A Pie Safe

What an unusual piece of furniture. Why would anyone bake so many pies that they needed a whole piece of furniture to keep their pies away from flies? At least this is the reason I've always heard for having screens on a piece of furniture. But was this a fantastical story about flies swarming around our pies embellished to peak the curiosity of a young girl? Alas, I'm not an antique dealer so I don't really know. But why not put your pies on a counter or buffet with a cloth or net over them - or in the refrigerator? Regardless, I love this piece of furniture. I really feel attached to and cherish the one from my grandparents' house.

As a child I could see the screen, but not the inside because everything was coming from a distorted, unfocused perspective because of the screen. It was always very mysterious to me. I can remember being short and unable to see into it - yet I knew if I climbed on a stool or other piece of furniture all my hopes to see in would be realized. Then I grew taller and could easily see all of the treasures within. I wonder, if they were really all treasures or the same junk that all of us collect in drawers, cabinets, and closets all over the world? I know for sure that there were Easter decorations inside. I can remember Grandma lifting out delicate bunnies made of glass and ceramic. Some had children holding them or pots we would fill with delicious Easter egg shaped jelly beans. Did she also keep Christmas or Thanksgiving figurines there as well? Because I know she always had just the right figurine to put on the table or in the center of a sheet-cake. Upon considering it, why would we actually put a heavy ceramic figure into the middle of a cake? Seems absurd. I certainly loved it, but shouldn't it have sunk into the cake? Maybe it did, I can't remember. But I can remember licking frosting off the bottom of an Easter decoration. These are things that I have been pondering lately. But sadly, my grandmother is no longer here to answer the questions.

Since I've grown up, I fondly remember so many things that happened in that house, huge slumber parties over Christmas, the TOY room, Josie's treasures kept in tiny shadow boxes, doll houses, paper dolls from the stacks of Good Housekeeping magazines that were bound to be somewhere, washing dishes by hand, late night dominoes or spades tournaments, squash nachos, all these things were instilling in me such a strong feeling of tradition. Being so far away from that house that played a central role in my upbringing is strange. What's even stranger is how much I know it will have changed when I return in summer. I know life goes on and all of those things, but it is really surreal that a new person will be living there and furniture will be moved. Possibly my favorite piece of furniture in the world (which is saying a lot since I worked in a furniture store) is no longer in it's prime place by the Boy's bathroom or dining room as it was most recently. I've heard lots of things have been transferred to other people's houses. As one of 30 or so grandchildren to 9 children borne by my grandmother, I never really had much hope of inheriting much other than china, which I am excited to use one day... but part of me longs to continue to remember my childhood and the wonderful times with my grandmother by having this permanent reminder in a home of my very own. The nesting instinct is growing... Yet, I know there have to be others who have these same strong feelings.

Dear China

Dear China,
In order to have a smooth Olympics I have some ideas about what you should do.

1. get more taxis. Most people get belligerent when they have to wait for an hour for the seemingly simple task of getting a cab.

2. Also, put in a taxi stand in popular tourist attractions such as the Forbidden City or even somewhere near Tienanmen Square.

3. Allow cabs to stop at major intersections so passengers can get out or in easily.

4. Help drivers learn the English-y pronunciations and locations of the like 6 historic places in Beijing where foreign tourists would want to visit. Here's a hint - look up the place names in Lonely Plant. Probably the oldest Confucian temple in the city is one of those places. We had two different cab drivers who couldn't find it.

Other than wasting a lot of time trying to convice drivers to take us where we wanted to go, I think your city is nice. A bit on the hazy side because of pollution but it doesn't seem any worse than Bangkok.

Spring

Spring is in the air here in Fukui. I'm amazed at how quickly and evenly the seasons change here in Japan. A lot has been said about how Japan has 4 distinct seasons, and as I've been here longer I tend to agree. I don't think this makes Japan crazy unique or anything like it has been presented to me, but it is a cool thing. Certainly in East Texas the weather isn't normal or predictable. It's just as likely to snow in April as it is to be sunny and 80 degrees on Christmas day.

This year I was shocked at how quickly the mountains around Takefu have changed from barren branches to covered in cherry blossoms to bright green leaves. It all happened so fast, and I feel like I barely had a chance to take it all in. I guess traveling to China over the peak cherry blossom season made that feeling more acute. Since I'm preparing to leave soon, I've been trying to get in the last cherry blossom viewing party, the last BBQ, last time to see a mountain covered in azaleas, and so on. I know the time I've got left will pass quicker than I want it to.

