more ramblings. . .

hey all. . . sorry, i know it has been ages since i have written. . .where to start??? mornings? random assumptions? dance? announcements? winter?

i ride my bike to school every morning and get to pass my kids and their parents. . . it is probably my favorite part of the day (when i am not running late). . . anyway, our conversations normally go as follows. . . "ah, erinn-sensee!" "good morning! ohayoo!" "good morning!". . . recently, however, after i pass them, i hear things like "how are you? i'm fine!" and "let's begin!" . . . it's so funny to hear a four year old japanese boy mumbling to himself "how are you? i'm fine". . . it's nice to know they are learning something. :)

let's see, next? . . . the random assumptions are really rather old stories that i have not had time to write about. . . have i ever mentioned that my little minica has no cd player, no tape player, and no fm radio??? only am. . . it's a blast driving an hour to dance and an hour home every week listening to the nhk, old school japanese music, and insanely corny english lessons. . . anyway, i was telling yuria about this and how when i first came to japan, i thought that all cars had only am radio. . . that didn't last long. . . as in maybe one day. . . guess it was a rather odd assumption, but i still have no idea why my car only as am radio. . . if you can put in a radio, why can you not make it with am and fm? is it that difficult??? hmmm. . .

possibly one of my favorite moments was the day that sayaka and i were at dinner, and i asked her why japan didn't have their own birthday song. . . she insisted, "oh, we do!" . . . i asked her how it went and heard the following. . . "ハッピーバースデーツユ、ハッピーバースデーツユ. . ." (a.k.a. "happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. . .") . . . i started cracking up. . . "sayaka, that's english!" . . . "huh? oh, it is. . . yeah, i guess we don't have a song." (end story. . .funny, huh?)

dance. . . not much to report except that i am dancing four days a week (five lessons). . . jazz (which is really quite modern) with mostly adults, ballet with 7-12 year olds (but is more difficult than many adult classes), modern ballet/ martha graham classes with myself and two teachers, and body control with adults. . . my martha graham teacher started choreographing my solo last week. . . my posture and general muscle usage have improved a great deal thanks to ballet and body control. . . one of my students said "recently erinn, more beautiful". . . i'm guessing she was talking about my posture??? . . . anyway, i love dance and have the best teachers around. . .

ha, my supervisor was attempting to inform me of the "year-end office party". . . but kept saying "lost year party" . . . japanized english once again. . .

announcements. . . this morning the other workers in the board of education thought it would be hilarious if i made the 8:25 morning announcement for all of the kahoku town office workers (maybe one hundred or so??) . . . i am not particularly fond of pa systems in general. . . and even less so when i have to speak in japanese!. . . but my office gave me a nice round of applause when i finished. . .

what do i have to say about winter in japan?. . . simply that while we may have highs in the 50s and 60s everyday, every moment before and after the high is quite harsh. . . especially thanks to the nonexistence of heaters in the schools and pretty much every building controlled by the town! it's so flipping cold!!! worst of all, there is no snow. . . actually, i should not say that because i will probably not be able to drive my little minica once we have snow (i.e. no dance!!!) . . . but snow makes the cold beautiful. . . can cold be beautiful? kind of like the linguistic phrase about 'colorless green ideas'??? anyway. . .

i have more to say, as usual. . . i also have pictures that i keep meaning to post. . . i know!! i know!! i'm sorry!!!!

maybe once classes stop (but i still have to come to the board of education to 'work'), i will have some time. . .

happy winter! hope you all have snow . . . and heaters!

scary. . .

Japan to probe foreigners' crimes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4492324.stm

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20051122zg.htm


funny. . .

Pakistan deletes 'pro-Bush' poem
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4501132.stm

Six police cars in 12mph chase
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-1895365,00.html

Here's a Christmas video to "lighten" your day
http://www.StupidVideos.com/?VideoID=1344