engrish

to-do list

early wednesday morning, i spent like an hour totally lost in this fantasy world where i was somehow in minnesota for a mini one-day vacation. i made a little to-do list in my head:

- sleep in till 6.

before i came to japan i was given an info packet written up by one of the american counselors at kobejogakuin. it had schedules, rules, tips, etc. it was ridiculously detailed. like, it even suggested that i stock up on shoes since i probably wouldnt be able to find a pair of trendy heels or whatever in my size.

holy shit. im half-watching this kids show on tv and an ostrich just karate-kicked a policeman in the face.

anyway... so i was flipping through this packet and read that school starts at 8:30, an hour later than s!bley. i assumed this meant that id also be able to sleep in an extra hour, but i forgot to take into account that the walk from the train station to school alone is like 20 minutes. and my host family lives nowhere near that particular train station. it takes about an hour and a half total depending on what trains you take. so now im getting up at 5 every morning instead of 6 (or 7, like i was looking forward to). because of this, waking up at 6 is a treat.

- drive to school. pick up di and matt on the way and have a fancy breakfast out.

- go out for pie after school. invite resa, bendy, di, jackie, carl... straight down the list, including all the awesome people i dont get to talk to often (especially now that im in japan), like megan, greg, and lynn.

- go to starbucks with my mom.

to clarify, i dont particularly miss starbucks/gourmet coffee. there are starbucks in japan. its not like california where you run into one every block, but theyre around. i think ive seen 2 or 3 since ive been here.

i miss going there on a somewhat regular basis with my mom. its been a tradition of ours since i was in middle school - shed pick me up after school, wed drive out to starbucks, and then shed drop me off at home and head back to work. it took almost exactly an hour, her whole lunch break. after awhile pretty much everyone knew us and our "usuals." it was very cheers. this guy named matt used to have our drinks ready for us whenever he saw us pull into the parking lot.

- call pat. i love his voice.

cha-ren-ji! (challenge)

so it looks like ashley and i are finally on good terms. i decided to be ultra sweet to her so we could eventually become friends. normally i wouldnt have bothered. talk about having bigger fish to fry. but (1) ashley is probably the only american ill get the chance to talk to while im here, (2) i spend at least 2 hours with her every day and am usually "paired" with her since were both american and the same age, and (3) making friends with someone i otherwise would have avoided seemed like a personal challenge.

for the first week or so it sucked, but as it turns out we have a lot in common. for instance, her boyfriend is from germany but is currently staying in tokyo, which is like 6 hours away by bullet train. under normal circumstances this would be the perfect opportunity to hang out or whatever, but because the japanese are notoriously ambiguous theyre having to jump through a lot of hoops. after dealing with pats mom, i totally understand what theyre going through.

(update: were actually good friends now.)

make your life happy

i had time to kill, so i decided to check out the school store. there were lots of emergency items youd typically expect find at an all-girls school - lip gloss, bobby pins, pads, socks, pantyhose, etc. i took note of some things i might eventually need, like cough drops, cutesy planners, and tiny notebooks especially for studying vocab on the go. theyre actually aimed towards japanese students studying english, but whatever. it could come in handy.

they also carried these neat dr. grip pens. they came in three or four different pastel colors, were polka-dotted, and had "polka dots are colorful and make your life happy" written up the side. it wouldve been the perfect gift for di, but they didnt have any purple ones! bastards.