiastic and I don't want to do anything to crush their spirits. In fact, I want to encourage them to express themselves and see themselves as good people and all. In fact, if any of you know some nice boy, maybe around 17-19 years old who wants to study in Japan and meet some really attractive and spirited Japanese girls, tell him to come to Saniku Gakuin College next term. I'd like these girls to end up dating a nice boy. Just a nice boy who's not specifically me.
This is gonna be long, so if you're reading, buckle up. This update's a doozy.
Japan is indeed different from the U.S. in many ways. Language, culture, prices, restaurants, etc...all of that stuff is easy enough to adjust to with time. I'm already getting in a groove of sorts and am starting to think of my apartment and this campus as "home"--not to be confused with home or Home. However, there's one difference that really caught me off-guard this past week. It's kinda silly, kinda funny and in many ways downright scary.
Tuesday was our English dept. introduction day so all the new students gathered in a classroom and the department head introduced all the faculty. Well, a few girls who had cornered me the day before and excitedly asked me questions about English heard my last name and that's when all you-know-what broke loose. After this meeting, they came up to me again and--very excitedly--told me that they were from Okinawa. When they found out that I indeed had Okinawan ancestry they jumped up and down and screamed so loud I thought my eardrums were rupturing. Anyway, most of the faculty were going to have lunch in the cafeteria with the students and they said--still very animated and excited--that they wanted to sit with me. From here on out, you will see a theme: I AM A VERY DIM BULB.
Yeah...lunch. I sat with the student missionaries and a group of five or so students and of course these two Okinawan girls sat with me. And that's...when it happened. One of them, who's apparently the more outgoing one, first announced "You are kawaii" and when I looked all confused she said, "I think you are very cute!" I think the look on my face at that moment was probably priceless--imagine clueless, but with my jaw on the floor. But she wasn't done. She then asked me, "Do you have girlfriend?" and in hindsight I SHOULD HAVE LIED. I AM SUCH A MORON. I should have should have should have lied, but hey, lying is bad, right? And these are my students and they're enthusiastic and adorable and all, and so I told the truth. I EVEN HAD PICTURES OF WOMEN FRIENDS IN MY WALLET I COULD HAVE SHOWED THEM but yeah, I told the truth, and the next question she asked was--I swear I am not making this up--she pulled out her electronic dictionary, punched in a Japanese word, and asked, "Can I be candidate?"
I think I turned about seven shades of red, pretended not to understand and changed the subject. I think she repeated "I think you are cute" several times afterwards and I somehow managed to steer the conversation into a discussion about the differences between ashamed, embarrassed and shy. Because I was feeling ALL OF THOSE AT THAT TIME but yeah, I did get my first English lesson in there and they did end up understanding, which of course prompted them to say "You are good English teacher" and just poured more gasoline on the fire. But I did feel good about teaching them something. I've actually got substance! I'm not just a pretty face! I'm more like Michelle Branch than Britney Spears!
We then had an orientation retreat over Wednesday night, which proved to be more of the same. Those two girls tried to sit by me at every meal and every bus trip and they'd get all happy when it'd work out. And then I seemed to pick up MORE "fans"! In fact, one of the second-year students, a girl who came as a mentor of sorts to the first-years, told me straight to my face, "You are very popular with the girls." What the heck is going on here? Did I step into a parallel universe thinking I was just going to Japan?
This is, of course, probably the fantasy of millions of American guys, and I won't lie--the attention is pretty nice. OK, OK, the attention is VERY nice. But it puts me in a really uncomfortable spot, seeing as I'm their TEACHER and I haven't exactly had this happen before and I don't know what to do, how to act, how to handle it, etc. Further complicating matters is that the whole Conflict of Interest/Teacher-Student Dating Taboo doesn't seem to be as strong here as it is in the States (although, I will go on the record RIGHT NOW, it IS a very big deal to me.) In fact, the staff members who have either heard this story from me or have observed that I am developing something of a "fan club" have either said "don't worry about it" or have actively egged the students on. Et tu, Brute...I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons they called me here was because they guessed that something like this might happen.
