Tonight I'm a little melancholy. I'm not really sure why, when I'm down I become very observant of the things around me. Sometimes I am just blown away by the aesthetics of where I am - no matter where it is. Nagoya is very beautiful at night, in a sort of glitter-techno way.
Blaaaaah. I think I'm getting sick, too...
I'm kinda annoyed because one of my fellow teachers said that a student described me as "the new teacher who doesn't smile." Why does that annoy me? Because I do nothing BUT smile at these people. =_= Annoying. The only times I DON'T smile are when people are being sullen - I'm not able to keep up being all genki and exuberant when people are practically glowering at me. Meh. I don't really care, I guess, it's just annoying. I've been thinking more and more lately that I really am suited more to research or higher education than teaching the masses.
Some of my students are really cool though. I've had a student named Yoshiko for the last two days. She's a level 4 student, so she is fairly good, rather fluent. She's very cool. She had managed to get out of getting an actual lesson twice now, because she just wants to talk. I wish Nova wasn't so anal about teachers not being allowed to talk to students outside of class, I'd love to hang out with her sometime. Heh, I think she wants to be my mother. :) She's in her fifties or sixties, probably... she's cool. She lived in California for a couple years about 20 years ago. I also have a student named Takaaki, who is just really cool. He's also a level 4 student, and he's so smart. He's very funny, he makes me laugh a lot.
I dunno. I like Japan. It's a really neato place. I couldn't live here the rest of my life or anything, but there are definitely a lot of things I'll miss when I go home next year.
Another typhoon might be coming... not a big one, thoguh, and I really think it might miss Japan entirely. The pressure systems play havvoc on my sinuses... owie headaches!
Today I tried something called... wagashi? I think that's it... one of our students went on a vacation and brought it back for us. It's a traditional sweet, and it's a gooey inside covered with sweet bean paste. Lemme look for a picture... darn. "Wagashi" is a generic term for Japanese confectionary. ^_^* Anyway, THESE ones were a gooey, probably rice candy, wrapped in a thin coating of smooth, sweet bean paste. It was pretty tasty, though I didn't really like the texture. Some of the Wagashi is really really pretty. I really recommend going and just looking at pictures of it.
It's funny, with regards to food. It's amazing the things that I will eat here that I won't eat at home. Here, you can go into a convenience store and get a meal... and not worry about getting sick. Half of the country lives on convenience store food, I think. The prices aren't too bad either. I will also try unidentifiable foods, as long as I can venture a guess to general flavor groups - as in "dinner" or "dessert." I've also consumed more raw fish in the last month than I have my entire life... including some things I didn't think would every pass my lips. Like raw squid!
Posted by Aimee at October 27, 2004 01:48 AM*gasp* You've had raw squid???? Gaaaaah! Hehehehe! You're getting into the spirit of things! Frankly, I've never had raw squid tho my parents eat it. I dunno, just can't get past the smell of it all raw...!
Posted by: nikita at October 28, 2004 10:28 AMSmile whether others smile or not, because you have a beautiful smile which can lite up a room. I checked the site for the wagashi, which strangly was all in French.
Posted by: Ellen at October 30, 2004 11:27 AM