2004-10-19
Went to Chiba and found some beans--Oh yeah!
The ingredients say they've got pork lard--Oh no!
Okay, so busting out with rap lyrics is not my forte. But I was still pretty excited. My quest to find Mexican style beans was accomplished. Lard or no lard, I was buying these things and taking them back. The dumb beans were like 3 bucks a can but I was gonna get those things come heck or high water. I cooked up the first can yesterday--made some rice & bean burritos for supper and shared some with Amanda. She liked them a lot and so maybe she'll want to come to California now since you can get these things anywhere over there. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA MY PLAN IS NEARLY COMPLETE
The weather is turning here, which means that a lot of students are getting sick. A bunch of them are absent every day it seems. Of course, not all of those are sick--they're just lazy and sleeping in as usual.
The cold weather led directly to the WORST THING THAT HAPPENED SO FAR IN JAPAN. To me, at least. Last night I was making the bean and rice burritos to take to Amanda since she was teaching late at the school. It was cold outside, so I grabbed my jacket out of the box it'd been sitting in all summer. When I pulled it out of the box and held it in the light, I saw my hand was about half an inch away from a centipede. A hideous squirmy puke-green CENTIPEDE! In my APARTMENT! Not three feet away from where I sleep! I dropped the coat on a pile of clothes and ran around my apartment yelling for the next five minutes.
I HATE CENTIPEDES. If it had been a spider I wouldn't have even cared. If it had been a snake I would have gotten it out of the apartment, but it wouldn't have freaked me out much. But a centipede...did I mention that I HATE centipedes? I spent the next ten minutes staring at the centipede trying to work up the guts to grab it. I had a pair of ski gloves that I decided to use (although it took me some time to actually put my hand into the glove for fear that more centipedes were in the glove).
I then waited around for several more minutes trying to work up the courage to grab the dumb thing. Just so you know, the centipede was red-orange and like three feet long, with huge fangs that were dripping acid onto all my clothes. It took me six minutes using both my hands to wrestle the thing off my jacket. Actually, the centipede was probably three inches long. I took one grab at it and missed, which caused it to start crawling and then I knew I HAD to grab it before it disappeared under my clothes. So I took one more stab at it and got it. I made haste to the toilet and flushed it. Of course, when I went to sleep, I had dreams of centipedes crawling all over me.
And wouldn't you know it, I looked up "centipedes" on the internet today and found all these web pages written by people who love the hideous little buggers. I now feel a little bad having flushed the one. Maybe next time I'll just throw them out of the house. However, the Japanese centipedes are poisonous, so I guess I'll have to go through my boxes today and make sure no more of them are gonna surprise me.
Monday, October 18, 2004
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
2004-10-13
Here I am locking horns with a stallion
Sorry I haven't updated the picture page in a long time. I'll try to remedy that today.
I haven't cut my hair in, oh, probably a month or so, and it's looking sorta ragged right now. For those who haven't seen me since I moved to Japan, I basically cut all my hair off because I didn't want to bother trying to explain how I wanted my hair cut in Japanese. I also didn't want the quasi-masculine Jennifer Aniston layered boy-bob that's inexplicably popular here anywhere NEAR the reality of my head. It looks okay, although I still look at myself in the mirror and think "What in the hey was I thinking??" Of course, since Amanda and I started dating while my hair is gone, I may have to keep it this way. Don't know how she would react to me actually having hair. Anyway, it's at the stage where it's threatening to stand up and get all unruly. I was joking around today with Amanda saying that it was getting to look like an afro. Well, a Japanese-American version, anyway. What's that, a JAfro? Hee hee. I have a JAfro. If someone asks really nicely I may take a picture and post it, although that's probably the last thing the world needs at this point (besides our current idiot president getting re-elected).
The other day the weirdest thing happened. I was walking between the office and the cafeteria and this song just popped into my head. Not so strange, such things happen all the time to me, but the weird thing was that I hadn't listened to this song, not even THOUGHT about the song, for probably five or six years. Most of you--even youth of America fans of '90s alt-rock like me--probably don't even know it. The song is "Pillar of Davidson" off the Throwing Copper album by Live. I remember kinda liking Live back in like '94-'95 or so, enough to buy their second album, but then they made a video for that creepy song about the woman dying in childbirth or whatever and I got a little grossed out. I read somewhere on the interwebbie place that "Lightning Crashes" is the ONLY top 40 song EVER to have the word "placenta" in it. So anyway, I can't listen to the album without thinking about placentas and childbirth and my future wife dying and having all sorts of crushing guilt feelings so I haven't listened to it at all probably since I graaduated from WWC. But the other day this song Pillar of Davidson came rushing into my head and the Shepherd, won't leave me alone, he's in my head and the shepherd of my days...
I just confused everyone reading. Well, unless one of you knows a relatively obscure song from the band Live. Yeah, I'm strange. But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
Here I am locking horns with a stallion
Sorry I haven't updated the picture page in a long time. I'll try to remedy that today.
I haven't cut my hair in, oh, probably a month or so, and it's looking sorta ragged right now. For those who haven't seen me since I moved to Japan, I basically cut all my hair off because I didn't want to bother trying to explain how I wanted my hair cut in Japanese. I also didn't want the quasi-masculine Jennifer Aniston layered boy-bob that's inexplicably popular here anywhere NEAR the reality of my head. It looks okay, although I still look at myself in the mirror and think "What in the hey was I thinking??" Of course, since Amanda and I started dating while my hair is gone, I may have to keep it this way. Don't know how she would react to me actually having hair. Anyway, it's at the stage where it's threatening to stand up and get all unruly. I was joking around today with Amanda saying that it was getting to look like an afro. Well, a Japanese-American version, anyway. What's that, a JAfro? Hee hee. I have a JAfro. If someone asks really nicely I may take a picture and post it, although that's probably the last thing the world needs at this point (besides our current idiot president getting re-elected).
The other day the weirdest thing happened. I was walking between the office and the cafeteria and this song just popped into my head. Not so strange, such things happen all the time to me, but the weird thing was that I hadn't listened to this song, not even THOUGHT about the song, for probably five or six years. Most of you--even youth of America fans of '90s alt-rock like me--probably don't even know it. The song is "Pillar of Davidson" off the Throwing Copper album by Live. I remember kinda liking Live back in like '94-'95 or so, enough to buy their second album, but then they made a video for that creepy song about the woman dying in childbirth or whatever and I got a little grossed out. I read somewhere on the interwebbie place that "Lightning Crashes" is the ONLY top 40 song EVER to have the word "placenta" in it. So anyway, I can't listen to the album without thinking about placentas and childbirth and my future wife dying and having all sorts of crushing guilt feelings so I haven't listened to it at all probably since I graaduated from WWC. But the other day this song Pillar of Davidson came rushing into my head and the Shepherd, won't leave me alone, he's in my head and the shepherd of my days...
I just confused everyone reading. Well, unless one of you knows a relatively obscure song from the band Live. Yeah, I'm strange. But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
Thursday, September 30, 2004
2004-09-27
Str8 outta Compton
There are two updates at once this time because I'm a dork who typed out something wayyyyyy back on the 15th of September but promptly forgot to post it to the website until now. In the meantime, the NFL season is well underway, the Lions are (surprisingly) 2-1 DESPITE losing one of their good young WRs.
Well, we're almost done now with the summer session--one week to go. It's been going okay, although some of the students have an unfortunate tendency to sleep through classes, a very unfortunate development in an "intensive" course. I guess it should come as no surprise given the tendencies of some of the students during the regular school year. But I'm still wondering if some of them will pass, or if this whole summer thing will prove to be a complete waste of time.
The new AVS (proper nouveaux term for 'student missionary'--don't know what AVS actually stands for) arrived about a week and a half ago. Her name is Sarah and she's from Colorado, but has traveled all over the place (now at Union College in Nebraska, but has studied at Andrews, Southern, Southwestern, Sagunto in Spain and whatever the SDA college in Argentina is called). I think she's also worked at a summer camp in Florida and in fact knows the daughter of one of the professors here. I guess you would pick up a lot of contacts if you moved around as much as she has.
Anyway, she's gotten a baptism by fire into Japanese culture. Last week, which would be just after she arrived, there were some big ol' festivals all over the place around here. We went to one at a coastal town called Ohara, about a 30 minute drive from here. This festival is interesting because they get a dozen or so people around these not-so-small portable shrines, pick them up, carry them around the town and then CHARGE into the ocean carrying these shrines. There must have been at least 10 of these shrines, and each team was wearing different colored belts and headbands. I understand this festival is called the "hadaka" festival, which is the Japanese word for "naked" that even a lummox like me can recognize. I got really worried when I first heard that, but it turns out that they wear these weird white wrap-around things that end up looking like loincloths combined with waders. I guess a long time ago, they did this with a lot less in the way of clothing but for whatever reason now they've sold out and gotten all modest and stuff. Not that I'm exactly *complaining*--the shrines are quite large and heavy and even the wooden boards they use to carry the things look like they'd crush your legs under them like grapes if they fell on you. So of course, most of the people carrying these shrines are gonna be big(gish), burly(ish) guys and heck yeah it'd be unpleasant if they were running into the ocean naked as the day they were born. There were a few women/girls and a few young boys but they must have been special in some way because there weren't very many of them and it didn't look like they were doing much of the heavy lifting or carrying.
Two things stood out in my mind from the festival as being so perfectly goofy. First of all, the people carrying the shrine things would suddenly realize that just CARRYING the shrines was boring so they'd suddenly start throwing these things into the air. I was waiting for one of these things to come crashing down on some drunk guy's shoulder and tear his arm off but that never happened. Then at the end of the festival the greatest thing EVER took place. The crowd was held back from the water by these ropes and a few police officers were patrolling around. I don't know why we couldn't go down to the water--it was kinda choppy so maybe they were thinking some little kid or big fat drunk dude would fall in and drown or something. Anyway, people in the crowd weren't too happy about it--these older guys kept yelling stuff at the police. SO HARDCORE I tell you. Like old, pudgy Asian versions of N.W.A. except instead of "F Tha Police" it was like "I am somewhat belligerent at you, policeman-san" but hey, you take what you can get, huh. Well, at the very end of the shrine-carrying festivities some of these people just decided "screw it, we've come all this way and we're getting in that water IF IT KILLS US" and they walked under the ropes to the ocean. So of course, the whole crowd of people get the idea "why didn't we just do that earlier" and push towards the ocean, while the seven or eight police officers try and get everyone back behind the ropes but It Ain't Happening, Gumshoe. We didn't join in because we figured (well, the white folks figured, I would have just blended in with the rest of the lemmings) that the police might get frustrated and just start whacking foreigners. Anyway, the shrine fun was done, so we just left.
YES. Come to Japan during the summer/fall seasons and experience the goodness of goofy festivals. A gazillion thumbs up from me.
2004-09-15
Ah You Ready For Some Football??????
Well, our summer review session started up here at Saniku. I will forever refuse to call this an "intensive" because an intensive course means you cram 1 quarter/semester into a few weeks, sit in class for 4-6 hours a day and cram your head so full of biology or Parables of Jesus or music appreciation that you're all jacked up and ready to go postal afterwards. This session is, get this, ABBREVIATED classes for two weeks. I don't believe this. And of course, the students who came are the ones who are struggling, and we're asking them to do half a semester's worth of work in 10 days. I don't want to jinx them or anything, and I guess my job is to find some way to motivate them to pass, but there ain't no way that most of these students are gonna pass.
So rather than focusing on that, I'm importing a discussion I read on the big ol' web today. The question is, What are your top four most-hated NFL teams? My NFL experience is kind of weird. I've lived most of my life not having a real team that I cheer for. My dad was a big 49ers fan when I was growing up, so I kind of follow the 49ers, but the two teams I was really drawn to--the LA Rams and the Houston Oilers--both moved. The Oilers aren't even called that anymore, and for whatever reason I never could get behind the Titans. After they lost the really ugly powder-blue uniforms they used as the Oilers the fascination just wasn't there anymore. And when the Rams left LA I completely lost track of them until that Super Bowl season awhile back and I didn't really jump on that bandwagon. In college I had my great Seattle Teams Are Jesus renaissance and later on I sort of tried to get behind the Eagles, because their uniforms are nifty and Rush Limbaugh made a complete idiot out of himself by going off on McNabb, but what do I have to do with Philadelphia? The fans are kind of poopy, too. Recently, though, I chose MY team for next season that I will cheer for, hopefully onto the Super Bowl. They sorta combine all the traits of the aforementioned teams I've liked historically. My team for the 2004 NFL season and possibly beyond is:
THE DETROIT LIONS.
They've got an ex-49ers coach at the helm (Steve Mariucci), an ex-Pacific NW QB (Joey Harrington, University of Oregon) and prissy powder-blue uniforms like the Oilers. And they've got nice helmets like the Eagles although of a totally different ilk. I couldn't find anything to tie them to the Rams but oh well. Wait a sec, Az-Zahir Hakim was on the Rams' Super Bowl team and now plays for the Lions. Perfect!
I also liked the Lions when Barry Sanders was playing because it was fun to watch Barry Sanders, and I liked Wayne Fontes even though he really wasn't that good a coach. You've got the greatest running back of all time, a succession of really terrible QBs, and you INSIST on using the run-and-shoot. Silly man. I still liked him, though, mainly because I wasn't a rabid Lions fan back then. If he was the coach now and I picked the Lions as my team I'd likely be calling for his HEAD!
So now that's settled, so here's my full-scale NFL list of teams I love, loathe, and don't really care about:
LIKE:
1. Detroit Lions
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. SF 49ers
HATE:
1. Dallas Cowboys: my all-time and forever #1 most hated NFL team. My own Chicago Bulls of the NFL. If they never win another SB it'll be too soon. The 90's were a dark time indeed.
2. Denver Broncos: I hate John Elway and don't like Mike Shanahan. Jason Elam and their 4 really pitiful SB losses are the only things keeping them from challenging for #1.
3. Minnesota Vikings: I don't know why, but whenever the Vikings choke, whether it's in the SB (0-4 all-time), playoffs (like in '98), or regular season (last year), everything is right with the world.
4. New Orleans Saints: "Saints"? Just who are they trying to kid, anyway?
5. Chicago Bears: Man oh man I hated that 15-1 1985 Bears team. They haven't done anything of note since and I still root against them every year.
Useless information, yes. But at least I’m writing stuff now, right?
Ah You Ready For Some Football??????
Well, our summer review session started up here at Saniku. I will forever refuse to call this an "intensive" because an intensive course means you cram 1 quarter/semester into a few weeks, sit in class for 4-6 hours a day and cram your head so full of biology or Parables of Jesus or music appreciation that you're all jacked up and ready to go postal afterwards. This session is, get this, ABBREVIATED classes for two weeks. I don't believe this. And of course, the students who came are the ones who are struggling, and we're asking them to do half a semester's worth of work in 10 days. I don't want to jinx them or anything, and I guess my job is to find some way to motivate them to pass, but there ain't no way that most of these students are gonna pass.
So rather than focusing on that, I'm importing a discussion I read on the big ol' web today. The question is, What are your top four most-hated NFL teams? My NFL experience is kind of weird. I've lived most of my life not having a real team that I cheer for. My dad was a big 49ers fan when I was growing up, so I kind of follow the 49ers, but the two teams I was really drawn to--the LA Rams and the Houston Oilers--both moved. The Oilers aren't even called that anymore, and for whatever reason I never could get behind the Titans. After they lost the really ugly powder-blue uniforms they used as the Oilers the fascination just wasn't there anymore. And when the Rams left LA I completely lost track of them until that Super Bowl season awhile back and I didn't really jump on that bandwagon. In college I had my great Seattle Teams Are Jesus renaissance and later on I sort of tried to get behind the Eagles, because their uniforms are nifty and Rush Limbaugh made a complete idiot out of himself by going off on McNabb, but what do I have to do with Philadelphia? The fans are kind of poopy, too. Recently, though, I chose MY team for next season that I will cheer for, hopefully onto the Super Bowl. They sorta combine all the traits of the aforementioned teams I've liked historically. My team for the 2004 NFL season and possibly beyond is:
THE DETROIT LIONS.
They've got an ex-49ers coach at the helm (Steve Mariucci), an ex-Pacific NW QB (Joey Harrington, University of Oregon) and prissy powder-blue uniforms like the Oilers. And they've got nice helmets like the Eagles although of a totally different ilk. I couldn't find anything to tie them to the Rams but oh well. Wait a sec, Az-Zahir Hakim was on the Rams' Super Bowl team and now plays for the Lions. Perfect!
I also liked the Lions when Barry Sanders was playing because it was fun to watch Barry Sanders, and I liked Wayne Fontes even though he really wasn't that good a coach. You've got the greatest running back of all time, a succession of really terrible QBs, and you INSIST on using the run-and-shoot. Silly man. I still liked him, though, mainly because I wasn't a rabid Lions fan back then. If he was the coach now and I picked the Lions as my team I'd likely be calling for his HEAD!
So now that's settled, so here's my full-scale NFL list of teams I love, loathe, and don't really care about:
LIKE:
1. Detroit Lions
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. SF 49ers
HATE:
1. Dallas Cowboys: my all-time and forever #1 most hated NFL team. My own Chicago Bulls of the NFL. If they never win another SB it'll be too soon. The 90's were a dark time indeed.
