Beijing...Day 2

Breakfast was included in our hotel costs, so we headed down to the Top Bar. OMG! The Top Bar should be renamed the Bottom Bar because it was RAGGEDY! The food was set out in chafing dishes and looked SKETCHY. We each put some of the questionable cuisine on our plates and picked over it…perhaps in an effort not to seem too bourgie…I quickly made up my mind that bourgie is the way to be when it comes to what you’re willing to eat. I had bean sprouts, bok choy cabbage, peanuts, some clear soup, rice, and something pickled.

After breakfast, we headed back to the room to decide on our plan of action for the day. Then there was a knock on the door. IT WAS KISHA!!! We had been in contact but I still didn’t know for sure that she would be able to come to Beijing. I was so happy to see her…shaved head and all! All she had was my name when she arrived at the hotel. So, I guess the people at the front desk figured she’s Black, the people she’s looking for are Black, and they told her our room number. I was glad they did, but what if some lunatic came looking for us? The ease with which they gave up our info bothered me a bit.

After she got cleaned up (after a 10-hour train ride), we hopped into a taxi and headed to Tiananmen Square. Chinese folks were losing it! Taking pictures of us, staring, it was pretty annoying. So, I took a picture of a guy who was taking a picture of me on his camera phone. In Japan, folks do it on the sly but in China, people get all up in your face with it. After walking around, our bellies got to rumblin’ so we looked for somewhere to get some Peking duck. We had braised tofu, pork something or another, soup, and Peking duck. It was sooooo good! All the duck that I’ve eaten in the past tasted like a big bit of outdoors. This one was DELICIOUS!!! We walked around and checked out some shops. I bought some jade bracelets…that I later found out (at a Jade factory) were low quality jade, but they’re pretty so whatever. The price tag said $62 (480 Yuan) each, but I got 3 for about $32 (250 Yuan)...so, about $10 apiece…that was probably still a rip off but whatever. At that point, it was about what I was willing to spend.

Our next stop was the Worker’s Stadium…A bootleg heaven. This place was like 5 floors of nothing but knock-offs! Unfortunately, the quality was pretty crappy so I stayed away from the “name brand” stuff. I bought two “silk” scarves. After telling the sales lady, “I’m not stupid and that they’re not real silk” I got them for about $4…forget the Willing to Spend Theory. It’s all about how much things are worth and the price to manufacture them…which is really next to nothing. I also got two pairs of the same shoes in different colors for about $12. The salespeople were…um…proactive. I had to give a couple of ladies the “Oh no you didn’t just grab my arm” look/neck roll…upon which they promptly let go.

After the stadium, we walked down the street and stopped for some pineapple. We also stopped at a spa to check the prices for massages…CHEAP!!! Like $20 for an hour and a half full body massage. Kisha said that there were cheaper places that were just as good that the local folks frequent so we left. It started to rain a little so we caught a taxi to the Great Wall Sheraton (where we should have stayed) to check on tour packages for the Great Wall of China. They stopped at several places and we wanted a tour of just the Wall so we decided to check somewhere else. For dinner that night, we headed over to a restaurant across the street from our hotel. Kisha ordered wonton soup, that yummy pork something-or-another, fried rice, and some noodle stuff. Michelle didn’t eat b/c her stomach was doing its own thing…perhaps from the pineapple. We were all pretty apprehensive when it came to water so we stuck to drinking bottled water, and the pineapple was sliced then put in a jug of water to keep it fresh…I guess we forgot. I was a little bit worried after that because we had been eating all the same stuff. The noodles had these little thingies in them (seasoning) that numb your mouth. The taste wasn’t that great, but initially the numbing was kinda neat…then the numbing was unpleasant and the spicy stuff got spicier so I decided to leave those things alone.