So what am I going to do about this? Well, with the students, I'm going to try and maintain an air of strict professionalism and hope this is just a matter of passing crushes. It's basically what I did on the retreat, kind of weather the storm and hope it goes away on its own. Because they really are SO cute and enthusiastic and I don't want to do anything to crush their spirits. In fact, I want to encourage them to express themselves and see themselves as good people and all. In fact, if any of you know some nice boy, maybe around 17-19 years old who wants to study in Japan and meet some really attractive and spirited Japanese girls, tell him to come to Saniku Gakuin College next term. I'd like these girls to end up dating a nice boy. Just a nice boy who's not specifically me.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
2004-04-05
Well, the first day of school, sort of. The Entrance Ceremony was today, which was the formal introduction of all the new students. There were quite a number of new students--for an Adventist academy in the States. For a college? Not so many. I know there are 18 in the English dept. 'cause that number's been thrown around during various meetings. I'd guess there are maybe double that number for the nursing dept., about 15-20 in the new Public Nursing program, and just 5 in the theology program. Two of the five are women. Neato!
Tomorrow we have--guess what--no, not another meeting. Although I do have to do "career advisement" which is just plain hilarious. I'm going to be counseling Japanese students about their career plans and how this program can help them achieve their goals. First of all, my OWN career path is not exactly in great shape. I've been detouring all over the place for the last five years--I hoped to have a doctorate by the time I was 30, instead I'm rapidly approaching 30 and a Master's program is not even in sight. I'm not complaining, really--I do believe this is the right thing to do, and how many doctorate students get to be head pastor of a church and live in Japan? It's just that I'm not the one to go to for career advice. Or marriage/romance advice. All I can pretty much say is "Trust in God, stay true to him and follow where he leads." What if ya don't believe in God? Well, be good to yourselves...and each other. And don't vote for Bush.
Well, the Golden Gophers are out of the tournament. *sniff*. Still, this tournament has been a real success, not only for Minnesota for the sport as a whole. Ratings have been up across the board and attendance is strong, so hopefully some of these other programs can continue to do well next year. I'm especially thinking of Minnesota, who by midseason were regularly packing 12-13,000 fans to see women's home games. They will be losing Lindsay Whalen, though, and she was not only their best player but their unquestioned leader and a fan favorite. Okay, shameless advertisement: I really do like this sport. It's not just a matter of "yeah, this is a good opportunity for women, it's good to get young girls active in something positive, and oh yeah, some of them college players are cute too." I like watching the games--it is a different sport than the guys, but it's every bit as exciting if you just know you're watching a bit of a different game. And this season in particular, there's been a focus on several players and their personalities and these really are great kids.
Took John and Amanda to dinner tonight. I've been wanting to for awhile now, but never had any money! Today the school reimbursed me for my travel expenses so now I have a lot of cash. We went out to a buffet-style place in Mobara which was a really good buffet. It was a lot like some of the Korean BBQs in the states--you pick out raw meats and grill them at your table. Being American, of course, I ate way too much. We laid down some punishment on the fine establishement, actually. Kept going back for desserts and fruits 'cause as y'all know, fruits are expensive here and desserts are tough to come by. John gave me a hard time about eating rice instead of gorging myself on the meat and dessert, but hey--rice is like $3 a pound here! It may seem mundane but that's eating gold. They both said that they had a good time and I'm glad. I've been wanting to do something like this because it does get pretty lonely and isolating out here. Even though they're leaving in four months, I want to do what I can to make these 4 months really good. I'm looking out for them and I want to do what I can to make their experience a good one. 'Cause do we really want our young people going out, doing mission work, and getting all depressed and burned out? They don't seem like that's happening to them, but I know how tough it can be to feel lonely and isolated. No one likes that. And I don't want them thinking of their time as missionaries as being that way. Even if it's only the next 4 months, and even if it's only me, I want to create a feeling of belonging, of...family. It's a strange position for me to be in, since I'm usually the one who likes to be in the background, don't make any waves, go with the flow. But this is a need, and as long as I'm around, I may as well fill it. Listen to me getting all preachy. And "young people"? Amanda is the same age as I am.