2. Denver Broncos: I hate John Elway and don't like Mike Shanahan. Jason Elam and their 4 really pitiful SB losses are the only things keeping them from challenging for #1.
3. Minnesota Vikings: I don't know why, but whenever the Vikings choke, whether it's in the SB (0-4 all-time), playoffs (like in '98), or regular season (last year), everything is right with the world.
4. New Orleans Saints: "Saints"? Just who are they trying to kid, anyway?
5. Chicago Bears: Man oh man I hated that 15-1 1985 Bears team. They haven't done anything of note since and I still root against them every year.
Useless information, yes. But at least I’m writing stuff now, right?
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Wow, so many updates all of a sudden
So, which Decepticon leader are you?
Quiz, code, and art all made by Victor Griffin.
I don't even know who Bludgeon is, but he sounds kinda nifty. Yippee.
So, which Decepticon leader are you?
Quiz, code, and art all made by Victor Griffin.
I don't even know who Bludgeon is, but he sounds kinda nifty. Yippee.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
2004-09-11
WEIRD SABBATH SCHOOL DISCUSSION I HAD TODAY: Our English Sabbath School class often wanders from the recommended lesson. Today was no exception. The lesson was about "unity and diversity in the church", but we got off talking about transcendental meditation, demon possession, and McDonald's. Actually, the McDonald's thing WAS from the lesson, because the writer said that no matter where you go in the world, McDonald's is always the same. NOT TRUE. Here in Japan, the fried chicken sandwich is noticeably different from the one in the States, they have teriyaki and wasabi sauce in several burgers, and the drink sizes are quite a bit smaller. Helpful hint: Do NOT get your info on McDonald's from the Sabbath School lesson. Silly SDAs talking about things they don't know about. The best part about this lesson, though, was at the very end, when I told the class about the rumours going around in the States that Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, etc. went to SDA academies.
WEIRD THING I ATE AT POTLUCK TODAY: Flowers. Someone brought some kind of edible yellow flower petals. At first I avoided them because I didn't want to look like a moron and eat a garnish, but one of the guys sitting next to me went back and got a huge ol' plateful of the stuff. I thought that was so weird I had to try it, so I went and grabbed a bunch. Actually very good. I'd take them over the nasty iceburg lettuce that passes for nutrition in the States.
WEIRD SABBATH SCHOOL DISCUSSION I HAD TODAY: Our English Sabbath School class often wanders from the recommended lesson. Today was no exception. The lesson was about "unity and diversity in the church", but we got off talking about transcendental meditation, demon possession, and McDonald's. Actually, the McDonald's thing WAS from the lesson, because the writer said that no matter where you go in the world, McDonald's is always the same. NOT TRUE. Here in Japan, the fried chicken sandwich is noticeably different from the one in the States, they have teriyaki and wasabi sauce in several burgers, and the drink sizes are quite a bit smaller. Helpful hint: Do NOT get your info on McDonald's from the Sabbath School lesson. Silly SDAs talking about things they don't know about. The best part about this lesson, though, was at the very end, when I told the class about the rumours going around in the States that Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, etc. went to SDA academies.
WEIRD THING I ATE AT POTLUCK TODAY: Flowers. Someone brought some kind of edible yellow flower petals. At first I avoided them because I didn't want to look like a moron and eat a garnish, but one of the guys sitting next to me went back and got a huge ol' plateful of the stuff. I thought that was so weird I had to try it, so I went and grabbed a bunch. Actually very good. I'd take them over the nasty iceburg lettuce that passes for nutrition in the States.
Monday, September 06, 2004
2004-09-07
I got 99 problems but...
Back in Japan after a couple of weeks in Hawaii vacationing. Well, sort of vacationing--I had to take care of a lot of official-type stuff, like getting my passport renewed and picking up an International Driver's License (which Amanda will insist is spelled "licence"). On the topic of Amanda--well, she's back. She went back to Australia with the intention of resuming her life there, but got a call from the missions department here in Japan saying that they were really short of people. They asked her if she'd be willing to consider returning--I hope her relationship with me didn't provide them some sort of impetus to try and pull her strings to get her back here. Anyway, she thought it over for a few weeks, gave them some conditions that she needed fulfilled, and they agreed. So she decided to come on back. She got here a day before I returned from Hawaii and you better believe it was great seeing her at the train station when I came back. So yeah, things are good.
My 10th high school reunion is coming up next month and the officers want me to write up something about what I've been up to the last 10 years since I won't be attending. I woulda loved to have seen everyone and check out who's married, divorced, has little urchins running around eating up all their money, etc. Hoping to get some kind of update--who knows, maybe an updated class roster or database or if someone really loves me a hard-copy newsletter. For the two of you still reading this, that was a hint. Anyway, I'm having a tough time writing a 10 year update. Lots of stuff has happened over the past 10 years, but I'm either gonna get super long-winded rehashing every detail, or write a three-paragraph overview that's boring and just begging to be deleted from the email. Well, I've got a whole half-week of nothing left to work on this, so maybe I'll come up with something decent. I figure if this gets people caught up with what I've been doing and maybe provides a laugh or two at my expense then it's mission accomplished.
I finally found some information I've been knocking myself out trying to find. A few months ago, before school got out here, the guys dorm did an "Open House" which is one of the social highlights of the semester. It's just like the Open Houses at SDA colleges in the States--basically, the students can, for one evening, carouse in the usually-verboten hallowed halls of the opposite gender's dorm(s). One of the women's dorms had theirs early and then the guys did theirs about a month later. The students make food and stuff and then there's some kind of entertainment program/talent show thingy. All the while you can visit rooms and see who decorated. Just like at WWC, the girls went totally all-out with their decorating. The guys--not so much.
But the best part of the guys' open house was in the talent show/program thing. To open the show, these two guys come out wearing sunglasses and black suits and looking like a Men In Black set got taken over by yakuza. They enter to some gawd-awful rap song done in English and--I am so not kidding about this--the first line I caught was "I got 99 problems but a b--ch ain't one". I was a little startled, and then started listening really carefully. The song just got MORE questionable from there, throwing out three and four and seven letter words that yo momma would wash yo filthy mouth out with soap if she caught you sayin them. All the while going back to the chorus that repeated the first line. By this time I'm rolling on the floor laughing--fortunately, some funny stuff was happening up front so I didn't look like a complete moron.
So anyway that was the highlight of the event for me. But I was wondering just who did this terrible song that I heard, in all places, at an event sponsored by an SDA college. Fortunately for me, MTV came to my rescue! I was watching some awards show on the aforementioned network, which I do believe is a cancer on the pancreas of American society, but hey, what else you gonna watch at midnight in Hawaii when you can't sleep? Anyway, they were talking about a Jay-Z song that was up for some award--which was entitled "99 Problems". Bingo! Eureka! So I go back and google "99 problems jay-z" and sure enough, a bunch of lyrics pages come up and the song is there in all its obscene misogynistic raging badness. Of course, this does mean that I will have to find it on the 'net somewhere just to regale people with this story.
Just got a call from Amanda and she's back from the elementary school. She may be coming to the office shortly so I guess I will sign off.
I got 99 problems but...
Back in Japan after a couple of weeks in Hawaii vacationing. Well, sort of vacationing--I had to take care of a lot of official-type stuff, like getting my passport renewed and picking up an International Driver's License (which Amanda will insist is spelled "licence"). On the topic of Amanda--well, she's back. She went back to Australia with the intention of resuming her life there, but got a call from the missions department here in Japan saying that they were really short of people. They asked her if she'd be willing to consider returning--I hope her relationship with me didn't provide them some sort of impetus to try and pull her strings to get her back here. Anyway, she thought it over for a few weeks, gave them some conditions that she needed fulfilled, and they agreed. So she decided to come on back. She got here a day before I returned from Hawaii and you better believe it was great seeing her at the train station when I came back. So yeah, things are good.
My 10th high school reunion is coming up next month and the officers want me to write up something about what I've been up to the last 10 years since I won't be attending. I woulda loved to have seen everyone and check out who's married, divorced, has little urchins running around eating up all their money, etc. Hoping to get some kind of update--who knows, maybe an updated class roster or database or if someone really loves me a hard-copy newsletter. For the two of you still reading this, that was a hint. Anyway, I'm having a tough time writing a 10 year update. Lots of stuff has happened over the past 10 years, but I'm either gonna get super long-winded rehashing every detail, or write a three-paragraph overview that's boring and just begging to be deleted from the email. Well, I've got a whole half-week of nothing left to work on this, so maybe I'll come up with something decent. I figure if this gets people caught up with what I've been doing and maybe provides a laugh or two at my expense then it's mission accomplished.
I finally found some information I've been knocking myself out trying to find. A few months ago, before school got out here, the guys dorm did an "Open House" which is one of the social highlights of the semester. It's just like the Open Houses at SDA colleges in the States--basically, the students can, for one evening, carouse in the usually-verboten hallowed halls of the opposite gender's dorm(s). One of the women's dorms had theirs early and then the guys did theirs about a month later. The students make food and stuff and then there's some kind of entertainment program/talent show thingy. All the while you can visit rooms and see who decorated. Just like at WWC, the girls went totally all-out with their decorating. The guys--not so much.
But the best part of the guys' open house was in the talent show/program thing. To open the show, these two guys come out wearing sunglasses and black suits and looking like a Men In Black set got taken over by yakuza. They enter to some gawd-awful rap song done in English and--I am so not kidding about this--the first line I caught was "I got 99 problems but a b--ch ain't one". I was a little startled, and then started listening really carefully. The song just got MORE questionable from there, throwing out three and four and seven letter words that yo momma would wash yo filthy mouth out with soap if she caught you sayin them. All the while going back to the chorus that repeated the first line. By this time I'm rolling on the floor laughing--fortunately, some funny stuff was happening up front so I didn't look like a complete moron.
So anyway that was the highlight of the event for me. But I was wondering just who did this terrible song that I heard, in all places, at an event sponsored by an SDA college. Fortunately for me, MTV came to my rescue! I was watching some awards show on the aforementioned network, which I do believe is a cancer on the pancreas of American society, but hey, what else you gonna watch at midnight in Hawaii when you can't sleep? Anyway, they were talking about a Jay-Z song that was up for some award--which was entitled "99 Problems". Bingo! Eureka! So I go back and google "99 problems jay-z" and sure enough, a bunch of lyrics pages come up and the song is there in all its obscene misogynistic raging badness. Of course, this does mean that I will have to find it on the 'net somewhere just to regale people with this story.
Just got a call from Amanda and she's back from the elementary school. She may be coming to the office shortly so I guess I will sign off.
Friday, August 06, 2004
2004-08-06
got it goin' like a turbo vette
i been seeing that writing in all lowercase is what the cool artsy types do nowadays to say "look at me, i'm cool and artsy and hopefully, ambiguously gay." so i thought i'd give it a try. if i end up looking all snooty and metrosexualer-than-thou, maybe i'll keep this up. cuz i always wanted to be pretentious when i grew up. just like michael stipe from r.e.m. i love the guy and the band, but man, that guy is like the epitome of pretentious arty fart. it's all good, though.
i just read on my u.s.a. sports news page that my favorite n.b.a. team, the sacramento kings, is going through something of a crisis. peja stojakovic wants to be traded. for those who don't know, peja stojakovic was the leading scorer last season for the kings. he's a big huge guy (6'9" or 6'10") but can totally shoot the lights out. i love watching the guy play--his shooting stroke just looks effortless. i've said it many times--you can have your vince carters and jason richardsons, guys who can do backflips in the air while dunking or jump over big stiff french guys. there's one guy in the league i'd pay to see play, and that's peja. and now he wants to be traded. surprisingly enough, i'm not really busted up about it.
why, you ask? the guy i enjoy watching most, on my favorite team, wants out, and i'm not upset? first of all, we'll see if he really means it. the kings have been a fun team to watch and be around the last four or five years, but they're also incredibly frustrating. they've lost in playoff game 7s for the last three years in a row--all of them, with the possible exception of dallas last year, were teams they should have beaten. this year was especially galling--they were cruising along with the best record in the league during the regular season, and then the wheels just fell off the last month or so when they went like 0-20 to drop from the #1 seed in the playoffs to the #4. this would come back to haunt them as they had to play the eventual #1 team in the second round, where they lost game 7 in minnesota. had they not suffered the huge collapse, that game 7 would have been played in sacramento and maybe history would be different.
so there's all this frustration surrounding the team right now, like they should have two or three championship banners hanging in arco arena but instead have nuthin'. plus chris webber went and opened his big mouth saying the team needs to play tougher, and peja apparently took that as a personal affront. if i was peja i'd just laugh it off, 'cause chris webber calling people out on their toughness is like paris hilton calling someone a tramp. but i guess it hurt peja's feelings and now he wants to take his ball and go home. finally, the kings let vlade divac, peja's fellow countryman and mentor in the league, to leave town and go to the hated lakers. so peja isn't a happy camper right now. but he's also getting paid around 8 million dollars a year to play for the highest-scoring team in the league who still have to be considered contenders for the title. i say wait a couple of weeks, let team management treat him to dinner and a movie a few times, send him to couples' counseling with chris webber. maybe make a documentary of it like that whole 'metallica talks about their feelings' fiasco.
even if peja sticks to his guns and wants out, it still isn't the end of the world for sacramento sports fans. here's the deal: peja is a small forward. while he is one of the best, good small forwards are a dime a dozen in the nba. there are exactly two players i'd be really depressed about losing right now, and those two players are brad miller and bobby jackson. peja is really important to the team, don't get me wrong, and if they were to lose him for nothing that'd be depressing. but if they were to trade him, there are a handful of guys i think would make good replacements. here's the deal--peja is probably the best pure shooter in the nba right now. his defense, however, is suspect, as is the defense for the kings as a whole. if the kings could pick up a guy who could make up for some of peja's scoring but improve the team's defense, they could come out of this better than before. just off the top of my head i came up with a list of guys who would be good pickups in exchange for peja. this is listed in my order of preference. note that i have no idea what the salary situations are for peja or any of these guys, so this is strictly talking talent level. don't know if a trade would work under the byzantine nba salary-cap rules.
andrei kirilenko
ron artest
shawn marion
paul pierce
rashard lewis
and of course, i'd throw kevin garnett, tracy mcgrady, carmelo anthony, and shaquille o'neal's names out there, although there's no way any of those guys are moving from their teams.
i absolutely love andrei kirilenko. if we're just talking basketball and i'm an nba gm, i'd marry andrei kirilenko. do a whole mike ditka-ricky williams si cover with me in a tux and kirilenko in a dress. anyway, i think he's a great player and he'd be a perfect fit in sacramento. he's the scariest defensive player in the league right now, i think. i don't know if utah would give him up, 'cause they've got something good going on with the additions of mehmet okur and benedict boozer. but if utah agrees, i'd trade peja straight-up for ak-47.
ron artest is said to be in larry bird's doghouse, so maybe sacramento could get him cheap. trade peja for artest and bring scot pollard back, maybe pry fred jones away from indy to bolster the backcourt depth. artest is the biggest headcase in the league, but he's also the best on-ball defender and a decent scorer. with him and christie the kings would suddenly have a wing defense comparable to the bulls' run in the mid-90s with jordan and pippen. note i said "comparable wing defense".
shawn marion and paul pierce are both good athletes and significant defensive upgrades from peja. although pierce might hog the ball too much to fit in sacramento's system. marion would be a good pick-up, but i'd hope the kings could get something else in addition. phoenix might also be willing to trade, since they added quentin richardson in the offseason and now have a surplus of small forwards/shooting guards.
rashard lewis is a good scorer and matches peja's size, but his defense might be even worse. this is a last resort in my eyes, the kings would need to take back several players from seattle. throw in flip murray and nick collison with lewis and i'd think about making a deal.
who knows. it just goes to show how jaded i've become with nba basketball, and sports in general. i still enjoy watching and following sports, but i'm not so much attached to players or even teams like i was before. peja says he wants to leave, and i yawn and think about how the kings will move on. the mariners stink up the a.l. in baseball, and i brag about ichiro still playing well and wait for next year. what can i say. sport is officially big business, and only chumps let their hearts get broken because of business and spoiled rich guys acting like six-year-olds.
got it goin' like a turbo vette
i been seeing that writing in all lowercase is what the cool artsy types do nowadays to say "look at me, i'm cool and artsy and hopefully, ambiguously gay." so i thought i'd give it a try. if i end up looking all snooty and metrosexualer-than-thou, maybe i'll keep this up. cuz i always wanted to be pretentious when i grew up. just like michael stipe from r.e.m. i love the guy and the band, but man, that guy is like the epitome of pretentious arty fart. it's all good, though.
i just read on my u.s.a. sports news page that my favorite n.b.a. team, the sacramento kings, is going through something of a crisis. peja stojakovic wants to be traded. for those who don't know, peja stojakovic was the leading scorer last season for the kings. he's a big huge guy (6'9" or 6'10") but can totally shoot the lights out. i love watching the guy play--his shooting stroke just looks effortless. i've said it many times--you can have your vince carters and jason richardsons, guys who can do backflips in the air while dunking or jump over big stiff french guys. there's one guy in the league i'd pay to see play, and that's peja. and now he wants to be traded. surprisingly enough, i'm not really busted up about it.