Beijing...Day 1

We arrived in Beijing after 3 pm…dazed and confused. We though we had a direct flight but apparently you must stop at the Qingdao Liuting International Airport, disembark, take a bus from the runway to go through customs, take a bus back to the same plane, board, and then fly to Beijing Airport. It really would have been nice to know this beforehand. Then there’s the turbulence. I have been on quite a few bumpy flights and this one came in at a very close second to the scary night flight that I took to France during a storm. I thought I was calm until the turbulence stopped and I realized that my knees were nearly drawn up to my chest. Phew.

Two Black women and Chinese American woman traveling together makes for some pretty interesting stories to say the least. In Qingdao we were herded through the airport with no clue what was going on. Michelle and I were the only ones from our flight who were stopped to have our bags x-rayed…and Michelle’s got searched. Hmmmm…I wonder why. A man in the shuttle bus who spoke really good English and worked for a company out of San Francisco wanted to know why Japanese people don’t speak good English after we told him that we were English teachers in Japan. I told him that it was because the culture is different and people are just more reluctant/shy when it comes to speaking freely in general.

I don’t know if any of you have heard anything about the sand storms that China has, but THEY ARE REAL! Once off the plane for good, we got a clear view of the yellow sky…which lead to grit in our eyes and noses. We checked in at the hotel and headed to our room…which was in a completely different building than the check-in counter. It was apartment style and…ok. To describe it to my mom I said, “You wouldn’t stay there.” If you know my mom then you know what the means. It was just aight…clean enough and livable. However, next time I will be choosing a hotel and I will tell the agent (if I go through one) where to make the reservations. Then, we headed down to the restaurant in the hotel for our first meal in China…FABULOUS and CHEAP!!!

Good Day #2…maybe because vacation is around the corner???

Last night, the board of education had an office dinner party in the next city at what appeared to be a pretty nice hotel. When you read guides on the Japanese office party culture, heed every word! Folks who seem meek and mild turn into English speaking Chatty McTalks2Much at office parties!!! What I found out last night:
· It took six men to get rid of all the stuff in our monstrosity of a junk pile last week! When we thanked them, they said no thank you for giving us a reason to leave the office…ha! Our supervisor volunteered to come back and get the stuff that I forgot to get rid of…and old bike and dried up paint cans.
· Our form supervisor hates his new job.
· One of the section bosses thinks that his subordinate’s wife is a “very pretty girl…eh lady”
· Another section boss is “Married but [I] have shita cocoro,” which was translated as “hidden sexual desires”. I very quickly taught them the word “crush” because the last thing we need is random Japanese men telling foreigners about “hidden sexual desires.”
· We introduced our former supervisory to who we think is his twin, who I sat next to at dinner thanks to the random seating. Twin made sure that I was good on food and juice the whole evening. He’s one of those “cool” guys with the trimmed eyebrows and I think he might have a little crush…the American sense of crush that is!
· Top-notch hotels feel that Neyo is a fitting musical selection at office parties…Image my surprise when I heard his voice over the P.A. WOW!
· The guy whose wife is a “very pretty girl…eh lady” majored in German philosophy…Who’da thunk that I would be at an office party in Japan discussing Emmanuel Kant and Sartre with a red-faced, drunk (off beer and sake), middle-aged Japanese public employee???
· The new section boss who appears to be fond of the “very pretty girl…eh lady” is taking use out for some yakitori soon…on him! Yeah for free food!!!

Today, I had another snooze-button-tapping -7-am-wake up morning. Left home at 7:30. When I got to the bakery this time, my favorite bread was missing!!! As I was turning to look for something else, an overenthusiastic woman runs over with a tray of piping hot rolls! YAY! Surprised that she was right behind me, I said, “Oh!” So, she said, “Hi!” At the register, she asked me if I spoke Japanese well, in Japanese. I said that I’m not that good but I’m currently studying, in Japanese. Then, she rang me up and said, “Thank you for coming!” in English!!! So nice.