It's late. Gotta go. Hope I can sleep after eating all that food.
Well, the first day of school, sort of. The Entrance Ceremony was today, which was the formal introduction of all the new students. There were quite a number of new students--for an Adventist academy in the States. For a college? Not so many. I know there are 18 in the English dept. 'cause that number's been thrown around during various meetings. I'd guess there are maybe double that number for the nursing dept., about 15-20 in the new Public Nursing program, and just 5 in the theology program. Two of the five are women. Neato!
Tomorrow we have--guess what--no, not another meeting. Although I do have to do "career advisement" which is just plain hilarious. I'm going to be counseling Japanese students about their career plans and how this program can help them achieve their goals. First of all, my OWN career path is not exactly in great shape. I've been detouring all over the place for the last five years--I hoped to have a doctorate by the time I was 30, instead I'm rapidly approaching 30 and a Master's program is not even in sight. I'm not complaining, really--I do believe this is the right thing to do, and how many doctorate students get to be head pastor of a church and live in Japan? It's just that I'm not the one to go to for career advice. Or marriage/romance advice. All I can pretty much say is "Trust in God, stay true to him and follow where he leads." What if ya don't believe in God? Well, be good to yourselves...and each other. And don't vote for Bush.
Well, the Golden Gophers are out of the tournament. *sniff*. Still, this tournament has been a real success, not only for Minnesota for the sport as a whole. Ratings have been up across the board and attendance is strong, so hopefully some of these other programs can continue to do well next year. I'm especially thinking of Minnesota, who by midseason were regularly packing 12-13,000 fans to see women's home games. They will be losing Lindsay Whalen, though, and she was not only their best player but their unquestioned leader and a fan favorite. Okay, shameless advertisement: I really do like this sport. It's not just a matter of "yeah, this is a good opportunity for women, it's good to get young girls active in something positive, and oh yeah, some of them college players are cute too." I like watching the games--it is a different sport than the guys, but it's every bit as exciting if you just know you're watching a bit of a different game. And this season in particular, there's been a focus on several players and their personalities and these really are great kids.
Took John and Amanda to dinner tonight. I've been wanting to for awhile now, but never had any money! Today the school reimbursed me for my travel expenses so now I have a lot of cash. We went out to a buffet-style place in Mobara which was a really good buffet. It was a lot like some of the Korean BBQs in the states--you pick out raw meats and grill them at your table. Being American, of course, I ate way too much. We laid down some punishment on the fine establishement, actually. Kept going back for desserts and fruits 'cause as y'all know, fruits are expensive here and desserts are tough to come by. John gave me a hard time about eating rice instead of gorging myself on the meat and dessert, but hey--rice is like $3 a pound here! It may seem mundane but that's eating gold. They both said that they had a good time and I'm glad. I've been wanting to do something like this because it does get pretty lonely and isolating out here. Even though they're leaving in four months, I want to do what I can to make these 4 months really good. I'm looking out for them and I want to do what I can to make their experience a good one. 'Cause do we really want our young people going out, doing mission work, and getting all depressed and burned out? They don't seem like that's happening to them, but I know how tough it can be to feel lonely and isolated. No one likes that. And I don't want them thinking of their time as missionaries as being that way. Even if it's only the next 4 months, and even if it's only me, I want to create a feeling of belonging, of...family. It's a strange position for me to be in, since I'm usually the one who likes to be in the background, don't make any waves, go with the flow. But this is a need, and as long as I'm around, I may as well fill it. Listen to me getting all preachy. And "young people"? Amanda is the same age as I am.
It's late. Gotta go. Hope I can sleep after eating all that food.
Saturday, April 03, 2004
2004-04-03
Introductions, Koreans and Shriners
It's still Sabbath, and I'm listening to Garth Brooks. Ooooooh, breakin' the LAW~! Actually, it's the song "Unanswered Prayers", which seems quite appropriate for Sabbath consumption and the only Garth Brooks song I've heard that I like. Well, okay, "Friends In Low Places" is fun. But I don't suppose THAT would be appropriate for Sabbath listening, although it might make a good illustration for a sermon talking about Jesus hanging out with sinners. Now why was I talking about this again? Oh yeah, to bore y'all with the minutiae of my daily life here.