why, you ask? the guy i enjoy watching most, on my favorite team, wants out, and i'm not upset? first of all, we'll see if he really means it. the kings have been a fun team to watch and be around the last four or five years, but they're also incredibly frustrating. they've lost in playoff game 7s for the last three years in a row--all of them, with the possible exception of dallas last year, were teams they should have beaten. this year was especially galling--they were cruising along with the best record in the league during the regular season, and then the wheels just fell off the last month or so when they went like 0-20 to drop from the #1 seed in the playoffs to the #4. this would come back to haunt them as they had to play the eventual #1 team in the second round, where they lost game 7 in minnesota. had they not suffered the huge collapse, that game 7 would have been played in sacramento and maybe history would be different.
so there's all this frustration surrounding the team right now, like they should have two or three championship banners hanging in arco arena but instead have nuthin'. plus chris webber went and opened his big mouth saying the team needs to play tougher, and peja apparently took that as a personal affront. if i was peja i'd just laugh it off, 'cause chris webber calling people out on their toughness is like paris hilton calling someone a tramp. but i guess it hurt peja's feelings and now he wants to take his ball and go home. finally, the kings let vlade divac, peja's fellow countryman and mentor in the league, to leave town and go to the hated lakers. so peja isn't a happy camper right now. but he's also getting paid around 8 million dollars a year to play for the highest-scoring team in the league who still have to be considered contenders for the title. i say wait a couple of weeks, let team management treat him to dinner and a movie a few times, send him to couples' counseling with chris webber. maybe make a documentary of it like that whole 'metallica talks about their feelings' fiasco.
even if peja sticks to his guns and wants out, it still isn't the end of the world for sacramento sports fans. here's the deal: peja is a small forward. while he is one of the best, good small forwards are a dime a dozen in the nba. there are exactly two players i'd be really depressed about losing right now, and those two players are brad miller and bobby jackson. peja is really important to the team, don't get me wrong, and if they were to lose him for nothing that'd be depressing. but if they were to trade him, there are a handful of guys i think would make good replacements. here's the deal--peja is probably the best pure shooter in the nba right now. his defense, however, is suspect, as is the defense for the kings as a whole. if the kings could pick up a guy who could make up for some of peja's scoring but improve the team's defense, they could come out of this better than before. just off the top of my head i came up with a list of guys who would be good pickups in exchange for peja. this is listed in my order of preference. note that i have no idea what the salary situations are for peja or any of these guys, so this is strictly talking talent level. don't know if a trade would work under the byzantine nba salary-cap rules.
andrei kirilenko
ron artest
shawn marion
paul pierce
rashard lewis
and of course, i'd throw kevin garnett, tracy mcgrady, carmelo anthony, and shaquille o'neal's names out there, although there's no way any of those guys are moving from their teams.
i absolutely love andrei kirilenko. if we're just talking basketball and i'm an nba gm, i'd marry andrei kirilenko. do a whole mike ditka-ricky williams si cover with me in a tux and kirilenko in a dress. anyway, i think he's a great player and he'd be a perfect fit in sacramento. he's the scariest defensive player in the league right now, i think. i don't know if utah would give him up, 'cause they've got something good going on with the additions of mehmet okur and benedict boozer. but if utah agrees, i'd trade peja straight-up for ak-47.
ron artest is said to be in larry bird's doghouse, so maybe sacramento could get him cheap. trade peja for artest and bring scot pollard back, maybe pry fred jones away from indy to bolster the backcourt depth. artest is the biggest headcase in the league, but he's also the best on-ball defender and a decent scorer. with him and christie the kings would suddenly have a wing defense comparable to the bulls' run in the mid-90s with jordan and pippen. note i said "comparable wing defense".
shawn marion and paul pierce are both good athletes and significant defensive upgrades from peja. although pierce might hog the ball too much to fit in sacramento's system. marion would be a good pick-up, but i'd hope the kings could get something else in addition. phoenix might also be willing to trade, since they added quentin richardson in the offseason and now have a surplus of small forwards/shooting guards.
rashard lewis is a good scorer and matches peja's size, but his defense might be even worse. this is a last resort in my eyes, the kings would need to take back several players from seattle. throw in flip murray and nick collison with lewis and i'd think about making a deal.
who knows. it just goes to show how jaded i've become with nba basketball, and sports in general. i still enjoy watching and following sports, but i'm not so much attached to players or even teams like i was before. peja says he wants to leave, and i yawn and think about how the kings will move on. the mariners stink up the a.l. in baseball, and i brag about ichiro still playing well and wait for next year. what can i say. sport is officially big business, and only chumps let their hearts get broken because of business and spoiled rich guys acting like six-year-olds.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
2004-08-02
If I can't have you right now...I'll wait dear
Well, the Project To Make Myself Useful has officially started today. There aren't any more meetings scheduled, so I've got all this free time. I was especially worried about this 2 1/2 week period between Amanda's leaving and my heading to Hawaii for vacation because, well, there's simply nothing to do here. Yesterday I did some major cleaning in my apartment, which is still terrible but a lot better than it was when I started. I also bummed around for awhile, cleared a couple of bosses in Metroid Fusion, and played the Guns N' Roses song "Patience" on my mandolin.
Oh yeah, yesterday I was on the computer and saw this goofy article about some document the Vatican put out the other day. Something about how feminism is wack and screws up families. I guess they want women to be equal "in the workplace" (?) but at the same time uphold and emphasize fundamental differences. My internet connection is freaking out right now and won't let me view webpages so I can't reference the actual article, but lemme speak on this. I've got nothing better to do. And just in case anyone was wondering if my nascent coupled-status has watered down my feminazi views at all, like I now want some excuse to keep my girl under my thumb or something...well, judge for yourselves. That is, if anyone's still reading this.
The document--at least the snippets I got from reading the article--was utterly laughable, that is until I considered that it's like the binding Word of God for millions of people. Then it started to get my blood boiling. Yeah, yeah, I know it's those silly papists up in their Cuidad de Anticristo and what good SDA cares what they think anyway. The problem is that I hear similarly-flavored things coming out of Adventism too. The idea that men and women are "equal but different", that God ordained women to perform certain duties in a family, that women can't be priests/pastors/ordained ministers/whatever.
First of all, this "equal but different" thing is ridiculous. Are men and women different? Uh, yeah, sure we are. Thank God for that. Amanda even has this book that talks about the scientific, socio-biological differences, like how and why men usually have trouble sitting still, don't listen well, and think about sex all the time. And how and why women suck at 3D video games, turn maps every which way when they read them and throw baseballs like girls. Here's the thing: The book is written by scientists, who repeatedly make the disclaimer that these are TRENDS and statistical averages. They will NOT apply to everyone and certainly shouldn't be used as justification for taking away someone's right to be what they want to be. The average guy can process spatial images faster than the average woman, and the average woman can multitask better than the average man. But I listen better than a whole lot of women, and lots of women are better at 3D video games than me. April H from my old church can probably throw a baseball like 50 mph faster than I can. And this is my main gripe with almost all conservative Christian ideas about gender and sex: they take trends and averages that everyone with half a brain acknowledges, but then apply those trends and averages willy-nilly onto every SPECIFIC person and claim that it's the will of God that you fall in step and behave like the Average Guy/Girl.
Look, if I started spewing nonsense about how all black kids should play basketball and run track, all Asians should do math and play Mah Jong and white kids should be cheerleaders and wear polo shirts--but really they're equal just different and God made them that way, everyone should come down on me like a ton of wet bricks. But we don't bat an eye when preachers paint men and women with the same silly brushes.
Example: "Women should be homemakers and take care of the kids." I'm sure an awful lot of women would love this. Heck, MOST women might agree with this. I suspect my friend Leanne would rather shove flaming chopsticks coated in dog poo up her nose than stay home and take care of kids for 18 years. That doesn't make her a bad person, or a lethal threat to the structure of Family, or a Evil Deadite She-Bitch bent on leaving her husband, becoming a lesbian and practicing witchcraft. Unless a lot has changed in her life since her last email.
Look at the Bible. Yeah, a lot of women grew up, got married, had kids and flat-out disappeared from history. Yeah, Mary accepted the Spirit of God and became the mother of Jesus. That was a pretty boss thing to do. But hey, look, you've also got Deborah prophesying and kicking Barak's whiny yellow-striped butt into action. You've got Esther showing the king what the good Lord gave her, putting herself in danger and rescuing her nation (STANDING IN THE GAP! Oooooh, she's acting like a MAN! CURRRRRSES!!!) You've got Mary Magdalene becoming a Disciple of Jesus, certainly in action and devotion even if she didn't get the Official WWJD? Hologram Member's Card or whatever they issued to the male Disciples.
Well, that's all for now. I think I'm spent. Maybe 2 people found that even remotely interesting, but I mostly did that for myself. Just to prove I still gots tha Rage. Yup. Still crazy after all these years.
If I can't have you right now...I'll wait dear
Well, the Project To Make Myself Useful has officially started today. There aren't any more meetings scheduled, so I've got all this free time. I was especially worried about this 2 1/2 week period between Amanda's leaving and my heading to Hawaii for vacation because, well, there's simply nothing to do here. Yesterday I did some major cleaning in my apartment, which is still terrible but a lot better than it was when I started. I also bummed around for awhile, cleared a couple of bosses in Metroid Fusion, and played the Guns N' Roses song "Patience" on my mandolin.
Oh yeah, yesterday I was on the computer and saw this goofy article about some document the Vatican put out the other day. Something about how feminism is wack and screws up families. I guess they want women to be equal "in the workplace" (?) but at the same time uphold and emphasize fundamental differences. My internet connection is freaking out right now and won't let me view webpages so I can't reference the actual article, but lemme speak on this. I've got nothing better to do. And just in case anyone was wondering if my nascent coupled-status has watered down my feminazi views at all, like I now want some excuse to keep my girl under my thumb or something...well, judge for yourselves. That is, if anyone's still reading this.
The document--at least the snippets I got from reading the article--was utterly laughable, that is until I considered that it's like the binding Word of God for millions of people. Then it started to get my blood boiling. Yeah, yeah, I know it's those silly papists up in their Cuidad de Anticristo and what good SDA cares what they think anyway. The problem is that I hear similarly-flavored things coming out of Adventism too. The idea that men and women are "equal but different", that God ordained women to perform certain duties in a family, that women can't be priests/pastors/ordained ministers/whatever.
First of all, this "equal but different" thing is ridiculous. Are men and women different? Uh, yeah, sure we are. Thank God for that. Amanda even has this book that talks about the scientific, socio-biological differences, like how and why men usually have trouble sitting still, don't listen well, and think about sex all the time. And how and why women suck at 3D video games, turn maps every which way when they read them and throw baseballs like girls. Here's the thing: The book is written by scientists, who repeatedly make the disclaimer that these are TRENDS and statistical averages. They will NOT apply to everyone and certainly shouldn't be used as justification for taking away someone's right to be what they want to be. The average guy can process spatial images faster than the average woman, and the average woman can multitask better than the average man. But I listen better than a whole lot of women, and lots of women are better at 3D video games than me. April H from my old church can probably throw a baseball like 50 mph faster than I can. And this is my main gripe with almost all conservative Christian ideas about gender and sex: they take trends and averages that everyone with half a brain acknowledges, but then apply those trends and averages willy-nilly onto every SPECIFIC person and claim that it's the will of God that you fall in step and behave like the Average Guy/Girl.
Look, if I started spewing nonsense about how all black kids should play basketball and run track, all Asians should do math and play Mah Jong and white kids should be cheerleaders and wear polo shirts--but really they're equal just different and God made them that way, everyone should come down on me like a ton of wet bricks. But we don't bat an eye when preachers paint men and women with the same silly brushes.
Example: "Women should be homemakers and take care of the kids." I'm sure an awful lot of women would love this. Heck, MOST women might agree with this. I suspect my friend Leanne would rather shove flaming chopsticks coated in dog poo up her nose than stay home and take care of kids for 18 years. That doesn't make her a bad person, or a lethal threat to the structure of Family, or a Evil Deadite She-Bitch bent on leaving her husband, becoming a lesbian and practicing witchcraft. Unless a lot has changed in her life since her last email.
Look at the Bible. Yeah, a lot of women grew up, got married, had kids and flat-out disappeared from history. Yeah, Mary accepted the Spirit of God and became the mother of Jesus. That was a pretty boss thing to do. But hey, look, you've also got Deborah prophesying and kicking Barak's whiny yellow-striped butt into action. You've got Esther showing the king what the good Lord gave her, putting herself in danger and rescuing her nation (STANDING IN THE GAP! Oooooh, she's acting like a MAN! CURRRRRSES!!!) You've got Mary Magdalene becoming a Disciple of Jesus, certainly in action and devotion even if she didn't get the Official WWJD? Hologram Member's Card or whatever they issued to the male Disciples.
Well, that's all for now. I think I'm spent. Maybe 2 people found that even remotely interesting, but I mostly did that for myself. Just to prove I still gots tha Rage. Yup. Still crazy after all these years.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
2004-07-31
I'm wide awake...I'm not sleeping
Well, Amanda left Wednesday. We packed up the last of her stuff in the morning and left for the airport at noon. Before we left we met at the Promenade, the main square area in front of the campus buildings, and all the faculty/staff came out to say good-bye. It was funny--we were taking pictures and Amanda and I were getting kinda cozy for some of them. Some of the extreme big-wigs--I'm talking about the president of the college among them--were giggling like little schoolgirls behind us. Very amusing, it was. Kinda cute too. John was leaving on the same day so we all went together. There was more room than we thought there would be, but they still had a lot of baggage. I was praying that we could get Amanda on the plane. One of her suitcases felt like it weighed almost as much as me. Dr. Tahara, the academic dean here, came along as a representative of the school, and Dr. White drove.
As many of you know, I'm extremely ticklish, and Amanda has developed an affinity for exploiting that weakness. She was doing so the whole drive to the airport, but I let her because it would be the last time she could do that for a while. I think we were making John uncomfortable or sick with our couple-ish displays because he kept on making cracks about "Don't be doing nasty things back there". I should feel bad 'cause I've been on the other side, being the single one among couples acting gross, but hey, I was gonna enjoy the last few moments we'd have together for a while.
Although John left on the same day, he was leaving from a different terminal so we dropped him off first. I shook his hand and helped unload a few of his boxes--yeah, he had a few. Dr. Tahara helped him with his things, which was good because it required two of those airport carts. Then we drove over to the next terminal where Amanda was leaving from. We parked the car and I helped her unload her things. Dr. White went to check on how John was doing so we went off to find the proper check-in line. Amazingly enough, there was hardly any line at the counter. Amanda had no trouble getting her ticket and bags checked, so we had a last bit of time together. We hung around the entrance to the security area for awhile, just talking about everything and nothing. There was a guy there with a big camera and we speculated on what he was doing there. It was just nice to talk and be with her. A good reminder of why we got together in the first place. Even though she was about to leave and we won't see each other for at least a few months, it wasn't a really sad time. I was really happy to be with her and grateful for the time we did have together. I had known this day was coming and had been wondering if getting together with her was the right thing to do. I didn't want her to get hurt and I knew saying good-bye would probably do just that to both of us. But the time we've had was so worth it.
So yeah, it came time to say good-bye. Tahara and White were both really good about letting me hang around the security point, waving good-bye until she disappeared around a corner. And that was pretty much it. We piled in the van and came back to campus.
The last few days have been something of a blur. I've basically been moping around the apartment missing her. She called on Thursday just after noon to let me know she got in okay. I guess her family met her at the airport so it was good fun. Sounds like she's enjoying getting caught up with people back home, but she said she misses me a lot. The feeling is very much mutual. I've sent a couple of emails and now it's just a matter of getting adjusted to being apart. I don't have any idea what will happen in the future, but we're gonna keep this thing going and see where it leads. I won't make any predictions beyond these: High phone bills (for both of us), and a lot of me babbling about her in emails and journal logs. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
If you see her, say hello
I'm wide awake...I'm not sleeping
Well, Amanda left Wednesday. We packed up the last of her stuff in the morning and left for the airport at noon. Before we left we met at the Promenade, the main square area in front of the campus buildings, and all the faculty/staff came out to say good-bye. It was funny--we were taking pictures and Amanda and I were getting kinda cozy for some of them. Some of the extreme big-wigs--I'm talking about the president of the college among them--were giggling like little schoolgirls behind us. Very amusing, it was. Kinda cute too. John was leaving on the same day so we all went together. There was more room than we thought there would be, but they still had a lot of baggage. I was praying that we could get Amanda on the plane. One of her suitcases felt like it weighed almost as much as me. Dr. Tahara, the academic dean here, came along as a representative of the school, and Dr. White drove.
As many of you know, I'm extremely ticklish, and Amanda has developed an affinity for exploiting that weakness. She was doing so the whole drive to the airport, but I let her because it would be the last time she could do that for a while. I think we were making John uncomfortable or sick with our couple-ish displays because he kept on making cracks about "Don't be doing nasty things back there". I should feel bad 'cause I've been on the other side, being the single one among couples acting gross, but hey, I was gonna enjoy the last few moments we'd have together for a while.
