Hair Cut!

Chris and I got hair cuts yesterday. We are both look mighty sharp. Chris got his normal haircut which just makes everything look shorter. It looks really nice. He's got a wicked beard going, because his old beard trimmer broke and we are waiting for Will to bring the new one we bought.

My hair cut is also spiff. I got it cut to a little below my chin. When it curls under like it's supposed to (which I am totally inept at doing!), it touches the bottom of my chin. It's rather nice to have hair this short. Only took 2 minutes to dry this morning! Pictures may be forthcoming if I remember to take them. I wanted to take them yesterday (since the hairstylist fixed up cutely) but I completely forgot. Hooray!

We got haircuts yesterday, because we went to Jason's elementary school to help him out with a class. 6 other ALTs went and it was a lot of fun. The kids are going to Hiroshima in a few weeks and they have an assignment to try to speak English to people in the Peace Park. So we practiced with them. I hope it goes well for the kids. They were really cute yesterday.

And that's all I have to say. I just wanted to mention my stylish new hair and Chris' styles same-old hair. And tease you by not giving pictures!

Ta!

I had a full journal entry almost posted and my computer wigged out and I lost my post. DUMB! Oh well. I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, so let's see what's happened.

The pigeon problem has been solved. The Friday after the various pigeon incidents, the landlady sent some people to come fix our net. They took down the old net and put up a new one on the correct side of the railing so the pigeons couldn't land and sit on the railing. Since they came, we really haven't had much of a problem anymore. It's MUCH better. Every once in awhile, a pigeon tries to land on the porch, but they end up giving up. So that's great. The people who came to fix the net were really old though. I kinda felt bad because it was so cold and it took them all day. I did fix them tea though. I think it pleased them that I gave them tea and chocolates for a break. Nice people. No more pigeons. Saa..

Let's see what else. I finished up at Enya. Woo hoo! That means no more Super English classes at elementary schools. Huzzah! I had really come to hate those classes. There was absolutely no curriculum and they just expected us to come up with our own lesson plans with absolutely no guidance from anyone. Also, the students were becoming real brats because it was the end of the school year and they were about to graduate into Junior High. But still, I just couldn't take it anymore. Too stressful. On Thursday, the kids were absolute hellions. I ended the class by yelling at them in Japanese, which is very very rare. I told them that they were rude and loud and if they behaved that way on Friday, I was going to leave without saying goodbye. They got in a lot of trouble with the homeroom teacher, too. Boo.

On Friday, they were much better. They gave me an apology. I did surprise them by bringing Chris to class. WE played Paper, Rock, Scissors and Flip a Coin. I handed out pencils to the winners. It was ok. Not super interesting, but the kids were much politer than they were the day before.

My high school is almost done. Thursday is my last day and I plan on doing a party-ish class. Shhh. I'm not asking permission but it should be ok. However, sometimes the schools gets fussy about what I can and can't do. Better to ask forgiveness than permission! That's from a TV show, but I can't remember which one.

My English School in Kisuki is still limping along. I get a break this week from my classes since James wants to take over. Hooray. I still have my adult class on Thursday, but it shouldn't be too rough. Personally, I'm not sure how much longer this school is going to be running since we haven't really gotten any new or interested people in the last month. I don't know how the owner can keep surviving much longer at such a loss (Susie is expensive!). I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Turns out, I don't much care for these classes, but I only have 3 more months of them before I stop working so I can get things packed up here. I'm sure it will be fine.

I found out that my Saturday English program has been cut do to budget problems. That's sad. I really liked that class and was looking forward to doing it again. Miymi was sad too. We had a party on the last day of class and had some ALTs come. We made keychains and a good time was had by all. All my keychains got screwed up, but Miymi gave me one of hers. It's sweet. I'm sure I will have it for a very long time.

Last Saturday was interesting. Chris got a guitar. He's been taking lessons, but since he didn't have any way to practice, he wasn't really getting any better. So we decided he should get a guitar. I think he's been having fun playing around with it. Also, we went to a Sakura viewing party at Imaoka's (our tutor, formerly Mishima-san but she got married so is now Imaoka...do keep up!). Unfortunately for her, the cherry blossoms decided not to bloom yet. But, a cherry blossom viewing party is never really about seeing flowering trees, but more a time to relax and have a nice time with friends. Meagan, Ang, Titia and I all wore pretty yukatas that Imaoka-san helped us put on. She also taught us how to make tea for the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. It was very interesting. Chris drank my tea because he's super sweet like that.


