who:s a kin? and what do you want pics of?
it smells like an old man in the washington hotel today. that musty smell of things left untouched in a house after his wife has passed away and he can:t bear himself to change anything. the mixture of soap and aftershave on the brink of its expiration. gross. maybe there:s a wedding going on.
my bike is still missing. damn! however today i:m buying a skateboard in order to fulfill my decade long dream of learning how to ride. speaking of riding, louise, miyumi, sarah, mark (19yr old dude from miami who:s doing a language exchange thing in a high school here), me, and louise:s brother Andy (who comes from Australia today!!) are hitting the high road out of iwaki for a day of snowboarding next monday. sweet AZZ! i:ve been appointed teacher, and given my 3 yr hiatus from the sport, it:s a position that should end in much hilarity, and hopefully no broken bones. the last time i tried to teach someone to snowboard they cracked their ribs.. hmm.. maybe i:ll keep that fact on the down low until AFTER the day is through!
had a dinner party the other night and tried out a new salad recipe. it was DELISH! it:s deep fried tofu (and trust me, even tofu haters will love it. sarah was pissed i made her eat tofu and she didn:t even know it! hahaaa) with sauteed eggplant, garlic, ginger, shallots, a bell pepper, snow peas, cabbage, and spinach, in coconut milk. i also made some prawn and mushroom tempura, soba noodles in a new fish stock (water, kelp, bonito flakes, mirin, and soy sauce), and my now famous coconut ice cream for dessert. i also invented a strawberry one and it was a hit! it:s a lot sweeter than the coconut and lime one. i can:t wait to cook a big azz japanese feast the next time i:m back... which i don:t exactly know when that will be...
the weather seems to be warming up a bit, despite the fact my students say feb is the coldest month. i no longer wake up freezing azz cold, and i just sleep in a tshirt and one sweater now. i hink the weather is really helping with my mood. some days... i dont know.. i feel i could swing either way.
i have some cute kid stories. so the first one is about Kanako and goes like this ;
me, holding two markers; *which colour do you like, red or blue?*
kanako: *I like Danielle.*
me; *awww!! ok well if i was a marker, what colour would i be?*
kanako; *BLACK!*
lol! guess i:m just ina different category altogether than the choices yr given!
second one is about my newish student, Rumi, who:s 8 yrs old. i never know if my kids like me er not and when she slumped over in class, head propped up on her arm, and let out a huge sigh i was sure she hated me. then i informed her than in my culture that:s extremely RUDE to do and it makes me sad. i mean, honestly! so anywys, then at the end of class she left and i retreated to drown my misery of a child hating my class in the cookie stash in the staffroom when Mgr walks in and she:s like *danielle, Rumi is back, and she wants to show you her new bag* i:m like uhh, ok.. so i go out and dig on this kids darling lil bag with all these lil pretty girl faces on it and we chatted out which one we like best. then she left and Mgr starts telling me that she talked to Rumi:s mom and Rumi absolutely loves me! she said Rumi:s favourite day of the week is Friday because she gets to see me. now, how sweet is that?? i should have a bit more confidence in the fun-ness of my classes! seriously, if the kid isn:t busting up er smiling all the time i start to think they aren:t having fun. yeesh. guess you jsut never know...
and oh one more addition! i have a new student that i taught in a group lesson last night and man... she looks JUST like Andrea, my sister, did when she was three. spooky. it:s kidna cute though, having a lil Andrea in my classroom. she has a lil mushie haircut and these huge chocolate brown eyes, and when she gets excited she jumps up and down!
i feel like lately i:ve been going through a radical shift in my energy. maybe the past three weeks er so i:ve just discovered so much about myself and i:ve dropped about 45 lbs of baggage that i:ve been lugging around for no good reason. and i:ts liberating, really. michelle is really turning out to teach me a ton about myself without even knowing it. i guess too i:ve been a lil hermitic lately and that has to do witht eh fact i jsut dont: feel like drinking, and that i was reading the best book ever that i highly recommend *MY LIFE AS A FAKE* by peter Carey. i finished it in three days, i could just not put it down! i:ve also been scrawling up a storm in my journal. guess i:m just in a period of relaxation and chilling. i picked up Sagan:s book again, The Dragons of Eden, and i:m trying to make my way through the history of human intelligence. if nothing else, it:ll give me some really challenging new vocabulary words to use.
ya know i don:t think my experience in japan would be as great as it is if it were not for my friends. we all decided to do a secret St Valentine:s present exchange this year! here, on Vday it:s the girls that buy the boys chocolates and sweets, and then on White Day, March 11th, it:s the boys turn. so the stores are just dripping in pink and red and thousands of enticing cookies and cakes and sweets and chocolates that threaten to spin my pancreas into a Type 2 diabetic fury.
