Will I really do a Michael Jackson post?

Why, yes, I will.

I don't usually get caught up in celebrity deaths. I always feel bad for the families and it's sad to see people disappear, but I'm not one to put emoticons on Facebook about it. It feels very fake to me to see people bawling at a candlelight vigil over someone they didn't know.

Just to be clear, I'm not bawling over Michael Jackson.

But I am a little sad.

My sister and I were irrationally in love with Michael Jackson (the kind that fervently and red-facedly defends against all jokey fatherly attempts to dethrone a 7 year-old's crush) and I honestly don't remember being so wild about any celebrity before him. I admit that Michael and I parted ways after Bad, but I my sister still has her Thriller album (well, I have it because I won't give it back...) and I still have my folder from elementary school with the picture of him in that yellow vest and bow tie. Gosh, he was cute.

The past couple of days, just because the access is so easy, I've been re-watching some of his old videos and it reminded me why I watched them in the first place. Yes, the crush was a big reason, but his looks changed enough that I didn't adore those so much anymore -- but I still liked to watch him dance. It's just mesmerizing.

I finally came across my favorite Michael Jackson song, which has no video and no dance moves, but is just infinitely listenable. So along with the photo of the cutie I fell for, I leave you with this.

Hope you are happier elsewhere, Michael.

OMG

Seriously.

My fantastically bruised leg

Of course the photo doesn't show it's true beauty -- it's vividness in reality far outshines what you see here, but I think you can still see what a lovely shiner it is.

Tales from the Weekend

Today SO and I went for a looooong bike ride to the Echizen coast and back. I finally got to try out Mare, a little seaside restaurant that has been beckoning me for the past 4 years. We had a bacon and egg toasted sandwich -- and by bacon, I mean an oblong slice of ham as thick as my finger. I can't figure out why they won't just call it ham.

I got some clipless pedals for my bike (another name I don't understand since they have, um, a clip) and I did pretty well on them. Just once, I was in a tunnel, trying to turn around and I had one foot out for safety, but that doesn't do jack when you are falling the other direction. I managed to throw myself to the side of the free foot, preventing a total splatter on teh sidewalk, but not avoiding a heavy collision with the bike and my entire body weight on my calf. My leg is about nine shades of purple and blue for a good 6 inches. Woo-hoo. At least it's the kind of bruise you can proudly show off -- it's not like I have to admit that I fell down while drunk or fell on my ass in a parking lot or anything...

The weekend was actually quite nice -- Friday night one of the JETs here had an amusing party called Edward Sake Hands -- everyone had to bring a bottle of sake and then the host taped it to their hands until they had finished it. I brought a couple of cans of beer because I didn't think people were seriously going to drink an entire bottle of sake by themselves. I was wrong. After everyone quickly got pleasantly social, we went to a bar that was waaaay too far for someone to suggest walk to it, but whatever. It's lameness kept me from staying out too late. It didn't stop me from trying to give a 200 pound dude a ride home on the back of my bicylce, however, which was interesting...

Saturday, our Japanese teacher took us to a Mongolian restaurant for a kind of good-bye lunch. The owner was her friend and our teacher had been to Mongolia with her, so they were able to give us a tidy little education while we ate. Afterwards, our teacher took us to her husband's office (he's retired, but still does some kind of agricultural work, so his office is a little house in a rice field). I'm not sure why we went there, but I think she just wanted to have us talk to him one last time and show us where he worked. Then she had us drive her by her house so she could show that to us too. She's cute. I think she wanted to do more stuff with us outside of class, but her invitations were always sort of half invitations -- she would mention something, but then it was like she was too embarassed too go on. We weren't always sure we were understanding her Japanese correctly, so we didn't want to be like, sure! we'll go! and then , come to find out she was just telling about her plans. I'll miss her.

Then Saturday night, we went to a Malaysian place for our friend's birthday and after that, I happily fell asleep. Talked to Mom and my sister this morning, went for a bike ride and now I'm typing in front of the fan. Good weekend!

Finally the weekend

Today I realized that I have just four weeks left in my job. I'm surprised by how short of time I have left, and I'm not eager to make it fly by, but I'm not overly sad to see it go.

I took a walk with my friend J today and she said she didn't understand why no one was talking about how they were feeling about leaving. She felt like it was this huge moment that everyone was just leaving unsaid. I think for some people, they need a moment to grieve and I get that. I don't know what I need. I feel ready to do something else, but I know I'll miss the lovely people I've met here. I haven't made any close friends, but there are plenty of interesting people to talk to whenever I want the company. I probably sound like an asshole, but honestly, that's not the case when you are in your own country (especially if that country and specific location seem to be in the middle of nowhere).

This time of year is the only time I really get eager about -- all the new people coming in is fun to deal with. After a while, though, they stop talking to me (if they don't live very close) and they get bogged down in the same bullshit as their neighbors, which more often than not is petty culture war stuff. It's funny how people come here sooooo excited and within months pile on all these reasons why Japan is a joke. It's hard for them to see that this is the true work of internationalization -- this is why people don't get along. It's easy to think you are the only sane one since whatever it is you are facing seems so inexplicable.

