Shamisen Day

I have photos to go with this… they are coming. But I want to do the writing part while it’s fresh in my brain.

Today I had a shamisen meet-up. It was a gathering of students of the Iemoto, who is the head of the group. An Iemoto (that’s an “i”, not an “L”) is the head of a school of traditional arts: dance, music, and so on. The students of that school of teaching, once they reach certain levels, take on the name of the school/get a new name. I’m a student of a student, so I joined it.

I went to my teacher’s house at 10 am, to get dressed. We got done early, so we drove to the center where we would play… it was like a club, almost, with a restaurant downstairs, and sort of banquet-hall type rooms upstairs. We practiced for a while, then we folks started showing up at 12, we talked with them, and drank tea and so forth, served by guys in black suits, and then at 1, we started playing.

It was a long room, with tables at one end for the shamisens, then two long tables running the length of the room, where we sat. At the other end was a Japanese stage, which is just a low platform that we covered with fluffy blankets and then bright red cloth, backed by a giant gold folding screen. Photos to come.

We all had programs, and so it was like a mini-concert… but with room for tuning up and rearranging and making mistakes. I played in 3 songs, and luckily, the hardest one was first, so afterward I could completely relax. I sat and drank tea and ate snacks and admired my souvenir ceramic hot-pot rest (you know… the thing you put on the table when you’re going to put a hot pot or something on top of it… what is that thing called?).

It was nice to sit and listen to good (and complicated) music and singing for 4 hours… but it got really tiring. For one, I was in a kimono, which was pretty comfortable, but also unfamiliar and therefore uncomfortable. For two, I had to be “on” the whole time. Everyone was really nice and friendly, but making small talk in a second language with people you don’t know for almost 9 hours… it’s exhausting!
The nice thing was… everyone was so relaxed and friendly, that they would come up and yank on my kimono if it was out of place, or press me with more tea or information about a song, and that made me feel better and less out-of-place.

After we played all the songs, we ate dinner in another room. Japanese-style big dinner, which was just dish after dish of food on a big rotating wheel in the middle of the table. There was cold soba (gross), sushi, sashimi, tai fish (just severed down the middle and fried! I took a photo of its scary head) crab, raw fish with salad, radishes, a nabe pot, some sort of lasagna, fried chinese-style veg, steak with weird potatoes, fruit… I quit towards the end, and picked up again when the fruit showed up.

They also had a karaoke machine, so all the ladies were getting up and singing enka songs. People were asking me about English songs, but as I am crap at Michael Jackson, I sang the Sukiyaki Song:

Then I got some other ladies to sing “UFO” by Pink Lady, and I did the dance (because I know it. It’s a brilliant thing to have in your arsenal, because everybody in Japan knows it):

After that I listened to the ladies rocking out to enka songs (which to tell god’s honest truth, every song sounds exactly the same, so if you can see the lyrics you can sing along to anything and everyone will be very amazed). I have heard enka described as such:

The most typical form of Japanese pop music for the last 100 years was, with uninterupted success, Enka. For proper musical ethnologists and watchmen of good taste, it is a pure horror, not even worth mentioning.

Classy. Click here for a typical example. They play stuff like this on TV all the time.
Definitely you don’t have to watch the whole thing of that, but do take a look at Jero, a part-Japanese American, who is making “hip” enka.
It’s still enka, yo.

Not to rip on it too much, the ladies were choosing peppy songs with lots of clapping and chances to sing along, but since, like I said, they all sound the same to me, I used the time to zone out a bit and plan my classes for Tuesday. Heh. I was tired, OK?

Aaaaaannnnyway.
We finished around 8, and I was in my teacher’s house with kimono off, drinking coffee, by 830 (that’s 10 hours in a kimono. YOW). Then I biked home, crawled under my kotatsu, and here I am!

I need a shower.

Where did my weekend go???

2009 – the past 4 months (!!)

Oh my GOD I’ve been so lax. 600-odd photos are FINALLY on my computer, ready to be shared and perused. This post is image-heavy, but I want to show off what I’ve been up to last year!

