I noticed a deaf couple in the library talking to each other, evidently in a heated argument. The wife was getting more upset, using large signs, her husband could see that she was upset. Finally, he took both her hands in his, and signed, "Honey, you don't have to yell, I am not blind!"
Check below in the Christmas entry for our Christmas video!
Admit it, the last thirty seconds of the video are the best thirty seconds of your life so far.
See below for my actual Christmas Post!!
Merry Christmas! Or Christmas Eve to you folks back home who don't have the privilege of being in the future. But Anyway.
Feliz Navidad - Joyeux Noël - Fröhliche Weihnachten - 圣诞快乐 - Nollaig shona - buon Natale -
メリクリスマス - Wesołych Świąt - Nollaig chridheil
That's all Merry Christmas to you! (Spanish/Mexican, French, German, Chinese, Irish Gaelic, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Scottish Gaelic) It's good to know that only the Japanese version is really just the English Merry Christmas spoken with a Japanese accent (meri kurisumasu) rather than a version in Japanese. No クリスマスおめでとう (kurisumasu omedetou - Cheers for Christmas) for the Japanese D=
Technically it would be more advantageous to spend Christmas in the States though... as Bob and I had to go into work today. But we carried out with the Christmas cheer and the noble tradition of making a scene (people are already staring at us, right?) and wore our Christmas hats to work. =D
Insert cute picture here whenever Bob has a chance to send it to me.
Nyaoooo.
And I know it's short but I'll probably write a little later because Bob and I are opening our presents after work and I fully intend to put up the video of the two of us opening presents on the blog as well as e-mailing everyone a copy if we have your e-mails.
Cheers!
And because I can (stolen from Youtube with RealPlayer):
Kate Bush : Christmas will be magic again
Just in case: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfD7FzcjVyQ
The Hallelujah Chorus: a perennial favorite from when I was in high school in the choir and it can still bring tears to my eyes.
Mariah Carey: All I Want For Christmas Is You
You're Welcome.
Okay, so this happened last weekend but it's taken me this long to get the pictures on my computer. My girls, as you know, qualified to go to the National Debate Contest in Nagoya. We had to leave separately as Bob and I get out of school much later than the rest of the people (and Fridays are my out of town days). Bob and I took the train no problem and arrived in Nagoya. I was disappointed to find that it was not going to be Bob's first Shinkansen ride but hey, we can work on that. Trains are super fast in Japan =D. We got a little lost because I'd never been to that part of the city where the hotel was but Aoki-sensei rescued us after I concluded that directions are not a good thing to have a language miscommunication about ("so I go south? or north? I've not gone east enough? I need to go west? WHERE IS WEST?!"). We had a grind session with the girls at the hotel to practice their speeches and make last minute adjustments and then it was time for bed. Leaving the hotel we set out for Nagoya Daigakuin campus where the tournament was being held. To be honest, the judging seminar was a joke - less training and more lecturing but I didn't have any doubts that Bob would do a fine job. It actually ended up that I didn't get to see any of the girls perform but maybe that's a good thing. They lost all of their matches on the first day =/
We went to a welcome party afterwards which was a little fun. Ikumi got teased for stealing Bob's cake and Kanako did a surprise performance of Wham's "Last Christmas." The next day went a little better, they ended up winning their last match, but of course only the strongest teams, those who won all of their matches or 3/4 could go one to the quarter finals and so on. There were some strong teams but I really feel like the competition was centered on high English speaking ability rather than actual strong arguments. There was one team who made it to the quarter finals that puzzled the hell out of me. Yeah their English was phenomenal but their argument had no strength!! Anyway, enough of me talking and more videos and pictures.
So here's a picture extravaganza to follow!
But before we go on to the Debate Contest (jumping right into the Welcome party since I didn't take any pictures before then) here's a Zen picture. This is actually right outside of our apartment. Usually there are buildings and stuff to look at but the morning fog can be so exhilarating. This very scene is what made me fall in love with Japan in the first place.
Insert the video of Kanako singing! It's pretty freaking awesome. This girl is so involved in EVERYTHING. She's part of Student Council, the choir club, and she's the president of International club. Kind of makes you wish you applied yourself in High School >>;
These are the girls and Aoki-sensei! From far left: Aoki-sensei, Ikumi, Kanako, and Akane. We got to the party late so we ended up just mooching a lot of our food from other people's tables.
This is the school where we did the debate. Despite my epic picture-taking abilities we did not do so hot, as I explained above. But we are pretty freaking awesome walking up into the building like this. And actually, I took this picture on the second day. Maybe if I had only taken this the first day we might have done better. Personally, I just feel bad for Kanako who reminds me so much of myself and ended up beating herself up most of the time.
Bob ended up judging a contest too - the contest that ended up letting the runner-up finalist get to the semi finals.
These are the finalists for the Nagoya Debate Contest: On the left, for the Affirmative side, is Keio Shonan High school, on the right, for the Negative side, is an international girls' school.
Check out the winner video below! Their reaction is so classic. The video is much too long for what it shows but you might as well get the honest experience, right? Life isn't about good editing! And Ashley is lazy?
It's the middle of the day and I still haven't done anything that I would consider worthwhile. Part of my stress I think comes from this. I thought I would be getting paid to actually teach but most of my week is spent desperately trying to find something to fill my time with. Today's no different though I should be glad that I'm at least feeling positively about it. I've been searching Japanese but my heart's just not in it today. I was looking for language partner stuff before too - just to give myself something to do but that fell flat after awhile.
