As the saying goes…When it rains, it pours.

I’ve been trying my hand at Caribbean food lately. Friday evening I made stewed fish and fungi, and believe it or not the fungi had NO LUMPS!!! Saturday I had a taste for saltfish pate, but I have yet to find salted cod. So, I decided to experiment and I mixed canned salmon and tuna instead. It was surprisingly good. That night, I went to a salsa event in the city to see one of my friends perform. I decided that I wasn’t going to stay out all night so another friend and I cut out early to hop on the last medium speed train, which costs the same as the slow train. He just recently broke off a yearlong engagement with someone who he’s been with for four years. So, we talked about that for much of the trip home. I got home after midnight and jumped on the phone with my folks. Sunday, I had planned to wake up in time to take my recyclables across the street because they pack up at 10:30. I did two loads of laundry and as I was bout to heat up some lunch, my neighbor called to invite me to eat soba at our friend’s restaurant. In spite of the bountiful Caribbean smorgasbord that I was about to reheat, I couldn’t deny the fun of eating good food with good people. So, I threw on some clothes and scurried downstairs. At the restaurant, he asked if I was free to work on our orientation film and go to a potluck later. WHAT? MORE FUN AND FOOD? Is there any question? There was only an hour between when we got home and the time we agreed to meet to leave home. So I kneaded some dough real quick and made some more pate for the potluck…YUMMY! (Yes, I’m tooting my own horn). The lady who hosted the potluck teaches Japanese calligraphy and a lot of English teachers take lessons at her house. She really enjoys entertaining, she’s a great cook, and she always prepares dinner before each lesson. Every time I go over there, she always tells me to come back soon and more often. This time she asked me for my email address.

Monday morning, it was raining cats, dogs, whales, porcupines, and a host of other animals that would spoil your day if you saw them falling from the sky. So, I put on my rain gear…rain jacket over my book bag that contained my laptop, rain pants, and galoshes…and rode to the train station. The river across the street from our apartment had reached street level and the rice paddies were flooded, so the street was covered by about 5 inches of nasty water. EEEEK! I usually go to the board of education every Monday, but I had two demonstration classes today.

Yesterday, I went to school in the morning and judged a speech contest in another city in the afternoon. So the teachers requested the I come in on Monday to plan the demonstration classes. As usual, I sat around for the first half of the day waiting for someone to come “discuss” something with me. It kills me that the teachers freak out and do all kinds of extra things for demonstration classes. It would have been a classic moment in educational history if one of the students had raised their hand and said, “We don’t do all this for our regular classes.” Alas, that didn’t happen but I was praying it would. The classes today went well as usual.

Tuesday afternoon, I returned to the board of education to meet my supervisor so that we could ride over to the speech contest. I hate that we’re never given details about things they ask us to do. When I asked about it, he didn’t know. So, when I got there it was kinda explained to me. The group of women how hosted the contest is called Soroptimist International. From what I gathered, they are a group of Christian woman who are into community involvement and environmental issues. They all also appeared to be quite wealthy. The contest was between two high school girls and they each had written a short speech about their lives and environmentalism. After the contest, the ladies gave us gifts. First was the white envelope that my supervisor vehemently refused. I’m not sure what he said, but I did hear, “but Tiffany can...” So, they put his envelope down and gave me the other one. Then, they presented us with big boxes of desserts. The lady in charge, who had fly purple hair, asked me like 3 times to come back and visit and come to her house.

Let’s just say my supervisor is a little…ummmm…different. When I got to his van, he opened the back seat and didn’t move the stuff he had in the passenger’s seat in the front. So, I rode in the back of his stank van. I later asked a fellow co-worker about this and she said that when she rode with him it was the same. WEIRD! I haven’t ridden in the backseat of an empty car in over 10 years. Anyway, on the way back to the office, I noticed that my supervisor was starting to swerve a bit and I didn’t think anything of it the first time because sometimes swervage happens. However, he did it again and this time I saw him rub his face and straighten his back…THIS FOOL WAS FALLING ASLEEP! He was only driving about 15 mph and I was in the back wishing he would crash into a rice paddy so that I could hop out and walk back to my city. It also became apparent that he was lost, which also happened with the other co-worker when she rode with him. I’ll be coming back with the new teachers in August from Tokyo and I think I’m supposed to ride back with them to the city with our supervisor…NOT HAPPENING! If he says that I will, then I’m just going to have to be honest and tell him that I’m going to ride the train because I don’t feel comfortable with his driving.