On Friday (ok, I know I am jumbling up the timeline, but it doesn't REALLY matter does it?) I went to a work party for Izumo West High. Two of the Engish teachers are leaving, so it was a goodbye dinner for them. Moriyama-sensei and Otani-sensei are leaving. It's very sad. Especially because they are the people I talk to at school and the people who are best at speaking English. Moriyama is leaving to research wildflowers and take pictures. It's his hobby and he wants to devote more time to it. As he says, "I want to stop teaching because I only have 10 years left before dying. I want to spend time researching wildflowers in those years." Heh. It sounds morbid, but apparently he just hit the age where he's 10 years away from Japan's average lifespan and it's got him spooked. Otani is leaving because her son got into a Junior high in Matsue and since her daughter already goes there, they thought it would be easier for them to not have to commute.

Annddd...I think that's about it. I spent today cleaning for Will's arrival. It's still 6 days off, but that 2nd bedroom had gotten quite full of junk. It was time to clean it! Ew! I hope you guys have a wonderful week. I'm sure I will!

Complaintastic!

Gah! I'm full of the fuss right now, so I'm gonna. And there's nothing you can do to stop me! Well...I guess you don't have to read this entry. However, you just might miss a comical story.

Weather
Bah. The weather is my first complaint. Let's break this down simply. On Sunday, it was a very gorgeous day. It was in the low 80s and wonderful. Spring had really sprung. On Monday, it cooled off. It was still around 60 though, and just as nice; you just had to wear a jacket. On Tuesday...it snowed.

Seriously. It's still snowing today. It's just light flurries and it's definitely not sticking to anything, but COME ON! Snow!? It hasn't barely snowed a flake all winter. And then the weather got so nice and warm. Then, you just yank that away and give me snow? No, deal! This sucks. It's so fricken cold right now. I hate it. Grump, grump, grump. >:-(

Pigeons
Grrr...my mortal enemy, the pigeon. How I hate them. How I hate the way the coo loudly in the morning and wake us up, even on days we can sleep in. How I hate the way we have to have an ugly pigeon net covering our porch so they won't get in. We have a gorgeous view, but we never look out, because all you see is the stupid net. I hate them. Everything about them. Nasty flying rats!

Today, my hatred of the skyrats took another step. You see, one got onto our porch. Yes, despite the fact that we have a horrifically ugly pigeon net, one still got trapped on our porch. This is actually because of the freaking weather! It's been crazy windy lately because the snow was blowing in. No really, the wind has been terrible! In fact, so bad that it got part of our net snagged on our satellite dish. This allowed the pigeon to acciddently sneak onto our porch (I could explain, but really, do you care HOW he got there?). Unfortunately, he got trapped by the same net that let him sneak in.

What a conundrum! Now is where I will point out that this is probably karmic retribution. Back in September, Sam (the Sada ALT) got three pigeons trapped on his porch (pretty much the same way the bird got on our porch today). We laughed merrily at his predicament, because, honestly, it's kinda funny (but not today! So no laughing at me for at least a week!).

Anyways. I messaged Chris to call me and I told him about the pigeon. It was imperative that we got the bird off of the porch ASAP because his pigeon buddies where trying to 'rescue him' and it was highly likely that they would just get themselves trapped as well (that's what happened to poor Sada Sam). So Chris called Mihara-san who's response was that A: we needed to get a net and B: pigeons weren't dangerous. Great, that meant that WE had to catch the damn bird. But even better, when Chris asked permission to help de-pigeon our porch, he was denied leave (despite the fact that he didn't have anything to do at his school). So that left the problem to me.

So I girded my loins, grabbed an old sheet that we needed to throw out and went to catch the alien intruder. Remember, it was very cold and windy due to the crappy weather. Anyways, I go out onto the porch and shoo the pigeons buddies away from the net so they wouldn't get in (one almost 'fell' into our porch but I managed to scare him away from the hole in time). So I'm out on the porch with a big blue sheet trying to corner the pigeon who is terrified and pooping EVERYWHERE. I almost get him cornered when the unthinkable happens!

The bird launches himself at my head! I think he was just trying to get around me, but it scared the crap out of me. Keep in mind, that I am outside on a 5th floor porch doing this with people walking below me in the parking lot and too nearby shops. Anyways, the bird flies at my head and I SCREAM and dance around the porch. This scares the bird because I'm flapping around the scary blue sheet so he keeps flying around me. So I ended up yelling "noooo nooo nooo...get away get away...eeeeeeeeeee!" and throw myself back into the apartment. (NO LAUGHING TO ME FOR A WEEK! (you may laugh amongst yourselves though)).

At this point in time, someone rings my door buzzer. Turns out, Mihara-san called the landlord and she sent someone to deal with the pigeon problem. So I show him the stupid bird and he grabs another crappy sheet and uses it and a discarded broom to catch the bird. He then bows to me and I thank him profusly and bow and bow and bow. Then he just asks if he can discard the sheet for me and I say yes. So he takes the bird wrapped in the sheet and disappears with it. Huh. I have no idea what he did with the bird. I hope he...uh...humanely killed it or something.

I hate pigeons.