I was supposed to teach 4 classes (2 regular classes and 2 self-introduction classes for the new students), but one of my self-intro classes was canceled because some students are absent an the teacher wants everyone to hear it. He asked if I would come on the Monday after next. Now, Mondays are my board of education internet surfing days. I said yes (all the while) thinking about requesting to only come for just that class so that I can go back to the BOE to “work.” Luckily, he came back and said we can do it tomorrow. I’m so glad that most, if not all, snacks in Japan are individually wrapped because every time one to the teachers I work with gets snacks, she gives them to me too. I don’t really care too much for sweets so as soon as the office empties I rush to the snack drawer to put things back. I’m sure that if there’s a camera in the office, someone is looking at a monitor somewhere laughing! I used to put them in my book bag and take them home but there’s no point in wasting food.

The beginnings of a good day…

This morning, I pushed snooze at least 94.7 times. One of those times, I heard the faint buzz of a mosquito in my ear and it never bit me. I finally got up at 7 thinking, “Okay, you need to be out the door at 7:30.” Sounds easy, right? Well, it takes me 10 minutes to brush my teeth. Brushed my teeth, showered, dressed, made tea, and I was out the door at 7:31 without even rushing. A sleeveless cream turtleneck, blue wool cardigan, and a classic Adidas jacket were the perfect combination for the crisp morning air, warmed by the sun of the cloudless sky on my ride to the station. Leaving my street, I spotted the dingy dog at the junky house down the street. I should have taken a picture. Now he’s a pretty big dog but he managed to be standing on this little rectangle of cardboard in the middle of the yard. Just standing there like, “Uh uh, I’m too cute to put these paws on the dewy ground.” The bike lot at the station has been unbelievably full these days and my bike was the fourth to not fit in a space but the attendant said, “Bring it here,” and he made a space for me. At the station in the city where I teach, I stopped at the bakery for some bread. YESSS! It was still hot from the oven!!!

As we all know, I do nothing all day for the most part, so I sat and wrote all my tentative vacation plans in my calendar for the next year. Which has me considering staying around for another year so that I can go to Thailand, Singapore, India, and maybe Australia and France. What do y’all think? If you really miss me, put that aside and make an objective decision! I also started a “Things to Consider in the Very Near Future” list. There are two things on it so far:

1. Working holiday in France or somewhere cool where I can exercise my Mad Phat Language Skills (don’t want my French brain to shrink…my English brain has already shrunk! What, not familiar with the multiple brain concept? Well, it’s in that category of new Tif-science. For example, I have a food stomach that is full sometimes and a cake/ice cream stomach that never gets full!)

2. Master’s in International Education, I think I would make a good study abroad coordinator, or something of the like

Have you noticed the common thread? TRAVEL! Anyway, after jotting down the beginnings of my list, I listened to a French podcast for a little cerebral exercise. I learned that in ski terms “to wax/waxing” is “farter/fartage” in French. During my rigorous exercise (phew!), the principal walked up and asked if the flag on the back of my jacket is a national flag. I said that it’s the flag of my father’s country. He asked if it’s on the east coast or the west coast. I explained that it’s not on either because it’s not in the US, it’s in the Caribbean. Then, he asked if it’s one of the UN countries. I told him that it’s probably not and that it’s a pretty small country. He talked about how he read Hemmingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, saying that he’d always wanted to visit the countries in that book and he asked if it was a swordfish that the old man caught. I told him that I think it was either a swordfish or a marlin (is there a difference???). Then he asked me if they could be caught in the sea surrounding Japan. Ok, so here is an example of one of those moments when he’s making a joke that I don’t catch because I’m too busy wondering why he’s asking me a question to which he would be more likely to know the answer!!! It’s the pause after and the cracking of a smile that signal JOKE!!! I typically don’t laugh at things that I don’t think are funny, but for some reason I humor him. I guess I’m just being polite or something…ionno!

Michelle and I texted back and forth a bit. Then, the 2:30 pm sleepies set in…as did the clouds outside. I swear the final hour and 30 minutes is the HARDEST!!! I wish someone would say, “Hey, you’re not doing anything! Go do that at home, or at the mall, or something!”

A few colorful pictures from this weekend...