B-days

Today was SO's birthday. We are flat broke, so I couldn't treat him to a special much of anything. I did set up a dinner an okonomiyaki place though. I'm not terribly fond of okonomikyaki, so I never agree to go there. In honor of his birthday though, I thought it was the least I could do. Our friends were lovely -- K set up the reservation and M&K brought an ice cream cake. Very lovely.

I had a busy day answering e-mails (like always) and in the afternoon I helped out with a teacher trainer seminar for elementary teachers. My colleague impressed me with his ability to tune into the teachers' feelings and create little ice breaker activities that did do a pretty good job of helping the participants to relax. It's always good to see how Japanese people relate to other Japanese people.

I'm over it

I'm coming out of my initial disappointment with the China nomination and I'm thinking about the good things. I told my co-worker today about it and he said that it was an "honorable position". I know it's a bit ridiculous, but this made me feel better.

I also know that I can make a good situation out of anything. I don't like brooding and I don't like people who complain all the time. It's funny I started out this blog with complaints, knowing that, but I guess the situation was just such a shock to me. I had been thinking of starting a blog for a while and I suppose the nomination just pushed me to finally talk. Not about anything anyone wants to hear about, but whatever, hey at least I'm writing something.

I don't believe in destiny, I think we make our own way in the world; if I did believe, though, I could easily make a case about why going to China now would be one of the best uses of my Peace Corps time. I mean, China is on the cusp of something big right now and it has huge power over pivotal states like North Korea. I know there are a billion people living there, but if more people like me were to go and have some influence over just a few bright, up and coming students, we might really help to make the China of the future more flexible. I'm not going into specifics right now because there are too many places to start and I don't think I have all the answers. I do think Peace Corps in China is just a soft diplomacy move on the part of the U.S. and I guess I say, why not? Why shouldn't I support that? With the amount of power China has at the moment, isn't this grassroots diplomacy as important as whatever it is I had in my head I would be doing in Africa?

So, I'm over it. No more bitching -- I'll go wherever Peace Corps wants to send me and I'll do it in style. I realize I could even be moved somewhere else before all is said and done, so I'll just go with the flow.

Still Thinking

I looked at the letter from my recruiter again and it actually says "English Teacher Trainer", not "English Teaching", so maybe I'm wrong about them wanting us to just teach English. I haven't seen any blogs or anything on the Peace Corps sight that talks about training teachers or any other college students in China in anything but the English language, but I suppose we shall see.

I want to be excited about it, I do, I'm just not. Doing placements here in Japan, though, I know how presumptuous I think people are when they start making demands about where they should be. That's why I'm just trying to ride this out. Obviously, the placement they suggest is the one I'm most qualified for, it's just not what I thought I would be getting with the Peace Corps. I'm trying to reconcile my qualifications and figure out just why I would prefer to go someplace else.

I've also thought about some of the good points -- I mean, my kanji study here in Japan will still be somewhat useful in China and at least having a basic grasp of Mandarin could really boost my chances of getting into the foreign service later down the road. That's if I really put some effort into learning -- I wasn't such a great student here in Japan. I have a different perspective going into it this time, though, so I think it will motivate me to do better.

Peace Corps wise, if anyone is interested in time lines, here is how things have shaped up for me...

The SO and I completed our applications in late February. We were contacted by the recruiter by e-mail on March 10th. She informed us that our legal kits had been sent. The husband never received his, so we had to request another be sent. I kept in constant contact with the recruiter after this and I'm glad I did, because not all the information I needed was included in the original mailing -- for example, she wanted a copy of our marriage certificate, but didn't tell me that until after I double-checked that I was sending all the necessary documents.

We finally got word that our legal kits were received in early April. We set up a phone interview for April 27th. The phone interview was 3 hours long -- one for each of us and then one for us both together (holding the phone between us to hear the questions, then passing the it back and forth to answer). It was a little exhausting since we had to stay up from 10pm to nearly 1am due to the time difference, but otherwise it was fine. The questions were nearly verbatim from the Peace Corps Wiki interview questions list, so if anyone wants to prepare, they should use those.

Let's see... after the interview, she told us that we had to wait until May to pass our name on to the "couple's review board" and in the meantime, we should look for a French program to re-up our skill levels. The panel meeting took place around May 26th and we heard about the program on June 6th. Now we are waiting to receive our medical kits, which we should get in the next month. I have no idea how we'll get them finished before we leave Japan, but we'll gambarimasu.

First One!

I'll save the explanation of the how's and why's and just jump right in. My husband and I are preparing to leave Japan, after four years on the JET Program. We have applied for the Peace Corps and were surprised a couple of days ago with a note from our recruiter asking us to join Peace Corps in China as English teachers. Definitely NOT NOT NOT what I want to do, but I'm trying to mull it over. The thought of it nearly bores me to tears though since I've already spent plenty of time teaching English and I can safely say it is not my favorite activity, nor does it have any relevancy to my future career. If I was going to live in some place a bit further from my current location, it might be more interesting for me. I will continue to mull. Well, glad I got my first bitch blog out of the way. Welcome to my cyber world!