Oyaji
"Oyaji" means middleage man but carries a negative conotation. It's not a nice term. You would never say it to someone's face, but it's not really as strong as a slur. Anyways, this is about middle-aged Japanese men. Not all of them, just two of them that I don't like so they get labelled with this negative term.

Anyways, I have encountered two of these such fellows. Men who are both around my parents age or above. They both want to learn English better, but NOT from me.

The first one I met about a year ago when I started teaching at Enya Elementary. He's the homeroom teacher for one of the 6th grade classes. I have complained about him many times before. How he let's his kids run roughshod over me and never helps maintain control and actively undermines my lessons at every time. I know I've complained about him before, but never really WHY he's like this. I will get to that in a minute.

The second man I met last Thursday. I've started teaching an adult class on Thursday evenings at Kisuki and last Thursday was my first class. He's an older man and about 60 years old. He was very terse and rude to me. He would interupt me and ask me insulting questions in an insulting tone. Like how old I was, how old my parents where, wether I went to university of just a college (college is a 2 year institue and uni a 4 year, in Japan and most places really, but in America, we tend to use college to describe the four years of education after highschool). He was really rude and upset when James (32 year old male, fluent in Japanese, and owner of the school) told him that I would be the one teaching the classes, not James.

You see, the se two men have the same problem with me. Basically, that I'm a young, foreign female, far below them in experience and age (not status, it's not like THAT). The problem comes from the fact that I am way more knowledgable than them in English (something they both want to learn) and in a position of authority over them as a teacher or English. This makes them uncomfortable and a little embarassed. This causes them to behave rudely around me. It's a horrible thing, really. I try to understand it. Not all older men behave this way around me, but when I get this attitude, it really upsets me and hurts my feelings.

I discussed this with James, since it's my student behaving this way towards me and he agrees that we will wait and see what happens, but we both hope that this guy will just leave and not take the class anymore. Otherwise, James will politely ask him to leave, or something.

Anyways, that attitude still sucks.

Japanese Drivers and Cell Phones
I hear people complaining all the time about people who drive while talking on their cell phones (I am guilty of this, so I don't complain that loudly about it). Japan doesn't really have this problem. People really don't like to drive and talk on the phone at the same. If they need to make a call, they find a little spot to pull off the road and make their call there. It seems like a good idea, right?

Well, it's not! That only works when the driver is making a call. What about when they are receiving a call? Hmmm? I swear to Bob, if they get a call, they hit the breaks and pull off to the side of the road and talk there. Which doesn't seem so bad, except that most of the time, there is not any room for them to pull over. So sometimes, it just means that the park with their tire on the white line and the rest of the car sticking in the lane. If another car is coming, well though toenails for the person behind them! They will have to wait until they can pull around. It's idiotic and so dangerous! They pull off to the side everywhere. On curves, on one lane roads, in the middle of busy traffic. And they SLAM on their breaks and stop suddenly to do it.

It's so moronic. I would vastly prefer the people yakking while driving. At least they are a little more predictable. Grrr...stupid drivers.

Allergies and Stress = Headaches
Because the winter was so mild (excluding the surprise flurries of today and yesterday), the Japanese plants have started blooming early. This sucks because I get allergies in Japan. I don't get allergies in America! I am fine around cut grass, golden rod, and all the other billion allergies that people seem to suffer from in America. But in Japan, it gives me headaches! Boo! It also makes me sniffly and dries me out and I hate it.

I also am a bit stressed out right now. Thinking about dealing with all the stuff we will have to deal with in the next few months is stressful. Dealing with the end of the school year is surprisingly not as easy as I thought it would be. Having to deal with the English school and wondering if it's going to fail or not is kinda bugging me. And everything. I stress out really easy. Drives Chris crazy I think. Because he's so relaxed and I'm so tense. Anyways, stress causes insomnia and headaches.

So this past week I have been really headachey and sleepy and maybe even a little cranky. Boo for that. I do have some pills that help, but I can really only take them if I don't have anything to do since one is a muscle relaxer and it tends to make me saggy.

Conclusion
So thats my big pile of fussing. It's my journal, so my prerogative to post anything I want to. So hah!

I promise the next time will be much more interesting and with pictures! OooOooOooOoo....

Update!

Ok, so I did it guys. I finally did it. I bought our plane tickets for our return to America. It's both scary and very exciting. It's made our return so much more real.

We will be arriving in Hartsfield Atlanta at 3:10 PM and we will be back in the states for good. How wonderful. :-)

I know it's still early to have bought a ticket (just less than 5 months). However, I have my reasons. 4 of them! First, I am very ready to come home and have been looking at tickets for a few months now, so I might as well just get them now and get it out of my system. Second, now that we have teh tickets, we have a definite timeline to work with. Like, now we now for sure when we have to leave Izumo and when we will fly out of Japan. It helps, believe it or not. It will help me plan a solid timeline. Thirdly, we could pick any seat that we wanted on the airplane. I don't know why that was important to me, but it was. And finally, the prices are only going to go up unless we wait until a few days before the flight (thats when they plummet but its such a risky move). So that's my reason! I don't have to explain myself, but i'm feel chatty and excited so I thought I would.