Finally Finished

The JLPT test is finally over. Rob and I took level 2 which is a really difficult exam. It requires you to know 1000 kanji in addition to 6000 words and difficult grammar. And probably junior high level of reading comprehension. Obviously, I am not at that level at all! I still have trouble stringing together sentences that make sense, and tend to just use the phrases I know too often. So I think we will both fail, me miserably, and Rob by not so much (he thinks).

This leads me to a junction in studying Japanese. Should I keep at it? or just know what I know and hope I don't loose the few words I know immediately upon entering America. It's such a tough language to use. Sometimes I feel like it's worth it - today I read an email in all Japanese. Other times like at the travel agent last week I hope to catch a few words I know, and respond in one or two words which is frustrating.

I watched a movie in Spanish the other day and thought I could understand tons of it, even though my last Spanish class was 8 years ago. This is a huge difference from Japanese which I have been studying somewhat diligently (well for me) for the past 7 years, taking a 3 year break while living in Longview and Chicago. The fact that I can't even understand shows with limited vocabulary in Japanese after all this work sort of makes me want to call it quits. hmm. I don't know what to do.

From School

So I was walking around the school just now and heard organ music. How come I didn't realize we have a pipe organ in our school? Why do we have one? Who on earth would be playing it and for what purpose? These are all questions I was asking myself just now. And since I have a laptop to use at school, and a connection to the internet I thought I would post these feelings for everyone to know about.

I decided that I don't like organ music. It makes me feel creeped out. I think the only time I've ever heard that music is in my Grandma's church. And usually it is accompanied by 6 or so feeble voices singing their hearts out. I seem to remember few of them being on key. Maybe the style of music of her church and mine was so different that this memory sticks out in my mind as the only time I've ever heard the organ being played. Regarless of that though, I think it's weird to hear such somber music at a high school.

Hello Higashi High School

I transfered schools this year, and I think it was a good decision. I was really sad to leave my old schools, and felt like I was abandoning some of my teachers in an English teaching and motivation battle they could never win.

But, Higashi High School is amazing! So far I've had to work every day quite a bit - planning anywhere from 1 to 4 classes a day. I'm always doing work which was very unusual for me at JHS. The kids I am teaching are really cool. They have their own opinions about the world and Japan, and they can expresses themselves in English. They come up to me (unsolicited) in the halls, teachers' room and before class and engage me in conversation where my opinion is valued. It's unbelievable compared to my previous situation.

Also the teachers are really nice and welcoming. My desk in the teacher's room is surrounded by 5 JTEs and 1 other JET, Toby, who is from the UK. So I can chat with people, and get ideas for classes really easily. Last night was our welcome party. It was a this really fancy place so I thought everyone would be serious and not talk that much. But it turned into this crazy party. I think at least half of the teachers there, about 20, came up and talked to me! This is pretty unusual behavior for teachers towards at ALT. After going to lots of parties where I only talk to the person next to me, and maybe one other person who gets me a drink, and hearing about the same thing happening to lots of ALTs, I was really happy and appreciated their friendliness even more.

I didn't get an invitation to the 2nd party. I feel like if I were really cool I would have. It's a good goal to work towards next time. But it was ok because I planned to go out with friends later anyways. Rob came to pick us up, and it turns out had hit a wild boar inoshishi on his way home from calligraphy lessons. Yikes! It messed up our bumper. So I'm going to look into getting that fixed today while he is at his school's cultural festival.

Lotus Garden

Lotus are so amazing here. I never knew there were so many varieties of the plant. we saw pink, yellow, cream, and white colored ones - all in varring shades and with different patters of color on the leaves.
Here's a field of lotus growing naturally.

After walking around the fields and then gardens we stopped for soft serve icecream that was lotus flavored. It only tasted a bit different than vanilla - but I couldn't say for certain it was lotus flavored as I've never eatten a lotus. Getting different flavors of soft cream for each season is really popular here. I've tasted loads of different ones. My all time favorite was sakura.

After ice cream we soaked our feet in a hot spa bathtub thing with some plastic lotus blossoms, some real ones, and some dried see pods in it. I think there was lotus soap in it as well. Then we took this group picture.