Let me tell you about me right now, first. I am experiencing what people in books about the olden times called “ague”. As far as I can figure, it means malaria, which I do NOT have, but I am experiencing a stupid degree of pain in my skin, head, and organs. It’s awful. I can’t decide if I want to be hot or cold, all my clothing hurts my skin, and I can’t eat anything. Lunch was a power bar, mikan, and two yogurt drinks, to get vitamin C and also help adjust my bacteria levels (Hi microbes!)

So that is me.

And this was me back then!

I went to Tokyo!

Tokyo had a bunch of cool stuff, and I went twice — once for Disneyland (and frankly, the photos of that aren’t that interesting, although it was a very enjoyable time) and once for Awa Odori. Since all the Awa Odori people wanted to go to Disneyland, it gave me a free day to roam Tokyo by myself!! So I went to Harajuku, of course! They have the best store displays ever!

The “old team” (40′s +) ladies and I decided to go to Tokyo bay to see the GIANT GUNDAM ROBOT. Oh my goodness yes!

Did I mention the shop displays? Nice job, H&M!

B-b-b-back in Tokushima, it was time for the School Festival!!

I know, I am totally awesome.
English Club set up a Foreign Goods shop with various nonsense to sell. I hung out for a while, but mostly I roamed the halls, taking photos (which I’m not allowed to share here because there are students in them) but this one I think is OK:

I still have a bracelet that I bought there! It’s a embroidery floss bracelet and when you tie it on you make a wish and when it falls off the wish comes true (STILL ON = LAME)
Oh, and James and his friend from England visited and told all my students that I was his fiance/wife/etc (we were not dating) and I found out yesterday that the girls in 104 homeroom really believed I was married, and felt legitimately betrayed that I’m not.
A month or so later, I went to the festival at James’ school, and now regret not similarly messing with his reputation.

Next I went to Osaka and Wakayama prefecture with two lovely ladies, for some reason the photo of them didn’t upload properly. Oh well, the important part is Wakayama, with the magical 8-lotus mountain where Kobo Daishi brought back important Buddhism from China, and then he went wandering around Shikoku and visited 88 temples which is why we have the pilgrimage today (more on that later). It’s a super holy place and has over 200 temples.

This is the biggest rock garden in Japan (the World?!). It’s supposed to look like a dragon.

It was really hard to tell if this was a temple or palace, but Daishi spent heaps of time here and they had his writing desk and tons of beautiful rooms and basically gorgeous architecture. What can I say? Japan knows its minimalism (just as well as it does it’s pack-rat tendencies).

They also had a giant winding graveyard, with famous samurai and old important families and normal folks and company graves. This was the best one. If you die in service to your rocket-making company, your ashes can go here.

Biggest stupa in Japan (the World?!?!?)? Don’t mind if I do! Going inside strongly reminded me of being inside the Taj Mahal, for some reason. I should go back to India.

Ok, for some reason half my pictures didn’t upload properly, but this is the next one:

I love pudding. I love love love pudding. Or “purin” as it’s called here. This is the best one (and believe me, I’ve eaten a LOT of purin in Tokushima). It’s called Kokoro Odoru Purin, “Dancing Heart Pudding”. It’s this great purin that the bakery uses in it’s regular purin (which comes in a glass bottle with syrup at the bottom) but it’s been brule’d. It’s a creme brule, or as close as I’m going to get to one in Tokushima. FANTASTIC.

I went on an amazing 140 kilometer bike trip! And there was a giant dinosaur, WHY NOT, in the middle of nowhere. Oh, Japan.

In Hiroshima, the end/midway point of the trip, we stayed in a tiny waterfront town. Boats!!

Later, Rogakko (deaf school) had their school festival. Again, I’m not allowed to post photos of students, but here is some of their work displays:

Calligraphy by 3rd grade junior high (9th grade)

Remember the 88 temple pilgrimage I mentioned? Well, my good friend Ada and I started doing it. We did 5 temples (and haven’t been back since, HA!)

