Ok... so currently I am sitting at my desk in the teachers room. It's hotter than the devil's left nut, I'm sticky, but amazingly enough I'm not as bitter or bitchy as usual -- yay for me! Not sure why, but I'm not really complaining. (Trust me, despite the content of this blog, I'm not angry.... just confused.)
However, I must point out something that has slightly baffled me and is now just plain annoying. Japanese are the absolute Masters of the Obvious! Especially when it comes to the weather. Every friggin 5 minutes (no joke!) SOMEBODY will mumble or sigh "atsui, atsui neeee" ("it's hot, it's hot isn't it?"). In fact, I've heard it twice now since I've started writing. The lady sitting 2 chairs down from me, "atsui desu yo neeee, honma ni!" ("god its sooo hot in here, really!"). Well no fuckin shit. Sorry for the language but give me a friggin break here. I KNOW IT'S HOT! EVERYONE KNOWS IT'S HOT! GET THE FUCK OVER IT! Or, here's a bright idea. TURN ON THE AC!
Sorry this seems to be such a reoccurring topic but it just really astounds me that they have the nerve to whine every 5 seconds but dont do ANYTHING about it!
And today there seem to be an abundance of very large wasps that keep flying into the office since all the windows are open. Now, these aren't your ordinary honey bees. These are really JURASSIC sized wasps that could probably kill a baby if stung. They measure about an inch and a half to 2 inches long... that's a big friggin bee! Anyway, I dont really care if they fly in, since they just bump around and eventually make their way back out again. I'm not bugging them so they leave me alone. However, all the teachers in here are freaking out and trying to kill them with this spray stuff, pissing them off in the meantime and making them dangerous. I think the spray clogs their little bee lungs and suffocates them or something nasty and cruel like that. Well since the windows are right by my desk, I've been shooed away from my desk about 3 times so far so they could kill a bee. I'm not such a fan of killing things, like I've said before, even though they could be dangerous. (People can be dangerous too you know, but we don't go around killing just anybody when they get in our way... unless of course they restrict our oil, then by all means, it's justified, right?) Anyway, the thing that bothered me the most was the fact that the bees were dying a very slow and painful death by the looks of it. So what did the teachers do? Did they put it out of its misery and quickly squash them? No. They didn't. They thought it would be a much better idea to TAPE THEM TO THE DESK WHERE THEY FELL. Ummmm... wha? Tape them to the desk? Why in the world would you do that? Why not just scoop them up and put them outside, OR end their misery by smacking them with a shoe or something... Hello!! So I politely shooed one of the teachers aside, took off my shoe, smacked the 2 of them, and then put them outside. They all seemed very shocked that I (especially as a female) would do such a thing. All the women teachers were trying to get me away from them and saying "kowai, kowai!" (scary, scary!). Ugh.........get some balls people, you've been living with them all your life. Jeeeez.
Now, here's the kicker. How could this WHOLE situation have been avoided??? That's right, by SHUTTING THE WINDOWS AND TURNING ON THE AC!!!!!!
Anyway, they all did the same thing in the winter only it was slightly more baffling. They whined about it being cold of course every 5 seconds like they do now, but instead of doing what is reasonable, like shutting the windows and trying to keep the school as warm as possible, I walk into school and ALL THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN! What, I ask, is the purpose of that? To irritate the foreigner? Sure seems like it. I've actually gone by and shut all the windows in the hallway when no one was looking, only to go back a half hour later and see them all open again! IT WAS SNOWING OUTSIDE! Is keeping the windows shut too much to ask? They do have heaters in the teachers room and the classrooms (not the hallways where the windows were open), which is nice, even though they're kerosene heaters and you have to keep the window cracked to avoid asphyxiation.... At least it's warm-ish.
Ugh, ok I'm tired of trying to see the rationality behind anything the Japanese do. I mean, they have fans in here, but they're bolted to the ceiling and rotating around so that every 5 seconds I get a gentle breeze of warm sticky air. Now, my grade school science memories are coming back a little... doesn't heat rise? Wouldn't all the HOT air be at the ceiling? Why would they want to blow the HOT air down? Wouldn't you want fans that are much lower to blow the COOLER (yet still sticky) air around? Am I crazy? Aren't these people SUPPOSED to be like really intelligent and high tech and all that? ........................? I seem to walk around this country with a permanent question mark floating above my head (think Sims style).
