Oh AfterNOON

Blah blah… I’m avoiding real work!!

 

 

I started tidying stuff today. A minimalist blog was talking about cleaning out your house, and it said “Oh, just do one cabinet. Take a first step”.

 

“Oh yeah, I have to clean out this apartment in the next 3 weeks and ship stuff home and get ready to move into the sad house, don’t I?” I thought.

 

 

 

UGH, GROSS, CLEANING.

 

 

I started on the bookshelf in the kitchen. Took everything out, threw away two boxes of stuff (!) packed up a bunch of things that need to be run through a shredder (too embarrassing / financial to be just tossed in the trash) and sorted the rest. There are…

• Things I need to ship home
• Things I can leave for the next person
• Things that I need to keep around (things I use, or will need in order to settle matters in the future)

 

And the rest of it is trash! The end!

 

Last night I packed up my Stuff Swap bags: clothes I want to give away for free. Actually, I rescued a skirt from the bag (I’m wearing it now). But the rest of it, I thought “Oh, hmm, I forgot I owned that. OH WELL, DON’T NEED IT!”

 

Some things, I had a moment of thought, “Oh, but I like that. I want to wear it. I should keep that…”

 

NO! There is a big difference between “I want to wear it” and I WILL wear it!”

I scolded myself, gently, and let it all go. Whoosh, whoosh. I am waiting now, for the person who is supposed to pick up my bags… but I have Awa Odori in 15 minutes so they had better hurrrrrrry up….

New Girl

 

A first year ALT joined my Awa Odori group. She works with a former co-worker of mine.

 

 

It’s been interesting, being the senpai (senior) in a situation.

Now, by no means am I a senpai dancer. I don’t mean that at all. But in this situation, I can clearly explain some of the things to someone else, in English.

Over two years ago, I was in her situation… not speaking much Japanese, not knowing how to dance, a celebrity because of being a foreigner, but not sure how to deal with it all.

 

 

So, helping her out, I can see how much I’ve changed. How much I’ve become a part of this group. How much better my Japanese has become, because of doing activities like this. Really, you just have to give it your all, and that’s what I did.

 

Plus, it’s SO nice to have someone to shoot the shit with during/after practice. It’s SO NICE to have someone to gossip with during the breaks, even if all we’re doing is commiserating about how much our arms hurt, which is basically the same conversation that I have with Japanese people during the breaks. All the kids were saying “すげ、速い 英語で、ペラペラ！”　(Whoa, you’re talking English really fast).

Hahaha, it’s true, isn’t it?

 

One of the teachers (not an English teacher) at school said, “Your English is really clear, I can understand it really well, I’m really happy about that.”

I was really pleased to hear him say that, because I work hard to speak with people without being difficult or patronizing. People who aren’t confident in their English don’t want to talk to you if you speak too quickly, or if you dumb everything down to the point of being sarcastic. I’ve worked hard to make myself understood as the highest level that I think the other person can handle.

 

My Japanese English and my native English is definitely two different languages at this point. It’s interesting.

 

Tonight’s Awa Odori was just endurance practice, and working on simple motions. Which is good, because man… it’s HARD!

 

 

I’m starting to download all the great pictures off of facebook in order to make a “best of” collection of Japan. Which will probably become a video, or something.