last saturady night everone went out and it was just the craziest night ever, according to the reports. i stayed home because i was tired as hell and i... well... ok so i was wearing these blue polyester/spandex mix pants to work and by the end of 9 hours i couldn:t think about anything else but getting that thin layer of horrendousness off my body and into my comfy pj pants. so i went home, with a half intent of getting ready to go out, but then i got home and got real lazy about going back downtown... but it was nice cuz michelle came over and we chatted for a few hours and then she left and i studied japanese for a few hours. the next day Louise pulled a sickie and so we hung out, trying to recreate the night last night so she could find all of the thigns she lost. we met up with mark, who had her bag, dropped by work to pick up her bike, and then headed to the bar, karaoke club, and other bar that she went to on a mission to retrieve her wallet. to no avail! we went to DMS, this literal hold in the wall pub, to see if she left it there... we walk in and it was just the strangesty thing that i:ve ever done. there was no one there. like, no one. who leaves their bar, with tons of liquor, unlocked and wide open for anyone in the world to walk into a pillage? so we roamed around the place for a bit trying to find the wallet, anf then we went upstairs to see if anyone was up in the tattoo parlour... empty. so we looked around at all the tatoos until we realized how freaky our situation was, and then high tailed it out of there. well i would be the worst thief in the world, because it wasn:t until we were back down the street that i realized i forgot my gloves in there... ya know, if it was any other country we would have ripped so much from there... they are so trusting and honest here it:s wild. (so honest in fact that someone found L:s wallet on the street and turnned it into her work without taking anythin in it! she found this out the next day) so after that we decided to have a nice meal at Denny:s.. but then we were sidetracked by peach fizzes at Lawson:s convenie.. we found a park nearby and just sat and got pissed and chatted and watched the moon for a while. there was this giant moon ring out on sunday night. it was such a pretty thing, just a huge glowing circle surrounding the moon, prolly about, oh i don:t know, if u looke4d up into the sky the ring was prolly about 4 inches in diameter. up in space, that:s fairly large! it was wonderful to talk and talk and talk with Louise, about our families, our firends, our exboyfriends (both of us seem to be haunted by a flurry of dreams about our ex:s lately.) eventually we made our way to Denny:s and spent another three er so hours yakking away.. Louise is such a cool girl. she has the most crazy and hilarious stories.
well gotta go buy a board and high tail it back to work. ok ok..6 more classes! 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7-8 with10 minute breaks in btn to gather my sanity which will no doubt be lying in shreds on my classroom floor. BIG LOVE!
it smells like an old man in the washington hotel today. that musty smell of things left untouched in a house after his wife has passed away and he can:t bear himself to change anything. the mixture of soap and aftershave on the brink of its expiration. gross. maybe there:s a wedding going on.
my bike is still missing. damn! however today i:m buying a skateboard in order to fulfill my decade long dream of learning how to ride. speaking of riding, louise, miyumi, sarah, mark (19yr old dude from miami who:s doing a language exchange thing in a high school here), me, and louise:s brother Andy (who comes from Australia today!!) are hitting the high road out of iwaki for a day of snowboarding next monday. sweet AZZ! i:ve been appointed teacher, and given my 3 yr hiatus from the sport, it:s a position that should end in much hilarity, and hopefully no broken bones. the last time i tried to teach someone to snowboard they cracked their ribs.. hmm.. maybe i:ll keep that fact on the down low until AFTER the day is through!
had a dinner party the other night and tried out a new salad recipe. it was DELISH! it:s deep fried tofu (and trust me, even tofu haters will love it. sarah was pissed i made her eat tofu and she didn:t even know it! hahaaa) with sauteed eggplant, garlic, ginger, shallots, a bell pepper, snow peas, cabbage, and spinach, in coconut milk. i also made some prawn and mushroom tempura, soba noodles in a new fish stock (water, kelp, bonito flakes, mirin, and soy sauce), and my now famous coconut ice cream for dessert. i also invented a strawberry one and it was a hit! it:s a lot sweeter than the coconut and lime one. i can:t wait to cook a big azz japanese feast the next time i:m back... which i don:t exactly know when that will be...
the weather seems to be warming up a bit, despite the fact my students say feb is the coldest month. i no longer wake up freezing azz cold, and i just sleep in a tshirt and one sweater now. i hink the weather is really helping with my mood. some days... i dont know.. i feel i could swing either way.
i have some cute kid stories. so the first one is about Kanako and goes like this ;
me, holding two markers; *which colour do you like, red or blue?*
kanako: *I like Danielle.*
me; *awww!! ok well if i was a marker, what colour would i be?*
kanako; *BLACK!*
lol! guess i:m just ina different category altogether than the choices yr given!