I need to remember why I want to learn Japanese. My three-year rotation cycle is at its highest this year and it shows. For those who don't know I tend to change my life goals and dreams every three years (convenient how we go to school for four...). Freshman year I wanted to be a teacher but changed my mind. Now I've graduated and I've all of a sudden taken a liking to French again! Ugh. Too many excuses is my problem.
According to my mother I am not making fake lemonade over here because I'm using real lemons so it's going to be sweeter.. or wait, nevermind the analogy is tripping.
Basically, I'm homesick and I needed a pick me up to remind me why I deal with the stiffs in my prefecture. So here are some:
And yes they get cuter.
Alright, so in the midst of looking up Miss Manners and Dear Abby letters to use for a lesson on giving and receiving advice (kindly stolen from Bob) I came across this letter.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/
AR2007100902200.html
Now, let me give you the gist if you're not inclined to read the actual letter. Guy is asked in a coffee shop to watch a laptop so no one steals it. He declines because the computer is behind him and he would have to swivel around and wait around until the person came back. The woman called him a no good dirtbag who would surely invite the wrath of Khan. Apparently he gets this response a lot when he declines to watch other people's stuff.
I have to wholeheartedly agree with Miss Manners - where's the logic in leaving your stuff with a stranger to protect it from strangers? Just me but I'd probably laugh in their face, pull a Josh and look them seriously in the eye and say, "Alright, but as soon as you leave I'm stealing it." But that's my bitchy self. I'd then snarkily turn around and continue reading. Then again, I've never been approached by this request ever so I could be blowing smoke.
Let's start off this post with a chuckle. Not too long ago but at least two months ago I had to create a listening test for the first years. Part of the unit that we had studied before included health and they learned the phrase "Have loose bowels" which seemed rather a stiff thing to say to anyone so I also taught them "Have diarrhea" and "Have an upset stomach" and suggested that they use the second option in most cases. I even put it as a bonus point (what are two additional ways to say "Have loose bowels"?) and joy ensued. In case you can't read it I have another picture just below with the text a little nicer.
Student A: 1= You buy another bowels. 2=Don't worry, let's find the bowels.
Student B: 1= Yakisoba (fried noodles) 2= fish
These next few pictures were taken on two separate occasions as I was walking home from my visit school.
And these are the reasons I laugh most of the day away. The first is a sign in America obviously but the second is actually two girls who I followed out of the train station on my way home. Kerori + Pikachu = hilarious.
This picture below looks unappetizing but to Bob at first it was a sweet nectar.. until we found out that it was actually some sort of fried fish product. What's even more ironic is that I had just bought an electronic dictionary to lesson our chances of having communication problems when we're out running around.
And this last one is at the Suwa fireworls festival that I hope to go to again - just as exciting as Red, White, and Boom!
Kind of small but I took this picture just as we were about to get on the highway from my house to the airport to head to Detroit to head for Tokyo to ultimately head to Matsumoto.
What can I say? Seeing the place where you started your humble beginnings (the hospital I was born) strikes me in some weird way and I felt the need to share. Not an exciting picture but it has a lot of meaning for me in its own way.
Next picture is actually the backs of Dad and Mom's heads as we're heading out. Again something that I didn't think would strike me but I'm glad that I can have this picture.
This picture isn't too clear but it was at a party at Steve and Matt's before we left and I was attempting to get a bottle cap in Bob's goatee. Good times.
My favorite Lost in Translation-esque picture.
This is a video of a famous temple, maybe sort of, that me and Bob came across as we were checking out Nagano city one of our first weeks in Japan. I really feel like the truee essence and atmosphere of Japan can't really be captured in any medium except the deeply personal but I'm hoping you guys will at least get a sneak peek into what it could be like to just be in Japan: the future-past hodge-podge that I love.
This picture you can see on my picture website so I won't bother to go into much detail except that I absolutely loved this wall to death. It was on the wall that lead to the cafeteria area of our hotel in Tokyo so maybe that's why I have such positive images and feelings about it =p
In any case, we could all do with more beautiful things like this in our lives so here, a gift for you.
Speaking of photo websites I'm not even sure I've posted it: www.flickr.com/whenshelaughs
EDIT: According to my current slightly messed up timeline I should have pictures of the debate contest here but I've decided to waste time and actually go to the post on the debate contest to insert the pictures there.
Next post: Weird things and Internet things and very tiny pictures.
Okay, according to my last blog post I'm supposed to talk about:
Next episode:
1. My salon experience
2. International Club
3. Recent School Happenings
4. Anything else I forgot to tell you.
Well, to be honest I completely forgot about any legitimate points I had to make about 2. and 3. but I will say a little about the salon.
THEY GIVE YOU BACK, NECK, AND HEAD MASSAGES. Period. Standard Procedure. And that's all I have to say really. But, you know me. We ended up going to a place close to our house after I was shocked into the reality of there being two distinct places for the sexes to get their hair cut and to my shock the girl actually recognized me. Apparently she's from the neighborhood and we're always walking by when she's out playing with her kids. There's not much of a way to explain it, and maybe it's the bitter suspicious "lives among those who will never accept her" foreigner paranoia sneaking through but I was actually surprised at how friendly she was with me. Her whole family was in on the business. Her husband and brother in law and father all ran the barber shop below and an elevator ride to the second floor showed her and her sister and her mother chilling with the chick side of the business. So, I have to think, was she friendly because I'm a customer and she can't help herself? I don't really think so because she was friendly also in introducing her family, a few of whom spoke English (and by that I mean could say hello with a shy smile). Heart-warming really. I'll try to put up a picture of her shop sometime but in the meantime let's end this charade, go on to the next post and I can make it a delicious photo extravaganza.
