Typhoon!

So I wrote this awesome and long blog entry last night and before it got the chance to save, firefox froze so I am going to rewrite it today at work and hopefully I won’t miss anything ><. Sometimes I swear despite how amazing and fast my computer is I think it hates me a little bit. Sigh.

I have been in Kitsuki over a week now and life is starting to drag on a little. I find I have so much time - more than I ever had in all my years in America. The worst part of it though, is that I don’t have many friends or hobbies to do in my free time. I want nothing more than to swim or walk around the town but because of the rain and poor weather I find myself frequently trapped inside watching movies and contemplating my life. It’s also very dark here - especially after the sun sets. There are no streetlights and since it has been so cloudy lately, there are very few outside sources of luminescence. I can feel myself sliding in and out of sadness. My computer even gets boring after an hour or so and there’s only so many movies I can watch. S went out drinking last night and invited me, I probably should have gone but, I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like going. I ate a whole roll of oreos before I knew it and even though I knew I should go outside and exercise - IT WAS RAINING!

They spoke in orientation about the stages of culture shock and mentioned is moves like a parabola. We start out on a high (the honeymoon phase they call it) and we are excited about everything and enjoy the differences in the cultures. Then we begin to descend into a downward spiral on our way to the lowest point in the culture shock spectrum - sadness and anger. There is irritation at the small cultural ‘flaws’ and character of the people and sadness at the homesickness and loneliness. I find myself moving in and out of these two phases almost fluidly; instead of beginning in stage one and falling into stage two. Maybe I can find a pool or an indoor gym that I can get to without a car so I can take out some of this pent up energy. Sigh.

So to update on the past couple of days.

Monday - Went to work like normal at the BOE (or as normal as sitting bored at a desk can be) and had a meeting about my role as an ALT and the significance of such a role in the community. Basically, don’t date your students, or other teachers, and dress and act appropriately to your station even when off duty; pretty rudimentary and understandable stuff. When the meeting finished it was almost lunch time and shortly thereafter we were sent home for lack of better means to waste our time. Caught the bus around 1:45 (it’s either catch it then or wait for the next one at 4:55) and got home shortly after 2:30. Short day! S and I decided to go for a walk down to the other supermarket that night and since it is a few miles away it took us almost an hour to get down there. We did karaoke and then found, to our surprise, the drug store we had walked down there with the purpose of visiting, was closed for remodeling. Just my luck. Walked home and watched more movies. I feel like this is becoming a habit.

Tuesday - Much more entertaining day! Met my supervisor around 7:45 and we went up to the top of a big mountain to go to Yokotakejizen park where we met with a big group of sixth grade students who were camping there for the weekend. The community hosts a meet and greet between all the sixth grade students in the area who will be moving up to junior high school in the following term. We first began the morning with a scavenger hunt and I went with another female teacher along the track to view the scenery. It was so beautiful. I didn’t have a camera with me but I took a few cell phone pictures of the view from the top of the mountain. I’ll post them on the bottom with a few other pictures I have of my town at sunset and some rice fields.

After the scavenger hunt I made lunch with the kids. Long bamboo slides were installed ending in a drain on top of which a hose was placed and the water turned on. The water was made to run along the length of the slide the children gathered around it on all sides with their bowls full of soy sauce and green onions. Noodles were placed on the slide and left to flow with the water into waiting student’s chopsticks. I got the hang of it after losing a few choice noodles and found it to be quite entertaining! After lunch we played a watermelon game reminiscent of piñata and I was made to represent the teacher’s team. They spun me in a circle blindfolded then unleashed me to the mercy of my peers who, in a mix of broken English and Japanese, tried their damnedest to direct me in the direction of the watermelon a good hundred yards in from of me. I eventually found it, gave it a good whack with the bamboo stick I was equipped with and eventually found I had received fourth place out of six for my timing. I felt somewhat bad having beaten two groups of children but secretly rejoiced at not having been last. :-P.

It didn’t end there though. One of my colleagues, a Mr. O, invited me and S to dinner at his house that evening. They made curry which was delicious but perhaps the biggest surprise was when we passed by his house and continued on to the house of his parents. The whole family had come out meet us and have dinner - O’s wife, two of their three children, his brother and his brother’s wife and their two children and his parents. I felt somewhat bad imposing on their family like that but they insisted on the company. S brought his guitar and wit so spent most of the evening telling jokes and entertaining the family while I sat quietly in the back like a doll waiting for my chance to speak. It is strange for me to not be the most outgoing person in the group and having S around is a little draining since I feel like I can’t get in a word one way of the other. Hard to believe, considering how long winded this blog entry is, that I find myself unable to carry on prolonged conversation with people because S has the tendency to get antsy if left to his own thoughts for too long. Hopefully I will meet some people separate of him soon though so that I can feel a little more like myself and less like the polite and appropriate woman I feel myself drawn into. Don’t take this as anything against S - it’s just his personality and to be honest it’s refreshing in the right context. I just feel overwhelmed sometimes and have to adjust to this new style of life.

Wednesday - Work was boring again and left to my own devices on a computer with no Internet I spent a majority of the morning making a photo book, which I ordered online later that night to be printed and sent to me here. My supervisor sent us home early again because of the typhoon. Some typhoon though - everyone was flipping out about this big category four typhoon and there was just a bunch of wind and rain. Nothing scary in the least! I feel like I got jipped on this one. Here I was expected a hurricane-like storm and all I got a was a strong rainstorm. There wasn’t even thunder!

Didn’t do anything in the evening except eat my oreos and watch Zoolander and stalk the Internet waiting for people to sign online. Went for a run when it stopped raining but felt a little uncomfortable because people kept staring at me. Sigh. S stopped by on his way home from the bar, drunk, and wanted to hang out. It was already 11 so I was getting ready for bed but I let him in anyway. He was soooo drunk it was entertaining until he mentioned he was drunk enough that I was starting to look cute. I kicked him, hard, and he laughed. Sigh. I guess this will be my life. I know he meant no harm but it just really made me miss my friends back home. You guys are amazing and I appreciate you more and more each day.

Today I am currently wasting away at a desk and have been typing this missive for the past hour. I forgot my book so I will have to find something else entertaining to do on my disconnected laptop that doesn’t involve the Internet or any sort of game. Miss you all, love.