Wednesday, December 21st--- Samui desu ne?

I think today was the first day of winter and it was raining. This is only my third day here that it rained and each time it's been so little that I either missed it or arrived at my destination completely dry anyway. Rain, for my Canadian readers, is the thing that falls from the sky when it's not cold enough to snow. Actually, I shouldn't be bragging about the temperature here too much... last time I actually checked, we were only a couple of degrees warmer than Halifax.

So... where did I leave off? Oh yeah. Monday, as predicted, I had a cold. Tuesday I met Ikue for my language exchange (she's the one with the worst English). She brought me to a restaurant called "Dear Soup" and I ate some kind of dish with rice on the bottom and cheese, mushrooms and other indistinguishable things on top mixed together. It was pretty disgusting. Ikue's really good to learn Japanese from because she really doesn't know that much English. She studied English at ILI in Halifax for three months, but I think that's the extent of her English study, and she hasn't even visited any other English-speaking places (not even PEI).

Speaking of PEI, most of my students have heard of it, especially the females. They will point at my region on a map and say "Anne". If I ask "Anne of Green Gables?", they just stare at me blankly, but understand the direct translation of "Red-Haired Anne". Anne of Green Gables is immensely popular in Japan. I don't really understand why, but here's what one of my students was able to explain to me a while ago:
"It is unimaginable for Japanese people to live in such a strange place and they want to hear more about it. And she has red hair."

Back to Ikue, her English isn't that bad, but I think I'm getting a closer experience to what it's like learning from Nova teachers who don't speak any Japanese. Sometimes I'll ask her something like "How do I say this?" and she'll just smile and nod. Despite this, she's a pretty good teacher, probably since she's a Chinese teacher by profession. I explained to her that I had a cold and she took me to a pharmacy to get some medication. I bought it and was told that it's "really good". Unfortunately, I can't read the instructions.

Ikue also taught me how to ask people what their hobbies are in Japanese and when I asked her, she replied drinking sake (Japanese alcohol) and driving. Sounds like a good combination.

Today I also met up with Megumi, my first language exchange partner. I also got a call from Masa (though I'm busy tomorrow and can't meet him). As you can see, I'm very popular.

Last night I went to the internet cafe and was really feeling like something salty as I was leaving, around 1am, so I bought some chicken nuggets at Mos Burger across the street. I really don't want to make a habit of eating at night, so I was hoping that something bad would happen, like I would get sick or wouldn't be able to sleep to teach me a lesson. Luckily it did, I wasn't able to sleep until 5am, so I won't be doing any late-night eating (without drinking) anymore.

So today I overslept and had to text Megumi to meet me later than anticipated. We went to Mos Burger and I had soup and a Mos Cheeseburger. Megumi helped me translate the instructions on my cold medicine, it's all very easy and readable now. But I could only stay for an hour because I had to prepare for my 3-week evaluation.

"3-week Evaluation"

Now they call it a 3-week evaluation, but I've definitely been here for more than a month. I was pretty scared about it. I felt that my one-week evaluation could be a bit of a write-off since it was my first one, but for my second one I'd have to definitely show some improvement.

Anyway, I walked in and checked the schedule. My first lesson was Voice. What was going on? They couldn't grade me on a voice!! So unsure of what to do, I just left for a couple of hours and browsed the nearby shops. I saw a lot of flat-screen TVs that I want to own and even contemplated buying batteries.

Anyway, when I showed up again and asked Dani (the evaluator) what was going on, she was just kind of like "Oh... uh... yeah..." and issued me a student. Anyway, I only had a few minutes to prepare. At first she tried to give me a bit of a "Oh, well why are you here so late? This is your own fault!" until she realized that I had been there at 3pm, but still said that if I had stuck around she would have been able to fix it at 4pm.

Despite this, I destroyed it. By that I mean that I blew them away, one of my best performances ever. I was somehow able to fit in corrections of most of the bad feedback I had gotten last time and things went really well. While judging me, Dani was also training Janette, who will be taking on a manager's role in January. I had meant to tell Janette that if it makes her look better then be really hard on me (since I don't care) but I forgot.

Anyway, they told me what I did wrong afterwards and it all sounded not too bad, Dani and Janette were both pretty nice about it. So all I have left before getting off "probation" is my "2-month" evaluation, which, I'm told, is being held in about two weeks.

"Back of the Bus"

I've had a couple confusing things happen to me on the train this week. Monday, I sat down next to a woman who looked like she was sleeping. She looked up at me with a shocked expression, then looked down again. About a minute later, she looked back up again and said, in English, "I'm sorry, but this is the ladies' car!" I looked around, she appeared to be right. I had no idea my train even had a ladies' car and wonder how many times I've ridden in it and had old women frowning at me.

Then today, I was reading a text message someone had sent to my phone, when a conductor came over and said something to me in Japanese, pointing towards the next car. I looked around. It wasn't all women, but everyone was staring at me. Anyway, it turned out that I was in a car where passengers aren't allowed to play with their mobile phones.

"Life at Home"

I don't know if I mentioned this already, but I got a Birthday/Christmas package from my parents on the weekend. It was really good. I was going to wait to open it, but heard the rattling of crumbs inside. I knew it was cookies and wanted to eat them. They also sent me some other things, but I won't get into it. When they had originally asked me what I want sent, nothing was coming to mind (except for a specific kind of pen that I can't find here, which incidentally is "Made in Japan"). But now, after having received the package, a ton of things are coming to mind that I could use. That's ok, though, Steve is on his way back to the States for Christmas and has graciously agreed to pick up a few things for me as they come to mind.

I shared my cookies with my roommates. Actually, I left a note telling them to try some, and then they all kind of disappeared over the next two days, which is great for me (I don't like owning food at home). No one mentioned anything to me about it, but I asked Will and he said they were hella-good and seemed genuinely surprised that someone thought of putting coconut in a cookie. I shared the same cookies with my floormates in Hong Kong and I remember them politely acting as though they were savouring every bite and then asking for more.

Last night I was in my room reading (seriously!) and heard some commotion in the kitchen. It was Chris and Will, someone yelled something about those being huge flames and a minute later someone took off out the door yelling something about the fire alarm. I ignored it at first, but decided to come out and see what was going on. Apparently there had been another small fire in our apartment, they don't know how it started but Chris' dinner exploded into flames when he added olive oil, they say. I wonder if I'm going to die in a fire this year (Mom, I've located the fire exits already).

"Grapes and Pillaging in Halifax?"

Also concerning my home life, Chris (I always accidentally type Christ and have to go back) borrowed a book from the library about viking explorers and it's really good. Did you know that the vikings may have come to Nova Scotia around the turn of the last millenium? They found a ancient Scandinavian coin in Maine, you know. They also said the name that they gave to the region, Vinland, could have referred to the fact that grapes may have been growing there at the time.

Time's running out, talk to you soon, enjoy the Christmas season.

Ryan