I can't wait to come home in December...
On another note, since I have soooo much time alone with my random string of thoughts that putter around in my head, I've been wondering what kind of an elderly person I'm going to be? Will I be one of those really sweet grandmas that spoils her grandkids to death? Or will I be one of those really bitter and grumpy ones? Here's what kind of an old lady I'm looking forward to being. Hopefully, by the time I'm old, weed will have been legalized (or hey, I might even need it medically). Either way, it should definitely be in the picture. I can imagine sitting on a park bench with a good friend (I'm picturing Aaron here), puffing away on our pipes talking about all sorts of nonsense things, bitching about whatever (cuz let's face it, we both thrive on bitching, hehe), and making really raunchy comments to people passing us by just because we're old, and we can! It definitely wouldn't work while we were young. No one would put up with that. However, as an elderly person, you can socially get away with so much more! I don't think enough old people take advantage of that. Well, except here where the old ladies will shove you aside and cut in front of you in line.... That's just rude. I wouldn't be rude. I'd just be blunt and dirty minded, hehehe! It'll be great!
Anyway, that was my random mind-wandering for the day. Now it's back to fanning myself, reading and whatever else I can find to pass the time... sigh...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
La Cucaracha!
La cucaracha!
La cucaracha!
Ya no puede caminar.
Porque le falta,
Porque no tiene
Marijuana de fumar!
Speaking of roaches, guess what I found scuttling across my kitchen floor this morning as I was eating my cereal....!!!! Yeah... a cockroach (good guess!). I mildy freaked out as I ran to the genkan (entryway) to grab my flip-flop and dispose of the loathsome creature. He was only very small but EWWWWWWW!!!! Ive never EVER had problems with cockroaches before and the only time in my life that Ive actually seen them aplenty was in Ecuador. The second time I found one was around springtime this year under my plant on my desk at work! That was worse since it was 1. on my desk, and 2. a lot bigger! Back at home we've always had problems with spiders -- those big brown ones that crawl up through the sink and bathtub.... and are super speedy.... blech *shudder*. We've had a couple spiders so far and I'd considered us extremely lucky since we live on the ground floor, but I guess luck can't go on forever! Adam was nice enough to agree to get some roach traps and set them around the apartment, just in case the little guy brought some friends with him.
(NOTE: Usually I dislike killing things and I've been known to just put spiders and such back outside etc. In fact, I left a welcome-spider (can get up to 3-4 inches from tip to tip, are greenish with black stripes) in its 2 foot diameter web outside our door because it wasn't harming me. It was actually catching all the bugs that would otherwise flutter into our apartment. However, my benevolence only goes so far I have to admit. I don't have any qualms about killing mosquitos since they seem to believe I'm a 5 course gourmet dinner. If I didn't kill them, I'd be one large, itchy, red bump... not so pleasant. (Actually I think the reason they like me so much is because I have type A blood. I'm working on this theory...) Also, cockroaches are just.... well, gross. I hate to say that, but they are and are also in absolutely NO danger of going extinct. If they've been around since the time of the dinosaurs, then I'm not too worried. Anyway, the point of this blabbering is that I feel guilty about killing anything, I do, but when they harm me or invade my space.... see ya!)
So, now that I have "La Cucaracha" stuck in my head, I'm curious as to whether or not the Japanese have a song about the "gokiburi" (roach) in their language. I'll have to ask. If they do, though, I doubt its about a cockroach not being able to walk 'cause he lacks his marijuana. Actually Adam and I were talking about it this morning and were wondering where the song came from. He mentioned that it was a play on words and referred to the "roach" of a joint. (For those of you who don't know, a roach is the last little bit of a joint that's so short you sometimes have to hold it with tweezers to smoke since it's so hot. Why do they even bother, you ask? 'Cause no respectable stoner would waste any weed if they could help it!) Anyway, my theory was that the song must have been written near the border where they speak both Spanish and English and most likely smoke a lot of weed. I think I'll do some research on that today since I have nothing better to do!
