Dreams come true and Nightmares realized

Oh my my my...I knew it had been awhile since I'd posted, but I didn't realize it had been 8 months! So I'm going to catch you up and I hope you'll bear with me there is some and much to tell.

The end of September brought calmer and cooler weather. Fall semester was much less stressful since I knew the students and understood what to expect as far as my schedule was concerned.  I didn't have any new classes and so when the students came back the only big concern I had was how much of their language skill had decreased over the break. Unfortunately, for many it was considerable, but luckily within a couple weeks of cracking the whip they were back to the level they were at when they left.  The entire semester seemed to blow right by. Before I knew it, it was October, November, December and then we were breaking for Christmas.

My students continued to improve and many of them decided to study abroad for the 2014 school year.  We celebrated Halloween with pumpkins and costumes. The GTFs all went to Thanksgiving dinner at our favorite (at the time) Nepalese restaurant and when Christmas approached we decorated the English Plaza with snowflakes, lights and a couple of fake trees. We even had secret santas amongst the GTFs (which I took great pleasure in sneaking into my co-workers cubicle daily to leave little treats) and the students were introduced to White Elephant gifts. I took off Christmas Eve day to go home to Oregon and spend the holiday with my family.

Travel during that time was limited to weekend trips into Tokyo to try a new restaurant (burritos and margaritas at Chile's in Harajuku and halloween shopping at Don Quixote in Roppongi Hills). I did take a very quick trip to Santa Rosa to see my grandmother when her health took a dip on a four day weekend, but the rest of my time was spent recovering from insane week days.

Being home for Christmas was wonderful. I hadn't seen the family since the previous May, when I was home for the study tour and 180 freshman students in tow. I couldn't believe how big my niece and nephew were, it was all I could do not to smother them. When I stayed with them I slept with Madison just to be closer. My nephew being the big boy he his saves his snuggles for grandma and mom, but I get his silliness and big hugs when he first sees me, so I'm ok with that. Before heading back to Japan, my mom and I flew down to see grandma again. It was a lot of  fun and felt very decadent to fly down and back just for a day, but certainly well worth the time and money.

I flew back to Japan after the first of the year (I got to celebrate New Year's Eve with my friend Alma at the Opera) and after 1 week of classes, I was off for a week! Oi! The school system here!! During my break I made a split second decision to go to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Back to school for a week to give finals, a weekend and then one more day and we were done. The first school year of my life in Japan was over. The year which seemed to crawl by with every single second filled with tasks upon tasks was finished. I was a first year teacher and living in a new country and I survived...I more than survived I think I did pretty damn well!

Many of you are thinking to yourself or saying out loud "What did you learn Lee Ann? Can you speak Japanese now? Are you going to stay longer? Are you happy to went? Would you do it again?" Ok, Ok enough with the questions! The answers are Yes, Yes and Yes. I learned more than I can say. Mostly I learned about myself. My limits, my abilities and my capacity for bullshit. Yes, Japanese students spew as many excuses as American students. In all seriousness though, my students taught me as much, or more than I taught them, I'm sure of it. I know so much more about the English Language and how royally screwed up it is!! Goodness gracious! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to teach something when it isn't something taught, it's just innate!? I've learned many of the rules of the language, but also many of the ways we speak that have nothing to do with rules and everything to do with culture. For example, listen to the way people talk some time...not just the content of what they are saying, but what they are saying. Americans speak in idioms, phrases, quotes and rhetorical questions. Very little of what we say, taken literally, would make much sense.  I've needed to learn to listen to myself on a new level. It's been very revealing of my own speech patterns as well as helped me take notice of how others speak.

Can I speak Japanese...I speak some Japanese. I learned some slang and simple words just from listening to my students' frustrations in class. For example, I learned "seriously?" "difficult" "I don't understand"  and essentially "shit" just from my students. These aren't words I use they, are just ones I understand. From the lovely women who help us with everything from arranging re-delivery of a package to going to the post office or bank I've learned single words that express complex phrases like "this is a waste of resources (paper, time etc)" "don't be wasteful (food, time)" "amazing" "busy" "it can't be helped" and "super please help me with this." These words I use all the time and intend to for the rest of my life.