See you in 143 days! (no, I didn't count, I used a countdown program to see how many days)

So, I know it's really far to come to Izumo, Japan. You know, it's about 7000 miles away and takes about 30 hours to get from Georgia to Izumo. So it's far, and I understand that most people can't visit us. Hell, I wouldn't. That's a harsh trip. But what about an 8-10 hour trip up to Bloomington Indiana? ^_^

That was supposed to be my clever way to say that Chris got into the Indiana University Japanese Language Pedagogy graduate program! Hooray! That's so awesome! We were about 98% sure that he would get into the program, no problem. But we were trying to hold to the age old adage of "don't count your chickens before they hatch", so we were trying to not just assume that we were Indiana-bound. But it was getting harder and harder.

On Wednesday morning, I was up and about early, because I had to run to the Board of Education to get some more papers for my tax reimbursement. I was about to leave when the phone rang. I figured it was Mihara-san asking me if I was coming today because I was running a little late. Turns out, it was the head of the Japanese Language Pedagogy course at Indiana. She was rather surprised to hear me answer the phone. You see, there is no place to mention on applications, that you are married. Heh. She asked for Chris and I mentioned that he was at work so she said she would call back. Which she totally did around 8:00 that evening and surprised the crap out of Chris with a interview in Japanese. Not that he didn't handle himself wonderfully, because he gets Japanese phone calls a lot. But still surprised! I wasn't actually there. I had class at the English school.

Anyways, we figured that was an excellent sign. So we both were bouncing off the walls. When Chris applied, it said that they would send out the letters on March 1st and, Chris also got an email asking if he wanted to be emailed with his decision letter instead of having to wait for it to be sent all the way to Japan. So we knew, March 1st was the day we would finally find out.

But March 1st was yesterday for us! Gah! Remember, we are pretty much a day a head of everyone else. So, yeah, definitely bouncing off the walls. But! This morning, Chris got up and checked his email and he got his letter that he had been accepted! Hooray! How wonderfully exciting!

Now I can start looking for apartments for real! I have already found one that I really like and a few others that I have marked down. I know it's still super early, but I figure it can't hurt to be prepared. You see, there is a lot to do before Chris is able to start college. And as weird as this might be, I'm not too bothered by the move from Japan back to America.

You see, while there is a lot to do here, I have 5 months to do it in. All I really have to do is clean the apartment really well (and since I seem to be doing this in stages, it's not really that big of a deal), send probably 2-3 more boxes back to America, and stuff like that. It's really not that much at all, I guess. All the furniture stays here. All I have to get home is Chris and I, knick-knacks, clothes, dvds, books, cds, and games. Really. It sounds like a lot, but we are sending a huge box of clothes home probably at the end of April. And a couple of boxes here and there. Then we just pack the rest up (sell some stuff, throw away other stuff, give away the rest) and come home. Not so rough.

No, the rough part comes from the time we get home until we move to Indiana. We will have 3-4 weeks to get back and rested from the trip and living abroad, go through our stuff and see what we want with us in Indy, find out what kind of furniture we can borrow/rent/buy from people, and figure out how to get it all the way up to Indiana. Eek! So much! This is why I am insanely searching for apartments now. So we can have a place to go when we get to Indiana and hopefully we can just move in one or two days. Or something. I don't really know how it works. Still a long time from now, so maybe it's a little too early too really worry. But these are the things I think about now. I'm sure everything will work out smoothly.

Something I can do now, is make my resume. Susie is going to need to get a real job! Oooo. I think it shouldn't be too hard to find a job as a receptionist or a secretary with my background (hooray for that afterschool job working for Mr. Griffin!). I just need to figure out how to format the resume. Any advice would be much apreciated!! Man, it will be so nice to have a real job. A 9-5 job that I don't have to do things about when I go home for the evening. Because honestly, I don't like teaching at all. It's not my bag. I want a job where I can type and answer phones and that kinda stuff. This helping children grow and become wonderful human beings is much too much pressure right now. I'm sure I will be fine with my own kids in 8 years or so (when we have them), but I don't enjoy the pressure of teaching other people's kids. It's hard and annoying. *whine whine whine*

Ok. So enough rambling! Unfortunately, for some reason, I have NO ONE to talk to right now. Everyone is busy, or at work, or asleep, or whatever. SO I have all these thoughts and emotions but no one to bug them with. So much rambling!

Sorry this is a half interesting, half boring entry. Anyways. Everyone should give Chris a big hearty congratulations! It's awesome that he got into his first choice. How fun!