Okay. I swear I will finally get caught up.
Thursday-After my horrible day on Wednesday, things calmed down and went back to normal on Thursday. I was back at the junior high school. I'm finally beginning to figure out my role at the JHS, which is nice. I really like one of my English teachers. She's very pleasant to talk to and VERY helpful. The other day, she was looking at my English board and asking me questions about my life back home, American holidays, etc. Today (Monday) was a minor celebration for the harvest moon. The office lady was trying to tell me about it, but I had no idea what she was talking about, so she went and got my English teacher. She explained the ENTIRE history and cultural festivities about it. She's awesome! Anyway, that night I had my stupid night class. Blarg. This is the class that I HATE! Ian went with me, and I cannot tell you HOW much BETTER it was! I think it was partially that Ian was there to help, partially that I figured out how to deal with kids, and partially that I wasn't taking any shit from anyone. When one kid starting running around acting up, I'd point at him and say something like, "STOP!" It turns out that authority does indeed translate in any language. :) That class was about 800% better, and on our walk home, we stopped for a Coke to celebrate.
Friday- I really can't think of anything big and/or interesting that happened on Friday other than Friday night. I had to stay a little later at work b/c some kids had to come and practice vocab words with me. Japan has a very indirect society, so the Japanese don't always say what they need to say. For example, I was supposed to get off of work at 4:20, but my English teacher asked me if a couple of students had come to practice vocab words with me. I told her no. I didn't even know that they were supposed to come! She asked me what time I left, and I told her. It was already 4:00, and this was basically our conversation:
Her: "It will be difficult for them to practice with you before you leave. They are in homeroom now......."
Me: (knowing that this is the indirect Japanese way of asking me to stay) "Would you like me to stay late?"
Her: "I think that would be nice."
Once I got home, Ian and I were like fat American blobs that night. He made some AWESOME curry for supper. I never thought I liked curry until I got here, but it's freaking delicious and soooooooo easy to make over here b/c they sell all ready-to-make easy packets at the grocery. After that, I don't know what made me search it, but I found episodes of Teen Mom on MTV.com. Before you judge me, know that I already judge myself. :( I HATE myself for watching that show, but dang it! It's like a train wreck that you just can't look away from. I'm pretty sure we killed brain cells watching those 7 episodes. Ian admitted to liking it. Well, not liking it, but agreeing that it's a train wreck that you just have to keep watching! Plus, we were just tickled to be watching American TV. A show like that would NEVER work in Japan. They don't really have any issue w/teen pregnancy over here.
Saturday-Ah, I love Saturdays. We woke up late. I made hashbrowns and eggs, and I got to skype both of my sisters. Ian and I had planned on hiking Mt. Ichifusa on Saturday, which is the closest big mountain. We left around 12:30 and arrived around 1:00. Our poor little car was definitely making some unfriendly noises going up the mountainside. The hamsters running the engine really sounded like they were ready to give out. Not only that, but the road was this tiny little one lane road with drop off on one side and mountain rock on the other side. Not a lot of wiggle room if we met someone, you know? We drove up as far as we could and got ready to hike the rest. At the beginning of the trail was a beautiful waterfall and stream area. Ian had a good time climbing around it. :) The trail up was definitely not fun. It had just rained, so the mostly stone pathway was wet and slippery, the dirt parts were muddy, etc. We got all the way to this temple area, but we weren't sure where the path was after that. There was a tiny little narrow pathway behind it, but a big log crossed the pathway, so we weren't sure if that was the Japanese way of saying "please do not proceed, honorable hiker." :) Instead, we went back down and found a gravel pathway to walk along. It took us around the side of the mountain but not up. Ian said his knee was starting to hurt, so we had to turn around.
On our way back, we stopped at this lake and dam area. I've heard that that area is beautiful when the cherry blossoms bloom. There was a really cool suspension bridge hanging over the lake, so of course we walked across that and down onto a peninsula that jutted into the water. Ian is a boy. I have concluded that when around water, big sticks, rocks, etc, boys will forever be boys. He showed me a really cool trick. Since there was a peninsula, it protected the inside area from the river current, so it was very still. He found a long piece of bamboo driftwood and said that if you scrap the bottom of the still water, you can release methane gas from the gunk decomposing on the bottom. As it turns out, it was true! Bubbles popped up! We enjoyed the little peninsula area for a while. We threw rocks in the river, wadded, found some pretty marble and granite rocks, and left as the sun sank.
On Saturday night, we got together with some friends. I realized how SMALL our house is compared to other friends. Seriously, out of all of the ALTs in our gun, our house is by far the smallest. :( Other people have two or three bedroom houses or actual kitchens, but we have a house that is slightly smaller than our old apartment in Paducah. Anyway, it was fun to hang out with everyone. Gosh, we talked about anything and everything! Some conversations were completely random and stupid, but we all had an awesome time!
Sunday- Well, we had planned on getting up and going to church in Hitoyoshi and spending the day there, but......we didn't. We flip-flopped back and forth on whether to go to church or not, but we finally decided not to. It's just that there's no way in heck that we'd have any idea what the readings are, and we really don't feel like we'd get anything out of it. We'll go, but we just didn't go on Sunday. Instead, we slept in. I made a delicious big American breakfast that morning....biscuits, eggs, and gravy. Yay for America in Japan! It turned into a nearly two hour long process b/c I couldn't get the dang oven to preheat, and then I ran out of milk, so Ian had to run to the grocery so that we could finish breakfast, lol.
We did go to Hitoyoshi that afternoon. We wanted to explore it a bit more. We've been there, but we really haven't taken the time to explore it. Our first stop was the "Walmart" store. We really don't know the name of many stores here, but we kinda make up names for them. :) For example, in Yunomae, there is the "happy fun store" b/c there are smiley faces on the side of the building. We have no idea what the store's name is, but we call it that b/c of the smiley faces, lol. Anyway, at the "Walmart" store, we probably spent two hours just walking up and down the aisles looking at stuff and thinking what we needed for the house. I bought a pare of scissors for Ian's hair. Yep, I cut it....more about that later. ;)
We went to McDonald's again. I wasn't really that crazy about the idea, but Ian wanted big, fat, greasy burger, and fries did sound pretty good. It's always an adventure when going out to eat. There's a lot of pointing at items and saying the Japanese equivalent of "please." lol.
We ended our day by touring the ruins of Hitoyoshi Castle. It was actually really cool! There weren't any buildings left, but the steps up, up, and up and the stone walls were still there. We walked around, and watched the sun set over the river.
When we got back, we settled in for the night. I called home on skype, and got some pretty interesting news. I've been nagging my parents to get their passports so that they can come and visit me. Mommy wants to, but she doesn't want to come alone. I can't say that I blame her. The last time she flew was in the 70s, and I feel like a thing or two has changed since then. :S Daddy's been a bit more stubborn about the deal. Before I left, he told me that he doubted he would come over here, but last night when I said that he should visit and asked him if he thought any more of it, he basically said maybe. I know that maybe isn't yes, but it's one heck of a step up from no!! Family members and friends reading this, peer pressure him to come! I know he'd love it over here. It's basically a page right out of National Geographic, so it's right up his alley!
Whew! Hopefully you've read this whole thing and made it to this party. Sorry for the word vomit, but I had to catch up.
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