Biggest koi fish I have ever seen in my life. Seriously. They were bigger than the average weiner dog. I could have watched them all day!!

They had a panda statue. I don’t know why. But did I mention I’m going to CHINA??? More later.

These pilgrims were really nice. We saw them all day, because you do the temples in order so you see the same folks at each one. They had their little dog go up to every place and pray with them (to do the pilgrimage properly, you have to say about a gazillion Heart Sutras. Spell check didn’t correct me on “gazillion”, but it did on “sutras”. WHY?)

Oh and did I mention it was a beautiful day with amazing colors?

That’s my special temple book I’m holding. You take it to each temple and each temple has a special page and the monks or trainee monks or whoever puts a special stamp and calligraphy on the designated page and charges you $3. You can buy the books in various levels of fanciness, or just get a blank one that can work at any temple (pilgrim route or no).

COLORS!

Later, I went to Kyoto for Autumn Leaf Viewing. It’s Very Serious Business.

PHEW. I’ve got heaps more photos, but I’m pretty tired and hungry and need to go eat before I get sicker!

Spring?

It certainly is warm enough in Tokushima. Compared to Minnesota!

Ah-hmmm…

I did my presentation for the JET midyear seminar. Now, what is there to worry about? Everything facing me are things I know I can do. Bueno!

So, it’s 2010, and I’m thinking about my goals.
There are a goodly number of them… I want to keep improving my Japanese of course. If I don’t pass the JLPT, I’ll take it again in July.
I want to travel to other countries! Maybe during Golden Week, or some holiday… and joined with that, I hope that people will visit me this year! And maybe next year (??!!!!?!?!?!?!!)
I’ll keep writing my journals, and doing projects… getting outside and active is what it’s all about!
I’ll help make a great musical…

Speaking of which…

Yesterday I learned this dance:

Even though I’m not on stage. Ha! It’s silly and fun and I’ll probably bust it out in class sometime. Japan: Land of silly songs and dances (traditional or not!!)

The other night we had a birthday get-together at an izakaya restaurant, and naturally moved the party to a karaoke bar. Those nights are the best, because it’s people who might not normally hang out, all happy and energetic and ready to sing songs and dance and have a great time together. It’s hard to say “let’s have a karaoke night” because you can’t just jump into that… it doesn’t work. But with the preparation of 2 hours of eating and drinking and laughing around a big table, singing and dancing is the natural next step. Love a night like that.

Recently I was talking to someone who I don’t know very well but for whom I have a general respect, who was telling me that we were very much alike, and that the world just works out in a certain way. Suddenly I realized he was saying that had things been different, we would be a couple now, instead of not-friends who have never been friends and don’t travel in the same social circles. Isn’t that, well, weird? I wished I had shouted something such as “If you thought that, why did you never do anything, and in fact, just ignored me like you did everyone else?” but I was too surprised to do anything except gawp and splutter “What?!”

The reason I mention this is… well, at first I found this person interesting and magnetic and someone that I wanted to know more, but my first memory of ever talking with him was negative. And his reputation and interactions with other people only reinforced that image. So even though we could have been good friends, and I’ve learned there are lots of things I like about his real personality, there are things about this “other” (real? fake? it’s hard to tell!) personality that rub the wrong way.
So to hear the “truth”, that he thought we could have been good friends too, was a real surprise.
That’s what happens, if you don’t act on what you really think!
That’s what happens, if you let some “character” of yourself block your “real” self.
If you’re going to project yourself as something that you’re not, make sure what you show to the world is something that will attract good things to you. If you’re shy, don’t act like a jerk to overcome that, act real friendly and happy. Either way, it’s acting, but one way attracts certain people, and the other way attracts certain OTHER people to you.

In conclusion, if you’ve created your own persona in the world, don’t come telling me how it could have been different, when YOU’RE the one who should have been making the difference! Work for what you want!