Although John left on the same day, he was leaving from a different terminal so we dropped him off first. I shook his hand and helped unload a few of his boxes--yeah, he had a few. Dr. Tahara helped him with his things, which was good because it required two of those airport carts. Then we drove over to the next terminal where Amanda was leaving from. We parked the car and I helped her unload her things. Dr. White went to check on how John was doing so we went off to find the proper check-in line. Amazingly enough, there was hardly any line at the counter. Amanda had no trouble getting her ticket and bags checked, so we had a last bit of time together. We hung around the entrance to the security area for awhile, just talking about everything and nothing. There was a guy there with a big camera and we speculated on what he was doing there. It was just nice to talk and be with her. A good reminder of why we got together in the first place. Even though she was about to leave and we won't see each other for at least a few months, it wasn't a really sad time. I was really happy to be with her and grateful for the time we did have together. I had known this day was coming and had been wondering if getting together with her was the right thing to do. I didn't want her to get hurt and I knew saying good-bye would probably do just that to both of us. But the time we've had was so worth it.
So yeah, it came time to say good-bye. Tahara and White were both really good about letting me hang around the security point, waving good-bye until she disappeared around a corner. And that was pretty much it. We piled in the van and came back to campus.
The last few days have been something of a blur. I've basically been moping around the apartment missing her. She called on Thursday just after noon to let me know she got in okay. I guess her family met her at the airport so it was good fun. Sounds like she's enjoying getting caught up with people back home, but she said she misses me a lot. The feeling is very much mutual. I've sent a couple of emails and now it's just a matter of getting adjusted to being apart. I don't have any idea what will happen in the future, but we're gonna keep this thing going and see where it leads. I won't make any predictions beyond these: High phone bills (for both of us), and a lot of me babbling about her in emails and journal logs. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
If you see her, say hello
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
14 July 2004
...and never mind that noise you heard
Welllllllll...I guess I am becoming more accustomed to Japanese culture. I had my first taste of something "authentically Japanese" last night--Amanda and I went to a karaoke joint with the Korean students here. From what I can pick up, karaoke has sort of a seedy connotation to it here, as in "some Adventists might find it offensive" in the same way that many SDAs in the US might frown on going to a pool hall. After trying it once myself, I'm not sure I understand. Maybe it started in Tokyo bars with drunken businessmen singing their hearts out until they soiled themselves, but the place we went wasn't a bar at all. The one seedy thing was the smell--people had obviously been smoking in there and the ventilation was obviously not great. But other than that, it was pretty nifty--the place had several rooms, maybe about the size of the living room in my apartment. You go in there with your party and git down. The Korean girls we were with wanted to sing some Korean songs, which was fine, and they actually sounded good. Amanda was all shy about singing but she did well, too. Well, except that every female singer they had there was out of her range. But she did much better than she seemed to think she would. Maybe I'm biased, though.
As for my songs, here's a list of what I did:
Pet Shop Boys--"Go West" (This went pretty well, but it would have been even BETTER if I had the SF Gay Men's Choir backing me up)
The Monkees--"Daydream Believer" and "I'm A Believer" (Amanda sang with me on this one)
Celine Dion--"My Heart Will Go On" (I'm so not kidding about this one--we were ALL supposed to do this, but I ended up singing mostly a solo by the end. I don't even know the stupid song.)
No Doubt--"Don't Speak" (absolutely brutal, 'cause Gwen Stefani's voice is too low for me to sing in a guy's register, so I had to sing it completely in falsetto. It had the group laughing at first, and rolling around in agony by the end.)
I wanted to do "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, but we ran out of time. Also, the image of me bouncing around a small room screaming "It's just the beasts under your bed...in your closet, in your heaaaaaaaaad..." might have sent the Korean girls scattering all the way back to Korea.
Today's the last day of actual classes before summer break. I hope the students study for their tests--that's an issue with some of them. Okay, a LOT of them. We've been talking about ways to get them to study more, but hey, they're college students and what can you really do? Well, we had an extensive review this entire week. If they fail it's their blood on their own heads.
...and never mind that noise you heard
Welllllllll...I guess I am becoming more accustomed to Japanese culture. I had my first taste of something "authentically Japanese" last night--Amanda and I went to a karaoke joint with the Korean students here. From what I can pick up, karaoke has sort of a seedy connotation to it here, as in "some Adventists might find it offensive" in the same way that many SDAs in the US might frown on going to a pool hall. After trying it once myself, I'm not sure I understand. Maybe it started in Tokyo bars with drunken businessmen singing their hearts out until they soiled themselves, but the place we went wasn't a bar at all. The one seedy thing was the smell--people had obviously been smoking in there and the ventilation was obviously not great. But other than that, it was pretty nifty--the place had several rooms, maybe about the size of the living room in my apartment. You go in there with your party and git down. The Korean girls we were with wanted to sing some Korean songs, which was fine, and they actually sounded good. Amanda was all shy about singing but she did well, too. Well, except that every female singer they had there was out of her range. But she did much better than she seemed to think she would. Maybe I'm biased, though.
As for my songs, here's a list of what I did:
Pet Shop Boys--"Go West" (This went pretty well, but it would have been even BETTER if I had the SF Gay Men's Choir backing me up)
The Monkees--"Daydream Believer" and "I'm A Believer" (Amanda sang with me on this one)
Celine Dion--"My Heart Will Go On" (I'm so not kidding about this one--we were ALL supposed to do this, but I ended up singing mostly a solo by the end. I don't even know the stupid song.)
No Doubt--"Don't Speak" (absolutely brutal, 'cause Gwen Stefani's voice is too low for me to sing in a guy's register, so I had to sing it completely in falsetto. It had the group laughing at first, and rolling around in agony by the end.)
I wanted to do "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, but we ran out of time. Also, the image of me bouncing around a small room screaming "It's just the beasts under your bed...in your closet, in your heaaaaaaaaad..." might have sent the Korean girls scattering all the way back to Korea.
Today's the last day of actual classes before summer break. I hope the students study for their tests--that's an issue with some of them. Okay, a LOT of them. We've been talking about ways to get them to study more, but hey, they're college students and what can you really do? Well, we had an extensive review this entire week. If they fail it's their blood on their own heads.
Monday, July 05, 2004
2004-07-06
This is the time that I'll come running...Straight to you
Well, I was talking with my folks the other day and they pointed out that I haven't updated this site in a month. I feel kinda bad about it, because a lot of changes have been happening here and I should have done a better job of keeping everyone up to date. However, some of said changes have been keeping me busy and occupied. I am not, however, dead or injured here, and I just thought I should get that out of the way first.
Anyway, onto the changes: First of all, I'm enjoying the air conditioning unit in my office. It's good, because the weather has turned hot and muggy and it's pretty miserable to be sitting in this office with nothing but an open window to provide cooling/air circulation. My apartment does not, as of yet, have an AC unit in it, so I spend most of my time in my office. It was frustrating because until about a week ago, I couldn't use the office AC--the power cord, for some odd reason, was about 1 1/2 inches too short to reach the nearest plug. So the outlet would sit there, tantalizing me, frustrating all my efforts to get cool air in my office. I should have just gone and picked up an extension cord, but I kept on forgetting to do so. And that's when my Australian girlfriend came to my rescue and picked one up for me on her way back from the elementary school last week.
Yeah, y'all read that right. The main reason I've been so utterly non-existent with online updates for the last month is that I've gone and gotten myself an Australian girlfriend. Well, that's not entirely accurate. We sorta went and got each other. And yeah, "my Australian girlfriend" refers to Amanda, whom I've mentioned several times in this very journal. I was all torn and confused over whether I should pursue something with her. That all changed, oh, about a month ago--June 11, to be exact. Here's the quick recap of what happened.
The week of June 11 saw Amanda and me spending an unusual amount of time together. We'd always been comfortable around each other, but even thick-headed ol' me noticed a change. However, I didn't know whether it meant anything. Friday night we had a special vespers where the campus ministries team led a group of people out to see fireflies. That's right, FIREFLIES. Like the things you see on the first, slow leg of Pirates of the Caribbean. They hang out around the rice fields here and lemme tell you, it is a nifty sight. Unfortunately, like seemingly everything cool in Japan (well, at least the fireflies and the sakura blossoms) they only stick around for a few weeks so we had to be careful with the scheduling of the vespers.
Now, you'd THINK that walking around rice fields at night watching these beautiful and astonishing bugs would be the perfect time to make a move. It'd be the stuff of romance novels and sappy movies. But no, nothing happened during the vespers. So we ended the vespers and I prepared to walk back to my apartment and do what I normally do Friday nights--listen to the Probe recording, maybe listen to some music and do some reading, and then go to sleep early after a long week. But then Amanda asked if I wanted to study the Sabbath School lesson together. THIS was unusual. We'd studied together in the past, but lately she'd been reserving her Friday nights for either early sleep or talking with her folks on the phone. I said "sure, I'd like to study with you" because I always had fun discussing religious stuff with her. So she came over with the quarterly and we began to talk about stuff.
Somewhere in the discussion--my memory gets kinda fuzzy at this point--we sorta ended up blurting out to each other, at about the same time, that we'd both been thinking about each other and whether something could happen between us. If I could get into more detail, I wouldn't, because I'd sorta like to keep those first special memories as something(s) between the two of us. But really, I don't exactly recall WHAT happened, mainly because my brain was oscillating between "Heyyyy, this is kinda cool," and "oh man oh man oh MAN OH MAN IS THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENING".
Well, it was, 'cause I went to Sabbath School the next morning and saw her, sure enough, it was real. It wasn't all a wild dream. So we've been together for about a month now, and it's all good. Really, it's sorta like a continuation and progression of our friendship. We can talk for hours about everything and nothing, travel around or stay in, whatever we feel like. It's incredibly comfortable and easy being with her, but at the same time it never gets boring.
Actually, we had our "first date" last week Thursday--yeah, we'd been together almost three weeks before we had our first date. A consequence of living on an isolated campus with stuff going on during the weekends. I've posted some pictures from the evening.
Woo-hoo!
Thursday, June 10, 2004
2004-06-09
I feel like Keanu Reeves right about now
Whoa...
I guess this story actually starts last week, during the week of prayer we had at the college. I may have mentioned it, even--two nursing students, Megumi and Shoko, came up to me in the cafeteria and said they liked the praise music we were doing. I didn't think much of the encounter--I play badminton with Megumi every Saturday night but I'd never talked with Shoko before. They WERE giggling and stuff when they said they liked my guitar playing, so I should have suspected something was up.
So yesterday evening I went to the cafeteria to eat supper, as usual. Amanda had come back from teaching at Kofudai and she was already there, so I sat at her table and asked how her day went. She was telling me when the group we were sitting with got up because I guess they got done quickly. Don't know if they were in a hurry, or what. Satsuki came and joined us and we were talking about nothing in particular. At some point in the conversation I accidentally swallowed a piece of carrot or some other chopped-up vegetable and had a moment of distress. It wasn't too big of a deal, though, nothing I thought about too much...
Until this girl at the table next to ours leans over and asks if I was all right. I said I was fine, and then she starts talking in very broken English. It was about then I realized that this girl talking to me was Shoko from the week before. That's also when things started to get VERY weird. First she said "I think you are cute", which embarrassed me, but it's happened before so I gave my standard answer--"Thank you." Then she said something about me being very nice, so I said "Thank you" again. And THEN...
She starts saying something that's more involved, I picked out words like "type" and "cute" and such. I guess she didn't know exactly how to say in English whatever it was she wanted to say, so she was asking Satsuki to help. Unfortunately, Satsuki is still very much in the learning process herself, so SHE didn't know either. I should have gotten very worried at this point, but I was still kind of trying to encourage her to at least give it a shot and express herself. So she leans over and blurts out, "I LOVE YOU!"
At this point, my face was probably crimson, I was completely speechless, and both Satsuki and Amanda were cracking up. What do you say to THAT? I kind of sputtered and stammered and the best I could come up with was "Thank you" again. Satsuki said that Shoko was trying to say something to the effect of "you are my type" or something like that but didn't know how to say that so she fell back on the closest English phrase she knew. Oh geez. That was uncomfortable and flattering and embarrassing all rolled into one. But the story's not done yet...
Shoko and her friends got up to take their trays over to the washing section. She came back to get some of her things together and was kinda standing there talking to Satsuki. I thought I should say something, but was still so stunned from a few minutes ago, that I had no idea what to say. So I said the first thing that came into MY mind, which was--I am not making this up--"So are you busy tonight?" It's a question I frequently ask my English students, but the second the words left my mouth I realized that she might interpret it as asking her out. I couldn't very well take the words back, though, so I tried to cover with some other questions--"What do you have to do tonight?" "Are you very busy?" which only dug myself into deeper trouble. Fortunately, her lack of English knowledge meant she didn't pick up on the "asking out" connotations of my questions and she said something about a test tomorrow. I told her to study hard and do her best and somehow got out of there without her asking me out or anything.
I haven't seen her since then, and I'm a little bit afraid of what she'll say NEXT time. I guess my days as old-guy mentor-type person are over. I told John about the whole incident later and he's convinced Japanese girls are completely nuts. I'd be somewhat inclined to agree. Actually, Shoko is disarmingly pretty, but as I told John, what would I possibly have in common with an 18/19-year old Japanese college student? Who doesn't speak English?
This place is SO weird. Whoa.
I feel like Keanu Reeves right about now
Whoa...
I guess this story actually starts last week, during the week of prayer we had at the college. I may have mentioned it, even--two nursing students, Megumi and Shoko, came up to me in the cafeteria and said they liked the praise music we were doing. I didn't think much of the encounter--I play badminton with Megumi every Saturday night but I'd never talked with Shoko before. They WERE giggling and stuff when they said they liked my guitar playing, so I should have suspected something was up.
So yesterday evening I went to the cafeteria to eat supper, as usual. Amanda had come back from teaching at Kofudai and she was already there, so I sat at her table and asked how her day went. She was telling me when the group we were sitting with got up because I guess they got done quickly. Don't know if they were in a hurry, or what. Satsuki came and joined us and we were talking about nothing in particular. At some point in the conversation I accidentally swallowed a piece of carrot or some other chopped-up vegetable and had a moment of distress. It wasn't too big of a deal, though, nothing I thought about too much...
Until this girl at the table next to ours leans over and asks if I was all right. I said I was fine, and then she starts talking in very broken English. It was about then I realized that this girl talking to me was Shoko from the week before. That's also when things started to get VERY weird. First she said "I think you are cute", which embarrassed me, but it's happened before so I gave my standard answer--"Thank you." Then she said something about me being very nice, so I said "Thank you" again. And THEN...
She starts saying something that's more involved, I picked out words like "type" and "cute" and such. I guess she didn't know exactly how to say in English whatever it was she wanted to say, so she was asking Satsuki to help. Unfortunately, Satsuki is still very much in the learning process herself, so SHE didn't know either. I should have gotten very worried at this point, but I was still kind of trying to encourage her to at least give it a shot and express herself. So she leans over and blurts out, "I LOVE YOU!"
At this point, my face was probably crimson, I was completely speechless, and both Satsuki and Amanda were cracking up. What do you say to THAT? I kind of sputtered and stammered and the best I could come up with was "Thank you" again. Satsuki said that Shoko was trying to say something to the effect of "you are my type" or something like that but didn't know how to say that so she fell back on the closest English phrase she knew. Oh geez. That was uncomfortable and flattering and embarrassing all rolled into one. But the story's not done yet...
Shoko and her friends got up to take their trays over to the washing section. She came back to get some of her things together and was kinda standing there talking to Satsuki. I thought I should say something, but was still so stunned from a few minutes ago, that I had no idea what to say. So I said the first thing that came into MY mind, which was--I am not making this up--"So are you busy tonight?" It's a question I frequently ask my English students, but the second the words left my mouth I realized that she might interpret it as asking her out. I couldn't very well take the words back, though, so I tried to cover with some other questions--"What do you have to do tonight?" "Are you very busy?" which only dug myself into deeper trouble. Fortunately, her lack of English knowledge meant she didn't pick up on the "asking out" connotations of my questions and she said something about a test tomorrow. I told her to study hard and do her best and somehow got out of there without her asking me out or anything.
I haven't seen her since then, and I'm a little bit afraid of what she'll say NEXT time. I guess my days as old-guy mentor-type person are over. I told John about the whole incident later and he's convinced Japanese girls are completely nuts. I'd be somewhat inclined to agree. Actually, Shoko is disarmingly pretty, but as I told John, what would I possibly have in common with an 18/19-year old Japanese college student? Who doesn't speak English?
This place is SO weird. Whoa.
Monday, June 07, 2004
Friday, June 04, 2004
2004-06-04
The queen of hearts is always your best bet
People here are funny. Perhaps it's no different than any college, but everyone here is obsessed with dating. At least they SAY they are. When it comes to the actual deed they're a bunch of chickens. However, they absolutely LOVE asking all manner of personal questions, most revolving around dating/relationships. Just the other night, we were celebrating the pastor's birthday, enjoying the usual kind of birthday party chit-chat, and this girl asks Amanda, "Do you want to marry?" Talk about a non sequitur. I was laughing so hard I didn't pay attention to what her answer was. Then today in the cafeteria, I was sitting at a table with a bunch of nursing students, and they started grilling me with all these questions. "How old are you?" "Do you have girlfriend-o?" "Why not?" "How long ago your last girlfriend-o?" I'm glad I don't have any shame in sharing such information or I'd be squirming. I've fielded the question "What are you looking for/What is your 'type'?" at LEAST a dozen times here.