Let's see, what else is going on? We got back from Tokyo a little while ago from welcoming in the newbies and even though it was a lot of work, it was loads of fun too. The first day we all had to go to the airport and welcome them. We stood at different stations from the departure gate all the way to the busses. (They'd get lost otherwise.) There were over 1,000 people coming so it took all day for flights to arrive. We got to the airport at around noon and I left on the last bus at around 10pm... That's a long time to stand around. Adam and I were stuck on the last couple stations outside in the parking lot, which normally would be awful since its so bloody hot, BUT the gods smiled on us that day and made it lovely and cool! It was probably only about 25C/75F at the hottest. However, we had dressed for the hottest day of the year so after the sun set and the wind started to blow, we were freezing... oh well! It was a nice change. The next day we met all of the people in our prefecture and then at night went out to a 300 yen bar where everything was only 300 yen (go figure!). By the way, 300 yen is around $2.50 -- so not a bad deal. The day after that, we gave our presentation on Family JETs which we had been stressing about but turned out a lot better than we thought. The first group had a lot of people with kids so we were able to give them loads of information. But the second group was full of couples without kids, so there wasnt a whole lot of info to give them... and they asked a lot of visa questions which we couldnt answer.... We tried to point them in the right direction so I think it went alright.
Anyway, the new people seem really cool so far and I think we'll have some really good friends this year. I'm really excited to get to know them better. The second group of newbies will be coming tomorrow so we'll meet them for dinner.
Other than that, I've been teaching a few conversation classes to prepare some students for traveling to Singapore at the end of the month. The 3rd years' English is good, but the 1st years', well yeah, they kinda suck. But whatever. I told them that if they couldnt get their point across to use lots and lots of body language.
I've also been reading, and just finished, a book called "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. A very interesting read that I recommend to all and a very good follow-up to "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" that I mentioned before. It's basically a philosophical debate about Older and Newer Cultures and why we cant go on living the way we do now. It also explores the origins of the Creation myth and the real story behind Cain and Abel. Very fascinating! However, since I havent read the bible and don't know a WHOLE lot about the details of the stories I've started to read "Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned" by Kenneth C. Davis. The title is pretty self-explanatory and Adam's dad, Bob, said it was really good, so I thought it'd be a good thing to read. I'll let you all know later what I think (when have I not?).
Ok, well that's about it for now. No, the Mongolia pictures still aren't up on Shutterfly yet because Shutterfly won't let me upload them. Am currently in an email conversation with their Customer Service rep about it... Will let you all know when they're up... Sorry about that!
And now for some trivia you can use to sound smart at parties... The word "cockroach" in 4 other languages!!!
Spanish: "la cucaracha"
German: "der Kakerlak"
Japanese: "gokiburi"
French: female "la blatte", male "le carfard"
(Those weird French. Who the hell would have a different word for the female and male cockroach?!?! What I'd like to know is how you tell the difference...! I mean, come on!)
La cucaracha!
Ya no puede caminar.
Porque le falta,
Porque no tiene
Marijuana de fumar!
Speaking of roaches, guess what I found scuttling across my kitchen floor this morning as I was eating my cereal....!!!! Yeah... a cockroach (good guess!). I mildy freaked out as I ran to the genkan (entryway) to grab my flip-flop and dispose of the loathsome creature. He was only very small but EWWWWWWW!!!! Ive never EVER had problems with cockroaches before and the only time in my life that Ive actually seen them aplenty was in Ecuador. The second time I found one was around springtime this year under my plant on my desk at work! That was worse since it was 1. on my desk, and 2. a lot bigger! Back at home we've always had problems with spiders -- those big brown ones that crawl up through the sink and bathtub.... and are super speedy.... blech *shudder*. We've had a couple spiders so far and I'd considered us extremely lucky since we live on the ground floor, but I guess luck can't go on forever! Adam was nice enough to agree to get some roach traps and set them around the apartment, just in case the little guy brought some friends with him.