Yes, I'm staying longer. I have signed my intent, but I haven't heard back to find out if they intend to keep me. I have a feeling they will ;)

In February when school was out I spent some time in the office working on projects that kept getting pushed to the side during the school year and started packing to move into a new apartment in March.

The third week of February I left for Saigon, Vietnam. I stayed there for a week. It was an amazing experience. I traveled outside of Saigon to the Mekong Delta and a couple smaller towns to see the famous Cu Chi tunnels as well as the temple that is unique to Vietnams' religion. Most of the country is Catholic, but some still hold with their old religion. Saigon was insane, crossing the street was like a double dog dare. The motorcycles and cars don't stop, although they do watch for people, but they just swerve, not stop. It was loud and smelly. The food I ate was amazing and the amount of trash I saw on the streets and in the river was astounding.  I pray the people in Saigon are happy despite the government being unwilling to assist the people.  I definitely want to go back there is so much more to see just in Saigon, but I need to see the rest of the country as well.

From Saigon I took a bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. That was an experience I don't need to have a again. 15 hours in a hot bus in bumper to bumper traffic going 35 miles an hour for hours and hours. The only positive part was we stopped in Phnom Penh to switch buses and I got to have some good coffee and meet a couple of interesting people who seemed to have been having a much harder go of it than I.

Siem Reap was everything and nothing like I imagined. It's a bit like seeing the White House in person. All the pictures take make it look like it's all by itself in the middle of nowhere, but it's really just plopped down in the middle of everything.

I arrived at night and by luck I was able to get a rickshaw from the drop off area to my hotel. He rearend a car on the way, but why not?! I was both surprised and not surprised. My hotel was lovely. Off the main road it was very quiet and a nice size. My room was spacious and overlooked the pool facing the west so I could see the sunset.

My first day in Siem Reap I was going to Angkor Wat. One of the places I'd wanted to see since I saw Tomb Raider in 2001. It was going to be hot. While the snow was piled high Japan I was much closer to the Equator and it was hot and humid in SouthEast Asia. My guide met me at the hotel and we left for the park. It was 9 am and I was so excited to get going. For the next 5 hours I walked in and around temples. I even hiked up a few of them. It was amazing. The only thing that ruined it for me was all the people! I wanted to be able to feel the age of the stones and sit in the quiet. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. My guide was knowledgeable and able to tell me some of the history of the temples as well as the stories of the carvings. Lunch was at a lovely restaurant just down the road from some of the temples. I was able to eat and then we took a nap in some hammocks. I was beginning to get a headache (I had a sneaking suspicion I was getting heat exhaustion) so I was eager to take a long break. By the time we decided to get going again, my head was subsiding but not gone.  After another 90 minutes of walking and hiking, I clearly was not going to feel any better. My guide wanted to make sure I saw everything that day, which I was glad of, but at a price. In the car on the way back to my hotel I ended up projectile vomiting everywhere!! I've never in my life had something like that happen! I did tell the driver to stop, but he didn't stop soon enough. After stopping and 3 more times  so I could throw up again, we made it back to the hotel where I ended up needing to eat stale bread, water and ginger ale for the next 6 hours to feel normal again.  I decided to play it safe and cancel my tour for the next day to recover. I know heat exhaustion is not something to mess with. The next day I slept,  hung out by the pool (in the shade) and read my book. I'm glad, for many reasons, that I stayed in that day. That night I got the news I'd been expecting and dreading. My beautiful grandmother had passed away. After spending many hours crying I book a flight back to Japan for the next day and then to Oregon the day after that. That was another adventure.

The only flight I could get back to Japan took me from Siem Reap to Kunming China to Shanghai to Tokyo. The next day I flew out from Cambodia, cutting my trip 5 days short. Going to Vietnam and Cambodia required VISAs and I knew that China required VISAs, but I also heard you didn't need one for less than 72 hours, so I was praying as I landed in China, all would be ok. It turns out, they were some of the nicest immigration officials I've ever dealt with. I was given a temporary VISA since I wouldn't be leaving the airport and I went on to find somewhere to spend the next 12 hours.  It seemed long layovers were common in this airport because there was a "hotel" which was incredibly expensive. I ended up in cafe where for a flat rate, I got a couch, blanket, tea and snacks as well as access to the WiFi. It was safe and secure and I was able to sleep for maybe 6 hours. The next day I flew to Shanghai and straight on to Tokyo. My only hold up there was having my bags searched because I had just come out of Shanghai.