Because of all these questions I've had to think about an answer. Normally, I just give some really bizarre answer and watch them get all confoozled. The first time I was asked this was during a Bible study. We went around and introduced ourselves and that was part of the INTRODUCTION. The first thing I said was "Breathing" and only Amanda got it, 'cause she laughed and everyone else looked like a 747 just passed five centimeters over their heads. I said some other stuff like "easy to talk to, funny, and strange" and they all got confused as to why I wanted someone who was strange. I said "it's because I'm very strange" and that only confused them more.
As a result of all of this tomfoolery, I've come up with a succinct answer. What am I looking for? Well, first, I've gotten pretty good at being friends with women. And I really enjoy it. I enjoy hanging out with them, talking with them, trying (and failing) to understand them, etc. I guess what I'm looking for in a dating partner is an extension of that. In one sentence, I'm looking for a best friend I with whom I can do all of the above, and also french kiss. However, I can't put very well put THAT in the weekly campus ministries newsletter, so I'm putting it here instead.
The mischief is that unless someone else is looking for that exact thing, this is gonna be a doozy to find. Most people (in my experience) draw a pretty defined line between "friends" and "potential dates" so maybe I'm just a freak. Also, all my female friends are probably going "oh good gracious, time to purge Kevin from the contact list." You don't have to worry, I don't have anyone specific in mind. Yet.
That would seem to preclude getting into a serious relationship here, since "best friend", at least in my mind, means you can TALK with the person. And that's kind of difficult here. The other thing is that while there are lots of pretty women here--and life really IS good here, guys--the old saying "water water everywhere and not a drop to drink" is true. The nursing students I was sitting with at lunch were all like 18-20. It made me feel good that they all guessed my age to be way lower than it really is--they started at 23 which put a big smile on my face. When they started saying THEIR ages it wiped the smile right off, though. The one girl who asked me my age said "You are 10 years older than me" which drove home how ANCIENT I am. I was learning how to calculate percentages and write quatrains when she was being BORN.
At least I didn't bust out with the "When I was your age..." line. I haven't used that with any of my students, so I guess I'm not a cranky old geezer just yet.
The queen of hearts is always your best bet
People here are funny. Perhaps it's no different than any college, but everyone here is obsessed with dating. At least they SAY they are. When it comes to the actual deed they're a bunch of chickens. However, they absolutely LOVE asking all manner of personal questions, most revolving around dating/relationships. Just the other night, we were celebrating the pastor's birthday, enjoying the usual kind of birthday party chit-chat, and this girl asks Amanda, "Do you want to marry?" Talk about a non sequitur. I was laughing so hard I didn't pay attention to what her answer was. Then today in the cafeteria, I was sitting at a table with a bunch of nursing students, and they started grilling me with all these questions. "How old are you?" "Do you have girlfriend-o?" "Why not?" "How long ago your last girlfriend-o?" I'm glad I don't have any shame in sharing such information or I'd be squirming. I've fielded the question "What are you looking for/What is your 'type'?" at LEAST a dozen times here.
Because of all these questions I've had to think about an answer. Normally, I just give some really bizarre answer and watch them get all confoozled. The first time I was asked this was during a Bible study. We went around and introduced ourselves and that was part of the INTRODUCTION. The first thing I said was "Breathing" and only Amanda got it, 'cause she laughed and everyone else looked like a 747 just passed five centimeters over their heads. I said some other stuff like "easy to talk to, funny, and strange" and they all got confused as to why I wanted someone who was strange. I said "it's because I'm very strange" and that only confused them more.
As a result of all of this tomfoolery, I've come up with a succinct answer. What am I looking for? Well, first, I've gotten pretty good at being friends with women. And I really enjoy it. I enjoy hanging out with them, talking with them, trying (and failing) to understand them, etc. I guess what I'm looking for in a dating partner is an extension of that. In one sentence, I'm looking for a best friend I with whom I can do all of the above, and also french kiss. However, I can't put very well put THAT in the weekly campus ministries newsletter, so I'm putting it here instead.
The mischief is that unless someone else is looking for that exact thing, this is gonna be a doozy to find. Most people (in my experience) draw a pretty defined line between "friends" and "potential dates" so maybe I'm just a freak. Also, all my female friends are probably going "oh good gracious, time to purge Kevin from the contact list." You don't have to worry, I don't have anyone specific in mind. Yet.
That would seem to preclude getting into a serious relationship here, since "best friend", at least in my mind, means you can TALK with the person. And that's kind of difficult here. The other thing is that while there are lots of pretty women here--and life really IS good here, guys--the old saying "water water everywhere and not a drop to drink" is true. The nursing students I was sitting with at lunch were all like 18-20. It made me feel good that they all guessed my age to be way lower than it really is--they started at 23 which put a big smile on my face. When they started saying THEIR ages it wiped the smile right off, though. The one girl who asked me my age said "You are 10 years older than me" which drove home how ANCIENT I am. I was learning how to calculate percentages and write quatrains when she was being BORN.
At least I didn't bust out with the "When I was your age..." line. I haven't used that with any of my students, so I guess I'm not a cranky old geezer just yet.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
2004-06-03
Best. Meeting. EVER.
It's 4:30, and I just got back from a faculty meeting. That started at 4:20. No, we didn't sit around and smoke pot, although hey, that might make some of the other ones more tolerable. Did I really say that in PRINT? (Just kidding, kids, don't do drugs!!) Anyway, yeah, the meeting lasted for like 10 minutes. They talked about all of two items and I had a big ol' grin on my face when I left. I really do like my co-workers, but I kinda start to not like them so much when we've already been in a meeting for an hour and a half and one of them just HAS to bring up something that 1) really isn't all that important and 2) I can't understand 'cause I don't speak Japanese.
Y'all in the States better hope these kinds of meetings don't become the norm, or I may end up staying here for good. I am joking, but those long meetings of crazy moon-man babble are the only things I don't like about this job so far. Of course, that won't be the case, probably the next ten meetings will be long and tedious and I'll feel all homicidal afterwards.
This week has been Week of Prayer here. A guy named Fujita has been speaking and his talks have been really interesting--well, they WOULD be if I understood Japanese. He's been using (I think) popular artwork, anime, and music in his talks. Some of them have been super-weird. The first day there was this story which in Japan is called (something)-Chihiro but I think it was called Spirited Away in America. It's that Miyazaki guy, anyway. I couldn't understand anything, but it LOOKED like some little girl had a pet pig and her parents/evil guardians/whatever ended up killing the pig and making pork chops and sausages out of it. Then they sort of turned into pigs and some weird cloaked masked guy came around and destroyed the world or some insane thing like that. It's probably not quite that weird but I must say, reading cartoons when you can't make sense of anything you're reading does make them really interesting. I don't even know what sort of point he was making, but I wish I understood because I bet it would have been pretty trippy. The second day he used some story about a ghost-girl named Yuuri (?) who asks some living girl if she can possess her. The artwork was really haunting, but not over-the-top scary--just strangely, I don't know, unsettling. I liked it, though. Again, I have no idea what the guy was saying, so it was just a matter of looking at the artwork going "oooooooh, that's interesting".
They asked me to play bass for the meetings, so I'm playing during both the morning and evening. It's fun--it's forced me to get back to where I was when I was in Loma Linda, which I think represents the zenith of my bass guitar skills. I'm still horrible, but it's fun, and I haven't embarrassed myself (yet). In fact, I had two nursing students tell me yesterday that they saw me up front and they liked my playing. They also said things like "you are cute-o" and THAT made me turn all embarrassed and red-faced.
There are two praise songs here that I really like. One has a really fun bass line and sounds like something you'd hear standing in line to ride the Teacup ride at Disneyland. The other is this goofy kids' song that has this clap-clap/clap rhythm that always confuses me. It's a peppy, upbeat song, though, and some of the words are "kami-sama daisuki daisuki" which I now know means basically "God (or maybe living with God?) is fun and I like a lot." Can't argue with THAT sentiment.
Well, it's almost time for supper. I'd better get ready, 'cause if I miss this it's gonna be one LONG evening, with the meeting and all.
Best. Meeting. EVER.
It's 4:30, and I just got back from a faculty meeting. That started at 4:20. No, we didn't sit around and smoke pot, although hey, that might make some of the other ones more tolerable. Did I really say that in PRINT? (Just kidding, kids, don't do drugs!!) Anyway, yeah, the meeting lasted for like 10 minutes. They talked about all of two items and I had a big ol' grin on my face when I left. I really do like my co-workers, but I kinda start to not like them so much when we've already been in a meeting for an hour and a half and one of them just HAS to bring up something that 1) really isn't all that important and 2) I can't understand 'cause I don't speak Japanese.
Y'all in the States better hope these kinds of meetings don't become the norm, or I may end up staying here for good. I am joking, but those long meetings of crazy moon-man babble are the only things I don't like about this job so far. Of course, that won't be the case, probably the next ten meetings will be long and tedious and I'll feel all homicidal afterwards.
This week has been Week of Prayer here. A guy named Fujita has been speaking and his talks have been really interesting--well, they WOULD be if I understood Japanese. He's been using (I think) popular artwork, anime, and music in his talks. Some of them have been super-weird. The first day there was this story which in Japan is called (something)-Chihiro but I think it was called Spirited Away in America. It's that Miyazaki guy, anyway. I couldn't understand anything, but it LOOKED like some little girl had a pet pig and her parents/evil guardians/whatever ended up killing the pig and making pork chops and sausages out of it. Then they sort of turned into pigs and some weird cloaked masked guy came around and destroyed the world or some insane thing like that. It's probably not quite that weird but I must say, reading cartoons when you can't make sense of anything you're reading does make them really interesting. I don't even know what sort of point he was making, but I wish I understood because I bet it would have been pretty trippy. The second day he used some story about a ghost-girl named Yuuri (?) who asks some living girl if she can possess her. The artwork was really haunting, but not over-the-top scary--just strangely, I don't know, unsettling. I liked it, though. Again, I have no idea what the guy was saying, so it was just a matter of looking at the artwork going "oooooooh, that's interesting".
They asked me to play bass for the meetings, so I'm playing during both the morning and evening. It's fun--it's forced me to get back to where I was when I was in Loma Linda, which I think represents the zenith of my bass guitar skills. I'm still horrible, but it's fun, and I haven't embarrassed myself (yet). In fact, I had two nursing students tell me yesterday that they saw me up front and they liked my playing. They also said things like "you are cute-o" and THAT made me turn all embarrassed and red-faced.
There are two praise songs here that I really like. One has a really fun bass line and sounds like something you'd hear standing in line to ride the Teacup ride at Disneyland. The other is this goofy kids' song that has this clap-clap/clap rhythm that always confuses me. It's a peppy, upbeat song, though, and some of the words are "kami-sama
Well, it's almost time for supper. I'd better get ready, 'cause if I miss this it's gonna be one LONG evening, with the meeting and all.
Monday, May 31, 2004
2004-05-31
We are the champions, my friends
This weekend was busy and full, but it was a good kind of "busy and full" this time. Something interesting was happening every day, and I came out of it feeling pretty good and rejuvenated. Well, except for the fact that I'm sore all over and I'm more than a little sunburned, but more on that later.
I guess the weekend actually started on Thursday night, because Friday was "Service Day" when the students all went out and did "Ingathering", picked up garbage around the campus or other assorted goody-two-shoes type things. So Thursday night John, Amanda and I went to our normal Tae Kwon Do class and all these students were in the gym doing various things. In fact, some of my English students showed up and were playing basketball and badminton. After the TKD class I joined in a basketball shoot-around and impressed some of the girls with my mad hoopin' skillz. In reality I was really rusty but they at least feigned interest in their polite Japanese don't-want-to-offend-the-teacher way.
So Friday was Service Day, but somebody up top forgot to put our names on any schedule so the three of us basically got the day off. Amanda and I practiced for the big weekend activity--a school-wide softball game that was scheduled for Sunday. Amanda had never played softball before--I think she played cricket in Australia, which is sort of similar but different enough that she had to learn all these new motions and skills. The one thing she really took a liking to was batting, though. I told her to imagine taking swings at some of the lazy students here, which was probably not a very good teacher-ish thing to say but I said it anyway cuz I'm baaaaaaaad. So that was fun. I felt kinda bad, though--I almost hit her with a pretty hard comebacker when I was batting, and then almost broke a window in the gym on my last swing. She didn't seem too offended, so that was good. That took care of Friday morning. In the afternoon I went with John to Mobara to pick up some desserts for the Sabbath potluck. Our Campus Ministries group was in charge of supplying food for the shindig, and being lazy bums we opted to buy the stuff rather than make it ourselves. We'll end up working for them, though--the desserts here are (you guessed it) EXPENSIVE. A little half fruit log cake thing cost about 12 dollars. They weren't very big so we each picked up two, then made a vow that if any little kid took a piece and didn't eat it we were shoving the cake right down their gullets.
Then on Friday evening the Campus Ministries group packed a bunch of students into a bus and headed for the beach. I think I posted some pictures to the website of the event--several of them came out really well. That was a good time, except I found out WHEN I WAS BOARDING THE BUS that they wanted me to speak at the thing. Somebody suffered a massive brain-fart and just plain forgot to ask, but that was cool because I'm used to such shenanigans by now. People know you're a pastor or have experience in ministry and they ask you to do all manner of goofy things. So I slopped together a talk, with a big assist from Amanda who suggested the poem/story "Footprints In The Sand" as a good Beach Vespers story. So I did the talk and had a really good time with the students. I even learned that Violet has a thing developing with a boy, so I decided it was safe to stop treating her like a fusion-powered potato. We even took a walk down the beach and she told me about how excited she was about this new thing and it was cool. I told her that if the guy hurt her she should tell me and I'd beat him up, and she thought that was nifty. It seems that I'm settling into the role of Men-Tor the Friendly Alien, or maybe just Weird But Understanding Old Guy which were the roles I'd HOPED to play when I first got here. After a stint as The Heartbreak Kid it seems things are getting back to semi-normal and I couldn't be happier.
Sabbath was the normal church service--no special worships or anything. The aforementioned potluck went well--the fruit log cakes were a hit and I didn't have to force-feed anyone MY PRECIOUSSSSSS. In the afternoon, we had our normal English Bible study and I led out in the discussion, which went well except I got all emotional and choked up and un-manly at the end. I was talking about prayer, and decided to close with Jesus' prayer in John 17. I told the people there that Jesus prayed for them, and I believe that at this time, when he needed all the strength he could get to face the upcoming Passion, he thought of all of us and drew strength from his love for us. I went around the circle, said each of their names, and said that Christ saw their faces when he was praying--and that's when I started to feel all gooey and blubbery and had to take a moment to compose myself. That was kinda unexpected, but I have no regrets. Some of the students there weren't even Christian and if they at least understood that I care about them, then it's okay if they think I'm a big ol' softie.
We ended up doing an impromptu vespers that evening. Some of the students went over to the apartment of one of the staff here and we cooked noodles for them to eat. Some of the Korean ministers were there so we had some singing--in fact we sang a lot of English songs (glory!) and it was actually a ton of fun. One of the Korean pastors gave a short talk where he told this AWESOME story that I am so pilfering and talking about when I get back to the US.
Then yesterday (yeah, this entry's almost done) the softball game actually happened. I wasn't sure, because the weather has been strangely uncooperative lately, but it was sunny so we played. Unfortunately, it was also humid as all git out so it was super-uncomfortable. I ended up on a team with Amanda, some English students and some nursing students, and a couple of girls who were friends with one of the nursing students. We weren't the most imposing team there, but everyone came up with timely hits and we ended up going undefeated and winning the whole thing. Amanda, who'd never played before, scored twice and got two RBI. She also said she had a great time, which made me happy. I had five hits, scored twice and batted in four, although one of them was kinda cheap because I took a walk with the bases loaded. One of my English students hit a home run, and in this one game against what looked to be the best team all the girls on our team got timely hits to get on base and push runs across. It was an enormous amount of fun and our trophy for winning the tournament was a big ol' box of instant ramen which we distributed among the team members at lunch. Unfortunately, I ended up with a bad sunburn because I either forgot my sunscreen in America or misplaced it here.
This is way too long already. Yeah. This weekend was a blast. I'm enjoying campus life.
We are the champions, my friends
This weekend was busy and full, but it was a good kind of "busy and full" this time. Something interesting was happening every day, and I came out of it feeling pretty good and rejuvenated. Well, except for the fact that I'm sore all over and I'm more than a little sunburned, but more on that later.
I guess the weekend actually started on Thursday night, because Friday was "Service Day" when the students all went out and did "Ingathering", picked up garbage around the campus or other assorted goody-two-shoes type things. So Thursday night John, Amanda and I went to our normal Tae Kwon Do class and all these students were in the gym doing various things. In fact, some of my English students showed up and were playing basketball and badminton. After the TKD class I joined in a basketball shoot-around and impressed some of the girls with my mad hoopin' skillz. In reality I was really rusty but they at least feigned interest in their polite Japanese don't-want-to-offend-the-teacher way.
