Islands parties meetings and studies

What a busy mix my life is.

Friday night was spent an onsen with Oshima folks as a goodbye party to 4 more members of our educational system. 2 of our lunchladies including Fukiyama san will be retiring, as will Ishizuka-san (he still has a temple to look after at his house) and then Yoshida-sensei, my dear Japanese papa will be moved elsewhere. It was a little hard to choke the tears back during the speeches. I just got here, why do they have to leave? Grr..stupid Joetsu merger. I guess I'm just not meant to get too settled here after all. The food was great but I caught Keiko-san and Watanabe-san's colds after sharing a room for the night futon sleeping.

The final Peter ja Pan was fun. The lighting rather sucked so we won't have a good filmed copy of the play...a bit dissapointing, but otherwise a really fun runthrough with some added jokes and cutting up... For example, Hook says "That's the last straw"... when suddenly and ominous voice comes on saying "No HOOK THIS IS THE LAST STRAW"and the lights flash and handfuls of straws fly from all directions onto the pirates and the stage. There was also a fun pause before the big battle between the pirates, peter pan and the tribespeople where the tech crew comes out and does everyones makeup touchup while they are frozen and then run off.

The ferry rides were okay, most people sleeping....I learned how to say many things in Japanese on the trip....such as "hang over " is...Futsuka yoi. "Boat sick" is Fune yoi. "Hell no!" is Arienai (a young people kinda phrase like you'd say if your friend was trying to hook up with your boyfriend I was told). Alot of people are going on the trip to Papau New Guinea (at least alot of girls and some guys), but I am going to Kyoto with Victoria, possibly also catching the train over with Chuck and his visiting female friend from the states.

Monday was White Day in Japan. This means I got chocolate! You see, on Valentine's day WOMEN give MEN chocolate, and then on White Day the men reciprocate. Okay, so I didn't really give anybody chocolate so I'm a loser, but they thought enought of me at the BOE that I got 2 boxes of chocolate and marshmallow stuff. (I was nice and gave all my choco marshmallows away at the JHS, on the other hand I single handedly ate the other box of chocaltes, way to go chunky-style!) There was also the monthly ALT meeting at Joetsu BOE where Chuck was the man and came prepared with nice bags of chocolate for every girl and woman present! Yes, other men of the world take his example and study hard!

As for the rest of the week it has been spent either studying or sleeping. Sleeping because of the cold, and studying because of a major life decision.......Drum roll please, I am planning to apply to grad school at Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey California (we're talking nice weather, small town, Japanese translation and interepretation degree...oh yeah!) So now I am trying to work my tail off in order to get my Japanese skills up to par so I can get accepted. Don't get me wrong I still love drawing and stories and want to do children's books oneday, but I just don't see any financially stable near future making that possible just yet. But, oh, don't you worry, it will be, it will be. Meanwhile translating could be lotsa fun, maybe doing films like "Spirited Away" or oppurtunities for lots of travels with large businesses, who knows? It looks like money, and travel, and something I understand how to do, which spells F-U-N. Anyhow, I can't get too ahead of myself here, I have alot of work ahead of me so wish me luck.