Finally, I've learned how to deal with elementary Wednesdays. Stop trying. Stop planning at all.
I wish that someone would comment that I keep generalizing about 'the Japanese'. I just wish 'the Japanese' would stop being so much the same.
If you think it's right or wrong that I do that, or even if you don't care but you think you'd like to hear more about my love life or stunning lack thereof, leave a comment. You can even talk about your love life if you feel so moved. Just click on the icon that says 'comments' at the bottom of the post, and you can sign your comment or post anonymously. Or don't, but then you'd just be holding it in, and we all know that that kind of thing is bad for your health... no but really I want to hear from you. even if yo spell things worng or uses bad grammar.
Well, this will be my final blog in which I complain about elementary Wednesdays. I don't care about them anymore. And all the better. Last week I let go of my stress and went in unprepared. I ran the class the same as my never-ending self-introduction classes. No intricate games, no 'look at me, I'm a special weird foreign person!', no bullshit. And at the end of the day, we were all stress-free--me, the students, and the teachers.
They actually prefer if I don't do any work at all; it saves them having to do work to understand my work. 'The Japanese' work very hard, but are mostly pretty lazy when it comes to doing something requiring innovation. It's all got to do with that group harmony and whatnot, I suppose. Anyways, it's good to be done with that bit of nonsense.
from now on my blogs may contain less perfection. i give up trying to attain that. and, instead of including lots of negative stuff, while trying to stay optimistic, i'm giving that up too. i'm neither anymore. life just goes on--wake up, gotta start again. enjoying the enjoyable, forgetting the forgetable, putting things in their place a piece at a time, but not discouraged should it all come tumbling down. like jenga. is it that way for you too?
I tell of my day-to-day experiences in a funky Japanese town from my American viewpoint. This blog could also be called 'Bizarro World', 'Notes From Kyushu, a Smaller Island', or 'Teaching English in Japan: Smash Your Ego in 10 Easy Lessons."
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
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5 comments:
Ah, a very enlightened zen moment.
Ok, so I am a very bad and lazy cousin! This is the first time I have been to your blog. Very intersting. I am off from work tomorrow and plan to read it all. I saved your christmas card/ornament and plan to use it every year until it totally disinigrates! Keith and I are coming home in April and will have an engagement party. Wish you could be there. We"ll send you an invite anyway.
Love, Rebecca
The two most overriding impressions I get over and over again from reading your entries is that 1) the Japanese culture is as different from the American culture as day is from night, and 2) that you seem to be in constant mental anguish from your inability to achieve what you thought to be your goals at the beginning of your Far East adventure (nightmare?).
I know that your time in Japan is leaving you with memories that will last a lifetime, but if you leave now, perhaps some of those memories can be positive. If you stay another year, I'd hate to have your memories of Japan become a permanent, bitter taste in your mouth!
Julie: I found a haiku for you....
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Flow with life's current.
Ride the wave of acceptance.
Throw away your oar.
—Sue DeKelver
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Well, I already told you this Bob, but just so eveyone else knows: of course, all the weird or bad stuff gets exaggerated. It's not all that bad. Only sometimes. But other times it's great.
By the way, using And, But and Because to start a sentence is taught here as grammatically correct, so I use them now too.
Because everyone does it.
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