Less than 15 hours later I was on a plane bound for Oregon and into my mom's arms at the airport. It was a difficult and also good two weeks. I'm so glad I was able to be with my family and be there to help my mom and be comforted by her as well.

Within 3 days of being back in Japan I started to move into my new apartment and the new team arrived. Since then it's been a busy whirlwind of activities and getting settle into new classes with 10 more teachers in the office.

This year I'm teaching several different kinds of classes and I still don't quiet feel settled into them. Most of my classes only occur once a week and with spotty attendance I struggle as to what the point of the classes when there really isn't much time to teach anything! Heading into the next week I have a better idea for the direction of a couple of the classes and I'm left struggling with 2 more.

With the summer quickly approaching and with it the humidity and heat I am dreading the days to come, but am thankful I can hide out in my air conditioned apartment. I'm taking piano lessons again and have found a new workout routine. Life has fallen into a bit of a more expected routine, but not boring or predictable by any means. I have some adventures to plan for August and look forward to making them happen.

It's 3:16 am , Japan time, I'm signing out and I promise I won't go so long without updating again.

Nats and Typhoons and Seoul...Oh my.

Let's say it's been a less than dull month since I last posted. Classes ended and "vacation" began. I say "vacation" because according to our contract we still had to be on campus several time during the summer to attend Open House to promote our department and program. While we did have chunks of time off, heading back to campus afterward sort of jerked you right back into teacher mode and as all teachers know it takes long enough to decompress after a semester or year without having to go back to work for 4 hours every two weeks.

During my time off I did find ways to occupy my time. I headed to Kessanuma in the Miyagi Prefecture to go help do some work in one of the more devastated areas of Tohoku region from 3/11. I have done a lot of volunteer work in my life but this was the first time I've ever worked in natural disaster area. It was a very profound experience for me.

After Kessanuma a quick trip home to Saitama and then back to north to Sendai. That was an amazing trip. I finally go to visit the city I had heard so much about when I was a teenager and going to Suttle Lake Camp. The sensei's all met up with me for dinner and then they escorted me around several of the best sight seeing areas including Matsushima. I also got to go to the new high school, which at this point isn't brand new, but it was amazing to see regardless.

I spent a couple weeks working on research and helping a couple students prepare for the TOEIC exam.

During this whole time, I have been battling plant nats. Annoying little bastards. I've been trying a number of things to get rid of them. Currently I have put them in the shower with the fan on and sprayed them all with vinegar, dish soap and water. If that doesn't work, I may have to say adios to this batch. It's so humid here, it's incredibly difficult to keep the soil dry!

I'll return to the Typhoon...

Seoul. Oh Seoul. Have you ever been somewhere and I thought "Yeah, I could have skipped that." Unfortunately that's how I feel about Seoul. While I did like the museums and sites that I took in and I really enjoyed the food I ate I had such a difficult time navigating the people) and the hostel I was staying in was awful) that I wanted to leave 3 days after I got there. I will always view my trip as a good cultural experience where I got to eat some good food, learn some new history, get an AMAZING foot massage and revealed that I do not ever want to stay in a hostel ever again. I still want to go to the southern part of the country. I've heard Busan is beautiful and that is where my friends are so I'll go there, but I doubt I'll return to Seoul...unless it's a day trip because I would like to go to Braai Republic again.

...and wrapping up the summer is typhoon Man-Yi  decided to make landfall 4 days before classes begin. I'm safe here in Saitama, nestled behind 4 other prefectures taking the brunt of the typhoon in this region of Japan. The rest of Honshu (the main island of Japan) isn't so lucky with severe flooding and evacuations.

As the summer winds down here (hopefully it's over soon) I begin to wonder if my time here will be more difficult because Autumn and Winter are my favorite seasons in Oregon. Since we are in a similar climate I have high hopes that I'll like it here just as much. Whatever it may be, I'll keep you posted!

Looking back....4 months.

