The 2nd Year

Three days ago, I came back to Japan from a relaxing vacation at home. When I arrived at the Tokyo airport, I had really mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I was returning to something that isn't so foreign anymore. While I'm still far from understanding the language entirely, I was able to read most of the important signs and understand the gists of the announcements.

At school, I will no longer have to start over as the new ALT and trying to gain the students' trusts or learn their names.

On the other hand, I felt as lost as ever. One of my closest friends from last year left the program after a year and I didn't quite know who to send the "I'm back!" message to from my cell phone. I realized that I will have to make the same efforts to get to know the 37 new teachers in town just like I had to last year. The task seems a bit tiring.

At school, while the students still make me laugh my head off, I feel as though the things that have been frustrating me the last year will not change.

So, here I am, on a really, really rainy Sunday, sitting and pondering (while avoiding the very necessary chore of cleaning my apartment) how this 2nd year will be....

I guess we will see.

Cup-o-Noodles

It's surprising that I've been living in the land of instant noodles for the last year and I have not craved one of those not-so-nutritious curly noodles packed in Styrofoam cups for the entire year.

That is...until last week. When I came back to Japan, I really wanted to eat cup-o-noodle. Maybe the whole jet lag thing is playing games with my mind. Whatever it is, please excuse me now, I'm going to go boil some hot water to make myself a cup of curry instant noodles. Hehehe...

Olympics, the world and language

So, it's pouring outside and I'm watching the tail end of the men's marathon of the Beijing Olympics on TV.

When the Kenyan runner Samuel Wansiru crossed the finish line, he was interviewed by the Japanese media. What surprised me was that the interviewer asked all his questions in Japanese. And what surprised me even more was that the marathon winner responded in Japanese!!!

I thought that was so cool! Of course, it just reminded me that I have prejudices about how people should look in relation to the language they speak or can speak. This whole thing surprised and impressed me only because he was a black African from Kenya who can speak a language of a country that was in an entirely different continent thousands of miles away.

This brings me back to an experience I had a couple of weeks ago when I returned home to the Bay Area. One of my friends and I wanted the tourist experience of being in SF and we decided to rent bicycles to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.

We were at the bike rental and one of the employees were explaining the rules with bikes in a rather thick European accent. After a couple of seconds, my friend turns to me and says, "huh?" signifying that she didn't quite hear what he was saying. Since I didn't understand, I only shrugged in response.

Then, this lady (from Australia, I think) comes up behind me and says, "Don't worry, I don't even understand and I speak English!"

In a way, that was probably a bit on the offensive side with her thinking that I didn't speak English just because I looked Asian...but given the circumstances, I just found it amusing.

We all have assumptions about people, don't we?