Church today was centered around the introduction of the PMM group, which means something like "Pioneer Mission Movement". It's a mission program that is bringing Korean pastors here to Japan, having them live on our campus, and lettin' them loose on the Japanese public after a few years of training. The first batch just arrived last week and start Japanese classes on Monday. All of them are really nice--one couple stopped by my place a few days ago and introduced themselves, bringing along some of that seasoned seaweed stuff along with them. It's interesting--some of them speak REALLY good English, and one of the guys got kind of flustered introducing himself in Japanese so he switched to English. I like these people already. So much, in fact, that I cooked my first potluck dish (!) for the welcome potluck today. I made tofu patties that turned out really well even though I don't have the recipe here with me and the ingredients were a little screwy 'cause, well, I'm in Japan and everything's a little screwy here. OOOOOH layin' the smackdown, baby. Mwahahahahahahahaha.
Hee hee. I've been in a good mood because I've been able to hang out with Amanda a lot this weekend. I invited her and John to my apartment yesterday evening for Bible study. John showed up like an hour and a half late, so Amanda and I had a lot of time to talk. I know what y'all are thinking, and don't make me burst yer bubbles. Nothin' happened like that. Or like THAT, either. We discussed the lesson study and (of course) diverged a lot, mainly getting into instances from our respective past experiences that sort of reminded us of the SS discussion. I also got to give my usual dose of feminist propaganda, which was cool 'cause she's all independent and assertive and everything. I was impressed with some of her insights--apparently, this experience here in Japan has really helped her to grow spiritually. She got pretty passionate and feisty describing what she thinks of faith and church and such, and no, I didn't say "You're beautiful when you start preaching"...even though I COULD have. Shut up. I know I'm pathetic. John arrived and we somehow got talking about philosophy and some of the stupid arguments people get into in churches. I showed them my sorry picture albums and we just kind of talked about whatever. I shared with them the idea that Adam and Eve WEREN'T separate during the time of the Fall, that according to Genesis Adam was right there the entire time. That got her all excited and I think we're gonna get along just fine and dandy.
Then today I went for a walk with her and two of the students. Holly's been saying that she'd be interested in seeing pictures of Japanese shrines, and on the walk I found one small one and one big(ger) one. Pics up on the website. I also FINALLY got some pictures of Amanda, and yes, they're on the site too. Yippee! I mean, uh, yeah, go over there and have a look. 'Cause I know everyone has been wanting to.
2004-04-01
Got out of a meeting this afternoon. I think my dept. head might be feeling kind of bad that I had to sit through all these long, all-Japanese meetings so he's basically given me a free pass the rest of the week. SCORE!
Because I suddenly had the afternoon free, I headed into Chiba with John (the American guy missionary). Chiba is allegedly the provincial capital and is about the midpoint between here and Tokyo. I looked up on the 'net and the 2004 population is about 900,000--so it's a big city. We went shopping and in typical guy style--came back with NOTHING. I wanted to browse some music stores to check out cheap guitars, which is like trying to find good Indian food in Eastern Washington. Speaking of Indian food, there's an Indian restaurant in Chiba! I will have to check that out sometime. I would have on this visit but I was critically low on cash. Anyway, I projectile vomit on Japanese music stores. I GUESS if I had about 1000 dollars to spend I'd be fine, but I'm looking more in the $150 range and there's NOTHING. And don't plan on coming to Japan to buy shirts in the department stores. I was looking at the standard business-class shirts, which were priced at over 10,000 yen which is over 100 bucks. I think the place we were shopping was pretty upscale, but I was still appalled at the prices. Silly rich folk.
Good news waiting when we came back from our failed shopping excursion: The gym is open! Bad news: My basketball game has fled in the 4 or so months it's been dormant. I'm going to have to spend at least two weeks just getting my mechanics back. And the gym is in not so good shape. The floors are slippery, so playing defense is roughly akin to roller-skating on a glacier.