Some days I feel like I'm not quite settled, but most days; my routine of school, grocery shopping, eating out and taking the train, feels very natural. I've never NOT felt like I was in exactly the right place since I first visited a year ago June.

While some things have become easier, ordering out at restaurants and fumbling through a request at the post office, others are still difficult. Having the apartment service men come to my apartment or package mix ups with delivery or missing my friends and family, for example.

During this first 4 months the only thing that has held my absolute unending attention has been my students. I figured, if I can get a handle on this, then this summer I can worry about the rest. While I don't think I can say I have a firm grip on the classroom situation (and in all honestly I probably should never have a firm grip because that would mean I've become rigid and that can't work if I want to be sure to grow and give each student what they need) I have enough of a hand hold that things improved with my own lesson plans and I did see growth in all of my students.  Some of that growth was intellectual, some growth was listening and speaking and some students had to learn the hard way that college is serious stuff and if you want to pass the class you'll have to come and put in the time and do the work.   I'm extremely excited for the fall semester and while I'll miss each and every one of my students while we are on break, and I'll miss going to the classroom everyday, it's time to switch my attention to myself.

All of that "rest" I talked about includes: learning more Japanese, figuring out how to work in a workout routine in this loathsome heat, learning to prepare more dishes sans oven, perhaps finding a gym where they will let a tattooed American swim in their pool, make new friends and reconnect with some old friends and of course travel.

After tomorrow It will be time to turn that microscope I've had trained on my students to myself and where to begin, oh where to begin....

Today it begins with a 3 mile walk and 30 squats followed by a trip into Ikebukuro to go to place called Sakura Cafe which apparently is a great place to meet fellow expats.

Wednesday it's with DisneySea! After tackling DisneyLand a month ago (see picture below) it's time to explore the "better" side, as my students insist.

Next Monday I head up to Kesennuma for 4 days, to volunteer with a group from the school to do some teaching in the elementary schools and beach clean up from the 2011 Tsunami.

Sometime in August, probably near the end I'll head back up to Sendai to see some of my old Suttle Lake teacher friends.

September I have a trip to S. Korea planned, no details yet, with some friends from school and hopefully I'll be going  back in October to see Juli.

That may seem like a lot to some of you and it might be, but I also need to fit in studying Japanese (I'm tired of not being able to read anything) and doing more research for my school mandated research project.

I'll keep you updated, I know I haven't been good about it lately, but I'll do better this summer :)

Ciao!

Gone in 60 seconds.

Amazing experience at Abby Road last night!! Pictures can say it all...

Garlic Toast to die for!! Eggplant Spaghetti and House White Wine

Baked Alaska!!! 

Gone in 60 seconds.

The highlights

Sent flowers to my mom and sister over the internet for the first time since I couldn't be with them on Mother's Day.

Crazy loud thunderstorm. Jumped about a mile, nearly had a heart attack and then was able to enjoy the absolute awesomeness of it.

Moved into my new office. Loving my own space, it's almost as big as my apartment....ok I kid, but it is bigger than my kitchen.

Put a run in my only pair of tights and now  have to rely on the sister to send me new ones because the Japanese aren't built like this German/Norwegian Anglo-Saxon.

English Plaza finally opened. Lots of space to hang out and students are beginning to make it a regular hang out spot. Go team!

Went to a baseball game at Tokyo Dome. Giants vs. Lions. Damn Giants beat us by 1 point in the bottom of the 10th!

Midterm conferences with students went well. Some of them are actually getting their buts in gear to pass their classes.

Took 172 students to Oregon for 4 days, yes 4 days, for a "study tour." Basically, it was them running around Salem with a few short hours of guided activity, meal times and then keeping all of the adults up all night acting like teenagers.  Cat herder was my title for those 5 days.

Back in Japan until Christmas. Miss my friends and family but I look forward to all my adventures between now and then!

Fresh off the boat.

Word to the wise...when you, as a 34 year old adult, begin to cry after stubbing your toe, you are tired and should go home. This is exactly what I did yesterday. Jet lag is not my friend.

The Solo Adventurer Part 1

When embarking on a solo adventure there are of course ups and downs to this type of endeavor. The ups may seem less obvious than the downs, but I would submit they definitely outweigh the downs. It's all a matter of perspective!