In conclusion 2.0, I want to attract amazing people to me (pffft, who am I kidding, I ALREADY do that!) and I want my self, in all respects, to be true to what I want out of life.
I don’t want to have regrets like that, and I don’t want to tell other people regrets.

Wheee hooray 2010 and new ideas about life ay!

Rehearsal is soon and I have to eat my lunch!

xoxo
e

Awa Odori this week!!! (And other bits)

Oh my God oh my Gawwwwwwd, Awa Odori starts this Wednesday!! I’m so nervous!!!

o________O;;;;;

Our last practice was tonight.
I’ve been practicing really really hard!
So hard, that I pulled something… my right leg is all screwed up, as is my lower back. I have to stretch really well every day just to be able to do normal stuff. Ow ow ow. いたいいいい

But oh my goodness is it ever exciting! I can’t wait to wear my purple kimono and my giant taco-shaped hat and dance like nuts! Every day now I wear geta when I’m not at school.

And speaking of not being at school…
Today I woke up, and it was typhooning. We were getting hit by the edge of tropical storm Etau, and it was amazing!!! So much rain, so much lightening and thunder!!! Nature is really really powerful!

I thought to myself, “Oh, I can’t be bothered to go through this storm just to sit pointlessly at my desk”. So I mailed my supervisor to ask for holiday leave. Stupid! I should have said “Oh no, a typhoon! Abunai!”

But now I have to take one of my holiday days. Mottainai! What a waste!!

Although, it did clear up and I could have gone in for half a day, but I am a lazy bum and couldn’t be bothered.

Yesterday I saw an amazing musical play put on by a local musical theater group. One of my students was in it, surprisingly.

The (original) story was about three girls who meet two girls who may or may not be magical, and for some reason, they decide to go back in time on a flying broom (one of the girls is a janitor, one is a makeup artist, and one just likes history for some reason?). So they go back and meet somebody who may or may not be Genghis Khan, and help some people get a scroll and a princess, and then there was a huge song and dance number.

Then, they went to America to try and stop Kennedy from being assassinated. For this half the play, almost everyone spoke a ton of English, and they were all pretty dang good with their accents and so on. The girls made a jazz group, and performed for Jackie O, and tried to warn her. Jackie O said she would tell Kennedy, but she lied! (for some reason, she was a complete bitch, and she couldn’t see the two magical girls. Who knew?)

Undaunted, the girls use their showbiz connections (3 more extremely tall girls in sparkly Supreme’s style dresses) to get an audience with Kennedy. They warn him about getting shot, but he says that danger is part of being President, and the people of Texas are his people too, so he can’t avoid the trip. Realizing they can’t stop him from taking his path, the cast sings “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory” in a very moving style, giving Kennedy one last performance.

In the audience, we had already looked at each other several times to say “No way”

But wait, there was more to come. John and Jackie got on their car and were on the motorcade, and the girls came and stopped time, to try and save him again. They told JFK that they were from the future, and that we had a black President, and that there was a bullet in his future. But JFK said that he was the President of the United States of America, and he was going to do his job.

Then he was shot. (In the audience, we looked at each other and said “No Way” again).

Then the janitor girl held up a flag in a spotlight against the curtain, and the Supremes stood in the balcony and sang something along the lines of “Where have you gone, JFK”. (I’ve been unable to figure out what song they actually sang).

Then they went back to the present time, accidentally inspiring young Steven Spielberg to invent E.T. THE END.

Like I said. It was amaaaaaaazing. Not often am I really weirded out and very moved at the same time.

File that under “Oh, Japan”.

Odori Aho

I am, indeed a dancing fool.

It’s ok. I can live with that!

So, as I said, I went to Komatsushima Matsuri. At first I was in a bit of a mood because it was very hot, and humid, and the people I was to meet didn’t show for an hour. I don’t like being made to wait, and once I DO start waiting, I don’t like to break my solitude when everyone else shows up! It’s a silly cycle.