Although only one day of my weekend was spent actually doing something, I was worn out. Friday night, I met with some of my coworkers because we're doing a movie the new folks who are coming this year. Saturday I got up super early (9 AM....hehehe) to head to the city. First my friend and I went to the Fukuoka museum of art to see the special exhibit: The Edimitsu Collection. On the walk there, we had to pass through a really nice park that surrounds a lake. I spotted some other foxy ladies so I just had to take a picture with them. Despite my love and respect for art, we managed to focus more on clowning and giggling. For example, this great big ol pumpkin/squash...who wouldn't have taken this opportunity to capture a conversation on film. Then there's the bronze sumo wrestler...teehee. After the museum, we met a friend at Starbucks. She brought a guidebook and some info for our trip to China since she had just gone a few weeks ago. So, we sat and chatted over lunch...I had a Jerk Chicken sandwich. Yes, from Starbucks! No, I don't recommend it. The green tea frappuccino was good as always though. After lunch, we headed over to the travel agency to pick up our visas and plane tickets. Guess what! The hotel that we had previously been shown and the one that was booked weren't the same. Luckily, they are the same number of stars and the new one is located near other familiar big name hotels. I’m so excited. Kisha plans to come out and spend some time with me in Beijing. On our way to walk around downtown, I spotted a certain piece of "workout" equipment. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this thing is a big waste of money! There's no workout! However, they are very popular among Japanese women...weird. Another favorite is that machine that Pee Wee Herman used to have on his show. You know the one that has a strap that you rest your butt in and it I guess is supposed to shake the fat and calories away...HA! Yeah right. HELLO, THEY DON'T WORK! Next, we went to Tower Records. I bought a really good bossa nova record...as some of you may know, I really want to learn Portuguese!!! So I’ll call all Portuguese music purchases “ear training.” That evening, we all went to a BBQ. Everyone brought something to go on the grill. I brought jerk chicken drumettes. I was starving so I made sure that I [wo]manned the grill so that I could slip the goodies of my choice into my plate...GENIUS! Greed under the guise of helpfulness...MUAAHAHAAHAAHAA! The girl I met at the community thing last weekend came and she brought her husband and some friends. I found out that she went to a few boarding schools in the states...and she claims that her best friend in Arizona and I look alike...we'll see. lol

As for today…I sat in the office of my close school contemplating the meaning of life and the existence of man…aka DID NOTHING! Luckily, I had left disc 4 of season two of In Living Color in my DVD drive. So, I minimized the movie screen so that it was a little smaller than a credit card, sat back, and enjoyed the show! It really is too bad that this show was canceled. Now that I’m older and I understand the jokes it’s more and more obvious that Keenan and the crew were way ahead of their time. I guess the content was a bit much for the time. It’s certainly mild compared to a lot of the things on TV these days.

This evening I whipped up some salmon croquettes and cheese grits and had the ladies over for dinner. I could say that I'm cooking dirt and they would still get excited. It makes me feel good though, plus I don't like to eat alone all the time at home. I would rather eat alone at a restaurant...weird right?

Mini Me...mornings...ay ay ay...

I discovered that I can post blogs and pictures while using the internet at my far away school…YAY! So now I’m sure that it’s my connection at my apartment that’s holding me down…now the Man. The flip side to that is that I’m only at that school like every other week and I have to post pictures sporadically and in a hurry because the teacher I work with sits at the desk next to me and if I look idle (on the internet) she manages to find something to talk to me about! So, I’ll try to post pictures for previous post when I can…