So Friday was Service Day, but somebody up top forgot to put our names on any schedule so the three of us basically got the day off. Amanda and I practiced for the big weekend activity--a school-wide softball game that was scheduled for Sunday. Amanda had never played softball before--I think she played cricket in Australia, which is sort of similar but different enough that she had to learn all these new motions and skills. The one thing she really took a liking to was batting, though. I told her to imagine taking swings at some of the lazy students here, which was probably not a very good teacher-ish thing to say but I said it anyway cuz I'm baaaaaaaad. So that was fun. I felt kinda bad, though--I almost hit her with a pretty hard comebacker when I was batting, and then almost broke a window in the gym on my last swing. She didn't seem too offended, so that was good. That took care of Friday morning. In the afternoon I went with John to Mobara to pick up some desserts for the Sabbath potluck. Our Campus Ministries group was in charge of supplying food for the shindig, and being lazy bums we opted to buy the stuff rather than make it ourselves. We'll end up working for them, though--the desserts here are (you guessed it) EXPENSIVE. A little half fruit log cake thing cost about 12 dollars. They weren't very big so we each picked up two, then made a vow that if any little kid took a piece and didn't eat it we were shoving the cake right down their gullets.
Then on Friday evening the Campus Ministries group packed a bunch of students into a bus and headed for the beach. I think I posted some pictures to the website of the event--several of them came out really well. That was a good time, except I found out WHEN I WAS BOARDING THE BUS that they wanted me to speak at the thing. Somebody suffered a massive brain-fart and just plain forgot to ask, but that was cool because I'm used to such shenanigans by now. People know you're a pastor or have experience in ministry and they ask you to do all manner of goofy things. So I slopped together a talk, with a big assist from Amanda who suggested the poem/story "Footprints In The Sand" as a good Beach Vespers story. So I did the talk and had a really good time with the students. I even learned that Violet has a thing developing with a boy, so I decided it was safe to stop treating her like a fusion-powered potato. We even took a walk down the beach and she told me about how excited she was about this new thing and it was cool. I told her that if the guy hurt her she should tell me and I'd beat him up, and she thought that was nifty. It seems that I'm settling into the role of Men-Tor the Friendly Alien, or maybe just Weird But Understanding Old Guy which were the roles I'd HOPED to play when I first got here. After a stint as The Heartbreak Kid it seems things are getting back to semi-normal and I couldn't be happier.
Sabbath was the normal church service--no special worships or anything. The aforementioned potluck went well--the fruit log cakes were a hit and I didn't have to force-feed anyone MY PRECIOUSSSSSS. In the afternoon, we had our normal English Bible study and I led out in the discussion, which went well except I got all emotional and choked up and un-manly at the end. I was talking about prayer, and decided to close with Jesus' prayer in John 17. I told the people there that Jesus prayed for them, and I believe that at this time, when he needed all the strength he could get to face the upcoming Passion, he thought of all of us and drew strength from his love for us. I went around the circle, said each of their names, and said that Christ saw their faces when he was praying--and that's when I started to feel all gooey and blubbery and had to take a moment to compose myself. That was kinda unexpected, but I have no regrets. Some of the students there weren't even Christian and if they at least understood that I care about them, then it's okay if they think I'm a big ol' softie.
We ended up doing an impromptu vespers that evening. Some of the students went over to the apartment of one of the staff here and we cooked noodles for them to eat. Some of the Korean ministers were there so we had some singing--in fact we sang a lot of English songs (glory!) and it was actually a ton of fun. One of the Korean pastors gave a short talk where he told this AWESOME story that I am so pilfering and talking about when I get back to the US.
Then yesterday (yeah, this entry's almost done) the softball game actually happened. I wasn't sure, because the weather has been strangely uncooperative lately, but it was sunny so we played. Unfortunately, it was also humid as all git out so it was super-uncomfortable. I ended up on a team with Amanda, some English students and some nursing students, and a couple of girls who were friends with one of the nursing students. We weren't the most imposing team there, but everyone came up with timely hits and we ended up going undefeated and winning the whole thing. Amanda, who'd never played before, scored twice and got two RBI. She also said she had a great time, which made me happy. I had five hits, scored twice and batted in four, although one of them was kinda cheap because I took a walk with the bases loaded. One of my English students hit a home run, and in this one game against what looked to be the best team all the girls on our team got timely hits to get on base and push runs across. It was an enormous amount of fun and our trophy for winning the tournament was a big ol' box of instant ramen which we distributed among the team members at lunch. Unfortunately, I ended up with a bad sunburn because I either forgot my sunscreen in America or misplaced it here.
This is way too long already. Yeah. This weekend was a blast. I'm enjoying campus life.
Monday, May 24, 2004
2004-05-23
Hold on to your hats and glasses...it's the
KOFUDAI ELEMENTARY SPORTS DAY REPORT!
Last week was supposed to be Sports Day at Kofudai Elementary, but bad weather postponed the festivities until this weekend. I wasn't sure if they'd be able to do it THIS weekend, because it was COLD and soggy yesterday. When I woke up this morning it was foggy and still cold, but we ended up going anyway. And sure enough, they had everything set up when we arrived.
Kofudai is MAYBE 25 kilometers away from the college, which for all the Americans (in other words, everyone who reads this) is about 15 miles. It takes between 30 and 40 minutes to get there because Japanese people like to drive SLOW. The drive is pretty, though, so I shouldn't complain too much. John and Amanda have reason to complain, since they do the drive every week and thus are inoculated to the nice surroundings. The SDA elementary school is right in the middle of what looked like a decent-sized town. The problem? Like most Japanese towns, this one has a hideous lack of parking. In fact, the school had NO dedicated parking lot, so everyone had to park along this ridiculously narrow street. There were cars parked along the street for several blocks. Fortunately, we ducked into a side lot that was owned by the school but which parents and other passersby might not know about. So we got decent parking after all.
We walked in and the thing had already started. They were in the middle of their warm-up exercises, or at least I THINK that's what they were doing. In fact, I would be absolutely sure except that the little kids on the field weren't the only ones doing the exercises. A whole bunch of parents and spectators were doing them, too. Maybe it's some deep-rooted need to join in what the "group" is doing, or wanting the kids to feel supported, or just the cool thing to do, but to an outsider I tell you it looked totally bizarre. Maybe the music they were playing added to the effect, but it seemed like we were walking into the middle of some cultic brainwashing session. "When the music plays, you must kill all foreigners." "WE...MUST...KILL..." Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT freaky, but it was still pretty weird. All these normally staid Japanese people suddenly seized by DAS TANZENGEIST and spontaneously combusting the disco infernos within.
Oh, and the music. I wish I had a video camera to get a recording of the music. Unfortunately, I have no such recording, but wait--YOU TOO can experience it in your imagination! First take "The most eclectic music CD ever". Auld Lang Syne? Good. "It's A Small World"? Check. "I've Been Working On The Railroad"? Sure. "Hey Jude" and "Yesterday"? Nice. Now take every song and throw them all through a John Philip Souza remix and that's what we were listening to ALL DAY LONG. You have not lived until you've heard the fanfare from "Stars and Stripes Forever" used to transition between "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude".
So what'd they actually do? It was like any number of outdoor sports festivals at American elementary schools, except the games they had were really different. Some of them looked like a lot of fun. One of them had two baskets set up on poles and a bunch of what looked like rolled-up socks on the ground. Two teams would rush at their respective baskets and just grab the socks and throw them up at the basket. Since the projectiles were soft, you didn't have to worry about hitting anyone, so the whole point seemed to be just grab as many socks as you could and chuck them at the basket. Each basket had a closed-off net so they'd catch all the rolled-up socks, and after a certain time they'd stop the throwing and count how many socks they actually got in the basket. As they counted each number, a little kid would hit a drum. It was AWESOME. The most joyful, spontaneous, chaotic game of basketball ever. Another game was a relay race surely dreamed up by some Japanese hippy on a bad LSD trip. Parents ran the relay with kids and grabbed envelopes with "tasks" to do...in the middle of the race, they'd have to roll giant rubber balls or other weirdness. One team had to lead a donkey (yes, a real donkey!) across the finish line. Mrs. Yamaji got stuck with having to drag a tire with Takashi sitting in it. For those of you who don't know, Mrs. Yamaji is tiny even by Japanese woman standards...she might weigh 50 kilos soaking wet. I thought there was no way she'd be able to do it, but she was a gamer and struggled across.
They even roped me into playing some of their insane games. One of them was a "race" where the objective was to grab an ampang (bean-filled pastry) hanging from a clothesline...with your MOUTH. Some of the kids who did the thing were all amped up and didn't even bother grabbing the ampangs, they just plowed into the things full-speed with their heads and knocked 'em off the line. Of course, this meant that they had to pick them off the ground--yes, with their mouths. So hardcore. I thought about doing that but was afraid that since I'm much bigger than little elementary kids, and because my head is so huge so as to hold my glorious brain, I might knock the entire line down and bring the game to a screeching halt. The group I ran in was filled with old big guys, so I actually had to wait to grab one of the ampang(s). They also caused the line to shake and move all over so I couldn't get a beat on my target. I finally cheated by grabbing one between my chin and my chest and running across the finish line with it tucked into my neck.
The other thing that I ended up doing was a relay race. They had a bunch of teams, mostly comprised of parents and older kids who were (I think) alumni of the school. There was also a Teachers' team that I somehow got dragged into, probably because I was with Amanda and John. Our team did really well--I ran the leg immediately after Amanda, and we held the lead for our team. Unfortunately, the second-to-last guy on our team tripped and fell and so we ended up coming in 2nd or 3rd. Of course, we all surrounded the guy who fell and beat him to a pulp like evil dark ninjas just to show the little kids the CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE! We EAT our wounded! Teachers are to be FEARED bwahahahahahahahahaha
The relay was the last event. Afterwards, the kiddies lined up in formation and a bunch of quasi-military formation marching and flag taking-down occurred. Then more group warm-down/stretching exercises, which the parents and friends also participated in and gave me the weird zombie/cult vibe all over again. The three of us got out of there as soon as everything was officially over to avoid the impending APOCALYPTIC traffic jam caused by 100 cars trying to leave on a road designed for horse carts.
All in all, a good day. I finally got to see families from the college all together, picked up a few game ideas to steal when I go back to the States, sat and talked with Amanda the whole time, and got a free lunch on top of it all. Yeah. I HAD FUN.
Hold on to your hats and glasses...it's the
KOFUDAI ELEMENTARY SPORTS DAY REPORT!
Last week was supposed to be Sports Day at Kofudai Elementary, but bad weather postponed the festivities until this weekend. I wasn't sure if they'd be able to do it THIS weekend, because it was COLD and soggy yesterday. When I woke up this morning it was foggy and still cold, but we ended up going anyway. And sure enough, they had everything set up when we arrived.
Kofudai is MAYBE 25 kilometers away from the college, which for all the Americans (in other words, everyone who reads this) is about 15 miles. It takes between 30 and 40 minutes to get there because Japanese people like to drive SLOW. The drive is pretty, though, so I shouldn't complain too much. John and Amanda have reason to complain, since they do the drive every week and thus are inoculated to the nice surroundings. The SDA elementary school is right in the middle of what looked like a decent-sized town. The problem? Like most Japanese towns, this one has a hideous lack of parking. In fact, the school had NO dedicated parking lot, so everyone had to park along this ridiculously narrow street. There were cars parked along the street for several blocks. Fortunately, we ducked into a side lot that was owned by the school but which parents and other passersby might not know about. So we got decent parking after all.
We walked in and the thing had already started. They were in the middle of their warm-up exercises, or at least I THINK that's what they were doing. In fact, I would be absolutely sure except that the little kids on the field weren't the only ones doing the exercises. A whole bunch of parents and spectators were doing them, too. Maybe it's some deep-rooted need to join in what the "group" is doing, or wanting the kids to feel supported, or just the cool thing to do, but to an outsider I tell you it looked totally bizarre. Maybe the music they were playing added to the effect, but it seemed like we were walking into the middle of some cultic brainwashing session. "When the music plays, you must kill all foreigners." "WE...MUST...KILL..." Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT freaky, but it was still pretty weird. All these normally staid Japanese people suddenly seized by DAS TANZENGEIST and spontaneously combusting the disco infernos within.
Oh, and the music. I wish I had a video camera to get a recording of the music. Unfortunately, I have no such recording, but wait--YOU TOO can experience it in your imagination! First take "The most eclectic music CD ever". Auld Lang Syne? Good. "It's A Small World"? Check. "I've Been Working On The Railroad"? Sure. "Hey Jude" and "Yesterday"? Nice. Now take every song and throw them all through a John Philip Souza remix and that's what we were listening to ALL DAY LONG. You have not lived until you've heard the fanfare from "Stars and Stripes Forever" used to transition between "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude".
So what'd they actually do? It was like any number of outdoor sports festivals at American elementary schools, except the games they had were really different. Some of them looked like a lot of fun. One of them had two baskets set up on poles and a bunch of what looked like rolled-up socks on the ground. Two teams would rush at their respective baskets and just grab the socks and throw them up at the basket. Since the projectiles were soft, you didn't have to worry about hitting anyone, so the whole point seemed to be just grab as many socks as you could and chuck them at the basket. Each basket had a closed-off net so they'd catch all the rolled-up socks, and after a certain time they'd stop the throwing and count how many socks they actually got in the basket. As they counted each number, a little kid would hit a drum. It was AWESOME. The most joyful, spontaneous, chaotic game of basketball ever. Another game was a relay race surely dreamed up by some Japanese hippy on a bad LSD trip. Parents ran the relay with kids and grabbed envelopes with "tasks" to do...in the middle of the race, they'd have to roll giant rubber balls or other weirdness. One team had to lead a donkey (yes, a real donkey!) across the finish line. Mrs. Yamaji got stuck with having to drag a tire with Takashi sitting in it. For those of you who don't know, Mrs. Yamaji is tiny even by Japanese woman standards...she might weigh 50 kilos soaking wet. I thought there was no way she'd be able to do it, but she was a gamer and struggled across.
They even roped me into playing some of their insane games. One of them was a "race" where the objective was to grab an ampang (bean-filled pastry) hanging from a clothesline...with your MOUTH. Some of the kids who did the thing were all amped up and didn't even bother grabbing the ampangs, they just plowed into the things full-speed with their heads and knocked 'em off the line. Of course, this meant that they had to pick them off the ground--yes, with their mouths. So hardcore. I thought about doing that but was afraid that since I'm much bigger than little elementary kids, and because my head is so huge so as to hold my glorious brain, I might knock the entire line down and bring the game to a screeching halt. The group I ran in was filled with old big guys, so I actually had to wait to grab one of the ampang(s). They also caused the line to shake and move all over so I couldn't get a beat on my target. I finally cheated by grabbing one between my chin and my chest and running across the finish line with it tucked into my neck.
The other thing that I ended up doing was a relay race. They had a bunch of teams, mostly comprised of parents and older kids who were (I think) alumni of the school. There was also a Teachers' team that I somehow got dragged into, probably because I was with Amanda and John. Our team did really well--I ran the leg immediately after Amanda, and we held the lead for our team. Unfortunately, the second-to-last guy on our team tripped and fell and so we ended up coming in 2nd or 3rd. Of course, we all surrounded the guy who fell and beat him to a pulp like evil dark ninjas just to show the little kids the CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE! We EAT our wounded! Teachers are to be FEARED bwahahahahahahahahaha
The relay was the last event. Afterwards, the kiddies lined up in formation and a bunch of quasi-military formation marching and flag taking-down occurred. Then more group warm-down/stretching exercises, which the parents and friends also participated in and gave me the weird zombie/cult vibe all over again. The three of us got out of there as soon as everything was officially over to avoid the impending APOCALYPTIC traffic jam caused by 100 cars trying to leave on a road designed for horse carts.
All in all, a good day. I finally got to see families from the college all together, picked up a few game ideas to steal when I go back to the States, sat and talked with Amanda the whole time, and got a free lunch on top of it all. Yeah. I HAD FUN.
Friday, May 21, 2004
Two poems for a Sabbath afternoon (Friday for all you non-Asian livers)
Prayer
Master, they say that when I seem
To be in speech with you,
Since you make no replies, it's all a dream
--One talker aping two.
They are half right, but not as they
Imagine; rather, I
Seek in myself the things I meant to say,
And lo! the wells are dry.
Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The Listener's role, and through
My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.
And thus you neither need reply
Nor can; thus, while we seem
Two talking, thou art One forever, and I
No dreamer, but thy dream.
Love's As Warm As Tears
Love's as warm as tears,
Love is tears:
Pressure within the brain,
Tension at the throat,
Deluge, weeks of rain,
Haystacks afloat,
Featureless seas between
Hedges, where once was green.
Love's as fierce as fire,
Love is fire:
All sorts--infernal heat
Clinkered with greed and pride,
Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,
Laughing, even when denied,
And that empyreal flame
Whence all loves came.
Love's as fresh as spring,
Love is spring:
Bird-song hung in the air,
Cool smells in a wood,
Whispering 'Dare! Dare!'
To sap, to blood,
Telling 'Ease, safety, rest,
Are good; not best.'
Love's as hard as nails,
Love is nails:
Blunt, thick, hammered through
The medial nerves of One
Who, having made us, knew
The thing He had done,
Seeing (with all that is)
Our cross, and His.