My friends appeared and we got down to the business of watching the thing that were going on. I had already seen 40 minutes of hula dancing, so while we listened to a bunch of speeches from dignitaries and navy guys, my friend (The Fashionista) and her Japanese guy friend (City Boy) went to look at some of the booths. I stayed in the shade and waited for the next attraction, which was going to be the gaijin (foreigner) Awa Odori dance competition.

I knew there was trouble when I saw the Fashionista talking and gesturing with some guy wearing a fair badge. City Boy walked back and told me that the Fashionista was now entered in the contest. Then they all started gesturing at me, and suddenly I realized that I was entered in the contest too.

Oh boy.

Only for a minute did I think “Oh heck no”.

Then I thought “Oh heck yes, I am going to kick ass and dance hard. And I am all out of ass. Let’s do this!”

We danced round and round a stage, lots of college students from China, Mongolia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Colombia. And two chicks from America. We danced Otoko Odori (men’s dance) which was newish to me, and what the heck, I danced HARD CORE.

And I won the whole dang thing!! 7 prizes, and I got the top one!!! Which was an ice-cream maker / blender. HECK YEAH!!

The trick to winning? Putting all your gumption into it, grinning like a dancing fool, and just being totally willing to dance in front of an entire town / video cameras. Hopefully it will end up on the news or something har har har.

My only regret is not shoving my camera in someone’s hands before I climbed up on the stage. Boo!

Chalk it up to another “Oh Japan, you so awesome” moments.
(I love dancing Awa Odori!)

The Festival Spirit

This weekend, come hell or high water (or in Tokushima’s case, wind and rain) we have Hana Haru Festa. It’s a matsuri, with a grade of a C or a B- in my book. It’s got all the things, such as singing and dancing and takoyaki, but there is a lack of festival spirit and interactive opportunities. Still, it is indeed happening right outside my window, and I enjoyed some very nice Awa Odori dancing the other day.

The thing about any sort of matsuri or festival is that it puts one in a right old festival spirit. It came out really wonderfully for me last night.

Having gone out on Friday night for a charity concert and later karaoke, I was already tired (no matter how late I go to bed, I will wake up by 7:30 at the latest. It is unbelievable). But after a day of quietly being about town, I slowly built up to the night: a nap, a bus ride, some shaved ice, dinner, and finally a cab ride to the city.

We began at Casanova’s, a horseshoe shaped karaoke bar where free wine is usually on the platter and we were the only patrons. We had our fill of puffed wheat and songs, and went off in search of the next adventure, which was chatting outside a very loud dance party that… well, it made me a bit nervous and overwhelmed when I was inside the bar, so outside was really quite preferable.

Lounging about, well past midnight, I decided it was high time for something more substantial than bar-snacks, and headed down the street to the combini. But I never made it, because I began chatting with a woman from New Zealand who was busking in the alley with a guitar. She was great! We talked it up and then sang a bunch of songs together, chatted and danced with various people walking buy, and someone bought us takoyaki from the stall down the street and we sang a Beatles song specifically for him. She’s been in Japan for 20 years, and was just the friendliest darn person ever. Apparently, she, or someone else, busks that alley every Friday and Saturday.

When I walked away, I felt light on my feet and glad in my heart.

So today, the weather is sunny and the wind is high, and Awa Odori music has been slamming through my windows since 8 am. But I don’t feel bad for not going out and participating, because I had my own matsuri in a midnight alley, and it suited me just fine.

The Dentist

The last time I went to the dentist was a total wash.

I was a sophmore in college, and had a horrible popping pain in my jaw. I did some research and concluded that I should seek professional help. Professional help let me down. The dentist sat me in the dentist chair, told me there was nothing he could do, and charged me $30.

Three and a half months ago, the most excruciating physical pain I have ever felt in my life began. One of my teeth had broken, all the way down to the nerve. It hurt when I ate. It hurt when I didn’t eat. It hurt for basically no reason at all, simply because it was an exposed nerve, and that’s what exposed nerves do.

I did nothing. I put up with it. I didn’t take any medication, I didn’t seek any help. I brushed and kept food away from it. Eventually, the pain dulled and faded. It was replaced with a lesser pain whenever food or pressure or cold or sweet came into contact with it.