(NOTE: Usually I dislike killing things and I've been known to just put spiders and such back outside etc. In fact, I left a welcome-spider (can get up to 3-4 inches from tip to tip, are greenish with black stripes) in its 2 foot diameter web outside our door because it wasn't harming me. It was actually catching all the bugs that would otherwise flutter into our apartment. However, my benevolence only goes so far I have to admit. I don't have any qualms about killing mosquitos since they seem to believe I'm a 5 course gourmet dinner. If I didn't kill them, I'd be one large, itchy, red bump... not so pleasant. (Actually I think the reason they like me so much is because I have type A blood. I'm working on this theory...) Also, cockroaches are just.... well, gross. I hate to say that, but they are and are also in absolutely NO danger of going extinct. If they've been around since the time of the dinosaurs, then I'm not too worried. Anyway, the point of this blabbering is that I feel guilty about killing anything, I do, but when they harm me or invade my space.... see ya!)
So, now that I have "La Cucaracha" stuck in my head, I'm curious as to whether or not the Japanese have a song about the "gokiburi" (roach) in their language. I'll have to ask. If they do, though, I doubt its about a cockroach not being able to walk 'cause he lacks his marijuana. Actually Adam and I were talking about it this morning and were wondering where the song came from. He mentioned that it was a play on words and referred to the "roach" of a joint. (For those of you who don't know, a roach is the last little bit of a joint that's so short you sometimes have to hold it with tweezers to smoke since it's so hot. Why do they even bother, you ask? 'Cause no respectable stoner would waste any weed if they could help it!) Anyway, my theory was that the song must have been written near the border where they speak both Spanish and English and most likely smoke a lot of weed. I think I'll do some research on that today since I have nothing better to do!
Let's see, what else is going on? We got back from Tokyo a little while ago from welcoming in the newbies and even though it was a lot of work, it was loads of fun too. The first day we all had to go to the airport and welcome them. We stood at different stations from the departure gate all the way to the busses. (They'd get lost otherwise.) There were over 1,000 people coming so it took all day for flights to arrive. We got to the airport at around noon and I left on the last bus at around 10pm... That's a long time to stand around. Adam and I were stuck on the last couple stations outside in the parking lot, which normally would be awful since its so bloody hot, BUT the gods smiled on us that day and made it lovely and cool! It was probably only about 25C/75F at the hottest. However, we had dressed for the hottest day of the year so after the sun set and the wind started to blow, we were freezing... oh well! It was a nice change. The next day we met all of the people in our prefecture and then at night went out to a 300 yen bar where everything was only 300 yen (go figure!). By the way, 300 yen is around $2.50 -- so not a bad deal. The day after that, we gave our presentation on Family JETs which we had been stressing about but turned out a lot better than we thought. The first group had a lot of people with kids so we were able to give them loads of information. But the second group was full of couples without kids, so there wasnt a whole lot of info to give them... and they asked a lot of visa questions which we couldnt answer.... We tried to point them in the right direction so I think it went alright.
Anyway, the new people seem really cool so far and I think we'll have some really good friends this year. I'm really excited to get to know them better. The second group of newbies will be coming tomorrow so we'll meet them for dinner.
Other than that, I've been teaching a few conversation classes to prepare some students for traveling to Singapore at the end of the month. The 3rd years' English is good, but the 1st years', well yeah, they kinda suck. But whatever. I told them that if they couldnt get their point across to use lots and lots of body language.
I've also been reading, and just finished, a book called "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. A very interesting read that I recommend to all and a very good follow-up to "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" that I mentioned before. It's basically a philosophical debate about Older and Newer Cultures and why we cant go on living the way we do now. It also explores the origins of the Creation myth and the real story behind Cain and Abel. Very fascinating! However, since I havent read the bible and don't know a WHOLE lot about the details of the stories I've started to read "Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned" by Kenneth C. Davis. The title is pretty self-explanatory and Adam's dad, Bob, said it was really good, so I thought it'd be a good thing to read. I'll let you all know later what I think (when have I not?).
Ok, well that's about it for now. No, the Mongolia pictures still aren't up on Shutterfly yet because Shutterfly won't let me upload them. Am currently in an email conversation with their Customer Service rep about it... Will let you all know when they're up... Sorry about that!
And now for some trivia you can use to sound smart at parties... The word "cockroach" in 4 other languages!!!
Spanish: "la cucaracha"
German: "der Kakerlak"
Japanese: "gokiburi"
French: female "la blatte", male "le carfard"
(Those weird French. Who the hell would have a different word for the female and male cockroach?!?! What I'd like to know is how you tell the difference...! I mean, come on!)
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