Shopping in the big city is rough. I'm out for now.
Got out of a meeting this afternoon. I think my dept. head might be feeling kind of bad that I had to sit through all these long, all-Japanese meetings so he's basically given me a free pass the rest of the week. SCORE!
Because I suddenly had the afternoon free, I headed into Chiba with John (the American guy missionary). Chiba is allegedly the provincial capital and is about the midpoint between here and Tokyo. I looked up on the 'net and the 2004 population is about 900,000--so it's a big city. We went shopping and in typical guy style--came back with NOTHING. I wanted to browse some music stores to check out cheap guitars, which is like trying to find good Indian food in Eastern Washington. Speaking of Indian food, there's an Indian restaurant in Chiba! I will have to check that out sometime. I would have on this visit but I was critically low on cash. Anyway, I projectile vomit on Japanese music stores. I GUESS if I had about 1000 dollars to spend I'd be fine, but I'm looking more in the $150 range and there's NOTHING. And don't plan on coming to Japan to buy shirts in the department stores. I was looking at the standard business-class shirts, which were priced at over 10,000 yen which is over 100 bucks. I think the place we were shopping was pretty upscale, but I was still appalled at the prices. Silly rich folk.
Good news waiting when we came back from our failed shopping excursion: The gym is open! Bad news: My basketball game has fled in the 4 or so months it's been dormant. I'm going to have to spend at least two weeks just getting my mechanics back. And the gym is in not so good shape. The floors are slippery, so playing defense is roughly akin to roller-skating on a glacier.
Shopping in the big city is rough. I'm out for now.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
2004-03-31
Gratuitous sports note for today: Mucho congratulations to "my" team in the women's NCAA tournament, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, for knocking out the #1 team in the country (Duke) and advancing to the Final Four. I've had a Stupid Celebrity Crush on Lindsay Whalen for a few months now and was STOKED~! to see that her team advanced to the Final Four. From a #7 seed! They beat the #1-3 seeds in their regional to advance. Yippee! However, UConn is up next, which will be a tough matchup. Haven't been keeping up with the guys' side. Once St. Joe's and Gonzaga went out I had no reason to keep following.
I think I've been away from English for too long. I'm starting to do really goofy things with language. The other day, I was heading to the bank to open an account and the guy taking me spoke very little English. I, of course, speak very little Japanese, so communication was...difficult. At one point in the conversation, I somehow switched and started talking to the poor guy in SPANISH. We were attempting to talk about what I'd need to open the account and I heard myself saying "No tengo mi tarjeta del..." and wondering why I didn't know the word for 'bank'. That's when I realized I wasn't speaking in English anymore! The other guy's more-confused-than-normal expression also indicated that something had gone seriously wrong. My opinion is that I got frustrated with the inability to communicate and my brain began switching gears trying to make a connection. Yeah, THAT'S it. Not like I'm losing my mind or anything.
Had a nice talk with Amanda (the Australian student missionary) today. Just light, getting-to-know-you type stuff, but it was a really nice talk. Apparently, her family had a good time visiting Japan and even enjoyed our meeting this past Sabbath at lunch. I'm glad they had a good time--it was good speaking with other English speakers and we didn't miss a beat even though Australian English is a little different than American English. I even shocked myself with how outgoing I was with them--normally, as most of you know, I'm quite shy and reserved around people I don't know. It may have been the fact that I'm now a representative of this college and wanted to make sure they felt at home and welcomed, or maybe just my own desperation to speak naturally and normally with people (see above paragraph). Whatever the case, we had a really nice time. They were even quite understanding about my predicament as someone who looks Japanese but doesn't speak it and we talked some about that. Amanda told me that later, her family said that I was a "livewire" which almost made me laugh out loud because I NEVER expected to hear myself called that. However, I guess the term has a slightly different connotation in Australia--it means someone who has a good personality and lets that show. She says it's a good thing. I guess compared to the typical Japanese stoic reserve, I'm ebullient. They thought I'd be a great addition to this college, which further adds to my growing confidence level. I CAN be outgoing with other people even when I don't absolutely have to, and when I do show my personality people think it's a good thing. Now to see whether I can consistently do that...
