bad day

Just to let everyone know that it’s not all sunshine, unicorns, and rainbows over here today is one of those days in which I want to go home, put on sweat pants, curl up in bed, eat chocolate, watch TV, and have a good cry for the rest of the night.  You could say it’s been a bad day.  In hind sight, I know that all of my issues are stupid and petty, but they are still things that bother me and bring me down.

1) Good Friday enkai.  Last week when I agreed to go to an enkai with the JHS teachers this Friday, I didn’t realize that it was GOOD FRIDAY.  I don’t drink, so I usually have Coke at these things, but since it’s still Lent, that won’t be possible.  Good Friday is one of the two days out of the whole year that Catholics are required to fast.  Therefore, I won’t be gorging myself on food.  However, the real kicker is that Catholics aren’t allowed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent.  Since there is generally A LOT of meat served at these events (dare I even say most of it is meat?), I will have to explain why I can’t eat the meat.  To top it off, the cost is 4,000 yen (about $50).  I’m going to spend that much to probably eat cabbage and beans. 

2) I’m a big ball of awkwardness.  Seriously.  Today is one of those days in which I feel completely out of place.  I think it first started when I walked in the teacher’s room and realized that all of the teachers had changed desks….all except for me.  I’m okay with that, but it just seems weird having the teacher that I sat next to all the way across the room now.  About mid-morning, all of the teachers got up and told me to come with them.  I had no idea what was going on.  It turns out that we were cleaning out a room and had to move all of the chairs and desks out of it.  I don’t know why.  Then we went upstairs to one of the classrooms.  All of the teachers were talking back and forth, back and forth.  I was told that it was “finished” and was dismissed while all of the other teachers stayed.  I was the only one sitting in the teacher’s room while they did whatever. 

3) Obtaining my driver’s license.  I’ve been reading about it and trying to study car vocabulary today.  You’ve heard me rant about what a process it is, and I’m still on the EASY part of it.  The HARD part doesn’t come until the test.  Since I renewed my license shortly before coming to Japan, the date of issue is one month before I left, which makes it seem like I’ve only had my license for a month.  In order to convert your license, you have to have had it for at LEAST three months before coming to Japan.  To combat this, I had to get my driving record from the McCracken County Court House.  I recapped the difficulty of this process in March.  I finally got it mailed to me.  I know that my KYDL has to be translated to Japanese, and the Japanese Automobile Federation (JAF) will do that.  I emailed the Prefectural Advisor to confirm this process, but he said that he wasn’t sure if they would do driving records as well, which I NEED to have translated if I want a license.  He told me to see if my supervisor would call JAF and confirm that they would and if it would be the same price as just translating the KYDL.  I translated a few basic sentences of what I needed and emailed her those.  She didn’t understand my message, so she called Mr. Fujiwara to see if he would get a better idea of what I wanted and translate from me to her.  As I tried to explain all of this technical stuff to him, I could tell that he had NO idea what I was talking about.  I think the conclusion that he came to was that I wanted to know about the process of obtaining a Japanese license.  UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!  FRUSTRATION!!! 

Right now I just feel sad/angry/frustrated/ready to give up/awkward/anti-social/desperate/lost.  I HATE days like today.  I just want to run away from it all and come back to the States where I’m NORMAL and speak the native tongue.  I don’t stick out like a sore thumb and can understand everyone.  Days like today remind me how much I miss my family and friends, English, American food, my normal size car, insulated houses, forks, my little apartment with the squeaky floors, American holidays, sweet tea, and any and every thing else that reminds me of home.  These days have a way of sneaking up on me.  It’s as if all of these feelings and emotions stay inside until I’m down, and THEN they present their big, ugly heads.

I know that I’ll probably go home and cry today.  As down as I am now, I know to keep a positive outlook.  Things tend to turn around really easily here, and just as soon as something bad happens, something good will happen.  Maybe tomorrow will be a really nice day!  It’ll be Friday, so at least I have that going for me!  …..but if it insists on being another bad day, tomorrow is exactly three months and one week from the date that I’m going home, and I will hold onto that thought and cherish it.