Weirdly enough, I can easily think of the positives that came from the whole thing. For instance, I stopped eating sweets and drinking sweet soda. I paid much more attention to the rest of my teeth. My pain threshold is significantly higher.

But eventually, I decided that enough was enough, and I should do something. My JTE made an appointment with her doctor, and I got lost and it was a complete fiasco and ultimately the day that I finally cracked and had a culture shock breakdown.

I got directions to another English-speaking dentist, but I never got up the nerve to make an appointment.

Last night, when dropping off a friend after A Very JET Thanksgiving, I noticed the dentist, as it was right next to her apartment. It had a happy penguin sign on the door.

Today, I thought, “I know exactly where it is, I basically have no excuse not to go down there an make an appointment, despite my fear and loathing of dentists”. So after school, essentially on a whim, I went.

If my mindset had been anything other than a whim, I would not have gone. Planning to go to the dentist is terrifying. Going with a happy, “oh gosh why not” attitude is easier.

So I went. The nurse was nice to me, and filled out my forms in Japanese. Only the head dentist spoke English, but that was ok. I sat in the chair and explained the problem. They all looked at my mouth. They all nodded wisely.

“You need a root canal.”

And really, there was no arguing with that. I needed a root canal. And so I got a root canal. I also got a lot of anesthesia. It was really one of those “Well, this is happening now I guess” experiences.

It was fast, painless, and cheap. I’m going back on Thursday for… a filling, I guess.

Thanks, Japan.

Photo Update!

Hooray! It’s Saturday! And I have internet, so I can blog from the comfort of my floor! I am wearing super comfortable sweats. I bought them in a 2-piece gray set, the kind where you just get a bag containing pants and a shirt for cheap. I bought them in size LL, and the check-out man asked me if I was sure I wanted that size. Don’t be such a kidder, Japan! We all know I don’t fit your sizes anyway!

Size LL, I’ll grant, is a little large. But it’s not TOO large, just nice and roomy. I look like a complete Ojii-san (grandpa) in the sweats and my house slippers, but they feel wooonnderfulll!

Today, I am going to the zoo! I will take a lot of photos, I hope. Until then, here are some photos from things I’ve done recently. Please enjoy them!

Here is the beach where I went swimming all those weeks ago. Isn’t it great? We pondered swimming out to the rocks, but they were far away. In the distance, we could see land…

My typewriter! I love it. Also pictured is a monte blanc cake, which I bought from a little bakery over by the mountain. Mmm, it was delicious. I’m addicted to monte blanc cakes, they are made with chesnuts and lots of fluffy cream and soft cake. Even the weird ones from the combinis taste great!

This is when I went on a long ramble towards the ocean (but didn’t quite make it). Right past this bridge was where the sidewalk ended, and I had to scramble along the side of a highway and make my way past all these shipping warehouses. From a distance, the bridge looks horribly bent, like an arch that’s getting ready to spring up in the air and fling all the cars into the bay.

Last weekend, the park by my house had a Cow Festival! You could come and pet the cows and see cows in a semi-natural environment and take cow quizzes and learn about cows and eat ice cream and drink milk. WOW! The park is seriously the best. Every weekend I stick my head out on my balcony and look, and SOMETHING is going on. The week before Cow Festival, it was some sort of woodworking “build-your-own” get-together. Before THAT, I enjoyed listening to various indie punk and rock bands hack at guitars and scream in front of disinterested but fancifully attired youth.

Yeah, baby cows!

These cows were very interested in what was going on around them. All the fair cows I’ve ever seen before have been very chill and bored, but these guys were all going “Hey, what’s happening? Let me stick my face at you!”

And of course, no festival in Japan would be complete without somebody dressed up as something. Viva la Cow!