Song for today: "In This Life", IZ Kamakawiwo'ole. Such a great song, I used it as a sermon illustration once even though it's not a "Christian" song. Got lots of compliments on it, too. It works remarkably well as a song dedicated to God.
For all I've been blessed with in my life
There was an emptiness in me
I was imprisoned by the power of gold
With one kind touch you set me free
Let the world stop turning
Let the sun stop burning
Let them tell me love's not worth going through
If it all falls apart
I will know deep in my heart
The only dream that mattered has come true
In this life I was loved by you
For every mountain I have climbed
Every raging river crossed
You were the treasure that I longed to find
Without your love I would be lost
I know that I won't live forever
But forever I'll be loving you
Gratuitous sports note for today: Mucho congratulations to "my" team in the women's NCAA tournament, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, for knocking out the #1 team in the country (Duke) and advancing to the Final Four. I've had a Stupid Celebrity Crush on Lindsay Whalen for a few months now and was STOKED~! to see that her team advanced to the Final Four. From a #7 seed! They beat the #1-3 seeds in their regional to advance. Yippee! However, UConn is up next, which will be a tough matchup. Haven't been keeping up with the guys' side. Once St. Joe's and Gonzaga went out I had no reason to keep following.
I think I've been away from English for too long. I'm starting to do really goofy things with language. The other day, I was heading to the bank to open an account and the guy taking me spoke very little English. I, of course, speak very little Japanese, so communication was...difficult. At one point in the conversation, I somehow switched and started talking to the poor guy in SPANISH. We were attempting to talk about what I'd need to open the account and I heard myself saying "No tengo mi tarjeta del..." and wondering why I didn't know the word for 'bank'. That's when I realized I wasn't speaking in English anymore! The other guy's more-confused-than-normal expression also indicated that something had gone seriously wrong. My opinion is that I got frustrated with the inability to communicate and my brain began switching gears trying to make a connection. Yeah, THAT'S it. Not like I'm losing my mind or anything.
Had a nice talk with Amanda (the Australian student missionary) today. Just light, getting-to-know-you type stuff, but it was a really nice talk. Apparently, her family had a good time visiting Japan and even enjoyed our meeting this past Sabbath at lunch. I'm glad they had a good time--it was good speaking with other English speakers and we didn't miss a beat even though Australian English is a little different than American English. I even shocked myself with how outgoing I was with them--normally, as most of you know, I'm quite shy and reserved around people I don't know. It may have been the fact that I'm now a representative of this college and wanted to make sure they felt at home and welcomed, or maybe just my own desperation to speak naturally and normally with people (see above paragraph). Whatever the case, we had a really nice time. They were even quite understanding about my predicament as someone who looks Japanese but doesn't speak it and we talked some about that. Amanda told me that later, her family said that I was a "livewire" which almost made me laugh out loud because I NEVER expected to hear myself called that. However, I guess the term has a slightly different connotation in Australia--it means someone who has a good personality and lets that show. She says it's a good thing. I guess compared to the typical Japanese stoic reserve, I'm ebullient. They thought I'd be a great addition to this college, which further adds to my growing confidence level. I CAN be outgoing with other people even when I don't absolutely have to, and when I do show my personality people think it's a good thing. Now to see whether I can consistently do that...
Song for today: "In This Life", IZ Kamakawiwo'ole. Such a great song, I used it as a sermon illustration once even though it's not a "Christian" song. Got lots of compliments on it, too. It works remarkably well as a song dedicated to God.
For all I've been blessed with in my life
There was an emptiness in me
I was imprisoned by the power of gold
With one kind touch you set me free
Let the world stop turning
Let the sun stop burning
Let them tell me love's not worth going through
If it all falls apart
I will know deep in my heart
The only dream that mattered has come true
In this life I was loved by you
For every mountain I have climbed
Every raging river crossed
You were the treasure that I longed to find
Without your love I would be lost
I know that I won't live forever
But forever I'll be loving you
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