Saturday, April 21, 2012

You're a squid NUGGET

Hello Minions.

Yes, yes, I know. It's been a while. I'm sorry for my absence but lately, I can barely stay awake long enough to shower, much less blog.

So. First two weeks of school are ovaaa. That means I have survived ten school lunches.... none of which have been terribly disgusting. I was finally served the dreaded "baby fishes" that Robert warned us so desperately about. I will admit, there is something super strange and kind of creepy about lunch with eyes. And they are tiny, so there are like 387,439 eyes on you as you chomp down on it's friends and family. But there hasn't been anything that I couldn't get down.

I've finally been to all four of my schools. The upside to working at four different places in one week is that I can wear the same outfit four days in a row, and no one will know the difference. It is fantastic. The anti-girl part of me (awww man, what am I going to wear to work today??! Picking out my clothes? Not again...) loves it. Most of my lessons have included an introduction and a Q&A portion of class. Without fail, the same questions have been asked in all of my classes:
  1. How old are you? (My immediate reply: How old do you think I am? Japanese kids are better at guessing my age than American kids are)
  2. What is your favorite Japanese food? (Everyone goes crazy when I say gyudon)
  3. Do you have a boyfriend? (I always say "yes". When John is asked if he has a girlfriend, he says "Secret." Retrospectively, that may have been the smarter move)
Now there definitely were some questions that threw me for a loop, or had me rolling on the ground laughing
  1. Is your boyfriend rich like me?
  2. Do you kiss your boyfriend?
  3. Why aren't you married?
Yeah, seriously. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I didn't answer any of those questions. Mainly just laughed and danced around the subject and used my good 'ole USA training to turn the questions back on the kids. 

Some highlights from the past week...
  • John and I both got lost on the way to school (we work at different schools, but somehow both independently got lost). We had the exact same story of panic, five-minutes-to-get-to-school-on-time-oh (*&#^@ moment, and result of some kindhearted Japanese person DRIVING US TO SCHOOL. They seriously are the nicest here.
  • Some toilets are holes in the ground here. Definitely not a highlight, but something worth mentioning. They have the bullet train, heated toilet seats, escalators with sensors and yet at some places you have to squat to use the bathroom. Whaaaa?!? 
One of the many moving days
  •  We are officially all moved into our new apartment. Minus the toilet leaking some questionable brown stuff, everything is falling into place.
Our 3rd (??!? Idk, we both lost track) apartment together
  • Sakura bloomed EVERYWHERE. So beautiful, it takes my breath away. I could go on and on- I am now mildly obsessed with cherry blossoms. And then, just as quickly... it's gone. I cried on the inside when the beautiful blossoms were replaced by some new ugly red branches. 
My view on the way to school- well one of my schools

Oh sakura, I miss you so.
  •  Finally got my gaijin card. I'm now a legit resident of Japan.
School is getting easier. I use that term loosely because these past two weeks have royally kicked my butt. Struggling to communicate basic things to my co-workers is a headache and a half. On a daily basis, a teacher will spend about 38 minutes trying to tell me that it is rainy today. Or something like that. The conversation usually goes something like this:

"Jaquielyn sensei, it is....... eto......mmmmmm..........uhhhh........... chotto matte kudasai................. mmmm ...... something in Japanese .......... eehhhhhttoooeeeeee.................... mmmmmmm.............. ame?"
[Me] "It's rainy?"
"Hai!!"

Oh god. That is my life right now. I feel like the biggest idiot in the world for not learning Japanese BEFORE I got here. Everyone will speak English there, they said. Well, they don't FYI. Gah, seriously? I should have studied. But yes, as Robert predicted... Every day is an adventure.

Living with the Raney boys is daily entertainment. At least once a day, I laugh so hard I can't breathe. It's fantastic.

And because it's the freaking weekend yeahhhhh ee-aaah (Uh no, I did NOT just quote Rhianna with that), I'll leave you with a pic of 2/3 of Team Pokemon from last weekend. Maybe 1/3 was too cool to have fun with us.
I had to post this one. Proof Robert will make the perfect Brock for Halloween



2 comments:

  1. I had baby fish TWICE this week. First time they were dried and edible. Second time they were fresh from the ocean. They went swimmingly with my vomit-tofu soup. Two weeks down.... 35463 more to go.

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  2. We thought that you must have had a challenging week when you had not posted for a while. It sounds like it has been an adventure. Love your writing and hearing about everything. Miss you guys. Patty

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