Laughs galore!!!

Last night, three of us went to an onsen about 45 minutes away from our apartment. It was so nice. Inside, there were 6 baths of varied temperatures including one for doing exercise. I decided to be a big dog and get into the hottest one 42 degrees Celcius…like 108 Fahrenheit! Needless to say I didn’t stay in there very long. Then we went outside where there were 3 more baths and big stone buckets to sit it. On the way out I grabbed a Häagen-Dazs Green Tea ice cream from a vending machine in the lobby. Before going home we stopped at a really good restaurant for some yellow curry. D-E-Licious! I wish I could end every night like that!

Today I was at the nearby school where I sit at my desk for 8 hours and do nothing because they don’t have internet. AAAAH!!! Although my nearby school (which I will now refer to as Purgatory, since my far school is Heaven) is the school I don’t really like, it is where I get the most laughs. Here are a few examples:

A few weeks ago I went to a meeting of Japanese English teachers in the area. The principal at Purgatory is really nice and speaks really good English. On the way to the meeting he was explaining to me that the town we were entering was in the process of incorporating with two other towns because the individual towns lacked the facilities and resources that people really need, etc. So he says, “For example this city doesn’t have a Gynecologist.”
1. He pronounced it Jy-no-cologist
2. Wait…of all the facilities he could have used as an example, why on Earth was gynecologist the first thing that came to mind?!?!?! HAHAHA!

Yesterday, I was walking around during cleaning time and I was stopped by a chorus of “HELLO” from a group of my favorite girls and one of my favorite boys in the hall. The boy says, “Oh, it is berry cute!” (You are very cute.) I said, “Thank you. You are very kind.” Then they told me that so-and-so had a boyfriend and so-and-so had 5 and the boy says, “You. Boyfriend?” I said yes and one of the girls pointed to the girl next to her and said, “She is Rez.” So I was like oh okay because I thought she was telling me the girl’s nickname or something. Then I guess another girl didn’t think that my reaction was appropriate so she says, “No, no. She’s rez. Gahl lubu gahl eekohl rez!!!” The girl who she was pointed at started shouting, “No I’m not, no I’m not!” Then it dawned on me what she was saying…”No, No. She’s les. Girl loves girl equals les!” If only they would make that much effort in their English classes!

Right before I went home yesterday, one of the teachers hands me a cd that has “Big Help in the Big Easy” written on it. He told me that an English teacher in Nagasaki gave it to him. I copied it onto my computer and listened to it this morning. Well the first songs are all really nice classic jazz by Louis Armstrong and other artists from that era. Then about halfway through the cd I hear the unedited versions of Bunny Hop, Slow Motion, and some Big Tymers song. Hahahaha! I wonder if he knows what he’s listening to.

It's amazing what an accidental phone call can get you. The leader of the group I call the "Ko Krew" (because all of their names end in -ko) has proclaimed herself my Japanese mother since she and my mom are the same age. Anyway, I was on my bike with my earpieace in and I accidentally somehow ended up calling her but I was on a busy street so I couldn't reach into the basket to end the call. Well she was so glad to hear from me and asked if I wanted to hang out. Long story short, she made dinner and the rest of the Ko Krew came too. It was so nice to just sit around, eat, drink coffee, talk and watch the news like I do with my mom and her friends at home. She even sent me home with eggs. Ikuko said that they were special eggs so I asked her how. She said, "The yolk is more orange. They eat healthy food...um cockroach..." We all burst out laughing because she didn't realize what she said. I hope it was a mistake! Then she was like, "Oh, no sorry. They eat honey and seaweed" and some other healthy stuff that I don't remember. I boiled one to see if it tasted different from other eggs and sure enough it did! I'm still trying to figure out why she said cockroach though. Scary!