Hey people,
So not much to report at the moment...
I'm sitting at my desk pretending to work on the computer but actually spending the whole time moping the sweat off my brow and making cold drinks. Jeff has banned me from buying any more tea atm (I only have nine packets atm - what a meanie :p), so I am experimenting with making my own iced tea. My apple iced tea is ok. Tastes a little odd, but I'm sure that's just because I'm scrutinising it so closely...
However, I figure anything to save money on drinks - it is so hot here that we spend a fortune on cold beverages. I think Jeff had two beers and a can of cola yesterday while I'm drinking heaps of iced 'ocha' - green tea. Half and half with water, it makes a wonderfully refreshing drink. Odd, considering I 'don't like' green tea!
Currently there is really loud thunder overhead. There was a little bit of rain, maybe an hour ago, but lots more thunder. I find it odd having thunderstorms without rain, and often I have seen lightening without thunder, or heard thunder without lightening. I'm not sure whether that is just the mountains blocking the sound and the light hiding the lightening or what... Maybe it's just Japanese thunder and lightening doesn't follow NZ rules and feels no need to hang out together, instead striking out on it's own...
Oh, big news: We bought a bed! I got sick of putting away the futon every morning - especially since we are soft-arse white people and slept on two each, so that was four futon to put away every morning and get out every night, plus sheets, covers and pillows. But more importantly, our mariatal bed looked like two kids camping out. If you moved too much in your sleep, the futon even moved apart from each other and you woke up with a gap between the two in the morning.
So on Saturday we went into Fukuyama city in search of a bed. The bed I had liked the previous weekend was already sold, but a second secondhand store had a new bed in (there are clearly lots of us Europeans trying to get the comfort of home without paying for a Brand New Very Expensive bed!). It was a little more expensive, but I figured it was worth it, to save us the hassle of missioning it back into Fukuyama on another bed hunt.
In all reality, Fukuyama is not so far from our house. In an NZ car with NZ speed limits it would only be half an hour or so. However, in our little kei car (up the hill... chuggachuggachug... "you can do it, little car!!"), with 50kmph speed limits it is a SLOW trip. What makes it even slower is that on the country roads you invariably get stuck behind a vvvveeeerrrrrrryyyyyy sssssllllllllooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww driver (no really, it happens so often that on Saturday night Jeff commented with surprise that we hadn't got stuck behind anyone that night!) and when you hit the city border the traffic is HEAVY. It seems to be rush hour traffic whenever we enter Fukuyama, no matter what time of day. Feels a bit Truman Show - you know, with all the traffic leaping into the shot at once, because you have turned up.
Anyway, to avoid the Fukuyama traffic again, I voted buying the more expensive bed and Jeff went with it (I fear, in Jeff's efforts to not make me feel bad about spending the money he is earning us, he is leaving more of the financial decisions to me than he normally would. Or maybe he never cared about that stuff and always let me pick but I never noticed it because I was bringing in $$ too then...).
On the Sunday, our bed was delivered and put together by the friendly Japanese blokes in their mint-green overalls. I was a little concerned about them carrying the mattress up the steepsteep stairs in socks, but telling a Japanese person to leave there shoes on inside is like telling a Kiwi to sunbathe naked in public - it's Not Going to Happen. Luckily they were careful and we now have a lovely new double bed. Admittedly it was odd last night, going from a queen bed in NZ, to being sprawled out on the bedroom floor, to now being confined to a double bed, but we managed to avoid each other's sweaty limbs and get a decent sleep. Bring on the cooler weather!
Today I had my daily Japanese lesson with Ken-san, a local bloke who teaches at the Jinseki chugakko (Junior High). He did the equivalent to the JET programme teaching Japanese in USA for a year and half, so his English is really good, and he has been to NZ to compete in an Iron Man competition, so he is... a little crazy, but in a good way. I'm hoping when it cools down he can take Jeff and I on some hikes and stuff. He has been really helpful and supportive for me, teaching me Japanese every day and organising things so I can be a volunteer assistant teacher in their school - which basically means I can hang out there all I like, attending English classes to help teach, Japanese classes to learn and anything else I think interesting includingn cooking and sports classes. While it kills me to give up all my free time, it will be an amazing opportunity to learn the language and it was really sweet of them to make sure I'm not stuck at home turning into Bertha Rochester (Jane Eyre, for those that didn't get the reference... I know many of you don't read the classics. Or just don't read).
My daily lesson is bookended by waving children; to get to the school I walk past the school yard - a large bare patch of dirt, which the children are instructed to hand-pick to keep it like that. There is an almost constant game of baseball, although the age of the children playing varies from teeny to almost adult sized. When I walk past, one of the boys usually turns around and stares. I wave and the whole team waves back, yelling some greeting or other. I call back 'Ohayo' and that seems to keep them happy. Sometimes I also have girls hanging out the second-storey classroom windows doing the same, or their volleyball game in the gym goes quite as they watch me walk past. Most of the kids are excited to see me, but sometimes they look very shy and rather freaked out. I guess I can understand that sentiment, as they feel under pressure to speak in English and it can be scary taking what you learn by rote in the classroom and trying to hold a conversation with it (trust me, I know!).
Hmm... considering I had nothing much to say, this has turned out really long!!
Please feel free to leave comments, particuarly questions on what aspects of life here I have not informed you of so far - it is all so different it can be hard knowing where to start!
Miss you guys,
Charly (& Jeff)
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