SHAAAAME.

First of all, I am SO SORRY neither of us has posted! It hasn't been crazy, we've both just been lazy. Lazy, crazy. Crazy, lazy. Let's call the whole thing off.

*dance*

Anyway! We've both been going through some..uh.. difficulties. I had a really nasty awful cold around Christmas that left me really shaky and with a hanagoe (froggy voice - the Japanese call it 'nose voice') for about two weeks. I'm pretty sure it was some mild bronchitis ...thing, but knowing my stubbornness about the doctor (which is completely without reason here, seriously) I just chilled out until it went away. Then as soon as that was over I had another slight problem that increased in pain and intensity until this past Friday. I won't go into details (because they're TMI) but like, I wasn't getting any sleep, I was shaky and nauseated with pain (and painkillers, woowoo!) but again, stubbornly, I didn't go to the doctor.

"This is WAY too embarrassing to go to the doctor for." I stubbornly insisted, instead relenting to taking 2+ hot showers a day and more baths than I'd taken cumulatively over the rest of the time we've been here.

Which is a real shame, because Japanese baths are awesome.

Now, however, my Alex has come down with some kind of bug!! I have to say, (insensitively), that I'm glad that I finally have the opportunity to do something for him, since he has been very sweetly taking care of me and tolerating my whining for....um...the past month or so. So I'm really concerned about him (he's all achey and stuffy, poor kitty) but also really overexcited about what I can do. I'm going to try cooking stuff I'm not used to cooking, we'll see how that goes.

That made me think of taking pictures of the process which reminded me -- I have pictures of my classroom displays, but I left them at home - I'll put them up at the next post.

As far as non-awful things that have been happening, there are plenty of those too! We went to an Ebisu festival a while ago -- Ebisu is one of the seven luck gods of Japan, and he's all about protecting children and making money. Not sure if it's in that order. But he's a generally happy guy, and his main festival is in March, which is when all the gods go to some god convention somewhere else in Japan. So there are no gods and there's no use praying to any of them during that time....except for good old Ebisu, who happens to be deaf and just completely misses the summons. I like Ebisu.

Anyway, the festival was nice; we ate at a really fun restaurant afterwards that was basically a 'things you dip into things' restaurant (and it's close to our apartment! We're so taking people there!) and then the next day we went to Fukuchiyama for a movie.

The movie we went to was called "Nodame no Cantabile" (Nodame's Cantabile...that was easy) and was about students at some kind of music/performance college in Paris. It was a comic, it was an anime, it was a live-action TV drama, and now it's a live-action movie. I fangirled over the classical music the whole time. It was really....anime-esque though, and goofy...but it was really cute.

Lenny, you would love it, go see it, hee.

What else...um...I got nothin'. Alex made salsa for me. <3 I found out some of my vacation times, so that's good. But if someone wants to visit or someone wants me to come visit, you gotta let me know ASAP -- gotta fit in a visit home for the parents, and a couple visits here that I'm having arranged....mwahahaha.

Sorry for the stream of consciousness. How are you guys doing?

Back to School!

Well, I'm back. Which is good, 'cause I was going crazy.

The hilariously ironic thing is, I was feeling all bad about staying home...last night, Sekiguchi-sensei (one of the English teachers, and our neighbor. She's awesome and really sweet.) came by and said to me, in no certain terms, "I think you always working too hard! You need to rest! You need to take breaks!"

When I came in this morning, also, the vice principal stopped by my desk and said in Japanese what equated to "You always come in early, teach extra classes, and stay late. Don't overdo it...you need to take it easy!" so that kind of made me happy.

But yeah, the hilariously ironic thing, is, for real this time, when I came in today there was a survey on my desk that was sent from the Board of Education. Someone was doing a survey on culture shock among ALTs in Japan, and stress.

-Have you been getting headaches?
-Having trouble staying alert and awake?
-Paralyzed by nervousness?
-Having hot and cold spells?
-Scared and panicky for no good reason?
-Worrying unduly?
-Have trouble getting to sleep at a decent hour?
-Feel run down for seemingly no reason?

And I was like, "haha....oh."

So I'm now confident in saying that I'm not really SICK sick, I just must have had a stressplosion. And everyone seems to understand about it. In fact, people seemed amazed that I came back today.

I really need to like destress somehow. My friends have been saying so for years. It's just how to do it....


And now, for your amusement, the 3rd grade recitation for the culture festival. I've been helping the kids practice this for a couple months now, and they're going to recite the whole thing, in English, in front of the school on Saturday. As an American, it makes me kind of giggle nervously.

A Mother's Lullaby
A big old tree stands by a road near the city of Hiroshima. Through the years, it has seen many things. One summer night, the tree heard a lullaby. A mother was singing to her little girl under the tree. They looked happy, and the song sounded sweet. But the tree remembered something sad. "Yes, it was some sixty years ago. I heard a lullaby that night, too."

Me: Uh oh. This isn't gonna end well.

On the morning of that day, a big bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. Many people lost their lives, and many others were injured. They had burns all over their bodies. I was very sad when I saw those people.
It was a very hot day. Some of the people fell down near me. I said to them, "Come and rest in my shade. You'll be all right soon."

Me: [glancing off to the side, scratching cheek nervously]

Night came. Some people were already dead. I heard a weak voice. It was a lullabye. A young girl was singing to a little boy.
"Mommy! Mommy!"the boy cried.
"Don't cry," the girl said. "Mommy is here." Then she began to sing again.
She was very weak, but she tried to be a mother to the poor little boy. She held him in her arms like a real mother.

Me: Oh man, and people say I'm drama...[shifts uncomfortably]

"Mommy," the boy was still crying.
"Be a good boy," said the girl. "You'll be all right." She held the boy more tightly and began to sing again.
After a while, the boy stopped crying and quietly died. But the little mother did not stop singing. It was a sad lullabye. The girl's voice became weaker and weaker.
Morning came, and the sun rose, but the girl never moved again.

Me: BAD END! BAD END! HIT RESET!

Not to make light of anything that happened as a result of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but....aaaaaaawwwwkkkkwaaaaard.....