The other day, while I was somewhere in between sleeping, waking, and alarm slapping, I had the strangest dream. In my dream, I was in my apartment here and my alarm went off. I got up and started looking around my apartment—for myself. I went to the shower room to turn on the hot water to heat up the room. Then, I went into every room calling my own name, as if I were hiding from myself…the shower room, kitchen, office, living room, then back to my bedroom. I found me on my second search of the office, and I was indeed me but an 8 year old me…flipped bangs and all for those of you who can remember back that far. Whew that’s a lot of the word “me”. Anyway, I walked mini-me to the shower and began getting mini-me’s things together for the day—they were my current clothes. Then I woke up for real, turned off my real alarm, and I decided to walk around each room in the same order as I did in the dream. I don’t know if dreams are psychic but I do believe that they tell you a lot about what you think and how you see the world. Is this a classic cliché case of “I need to find myself,” or “I need to grow up,” or do I just need to start going to bed earlier so that I can wake up the first time my alarm goes off?? Yesterday, the teacher that I work with at my far away school told me that I could go home early (2:30) all week because we only have class in the morning. At about 11:00, she says, “So, you’re going to your other school tomorrow.” I looked at her crazy and said, “Um, not that I know of.” Then, she says, “Don’t you have a demonstration class?” I said, “Uh, no. Do I?” I’m going to need these folks to do better. At about 2:15 the office phone rings and it’s for me. It was the teacher from my close school calling to discuss the plans for the demonstration class. I very quickly made it known that I was leaving in 10 minutes and I she could call me back at 4:15. There was no way that I was going to miss the bus that only comes every two hours to cater to the inconsideration of others…work or not. She finally called at 5:00. Some people! Needless to say, the class went well…I refuse to look crazy on account of other peoples’ need-to-get-it-togetherness! It was a lesson on airport dialogue (with the immigrations officers) for the 3rd graders, which is 9th grade according to our school system. She planned most of the lesson, so you would expect her to know what she was doing right. Can someone tell me why she was asking me questions about her own plan??? She needs to do some breathing exercises or something to learn how to calm down and think!

Almost in China!

Earlier this week, our new supervisor came over to us to announce that one of the other people in the office was worried that we had a lot of clutter in our apartments. At the welcome party, a new guy (who I think told him that) used to be the supervisor of the English teacher and he told me that he remembered how junky their apartments were thanks to previous teachers accumulating stuff and he arranged for them to get rid of all their junk. So, I took that as an opportunity to tell him that nothing has changed in that respect and out place is old, raggedy, and disgusting in general and that he could come to our apartment whenever he liked. As soon as our supervisor made that announcent, all of our brains got to work. Now, there's a lovely pile of junk outside. I don't think he anticipated the largesse of it all so I hope he doesn't faint when he sees is...especially because he mentioned that if it wasn't too much then he would personally dispose of it all using his own car. Ha! I'll be sure to take a picture of his face when he rounds the corner of our building to see the monster we've created!!!

Yesterday, I went to a community get-to-know-you kind of event. When I walked in I was spotted out by a woman in a lime green shirt who was kinda dark, her hair was slicked back into a ponytail, and she was wearing gold jewelry...none of which are "typical Japanese"...She walked up and started chatting in near perfect/near accentless English! Well, she's 24 and from Tokyo. She got married about a year ago and moved down here with her husband to some boonie-town near my city. She had come to the event to meet people because she still hasn't really found friends her age in the area. After signing in and receiving some yummy looking chocolate covered cheesecake thingies as a gift, we played a number of games. Near noon an annoucement was made and we moved over to the kitchen class area of the center to make lunch together. A sweet little old lady showed us all (like 50+ people) what to do and we were to recreate lunch. IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! We made a miso based stew with pork, 2 kinds of potato, carrots, gobo, green onion, daiko radish, mushrooms, and dumplings. The children rolled onigiri. For desert there were strawberries and bean flavored jello. Sounds gross right?! It wasn't! I met some Phillipino ladies and a lady from Serbia who has been living here for 17 years.