One of the best things about traveling alone is your timeline. You only have to follow the schedule of one person! I set out to go to Kamakura and Enoshima which are both about an hour and half from where I am in Kawagoe or an hour south of Tokyo. My goal was to leave at 9ish to arrive there by 11. I had 6 places to visit in Kamakura and then at 4 places to visit in Enoshima. I won't go into the list because, suffice it to say, only 1 thing on my entire list happened that day, BUT because I was no one elses' timeline there was no stress.

How did none of it happen you ask....well everything began all well. I took the train from Kasumigaseki to Ikebukuro (in Tokyo) and then found the train to go to Kamakura.  Well.... I got on the wrong train. It was going north instead of south and I didn't realize until I'd been on the train for an hour. Again, luckily I was by myself so the only person to be mad or irritated or laugh was me, and since I didn't care, I chuckled to myself got off at the next stop and transferred trains.

I made it to Kamakura at about 330 pm, quite a while after I wanted to be there. Since there was only one MUST SEE place I wanted to go to in Kamakura that day I headed straight for the bus stop to head up to Daibutsu or "giant Buddha". One of the largest in Japan, I originally thought one of the largest in the world...Ha!  Google "world's largest Buddhas" you'll be shocked! Anyway, this is the one thing I really wanted to see so I went to the bus stop...where I proceeded to wait for 45 minutes, all the while listening to this couple prattle on the entire time! Good thing it was just me...no one to judge me for the continuous eye rolling I was doing to the sky. The bus finally arrived and about 65 people crammed onto a bus built for 30 and then we went to stop and go for less than 2 kilometers for an hour! You might be asking why I didn't just walk, and I would have, but I didn't know where it was and my phone was dying so I wasn't able to just google map it. Again, luckily I was by myself I could just doze in and out and ignore the woman next to me who was sitting with her back to me, with her backpack on and, said back pack, practically sitting in my lap or shoving up against my left arm repeatedly.

Finally I arrive and every single moment of the trip was worth it. What a site.

After spending about 10 or 15 minutes walking around (and charging my phone for 5 minutes in the bathroom) and taking pictures I headed down the hill. Now that I knew exactly how far away it was from the station I felt perfectly comfortable walking back to the station and stopping anywhere that struck my fancy on the way. 

First stop was to get some food, I was starving, so I did the only logical thing you do in a tourist town. I bought what I saw everyone carrying around with them. A big ass rice cracker. It was 250 Yen, but well worth it. Yummy!

As I was walking down the street, peeking into various storefronts I saw a sign for a shrine. It was about 5 and everything would start shutting down around 6, but it was enough time to look around. The shrine I found was called Hasedera Temple, it was beautiful! What a find. As I was planning this trip I kept getting confused looking at the map because of all the swastikas all over the place, before I remembered that before Hitler took the symbol and nearly irreparably harmed it's meaning. The swastikas I kept seeing meant there was a Buddhist temple or shrine there! It didn't click until I was at Hasedera Temple and saw this:

After I left Hasedera all of the temples and shrines were closing. I walked into a couple of shops (again benefit of being by myself) and then found myself at the beach! I didn't realize I was that close! What a find :)

                                        

I got to stop and chat with a young couple, maybe the same age as my students. They needed someone to take a picture of them. That was probably one of the greatest highlights of the day. I miss talking to random strangers (yes I do that) and making small talk. This gave me the opportunity to actually speak with someone! 

By this time the sun was setting and I was starving and exhausted. I was going to have to forgo my trip to Enoshima and do it another day. There was a Turkish restaurant I saw when I got off the bus, so I went there. I've always wanted to try Turkish coffee and I was determined to also try lamb again, even though I've hated it every time I've eaten before. End results Lamb - 0, Turkish coffee - .5 But the owners were really nice the hummus was AMAZING and the beer was good. So with a full stomach I made the 2+ hour trek home. Mostly without incident and before midnight. 

So those positives and negatives...well as long as I'm not with someone who gets irritated about getting lost, I guess the trip would have been better with someone; however, that will not discourage me from taking another solo trip. Stay tuned for Solo Adventurer Part 2.