--C.S. Lewis
Prayer
Master, they say that when I seem
To be in speech with you,
Since you make no replies, it's all a dream
--One talker aping two.
They are half right, but not as they
Imagine; rather, I
Seek in myself the things I meant to say,
And lo! the wells are dry.
Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The Listener's role, and through
My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.
And thus you neither need reply
Nor can; thus, while we seem
Two talking, thou art One forever, and I
No dreamer, but thy dream.
Love's As Warm As Tears
Love's as warm as tears,
Love is tears:
Pressure within the brain,
Tension at the throat,
Deluge, weeks of rain,
Haystacks afloat,
Featureless seas between
Hedges, where once was green.
Love's as fierce as fire,
Love is fire:
All sorts--infernal heat
Clinkered with greed and pride,
Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,
Laughing, even when denied,
And that empyreal flame
Whence all loves came.
Love's as fresh as spring,
Love is spring:
Bird-song hung in the air,
Cool smells in a wood,
Whispering 'Dare! Dare!'
To sap, to blood,
Telling 'Ease, safety, rest,
Are good; not best.'
Love's as hard as nails,
Love is nails:
Blunt, thick, hammered through
The medial nerves of One
Who, having made us, knew
The thing He had done,
Seeing (with all that is)
Our cross, and His.
--C.S. Lewis
2004-05-21
Greatest. News. Ever.
from http://entertainment.iafrica.com/news/324080.htm
NEWS
Knight Rider turns into Hassel the Hoff
Nadia Samie
Posted Thu, 20 May 2004
Ex-Baywatch lifeguard David Hasselhoff's career has taken a slight turn from acting — to rapping. More startling is that his hip-hop name will be… Hassel the Hoff.
Hasselhoff (51) is the latest recruit of legendary rapper Ice-T, who is the actor's neighbour in Los Angeles. The two have reportedly racked up quite a close friendship.
Hasselhoff had in the past dipped into the music industry and earned a number 35 hit in the UK in 1993 with 'If I Could Only Say Goodbye' in 1993.
According to Sky News, Ice-T said of his new friend and protégé: "The man is a legend, we are going to show a whole new side of him.
"He's gonna come out as Hassle the Hoff. The Hoff will surprise people with his rap skills and humour."
Ice-T, whose real name is Tracey Morrow, is apparently dead set on turning Hasselhoff into a hip-hop star.
Well, in events a little closer to Japan, the so-called typhoon that was supposed to blow through here was a complete and utter DUD. In fact, the sun is shining brilliantly and birds are singing outside my window AS I TYPE. The students were all excited last night because there was a chance school would be cancelled if the weather got bad and messed up trains and buses and such (there are a number of students who commute in from surrounding communities). Supposedly, we were going to get a call at around 6:00 am this morning if classes were axed. Now, if the students were REALLY clever (and if this was America), they'd just call up a bunch of teachers at 6 a.m. and say "classes are cancelled" and celebrate an extra day off. But I guess they're not lil' miscreants like American students 'cause I didn't get a call early, we did indeed have class, and the big bad typhoon that was supposed to peak at 9 this morning turned out to be a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Tomorrow is English worship. I'm once again "in charge", although I'm not speaking this time around. I've also not involved any teachers in the program, unlike last time when the WHOLE SHOW was three old guys up front. And yes, I do count myself in that category 'cause compared to the rest of the students here I am an old guy. It's so depressing. I walk around campus and see some really gorgeous girl and think "hey, she's a really gorgeous girl" until I realize that I thought that about an EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD and I feel like a slimy toad man. Anyway, yeah, lots of students are gonna be participating tomorrow which oughta make it a lot of fun. Well, if they remember to show up. If they don't, well, that would be inconvenient.
I'm also happy this afternoon because I may have taken a major step in getting one of my Okinawan Fan Club members off my immediate tail. Amanda and I were supposed to make a dessert for this party after vespers tonight, and Satsuki and Violet wanted to "help". Satsuki is actually very helpful, but Violet's idea of helping consists mostly of her talking and laughing while she sprays sugar and eggs and partially-mixed dough all over the kitchen. Anyway, as I was on my way to the women's dorm, which has the only functional ovens on campus, I see those two walking...with a BOY. And not just any boy...I mentioned earlier that Violet may have something of a fancy for one of the guys here and !it was him! So I got uncharacteristically friendly and told him to come join us, 'cause it'll be fun and I need another guy there and...well, he gave in and joined us. Violet was still quite fond of talking to me, but I figure that's a good sign because if she's awkward and trippy around the other guy it probably means that she does indeed like him. FURTHER stirring the pot of intrigue is that they both left early to go shopping in town. Depending on how evil I feel I may inquire about how things went and make a big deal out of whatever she says.
Getting lots of attention from young college girls is nice, but being an evil embarrassing old guy may be even better.
Greatest. News. Ever.
from http://entertainment.iafrica.com/news/324080.htm
NEWS
Knight Rider turns into Hassel the Hoff
Nadia Samie
Posted Thu, 20 May 2004
Ex-Baywatch lifeguard David Hasselhoff's career has taken a slight turn from acting — to rapping. More startling is that his hip-hop name will be… Hassel the Hoff.
Hasselhoff (51) is the latest recruit of legendary rapper Ice-T, who is the actor's neighbour in Los Angeles. The two have reportedly racked up quite a close friendship.
Hasselhoff had in the past dipped into the music industry and earned a number 35 hit in the UK in 1993 with 'If I Could Only Say Goodbye' in 1993.
According to Sky News, Ice-T said of his new friend and protégé: "The man is a legend, we are going to show a whole new side of him.
"He's gonna come out as Hassle the Hoff. The Hoff will surprise people with his rap skills and humour."
Ice-T, whose real name is Tracey Morrow, is apparently dead set on turning Hasselhoff into a hip-hop star.
Well, in events a little closer to Japan, the so-called typhoon that was supposed to blow through here was a complete and utter DUD. In fact, the sun is shining brilliantly and birds are singing outside my window AS I TYPE. The students were all excited last night because there was a chance school would be cancelled if the weather got bad and messed up trains and buses and such (there are a number of students who commute in from surrounding communities). Supposedly, we were going to get a call at around 6:00 am this morning if classes were axed. Now, if the students were REALLY clever (and if this was America), they'd just call up a bunch of teachers at 6 a.m. and say "classes are cancelled" and celebrate an extra day off. But I guess they're not lil' miscreants like American students 'cause I didn't get a call early, we did indeed have class, and the big bad typhoon that was supposed to peak at 9 this morning turned out to be a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Tomorrow is English worship. I'm once again "in charge", although I'm not speaking this time around. I've also not involved any teachers in the program, unlike last time when the WHOLE SHOW was three old guys up front. And yes, I do count myself in that category 'cause compared to the rest of the students here I am an old guy. It's so depressing. I walk around campus and see some really gorgeous girl and think "hey, she's a really gorgeous girl" until I realize that I thought that about an EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD and I feel like a slimy toad man. Anyway, yeah, lots of students are gonna be participating tomorrow which oughta make it a lot of fun. Well, if they remember to show up. If they don't, well, that would be inconvenient.
I'm also happy this afternoon because I may have taken a major step in getting one of my Okinawan Fan Club members off my immediate tail. Amanda and I were supposed to make a dessert for this party after vespers tonight, and Satsuki and Violet wanted to "help". Satsuki is actually very helpful, but Violet's idea of helping consists mostly of her talking and laughing while she sprays sugar and eggs and partially-mixed dough all over the kitchen. Anyway, as I was on my way to the women's dorm, which has the only functional ovens on campus, I see those two walking...with a BOY. And not just any boy...I mentioned earlier that Violet may have something of a fancy for one of the guys here and !it was him! So I got uncharacteristically friendly and told him to come join us, 'cause it'll be fun and I need another guy there and...well, he gave in and joined us. Violet was still quite fond of talking to me, but I figure that's a good sign because if she's awkward and trippy around the other guy it probably means that she does indeed like him. FURTHER stirring the pot of intrigue is that they both left early to go shopping in town. Depending on how evil I feel I may inquire about how things went and make a big deal out of whatever she says.
Getting lots of attention from young college girls is nice, but being an evil embarrassing old guy may be even better.
Monday, May 17, 2004
More than you ever wanted to know...
1. IF YOU COULD BUILD A HOUSE ANYWHERE WHERE WOULD IT BE?
At the top of Mount Everest. I wouldn't live there or nothin', I'd just brag that I built a house on top of MT. EVEREST!
2. YOUR FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING?
The silk boxers Nathan and Leanne gave me for Christmas. No, I haven't worn them. But they're so perfectly smarmy. I feel like a greasy Casanova just knowing that I own them.
3. FAVORITE PHYSICAL FEATURE OF THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Large, luscious, beautiful......................eyes. What did you THINK I was gonna say?
4. THE LAST CD THAT YOU BOUGHT?
MC Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em (Japanese version). I am SO not kidding about that.
5. WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
in LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVE
6. WHERE'S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
Anyplace that's playing songs by the following: Britney Spears, Eminem, Toby Keith, and others.
7. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE MASSAGED?
Hands. Ego.
8. WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT, STRONG IN MIND OR STRONG IN BODY?
Look at Stephen Hawking and the way he whooped up on Homer Simpson. Or Yoda. You just don't mess with Yoda.
9. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE IN THE MORNING?
Believe it or not, ever since I've started teaching, I've been waking up between 5:45 and 6:20 am.
10. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE?
Garlic Press
11. WHAT MAKES YOU REALLY ANGRY?
Lately, the only thing that matters is George W. Bush and his crackhead administration. Really, at the top of my Hate List are nationalism, blind patriotism, ignorance, belligerence, wack religiosity, and hypocrisy, and the Bush Administration so completely and totally embodies ALL of those, I guess they can be poster children for My Hate.
12. IF YOU COULD PLAY ANY INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Either The Smallest Violin Ever Made, The Biggest Drum Ever Made, or a beautiful woman's heartstrings.
13. FAVORITE COLOR?
"You ask me why I always dress in black...why I never wear bright colors on my back..." Well, mainly because Nathan and Leanne took me shopping and got me some black clothes on which I get lots of compliments from lots o' women.
14. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR OR SUV?
Geez, with those choices, I'd rather WALK.
15. DO YOU BELIEVE IN AN AFTERLIFE?
Oh yeah. The only thing that keeps a smile on my lonely single face is the idea that Jesus will play matchmaker between me and Vashti on the other side.
16. FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOK?
"I Love You Forever". That's some twisted stuff, man. Firmly in the great tradition of "Rock-A-Bye Baby" and those old-skool fairy tales--Frightening children is ENTERTAINMENT!
17. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?
Autumn/Fall. Actually, the transition between that and winter.
18. IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I'm NIGH-INVULNERABLE!
19. IF YOU HAVE A TATTOO, WHAT IS IT?
I'm opposed to "body art" in general, so if I ever lost my mind enough to do it, I'd want something completely weird. Like "H-A-T-E" on my knuckles or a giant red heart that says "GOD LUVES U" covering my whole back. No, Mom, I'm not considering either with any seriousness.
20. CAN YOU JUGGLE?
The hearts of numerous first-year Japanese college students. For some reason, I'm the American Love Machine over here.
21. THE ONE PERSON FROM YOUR PAST YOU WISH YOU COULD GO BACK AND TALK TO?
I was standing next to Kensuke Sasaki, New Japan Pro Wrestling champion, in the Narita airport awhile back. I totally got all tongue-tied and didn't talk to him, but I think that would rule. Maybe he'd be all drunk and surly and punch me, and then I could sue him to kingdom come.
22. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DAY?
Sunday, because it's my Free Day (Sabbath is STILL busy even though I'm not a pastor anymore.) Actually, it's because I am a secret agent of the Pope and Chairman Mao.
23. WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR?
At the moment, I have no car.
24. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER?
Sushi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A million times over, sushi!
25. FROM THE PEOPLE YOU WILL EMAIL THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND
FIRST?
I'm gonna post it on my webjournal, so I don't suppose that counts. If anyone responds directly, I'll be surprised.
26.WHO'S LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Like I said above, everyone.
27. WHOM DID YOU RECEIVE THIS FROM?
Lauri Metropo-Lass
28. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CARTOON?
Hulk Hogan's Rock N' Wrestling PWNS U
1. IF YOU COULD BUILD A HOUSE ANYWHERE WHERE WOULD IT BE?
At the top of Mount Everest. I wouldn't live there or nothin', I'd just brag that I built a house on top of MT. EVEREST!
2. YOUR FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING?
The silk boxers Nathan and Leanne gave me for Christmas. No, I haven't worn them. But they're so perfectly smarmy. I feel like a greasy Casanova just knowing that I own them.
3. FAVORITE PHYSICAL FEATURE OF THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Large, luscious, beautiful......................eyes. What did you THINK I was gonna say?
4. THE LAST CD THAT YOU BOUGHT?
MC Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em (Japanese version). I am SO not kidding about that.
5. WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
in LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVE
6. WHERE'S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
Anyplace that's playing songs by the following: Britney Spears, Eminem, Toby Keith, and others.
7. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE MASSAGED?
Hands. Ego.
8. WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT, STRONG IN MIND OR STRONG IN BODY?
Look at Stephen Hawking and the way he whooped up on Homer Simpson. Or Yoda. You just don't mess with Yoda.
9. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE IN THE MORNING?
Believe it or not, ever since I've started teaching, I've been waking up between 5:45 and 6:20 am.
10. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE?
Garlic Press
11. WHAT MAKES YOU REALLY ANGRY?
Lately, the only thing that matters is George W. Bush and his crackhead administration. Really, at the top of my Hate List are nationalism, blind patriotism, ignorance, belligerence, wack religiosity, and hypocrisy, and the Bush Administration so completely and totally embodies ALL of those, I guess they can be poster children for My Hate.
12. IF YOU COULD PLAY ANY INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Either The Smallest Violin Ever Made, The Biggest Drum Ever Made, or a beautiful woman's heartstrings.
13. FAVORITE COLOR?
"You ask me why I always dress in black...why I never wear bright colors on my back..." Well, mainly because Nathan and Leanne took me shopping and got me some black clothes on which I get lots of compliments from lots o' women.
14. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR OR SUV?
Geez, with those choices, I'd rather WALK.
15. DO YOU BELIEVE IN AN AFTERLIFE?
Oh yeah. The only thing that keeps a smile on my lonely single face is the idea that Jesus will play matchmaker between me and Vashti on the other side.
16. FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOK?
"I Love You Forever". That's some twisted stuff, man. Firmly in the great tradition of "Rock-A-Bye Baby" and those old-skool fairy tales--Frightening children is ENTERTAINMENT!
17. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?
Autumn/Fall. Actually, the transition between that and winter.
18. IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I'm NIGH-INVULNERABLE!
19. IF YOU HAVE A TATTOO, WHAT IS IT?
I'm opposed to "body art" in general, so if I ever lost my mind enough to do it, I'd want something completely weird. Like "H-A-T-E" on my knuckles or a giant red heart that says "GOD LUVES U" covering my whole back. No, Mom, I'm not considering either with any seriousness.
20. CAN YOU JUGGLE?
The hearts of numerous first-year Japanese college students. For some reason, I'm the American Love Machine over here.
21. THE ONE PERSON FROM YOUR PAST YOU WISH YOU COULD GO BACK AND TALK TO?
I was standing next to Kensuke Sasaki, New Japan Pro Wrestling champion, in the Narita airport awhile back. I totally got all tongue-tied and didn't talk to him, but I think that would rule. Maybe he'd be all drunk and surly and punch me, and then I could sue him to kingdom come.
22. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DAY?
Sunday, because it's my Free Day (Sabbath is STILL busy even though I'm not a pastor anymore.) Actually, it's because I am a secret agent of the Pope and Chairman Mao.
23. WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR?
At the moment, I have no car.
24. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER?
Sushi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A million times over, sushi!
25. FROM THE PEOPLE YOU WILL EMAIL THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND
FIRST?
I'm gonna post it on my webjournal, so I don't suppose that counts. If anyone responds directly, I'll be surprised.
26.WHO'S LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Like I said above, everyone.
27. WHOM DID YOU RECEIVE THIS FROM?
Lauri Metropo-Lass
28. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CARTOON?
Hulk Hogan's Rock N' Wrestling PWNS U
Sunday, May 16, 2004
2004-05-16
Show must go on
Well, I gave the students their first major homework assignment last Friday. I say "major" and kind of laugh--it wasn't a 15-page paper on the history of the English language or anything. However, I think it will test some of them and maybe end up being something they never dreamed they'd be doing for a class. The current lesson we're working on is introducing lots of "dating" language and ideas. So I asked them to write up a dating profile of themselves--describing themselves and the kind of person they'd like to meet. I hope I did a decent enough job explaining the assignment to them. We'll see what I end up getting back tomorrow.