So that’s that, basically… I’ve had a busy week at school. In brief:
I played lots and lots of Halloween Bingo and Halloween Memory (the flip-it-over card game)
I graded about a zillion papers
I saw half of a super-great documentary about Bob Dylan, and ate delicious pasta with a home-made vegetable sauce.
Upon finding a wild CD featuring my friends from home in my mailbox, I danced and sang in my kitchen.
I paid $30 for a postage stamp. Don’t laugh, it’s for my re-entry permit!
I watched The Fall, which was a pretty neat film. Sometimes I thought it was trying too hard, but visually it was very nice.

They sell books that are just photos of people’s dwellings. Each book has a different subject, such as “Children’s Rooms in Belsk”, or “Couple’s Apartments in Paris”. Why are they so enjoyable? I don’t know. I bought “Petite Apartments in Paris”, and I’m lusting after “Apartments with Color in Paris”. Some of them are very lovely or eccentric or quirky. I don’t know why I like looking at the arrangements and styles of people’s apartments. I just do.

It’s a gorgeous Saturday here.

Love
Emily

The Rotten Weekend

Ok, everyone…

 

At home, I typed up the long version what happened to me this weekend, and it ended up being a 5-page word document. Frankly, this is one of those stories that “reads” better when it is told aloud, because then I can do things like add crazy emphasis and build to the “and to cap it all off, he _____” punchline.

 

The short version is: this weekend, I was sexually harassed (but thankfully not assaulted) by a creepy park pervert, and ended up turning tail and running when he made a scary lunge at me when I was trying to make a polite (ie no screaming and cussing him out) escape.

 

The next day, I went to a shopping mall with a guy I met at cooking class, which was a dumb idea nine ways from Sunday, but came about because of my inability to say “no” and my unfortunate nature to be a complete and utter doormat when people are pushy and my brain fails on the “good excuse” front. It was like when Elizabeth Bennet can’t think of a polite excuse to not dance with Darcy, except this did not end up with me having witty British banter while dancing at a ball. What happened was that he creeped me out enormously by “hoping” that we would be “close friends”, and trying to guilt me into inviting him to my home. Don’t worry, guys, I was wearing my running shoes and had a JET on speed dial who knew where I was and that I might phone for help if I had to run away. I also had all my senses on full alert and was kind of being a bitch (which, considering that I was talking to a near-stranger, not that bitchy. I’m always polite to people I don’t know, and feel free to be more honest and stern with people when I am more comfotable with them. Why? I’m never going to see this guy again, if I can help it. Why should I care what he thinks?)

 

He was pushy and full of double-talk, twisty logic and layered agendas (all of which I had been warned about… I was on my guard). My whole point for talking to him was to make it clear that I didn’t want to be friends, and never in a million years was I going to invite him anywhere near my home. Upon hearing that, he decided to lecture me on why Islam is the best. It was, in a way, worse than the relatively straightforward creepy park guy, because mental attacks come at you sideways, and use information about you to make you horribly uncomfortable and susceptible to whatever the other person is trying to get you to do. This was one of the few times in my life I’ve ever told someone (that I didn’t know well, and am therefore more worried of offending for some reason) a flat-out “No” to what they were asking. It was an absolutely nightmare of a social interaction. I escaped at the train station, ran home, and unplugged my phone.

 

Later, I bought a used ukelele. This was the best part of the weekend. No, I cannot play the ukelele. But I am certainly trying.

 

Oh! And today I taught for the first time at my deaf school. It was pretty great… the kids are very energetic and involved, the teachers are very nice, and I’m picking up sign language already.

 

That’s all I’ve got for today… I’m a little fatigued right now. The stress of the Rotten Weekend is still on me (as are the lessons I learned) and I still need to make awesome worksheets/plans for tomorrow’s classes. Tonight’s dinner: spaghetti!!

 

love,

emily

 

P.S. I do not yet have a cell phone charm. I have decided it’s an elephant or nothing, and wouldn’t you know it, an elephant charm is very difficult to find (I did find a few, but they do not look anything like elephants, no matter what the shop girls say). Sorry, Nick, I’m not putting a mog charm on, because I don’t know what the heck that is.