I went to Jo’s place again, this time to celebrate the birth of his granddaughter, and met with Masashi from the City Office as well. The three of us dined on hamburg steaks (yes, hamburg, not hamburger), shumai, and whale. Oh yes, I said whale. I have now crossed it off of my list. Horse is next. We then bummed around Jo’s place, went to a bar and sang karaoke, and engaged in your average celebratory merrymaking. Anyway, enjoy the video, and then if you’d like to, read the extended post. I somehow wound up writing about whales, whaling, and Japan. But first, the pictures.
When you read, if you know the person who wrote it, do you hear a voice reading it? And if so, is it the person who wrote it or yourself? Just wondering. I hear myself reading things I wrote, but if I know someone well enough for my brain to reconstruct the nuances and inflections that they habitually employ in speech, I hear their voice reading it naturally. This has jack squat to do with Japan. I was just being curious.
Feel free to answer and respond with random queries of your own.
Our students just won’t stop coming to school. The graduates keep returning, to chat with their teachers. It’s kind of funny. They don’t want to leave just yet. The other weird thing is that every single one of them, without a single exception (including the boys), has now processed their hair so that it is a chestnut/nutmeg brown. Must be the “in” color. What the heck? That’s all I have to say on that for now.
PS – Entries are upcoming on 1) How to RSS this site, for Megan; and 2) Why I Don’t Buy Man-made Global Warming. Fair warning, the RSS entry will be short. The Global Warming entry will be a novel, and will likely require background reading. But I want to accurately explain what I think, and it apparently takes a lot of space – and a lot of reference to my influences. Right. Anyhoo.
In other news, some students just gawked over my pretty average WPM typing skills. Ha ha ha. I love it. Ridiculous, undeserved, nonsensical awe. Ha ha.
I am tired, and my wallet can’t take any more parties. Paid about $70 for parties this week and last. I need the money for my trip to Korea…where I can spend it on fun stuff. I’m not saying that I don’t have fun. I’m all for sharing and bonding and whatnot. I am, however, saying that it’s not healthy for me (or my wallet) to take part in killing off 9 to 12 liters of beer on a weeknight. Ha ha. Sigh. Nor should I take part in the “well, we made it, so now we have to eat it” activities that occur when guys get together and botch food. (I don’t. I just supervise.) Let’s just say that it’s bad when the food becomes a batsu game. (Penalty game.) Seriously. Ugh.
Rock on. All of the kids at my base school passed the Eiken (English standardized test) with flying colors. Sweet. I worked with a bunch of them. I’m so proud! Ha ha.
UPDATE: In other news, the second years’ class 1 creamed all comers at today’s class match. The ceremony at the end reminded me of the ridiculous announcements after the teacher’s team performed sooooo poorly at the last-chance jumprope game. (You’ll recall we got zero jumps, so our total remained 7.) I can still hear it, “That was zero jumps. Zero jumps plus seven jumps comes to seven jumps.” Ha ha ha. Thanks for that. Well, the ceremony today was just about the same. “Winners of soccer: 2 Year Class 1, winners of volleyball: 2 Year Class 1, winners of dodgeball: 2 Year Class 1, overall winners: 2 Year Class 1, etc.” You get the picture. Ha ha. Fun day, though.
This is my video response to Clay’s post asking “What are your superpowers?” Enjoy. Those who’ve known me long enough grew tired of this trick a long time ago. Ha ha. This is for those who haven’t yet discovered how lame I am.