After the event, I met my homie back at our apartment and we headed into the city to see the travel agent about our trip to China at the end of the month. Outside of the building where the agency is located, there were two guys and a girl (all about my age) double dutching!!! So, I rushed over to get my little mid afternoon jump on. You know how you don't know that you miss something until you've had it again? Well, jumping rope goes into that category. The travel agent is a really sweet Japanese woman who is married to a guy in my program from England. After paying for the trip and submitting out passports for visas, we walked around in search of dinner. Let me give a disclaimer for the rest of this story: Everyone is allowed one idiot moment per month!!! In most department stores here, the top floor is usually all restaurants. We chose a place and went in. The host told us that there would be a 20 minute wait and since we weren't starving we sat and chatted. About 10 later he walks over and apologizes before telling us that it will be a 30 minute wait. We said okay and continued waiting. After about 15 he comes over to take down our order so that they can start preparing it. Guess what, WE WERE AT THE WRONG RESTAURANT!!! The displays outside were side-by-side and only one of the restaurants' entrances looked like an entrance, so we though it was all one place. So, when we told him what we wanted he very politely looked at us crazy and said, "Oh, maybe you mean to be next door." HAHAHAHAHAH! After waiting all that time, we weren't even at the right place and the restaurant we wanted was nearly empty!

Aso...

Yesterday one my friends came to pick me up for some plans that I had completely forgotten, which threw me off a little because I hadn't gone to the bank and I had only $40 on me. Well, I found out after leaving the house that we were taking a 2 hour drive down south to a city that's famous four it's volcano...dormant of course. Lucky me, my friends treated...perhaps it had something to do with the gifts I brought them back from home. It was four of us in the car so the folks in the front were having their conversation and we were in the back having a separate conversation for most of the ride. She asked me all kinds of question about my family and the things my parents told me as a child.

"You'll be an adult for much longer than you'll be a child, so have fun. You don't need to work."

In Aso, the restaurant we ate lunch at was an old house that was transplanted from another city. It's over 200 years old. The style of cooking is called Dengaku. There are coal pits in the floor and you cook your food in front of you on spits and a rack. We had fish, chicken, beef, vegetables, an tofu. The food was really good and sooooo fresh, as most food here is. After lunch we had coffee at the restaurant's coffee shop. Then we headed a little further down the mountain to the Shirokawa (White River) fountainhead. It was so beautiful! That had to be the clearest water I have ever seen! You could see it bubbling out of the ground. So I bought a bottle so that I could take some home. Let me tell you, bottled spring water from the store has nothing on this water. This is the first time that I've had water that had no taste. No taste at all! After bottling our liquid goodness, we went to a little shop and had tofu and dango...yum!

When we got back to town, all went to my Japanese mom's house for tea, dinner, dessert, coffee, and a Nora Jones DVD. For dinner we ate Oyakodon...named that because Oya means parents and Ko means child and you use chicken and egg in the dish. It was really good. I think she puts it best when she said we speak different languages but we understand each other's hearts (with the help of pictionary, gestures, and an electronic dictionary...hehehe). And despite the fact that I didn't spend a dime the whole day, she still was sure to give me a gift. Yay for gift-giving societies!!!

I'm a Force to Be Reackoned With!!!

Last night I had taiko practice. The man we refer to as "The Godfather" was there to teach us a new song, which was great because he only comes once a month and the last few times he's been there it seemed like he had forgotten the new song he started to teach before. So anyway, he came with the music written down and we each got a copy. When I first started playing back in October, we were given the music for the songs we were playing and I remember looking at the paper like..."This may as well be ancient Japanese, because it makes no sense!!!" Well, in the middle of the song last night it clicked...just like that...and I could play the entire song by looking at the paper. It never ceases to amaze the that my brain works that way.

After practice, one of the men was like, "Wow, you remembered it so quickly!" So I said, "No, I didn't remember it. I just read it off the paper." So everyone started to ask me if I've ever studied music...No, I don't think middle school chorus or a near futile attempt to teach myself the guitar count. So they were like, "So what did you do?" Um...I wanted to say nothing, but that would have led to a whole 'nuther conversation about how amazing it is. No, I'm not tooting my own horn. It's happened several times since I've been here. Whenever I do something new effortlessly, everyone loses it and goes on and on about how great it all is. Flattering...yes. Annoying over time...YES!...because it's really not that serious. Anyhow, when they asked what I did back in the States, I just said "dance." They were all like, "Oh, yes. Dance takes a lot of rhythm...." And I made an exit so as to not have to discuss it any further.

