no words...

...to explain how it is to come home. i had all sorts of crazy moments in the detroit airport [i could understand ALL the conversations around me!!! people had different hair and skin colors!! there was no tea being sold in the convenience stores!! only water?!?!]. but when i met my family in boston, it was sort of the most normal thing in the world...

it was normal to sleep on al's shoulder in the car. it was normal to eat dinner as a family. it was normal to go to the mall. it was normal to have lauren come visit. it was normal to talk on my brand new cell phone to my friends while sitting outside on the porch at night. it was normal to lounge on the hammock in the backyard.

of course, nothing is really normal. i'm sure it'll hit me sometime in the next couple weeks that my life is completely different now that i'm not in japan. i dunno how i'll function. but for the moment, i'll revel in being here in a place where things are familiar and i can easily talk to the loved ones i've missed this year.

p.s. cassie, i love you! thanks for the blog entry! thanks for the memories in thailand and beyond! thanks for the reassurance that we'll be friends far into the future!!

AND also in the meantime, i'll laugh with my parents over my first time driving in a year-- i started out going on the LEFT side of the mall parking lot! OOPS*

my final morning

[progress on the himi rice fields! they look SO different than in may!]

i set my alarm for 7:30 because i needed to wake up to clean before my last day at work. however, my body was fully awake at 6:45 so i decided not to fight it. i want to treasure this last morning in my apartment as much i can.

the last 4 days have been an absolute whirlwind of fun, laughter, special memories and difficult goodbyes. i spent a ton of hours at the beach, played some frisbee, cried a couple times, ate sand-covered food and saw my friend's band rock out. i keep telling everyone [and myself] that i stay busy so i'll be less sad. in this situation, i think busy IS best. i've gotten to say my mata ne's to the people i care about in japan. there's no way to say goodbye to the country or the land itself. this time tomorrow i'll be in osaka at cassie's house, sleeping a little while longer before i head to the airport.

who knows what the days to come will look like. as i begin to find out, i've got a whole lot of amazing memories running around in my sleepy head. so i think i'm ready.

a few great girls

i'd like to dedicate this post to my favorite ALTs. we had dinner together last night and i'm going to miss them all an incredible amount!!!!!! allow me to introduce them in alphabetical order [bc there's no fair way to do it without janken!]

ann [aka annie or chi-chan bc her favorite japanese word used to be chigau] is the tallest of the bunch. she can make hilarious jokes [even in japanese!] with her students! she is a champion vintage clothes shopper. she loves to ride our granny bikes together. any fond memories i have of riding the train from himi to tak or vice versa will always include her. soon she'll be a grad student in vancouver so she'll be a gaigin once again ;) linda [rinda in japan!] is the most amazing chef under 25 i've ever met. she can whip up an italian feast without breaking a sweat. she's an expert bleach user and knows how to take care of the environment. our favorite activities are visiting the dentist together and planning our reunions in philadelphia next year!! mandy [who's becoming more asian every day!] is the tiniest of all my foreigner friends in japan. she's got a spunky attitude and sense of humor far taller than her physical height in centimeters. she's generous with her pajamas and loves to talk about boys. she is passionate about her students and even shares the joy of them with her friends. she gets the most amazing engrish essays in the world! sarah [girlfriend of floss] was my first toyama friend. we met in the model japanese house at boston childrens museum during our first JET orientation. she has a killer sense of humor, adorable dresses from H&M, a tendency for hilarious errors and the biggest grin ever. i can't wait to get together with her in new england sometime soon and intersperse japanese words into our english conversations. girls, i love you all. this year has been incredible with you as my friends <3

4 days

partly because cassie asked me not to and partly because i've been busy, i didn't blog yesterday. my apartment is still really messy but most of my stuff is packed in the suitcases and ready to rock&roll. can it be possible that i have just over four days in this country?!?!

on wednesday i had one last himi get together with some of my FAV japanese friends. yesterday i went to the dentist and paid less than 20 bucks for a filling. it's incredible. then last night i did fireworks on the beach one last time and soaked in the beauty of living near the sea! hiro= cheap fireworks expert

i can't believe the year is finished... in so many ways it seems i just arrived in himi yesterday!!

6 days

i think i'm going to blog every day for my last week... mostly because life is flying by on a jet plane and i don't want to forget a single detail.

today was my last day at the elementary school i visit twice each week [kubo]. i cried a few tears when i gave a goodbye speech to the 6th graders. they're such champs! they made beautiful origami and each wrote a letter in japanese thanking me for teaching them this term. at the end of the day i stood downstairs to say bye to each student as they left school. the 2nd graders kept saying "be genki in america also!!" and "do your best in your next job!!" i cried again when i realized i will never see these darling kids again.

