the end.

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August 16, 2005

slow day... but then!

so something i forgot to mention a far whiles back; on the first day i got into town, 8/3, my supervisor bought me a few small things: a small fruit drink, sandwich, pastry, and tea. i opened my refridgerator and still found said items there...

the sandwich is long [expired 8/3 lol] gone... the pastry had a few days left... sooo i ate breakfast for the first time. it wasn`t so bad to be honest, kinda sweet, and moist still. mmmmm.

work started slow today as well. i caught the 9 am bus because i saw that they still considered the 16th as a holiday (or that`s how i interpreted it) so that meant the 7:40 and 8 buses wouldn`t be there this morning... at least i think that was the case. then as 11:40 or so rolled around the building started to shake.

地勢, earthquake heh.

in miyagi ken, about 5 hrs drive from here (if i were back home, think if it hit fresno) there was a weak 6, or 7.2 earthquake that registered. even here we felt about half of that, a strong 3, or 3.6 or so. oh, right, some expalining; in japan there are different ranks of earthquakes that range from 1 - 7. within each level of magnitude there are a +, strong, and a -, weak. i don`t quite understand what any of it means though.

apparently japan is rather over do for a `big one`. they say that a big earthquake happens at least once every 150 years... fun to know we`re on 151 heh. even more impressive is the way that the teaching staff (all two of them) reacted when it happened.

they stopped working. politely said `hey, it`s an earthquake.` waited for it to stop, and then continued working. not bad eh? nobody got under tables, or paniced, or cryed, or fleed in terror. and the world resumed working in about 30 seconds or so.

so anyways, today i was invited to lunch :D my supervisor, ishikawa sensei, kuboto sensei, ozawa sensei, and myself, all drove in kuboto sensei`s lincoln navigator. now i know i haven`t been in japan too long... but this surprised the hell out of me. cause they asked me to sit shotgun, and it was on the right side... but... this is japan, and, thing... left... aaaaaaaaaaa.

we went for ramen! though unfortunately as good as this place was, it`s incredibly far, with no real easy way to get there; so if you all don`t mind a walk...

during lunch was a lot of fun. i was wondering what ねぎそば was... nobody knew how to explain it. it ended up they asked the chef to show it to me; it was shredded and looked like green onions. finally he pulled out the whole thing from the fridge and i just smacked myself in the forehead. and that day i taught everyone in the restaurant that ねぎ meant leek in english.

then they asked me what it meant in chinese...

and i have no freaking clue... (sorry mom). at which time ishikawa sensei asked if i liked 餃子, or pot stickers, and, being chinese and all, of course i do. i tried teaching them what little dragon buns are and that they`re the best. i also promised them that if we went to taiwan i`d show them around (right mike and mike?). then i heard the most unforgivable utterance of words...;

ozawa sensei: 行きたくなかった. (i never wanted to go)

/dies.

oh, and if none of you have noticed through these entries or my aim conversations with you. my english is slowly slowly deterorating. and that`s all fine and good, except i noticed my japanese isn`t really improving. see now that`s no goodo [that was on purpose]. i started noticing them in one my conversations with horace, we were talking about the earthquake and i was mentioning the training we received at orientation:

me: yeah they had this video for us at kakegawa orientation about earthquakes.
m: they have us a copy.
horace: ...

yeah things like that. i think some of my grammar is also getting really ugly in these entries :P on another thought, i`ve been talking a lot with a lot of the teachers here. and secretly i have this hidden agenda to introduce the `l` sound into japanese language.

so i tried to think of one of the hardest words that have both `r` and `l.`

the word(s) for the day: girl. roll.

my supervisor couldn`t do it without laughing. ishikawa sensei gave up but then tried again later after i asked sato sensei (who got it right off the bat believe it or not). and when ishikawa sensei saw my よくやりました～おめでとうございます～ song and dance she tried again. and still my supervisor couldn`t do it without laughing heh. kobuto sensei got it within a few tries too, so you see, it can be done!

Posted by Jeff at August 16, 2005 04:28 PM

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