Believe it or not, I've been playing a lot of badminton lately. The sport is pretty popular here, particularly with the girls, and both John and Amanda have been playing quite a bit since they've been here. Amanda in particular likes it and since it offers a good chance to talk and just be around her I don't complain either. I've actually begun to like it, myself. I rarely (if ever) played in the last, oh, I don't know, ten years or so, but it's a racquet sport so it's not too hard to pick up. The Korean pastors here are really good, though. The three of us played with them this afternoon--John and I were on a team, and Amanda played with one of the Koreans. We got killed. Three games to none, although we improved our score from 2 to 4 to 13 in the three games. I jokingly said that if we kept on playing we'd eventually catch them, although it might take eight games to do it. In all seriousness, it may have taken more than that. We played last night too. One of my students was there and she's still very much a beginner, so we were just practicing hitting the shuttle back and forth. It seems she likes it, though, so that's good. I'm not sure how much Korean girls do sports so it might be a whole new experience for her. My partner was this anime convention-stoppingly cute first-year nursing student named Megumi who's a whole lot better than I am. I've played with her before and she's really nice, but also has this sneaky and unexpected attitude that's actually a refreshing change from the stereotypical Japanese woman. Last night after the game I told my English student, "You and I are beginners. Megumi is an expert." When she heard that she said "Of course!" which made me laugh.
I STILL don't know how she knew my name the first time we played together, though. I had no idea who she was.
On that note, we got picture directories for the whole school, so I'm sloooooooowwly learning the names of students outside the English department. Which is good, since like 100% of the nursing dept. is on a first-name basis with me. It's going really slowly, though, because all the names are written in kanji and I knew all of three kanji characters when I arrived here. This morning I decided I was going to learn some names so I sat down with the book and began comparing names of students and teachers I knew, matching up the kanji in their names with the characters in other names. I've actually picked up maybe a dozen, although some of them are a pain because they change pronunciation depending on where they are in a word/name. "Da" and "Ta" are one example, and those aren't too difficult or strange, but the character for "Fuji" and "to" are the same which is DUMB. I did learn the names of a bunch of students which will prove helpful, although the whole process took about an hour. I should write down the kanji that I learn. Oh yeah, and I learned how to recognize "Okinawa" in kanji because under each student's name it tells their hometown/prefecture/something. Everyone I know is Okinawan had the same kanji written there so I'm assuming that it means "Okinawa". There are a whole lot of us running around here too--Okinawa may be the most common place of origin, maybe after Chiba. They're also outrageously attractive people, too. Gorgeous and funny. But y'all knew that already, didn'cha.
Didn't you???
Show must go on
Well, I gave the students their first major homework assignment last Friday. I say "major" and kind of laugh--it wasn't a 15-page paper on the history of the English language or anything. However, I think it will test some of them and maybe end up being something they never dreamed they'd be doing for a class. The current lesson we're working on is introducing lots of "dating" language and ideas. So I asked them to write up a dating profile of themselves--describing themselves and the kind of person they'd like to meet. I hope I did a decent enough job explaining the assignment to them. We'll see what I end up getting back tomorrow.
Believe it or not, I've been playing a lot of badminton lately. The sport is pretty popular here, particularly with the girls, and both John and Amanda have been playing quite a bit since they've been here. Amanda in particular likes it and since it offers a good chance to talk and just be around her I don't complain either. I've actually begun to like it, myself. I rarely (if ever) played in the last, oh, I don't know, ten years or so, but it's a racquet sport so it's not too hard to pick up. The Korean pastors here are really good, though. The three of us played with them this afternoon--John and I were on a team, and Amanda played with one of the Koreans. We got killed. Three games to none, although we improved our score from 2 to 4 to 13 in the three games. I jokingly said that if we kept on playing we'd eventually catch them, although it might take eight games to do it. In all seriousness, it may have taken more than that. We played last night too. One of my students was there and she's still very much a beginner, so we were just practicing hitting the shuttle back and forth. It seems she likes it, though, so that's good. I'm not sure how much Korean girls do sports so it might be a whole new experience for her. My partner was this anime convention-stoppingly cute first-year nursing student named Megumi who's a whole lot better than I am. I've played with her before and she's really nice, but also has this sneaky and unexpected attitude that's actually a refreshing change from the stereotypical Japanese woman. Last night after the game I told my English student, "You and I are beginners. Megumi is an expert." When she heard that she said "Of course!" which made me laugh.
I STILL don't know how she knew my name the first time we played together, though. I had no idea who she was.
On that note, we got picture directories for the whole school, so I'm sloooooooowwly learning the names of students outside the English department. Which is good, since like 100% of the nursing dept. is on a first-name basis with me. It's going really slowly, though, because all the names are written in kanji and I knew all of three kanji characters when I arrived here. This morning I decided I was going to learn some names so I sat down with the book and began comparing names of students and teachers I knew, matching up the kanji in their names with the characters in other names. I've actually picked up maybe a dozen, although some of them are a pain because they change pronunciation depending on where they are in a word/name. "Da" and "Ta" are one example, and those aren't too difficult or strange, but the character for "Fuji" and "to" are the same which is DUMB. I did learn the names of a bunch of students which will prove helpful, although the whole process took about an hour. I should write down the kanji that I learn. Oh yeah, and I learned how to recognize "Okinawa" in kanji because under each student's name it tells their hometown/prefecture/something. Everyone I know is Okinawan had the same kanji written there so I'm assuming that it means "Okinawa". There are a whole lot of us running around here too--Okinawa may be the most common place of origin, maybe after Chiba. They're also outrageously attractive people, too. Gorgeous and funny. But y'all knew that already, didn'cha.
Didn't you???
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Monday, May 10, 2004
2004-05-10
What in the...?
Well, I feel kinda bad looking at this site and realizing I haven't updated anything in awhile. I'm settling into a routine here and so maybe things don't seem as new or exciting, so perhaps that can be my excuse. I was trying to think of something interesting to post, and MSN.com PROVIDED! Supposedly, this list was the product of some kind of survey by Maxim magazine. It's Maxim, so you aren't expecting Pulitzer-level journalism, but WOW. Here are the top ten in their "Hot 100", which are (I guess) the hundred most desirable women in America? The world? I don't know.
Maxim Magazine's "Hot 100" Top Ten (via MSN.com)
1. Jessica Simpson
2. Beyonce Knowles
3. Christina Aguilera
4. Anna Kournikova
5. Jennifer Lopez
6. Mischa Barton
7. Rebecca Romjin-Stamos
8. Paris Hilton
9. Jessica Alba
10. Halle Berry
Maybe I've been out of the country for far too long already, but this list HAS NO CREDIBILITY! I didn't even know who Mischa Barton was until I did a web search on her name--I guess she was the barfing dead girl from "The Sixth Sense" and is now starring in some teenybopper drama that's all edgy and stuff. Jessica Simpson is SO the Samantha Fox of this decade. People ten years from now will say "Hey, yeah I remember Jessica Simpson" and gasp in horror at the pictures the interWeb spits out. Seriously, folks. Try search for the Samantha Fox CD "I wanna have some fun" on Amazon.com and prepare to be amazed/amused by the cover photo. Oh, the 80's hairstyle pathos. Maybe I'm just being a cranky old man. I actually have nothing against any of these young ladies--it's just that this list is ridiculous because 1) every one of them needs a sammich and 2) the editors completely whiffed on the dreadful misspelling of "Lauren Graham" as "Jessica Simpson" at #1.
I don't know why I went off on that tangent. I guess I'm just a little bit sensitive about society being stupid. Okay, on to other things...
They had an "International Worship Service" here this past Sabbath. The Korean missionary group was basically in charge. However, they did a really good job of making it "International" by emphasizing the three major language groups represented here--Japanese, Korean and English. At the beginning of the service they taught everyone how to say "Good morning, nice to meet you" in all three languages and had us git up and mingle. One silly thing that happened was during the English portion of the "get up and meet people". One of the Korean ministers was a guy I've met before but apparently he didn't recognize me on this morning, 'cause when I said "Hello, my name is K" he remarked "Your pronunciation is very good!" UNfortunately for him, the worship leader was standing RIGHT THERE and heard this exchange, and he promptly said "He is the English teacher" upon which the poor Korean minister got all embarrassed. I have learned that people here are fond of embarrassing other people, so when the mingling time was over the worship leader relayed this silly exchange to EVERYONE. Amanda and I made the mistake of sitting in the front row, because said worship leader picked on us and our lame attempts at singing/reading Japanese. See if WE sit in the front next time. Try to be good churchgoers and this is the thanks you get. Really, it was all in good fun, and it was neat to see the Koreans all decked out in their "Hom-bok" clothes or however you spell/say the traditional Korean outfit.
Called home for Mother's Day today (Monday for me, Sunday for them). Paid 3000 yen for an int'l phone card, which is good for something like 67 minutes. So yeah, it was expensive, but it WAS worth it. Nice to hear the folks' voices and to know that everything's okay back home.
I'm out. The cafeteria beckons.
What in the...?
Well, I feel kinda bad looking at this site and realizing I haven't updated anything in awhile. I'm settling into a routine here and so maybe things don't seem as new or exciting, so perhaps that can be my excuse. I was trying to think of something interesting to post, and MSN.com PROVIDED! Supposedly, this list was the product of some kind of survey by Maxim magazine. It's Maxim, so you aren't expecting Pulitzer-level journalism, but WOW. Here are the top ten in their "Hot 100", which are (I guess) the hundred most desirable women in America? The world? I don't know.
Maxim Magazine's "Hot 100" Top Ten (via MSN.com)
1. Jessica Simpson
2. Beyonce Knowles
3. Christina Aguilera
4. Anna Kournikova
5. Jennifer Lopez
6. Mischa Barton
7. Rebecca Romjin-Stamos
8. Paris Hilton
9. Jessica Alba
10. Halle Berry
Maybe I've been out of the country for far too long already, but this list HAS NO CREDIBILITY! I didn't even know who Mischa Barton was until I did a web search on her name--I guess she was the barfing dead girl from "The Sixth Sense" and is now starring in some teenybopper drama that's all edgy and stuff. Jessica Simpson is SO the Samantha Fox of this decade. People ten years from now will say "Hey, yeah I remember Jessica Simpson" and gasp in horror at the pictures the interWeb spits out. Seriously, folks. Try search for the Samantha Fox CD "I wanna have some fun" on Amazon.com and prepare to be amazed/amused by the cover photo. Oh, the 80's hairstyle pathos. Maybe I'm just being a cranky old man. I actually have nothing against any of these young ladies--it's just that this list is ridiculous because 1) every one of them needs a sammich and 2) the editors completely whiffed on the dreadful misspelling of "Lauren Graham" as "Jessica Simpson" at #1.
I don't know why I went off on that tangent. I guess I'm just a little bit sensitive about society being stupid. Okay, on to other things...
They had an "International Worship Service" here this past Sabbath. The Korean missionary group was basically in charge. However, they did a really good job of making it "International" by emphasizing the three major language groups represented here--Japanese, Korean and English. At the beginning of the service they taught everyone how to say "Good morning, nice to meet you" in all three languages and had us git up and mingle. One silly thing that happened was during the English portion of the "get up and meet people". One of the Korean ministers was a guy I've met before but apparently he didn't recognize me on this morning, 'cause when I said "Hello, my name is K" he remarked "Your pronunciation is very good!" UNfortunately for him, the worship leader was standing RIGHT THERE and heard this exchange, and he promptly said "He is the English teacher" upon which the poor Korean minister got all embarrassed. I have learned that people here are fond of embarrassing other people, so when the mingling time was over the worship leader relayed this silly exchange to EVERYONE. Amanda and I made the mistake of sitting in the front row, because said worship leader picked on us and our lame attempts at singing/reading Japanese. See if WE sit in the front next time. Try to be good churchgoers and this is the thanks you get. Really, it was all in good fun, and it was neat to see the Koreans all decked out in their "Hom-bok" clothes or however you spell/say the traditional Korean outfit.
Called home for Mother's Day today (Monday for me, Sunday for them). Paid 3000 yen for an int'l phone card, which is good for something like 67 minutes. So yeah, it was expensive, but it WAS worth it. Nice to hear the folks' voices and to know that everything's okay back home.
I'm out. The cafeteria beckons.
Monday, May 03, 2004
2004-05-03
But that was just a dream...
It's raining today, which is very unfortunate, because Amanda, Miso and I had planned to take a trip up north to a place called Choshi. Supposedly, there's some hill that sticks out into the ocean and you get a 360-degree panorama. I've heard it's quite breathtaking, to the point where you can see the curve of the earth. However, because the main attraction involves seeing a long way, the overcast-ness of the day would likely have rained on our parade. Yeah, yeah, that was a horrifically weak attempt at cleverness. I've been away from English speakers for too long.
The Yokohama trip went well. The service was not actually at the church with the long name--it was in the gym of the SDA school there in Yokohama. The speaker was a guy named Shiraishi, who is (I guess) the president of the Japan Union for the second time. They must have asked him after they cashiered the previous administration back in November. On a side note, I think this guy's daughter was in Loma Linda for a spell. Dean did her wedding, if I remember correctly, shortly after I arrived in Loma Linda. Someone, probably Dean, said that she was the daughter of an ex-president of the JUC. I never knew her because she and her husband either left LL just after the wedding or attended services on the Japanese side. Anyway, I digress. I'd be lying to you if I said the service was interesting, although what I caught of Elder Shiraishi's talk was good. Translated talks are kinda hard to get into no matter what, and in addition to that I was extremely distracted 'cause I was sitting next to Amanda who looked awfully nice that day. After the service the diretor of all the missionaries came up and shook my hand and talked about his recent recruiting visits to all the American colleges. It seems that he liked me okay even though he first thought I was a student. Everyone there was shocked that I was older than both John and Amanda. I really should think of some evil mischief by which I can take advantage of my appearance.
After lunch everyone gathered back in the gym for an afternoon program, which is where our group came in. Well, we didn't come in until the very end, and I use "we" pretty carelessly since they didn't ask me to do anything (thankfully). The presentation was about the recent mission trip that the college took to Thailand. They showed a video and a few of the students said some things to try and shake people down for money. I got so messed up, though. The video was just shaky enough and the gym just hot enough to make me feel sick. I had to look away for most of the video and I bet people thought I was being really rude or something. But I figured that heaving up the bento I'd just consumed would make an even worse impression. After the service we packed up into the van and headed out to the Yokohama Chinatown. Compared to the SF Chinatown, this one is pretty sorry. Or maybe I missed most of the shops since every Japanese city is built upwards. Anyway, it was pretty small compared to the one in SF. Here's one comforting thing: Fast, low-quality Chinese food is pretty much the same everywhere in the world. We stopped in at a buffet-style place and wrecked some serious havoc. It was all right, but yeah--egg rolls, lemon chicken, spicy eggplant...your standard fare. Kinda like Panda Express only $20 for a meal.
Pics soon to be posted to the website.
But that was just a dream...
It's raining today, which is very unfortunate, because Amanda, Miso and I had planned to take a trip up north to a place called Choshi. Supposedly, there's some hill that sticks out into the ocean and you get a 360-degree panorama. I've heard it's quite breathtaking, to the point where you can see the curve of the earth. However, because the main attraction involves seeing a long way, the overcast-ness of the day would likely have rained on our parade. Yeah, yeah, that was a horrifically weak attempt at cleverness. I've been away from English speakers for too long.
The Yokohama trip went well. The service was not actually at the church with the long name--it was in the gym of the SDA school there in Yokohama. The speaker was a guy named Shiraishi, who is (I guess) the president of the Japan Union for the second time. They must have asked him after they cashiered the previous administration back in November. On a side note, I think this guy's daughter was in Loma Linda for a spell. Dean did her wedding, if I remember correctly, shortly after I arrived in Loma Linda. Someone, probably Dean, said that she was the daughter of an ex-president of the JUC. I never knew her because she and her husband either left LL just after the wedding or attended services on the Japanese side. Anyway, I digress. I'd be lying to you if I said the service was interesting, although what I caught of Elder Shiraishi's talk was good. Translated talks are kinda hard to get into no matter what, and in addition to that I was extremely distracted 'cause I was sitting next to Amanda who looked awfully nice that day. After the service the diretor of all the missionaries came up and shook my hand and talked about his recent recruiting visits to all the American colleges. It seems that he liked me okay even though he first thought I was a student. Everyone there was shocked that I was older than both John and Amanda. I really should think of some evil mischief by which I can take advantage of my appearance.
After lunch everyone gathered back in the gym for an afternoon program, which is where our group came in. Well, we didn't come in until the very end, and I use "we" pretty carelessly since they didn't ask me to do anything (thankfully). The presentation was about the recent mission trip that the college took to Thailand. They showed a video and a few of the students said some things to try and shake people down for money. I got so messed up, though. The video was just shaky enough and the gym just hot enough to make me feel sick. I had to look away for most of the video and I bet people thought I was being really rude or something. But I figured that heaving up the bento I'd just consumed would make an even worse impression. After the service we packed up into the van and headed out to the Yokohama Chinatown. Compared to the SF Chinatown, this one is pretty sorry. Or maybe I missed most of the shops since every Japanese city is built upwards. Anyway, it was pretty small compared to the one in SF. Here's one comforting thing: Fast, low-quality Chinese food is pretty much the same everywhere in the world. We stopped in at a buffet-style place and wrecked some serious havoc. It was all right, but yeah--egg rolls, lemon chicken, spicy eggplant...your standard fare. Kinda like Panda Express only $20 for a meal.
Pics soon to be posted to the website.
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