Catch-Up

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry I haven't written for a few days--I'm sure you've all been holding your breath in anticipation! I just wanted to write a quick note and let you know I'm still alive and well over here. It's still mostly cold and rainy, but some days, like today, are spectacular and autumn-y. Unfortunately, they're also the days spent inside all day; by the time I leave after 4:00 there is only about an hour of daylight left.

My Halloween was fun: on Friday I watched "The Ring" and "The Others" with a group of friends in Takasaki, and on Saturday I joined almost 100 more people in a two-room bar for a huge Halloween Costume party. I didn't take too many pictures but those I have are on Facebook if you want to see them. I went as the Year of the Dog and was told either that it was a fantastic, original idea, or that it was too hard to figure out and what was I thinking....

I went to my Japanese class yesterday and it was definitely one of the best so far! (I skipped it last week because I had to prepare for my English class on Tuesday morning.) Another student joined Sensei and I, a Chinese guy in his 30s who speaks about as much Japanese as I do. Of course, he also has a huge start on me with the kanji: any word he doesn't understand, he just asks the teacher to write it for him, and he immediately gets it. The teacher had a lesson plan, too, even though he expected us to absorb much more vocabulary than is humanly possible in one night. Over the course of the two-hour class we studied:

• fruits and vegetables
• numbers
• body parts (in way too much detail: he was even giving us the name for each individual finger! I did feel smart for a second though because I guessed "naka-yubi" 中ゆび was middle finger and I was right!)
• counters (the ending to the word changes according to if what you're counting is paper, trees, animals, people, cylindrical objects, etc.)
• sicknesses and ailments ("throw up" is "hakikega shimasu" はきけがします if you need to know)
• verbs and nouns ("I BRUSH my TEETH," "I DRINK TEA," etc.)

I wanted to interrupt him and tell him I would feel much better if we could practice what we learn, but he seemed happy just telling us without having us practice. I did get a lot out of the class, though, and feel like I learned something, even though he broke the "10 new vocabulary words a day" rule.

My English classes at school are also helping me with Japanese, since they're conducted primarily in that language. All the teachers write the vocabulary lists bilingually on the board, so I'm picking up some of what the students are learning. Today I learned, "ii ii n desu yo" = "That's all right."

School is going well. I really love the teachers and the students--most of them, anyway! The 14-year old girls call me Lady Gaga in the hallway (don't ask) and the boys all yell, "Hello!" at me without waiting for an answer. It apparently is hilarious to speak in English to me, too, because every time I walk past a group of students and say, "Hi!" or "Good morning" or what have you, they respond and then immediately burst into peals of laughter. I'm glad I'm good for that. I also understand why no one can really pronounce "Hello" the way I think it should be: the katakana for it is "Ha-ro." Maybe it's the British way?

Today we had an earthquake and fire drill, which consisted of hiding under our desks for 10 seconds before immediately running (literally: RUNNING) down the stairs and out the door into the soccer field. The firemen gave the students a 20-minute presentation on how to use a fire extinguisher while I didn't understand anything in his speech but "3-5 meters" (san-go metoro). It was nice to be outside, though.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is another holiday--! This time Culture Day. I'm planning on spending it at my apartment cleaning and doing laundry before going to the park and to a friend's house to play the piano. I want a low-key, do-nothing day, and I'm pretty sure that's what I'll get. I'm going to Chiba (a few prefectures over) for the weekend, so I need to rest while I can before I hit the ground running. Tonight I've studied Japanese, conjugated about 15 verbs, and eaten some delicious homemade chicken and vegetable soup. I might watch E.T. before I go to bed: I've been thinking about it ever since I was planning the Halloween lesson at school (I ended up using "Monster Mash" instead of clips from the movie, though).

Sorry there's nothing too exciting going on recently, and that my writing is taking a sharp downhill curve. Hopefully I'll have more to talk about as time goes on. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, as is Christmas and New Year's! My, how time flies--!