second one is about my newish student, Rumi, who:s 8 yrs old. i never know if my kids like me er not and when she slumped over in class, head propped up on her arm, and let out a huge sigh i was sure she hated me. then i informed her than in my culture that:s extremely RUDE to do and it makes me sad. i mean, honestly! so anywys, then at the end of class she left and i retreated to drown my misery of a child hating my class in the cookie stash in the staffroom when Mgr walks in and she:s like *danielle, Rumi is back, and she wants to show you her new bag* i:m like uhh, ok.. so i go out and dig on this kids darling lil bag with all these lil pretty girl faces on it and we chatted out which one we like best. then she left and Mgr starts telling me that she talked to Rumi:s mom and Rumi absolutely loves me! she said Rumi:s favourite day of the week is Friday because she gets to see me. now, how sweet is that?? i should have a bit more confidence in the fun-ness of my classes! seriously, if the kid isn:t busting up er smiling all the time i start to think they aren:t having fun. yeesh. guess you jsut never know...
and oh one more addition! i have a new student that i taught in a group lesson last night and man... she looks JUST like Andrea, my sister, did when she was three. spooky. it:s kidna cute though, having a lil Andrea in my classroom. she has a lil mushie haircut and these huge chocolate brown eyes, and when she gets excited she jumps up and down!
i feel like lately i:ve been going through a radical shift in my energy. maybe the past three weeks er so i:ve just discovered so much about myself and i:ve dropped about 45 lbs of baggage that i:ve been lugging around for no good reason. and i:ts liberating, really. michelle is really turning out to teach me a ton about myself without even knowing it. i guess too i:ve been a lil hermitic lately and that has to do witht eh fact i jsut dont: feel like drinking, and that i was reading the best book ever that i highly recommend *MY LIFE AS A FAKE* by peter Carey. i finished it in three days, i could just not put it down! i:ve also been scrawling up a storm in my journal. guess i:m just in a period of relaxation and chilling. i picked up Sagan:s book again, The Dragons of Eden, and i:m trying to make my way through the history of human intelligence. if nothing else, it:ll give me some really challenging new vocabulary words to use.
ya know i don:t think my experience in japan would be as great as it is if it were not for my friends. we all decided to do a secret St Valentine:s present exchange this year! here, on Vday it:s the girls that buy the boys chocolates and sweets, and then on White Day, March 11th, it:s the boys turn. so the stores are just dripping in pink and red and thousands of enticing cookies and cakes and sweets and chocolates that threaten to spin my pancreas into a Type 2 diabetic fury.
last saturady night everone went out and it was just the craziest night ever, according to the reports. i stayed home because i was tired as hell and i... well... ok so i was wearing these blue polyester/spandex mix pants to work and by the end of 9 hours i couldn:t think about anything else but getting that thin layer of horrendousness off my body and into my comfy pj pants. so i went home, with a half intent of getting ready to go out, but then i got home and got real lazy about going back downtown... but it was nice cuz michelle came over and we chatted for a few hours and then she left and i studied japanese for a few hours. the next day Louise pulled a sickie and so we hung out, trying to recreate the night last night so she could find all of the thigns she lost. we met up with mark, who had her bag, dropped by work to pick up her bike, and then headed to the bar, karaoke club, and other bar that she went to on a mission to retrieve her wallet. to no avail! we went to DMS, this literal hold in the wall pub, to see if she left it there... we walk in and it was just the strangesty thing that i:ve ever done. there was no one there. like, no one. who leaves their bar, with tons of liquor, unlocked and wide open for anyone in the world to walk into a pillage? so we roamed around the place for a bit trying to find the wallet, anf then we went upstairs to see if anyone was up in the tattoo parlour... empty. so we looked around at all the tatoos until we realized how freaky our situation was, and then high tailed it out of there. well i would be the worst thief in the world, because it wasn:t until we were back down the street that i realized i forgot my gloves in there... ya know, if it was any other country we would have ripped so much from there... they are so trusting and honest here it:s wild. (so honest in fact that someone found L:s wallet on the street and turnned it into her work without taking anythin in it! she found this out the next day) so after that we decided to have a nice meal at Denny:s.. but then we were sidetracked by peach fizzes at Lawson:s convenie.. we found a park nearby and just sat and got pissed and chatted and watched the moon for a while. there was this giant moon ring out on sunday night. it was such a pretty thing, just a huge glowing circle surrounding the moon, prolly about, oh i don:t know, if u looke4d up into the sky the ring was prolly about 4 inches in diameter. up in space, that:s fairly large! it was wonderful to talk and talk and talk with Louise, about our families, our firends, our exboyfriends (both of us seem to be haunted by a flurry of dreams about our ex:s lately.) eventually we made our way to Denny:s and spent another three er so hours yakking away.. Louise is such a cool girl. she has the most crazy and hilarious stories.
well gotta go buy a board and high tail it back to work. ok ok..6 more classes! 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7-8 with10 minute breaks in btn to gather my sanity which will no doubt be lying in shreds on my classroom floor. BIG LOVE!
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