I reached another milestone at practice last night. My sticks were already begining to splinter so "The Godfather" told me to tape it up. "Granddaddy" brought over some tape and scissors and I took care of it. Two seconds into the song, "CRACK!" I split the stick!!! Yay, I'm a taiko beast!

Was Anyone Gonna Tell Me???

When I woke up yesterday, I thought to myself, "Hey, you need to make sure your application for the position you want was received." So, I sent our Prefectural Advisor an email to see they had gotten it. Thank God I did. She sent me a text today saying that they didn't have it. I also thank God that it isn't due until next Friday. She said that I could just bring it to Monday's meeting in the city. Phew! I'm also glad that I make and keep copies of EVERYTHING!!! The thing that is bugging me is that my former supervisor asked me for the application before I went to the states (early March) because he wanted to make sure that it was submitted. So much for that! I'm going to count it as an oversight on his part...perhaps he was busy wrapping up his own business in preparation to leave...whatever the reason, it's a lesson learned...moving on. Last night, 3 of us went to a get together held by one of our Japanese friend's friends. Our friend's friend teaches an English conversation class of mostly older students (seniors...no I'm not being funny). At the dinner we all discussed various topics around the table. My friend was telling the people at our end about me and mentioned that I am a good singer...she's never even heard me sing!!! Then she was like, "Gospel." I looked at her like, "WHAT!?" And thought to myself that I hope that has nothing to do with my being Black...sigh. She explained that the Japanese perception is that Blacks sing very well and have powerful voices. So, I said that Whites do too. Then she said, "But it's different. Why? Is there some historical reason or something?" I was so proud of my "off the cuff" response. As simply as I could, I explained that Black gospel incorporates African rhythms and traditions and White gospel is more eurocentric in orgin. Then she said, "I think White gospel tries to borrow from Black gospel, but it's different. Black gospel has more feeling." I suppose that was a nice way of saying it's not as good. HA!

Getting Back in the Swing of Things...sigh.

Well I'm back in Japanland and I can't necessarily say that I'm happy about it. We found out about a month ago that we would be getting a new supervisor but we wouldn't find out who it is until we got back to the office after spring break. Every three years, teachers and board of education employees get rotated to different schools and BOEs. There are 17 new employees in our office. Monday morning, they lined up and were introduced to the office. It was then that I realized that I had met our new supervisor before at a meeting of area English teacher (there were only about 7 of us there...2 Americans) that the principal of my near school took me to. He's a very nice man...in his early 40. He's been to America once and his English is not that great. He kinda strikes me as the pushover type...which I find annoying but I suppose I'll just have to get over that. I gave him a mug and candy that I brought back from Gerogia as a welcome gift...apparently I'm the only thoughtful one out of the bunch of ALTs.

Sometimes change is bad...

As we were packing up to leave around 4:27 (the guys were already gone), one of the office ladies came over and said, "Today, new people come. Party at 5...quarter after." Pooey! I was starving, tired, and ready to go home. So, we called the guys to tell them to be back by 5:15. The welcome party was just like the one they gave us when we first got here except the new people didn't have to give speeches...maybe we were special, or perhaps there were just too many of them. There was pizza, sushi, various other lil goodies, soda, tea, and of course beer and sake. An old and a new guy admitted that they can speak English only after they've had some booze...I thank them for their honesty. The second people started to clean up, I jumped in to help, and then got out of dodge.

So far, we've given a few of the new people nicknames...for example,
TJ...the guy who looks like our old supervisor so I named him Tokumaru Jr.
Sam...because he looks like Sam the eagle...the blue eagle puppet from The Muppet Show

Some of the employees who left were...
Kim Jong Il...they had the same haircut
Lil Daddy Warbucks...the smaller of the two bald guys in the office (Daddy Warbucks is still here)