10 minutes before i was gonna go home, five girls delayed their departure so we could hang out & chat. we combined our two languages pretty perfectly, if i do say so myself... they wanted to know about EVERYTHING-- my sunburn, my anklet, my bracelet, the english story i read a few weeks ago, etc etc. they said bye a million times and my heart nearly broke when they walked out the door.

my apartment is an absolute wreck as i'm in the final throes of packing madness. i have a pretty full schedule the next 6 days so i need to make sure i stay organized. i added new photos AND one new video from today.

let them clean beaches

yesterday there was some vague reference made that today was going to be a beach cleanup. i brought an old grimy t-shirt in hopes that i would be invited to join. I WAS! the entire school walked 10 minutes to the beach and were joined by the 6th graders from both of my elementary schools. i got to hold the giant bags so all the kids had to come and chat with me in order to empty their little grocery bags. it was great fun!!!

one of my fav-o boys is super small and cute and genki. he's good at english and i noticed that he often helps this tiny girl in his class. okay, actually, he gives her his paper so she can write down the correct answers, but still. she's terrible at english. today at the beach i was talking to him when she walked up to unload her garbage. he goes to me "she is yaddayaddayadda. she's cute" if my heart weren't bursting with joy i might have been a little jealous <3 what a lucky girl to have a friend like him!

after lunch i got invited to watch the 3nen students play beach volleyball for two hours. i was genuinely impressed with their skills and it made me nostalgic for college days where we played behind sittig...

small town monday

day 2 of gion matsuri started off much quieter than day 1. we still saw a bunch of students, but nearly as many as on sunday. that could be due to the fact that the jr. high teachers were walking through the streets in pairs with arm bands on. i think they were seriously enforcing the 9:30pm curfew...

apparently that didn't stop some rough&tumble boys from being involved with the crazy shenanigans of last night!!! i posted a couple videos on youtube so please check em out.

basically, giant floats pushed by men wearing matching robes rolled through the streets. at an appointed time, two floats rushed each other. the goal [i think] was to demolish the other teams' float by ripping apart the small tree attached to the top and knocking off the pirate-ish guys in the trees. i'm really sorry because i'm doing a terrible job explaining!! the best part for me was when i was standing right near the biggest fight [between himi fishermen and himi mafia!]... the crowd surrounded me, himi-jin from ages 5 to 75 probably... it was my greatest feeling of community in over 11 months. SOOO dangerous but such a unique part of himi traditional culture. according to my source, it used to be more exciting because they fought with glass bottles. i'm not disappointed i missed those days!!

see photo blog for more pics!

small town sunday

tonight was the first day of himi gion matsuri, which is the biggest festival in town. my friends and i wandered the streets to eat delicious food and greet our incredibly genki students. then the floats started to process so we watched the burly fishermen pull their creations. apparently tomorrow night the REAL fighting will begin, but here's a sneak preview. one of my favorite things about living in himi is the friendliness with which [MOST] people greet me. particularly on days like today, when the whole town comes out to join the fun, they are curious and want to chat. the best part is that each conversation is bilingual... they try a tiny bit of english and i butcher japanese.

small town saturday

mandy and i were gonna go out of town sightseeing this morning but we decided to stay home at the last minute. i'm SO glad we did, because it gave me a chance to do all sorts of inaka [countryside] goodness. i'll let the videos and photos speak for themselves.

first up was mandy's high school boys baseball game, complete with cheering squad and marching band. we rode the party bus with all the shy, sweaty students, and got into the game for free because we're teachers.tonight i went to a himi summer concert [also for free bc i'm a teacher!]. one of the bands is performing in beijing at the olympics and they were really impressive. as i walked through the giant auditorium before it began, keeping my eyes peeled for a free seat where i wouldn't freak out those sitting around me, two of my 2nen junior high girls waved me over. they gave me high fives and asked where i was going to sit. i said i didn't know, so they moved over and made me sit with them. the girl on the right looked through the contents of my purse, checked out all my photos, and handed it back to me saying "thank you". haha.i'm completly sunburned from the game today so touching my keyboard is making me terribly uncomfortable!! oyasuminasai!!!

from my head

i warn you, this is a long post. i'm going to try to process the thoughts racing through my mind as i approach my last 13 days in japan. it's random. it's probably somewhat scary.

i made fudge yesterday bc today's my last day at my little, sweet elementary school and i wanted to give something special to the gracious [wonderful!] teachers there. however, it still hadn't hardened by last night so i put it in the freezer. when i woke up this morning i took it out to cut, but it wouldn't. so i left it on the counter for 1/2 hour. i went to try again and it had completely melted into itself. my squares are now a giant mass of chocolate/peanut butter. guess i'll have to bring in the thai candies i bought 6 months ago. yikes.

in our jr. high textbook there's a section about an exchange student to japan who gets tired of being asked the same question "can you use chopsticks?" her japanese friend says something like "you have to understand they are just trying to be friendly" [by asking that question]. i myself have gotten that question a million times and i just smile and say "hai". but now i'm worried people will ask me the same questions when i get back to the states: did you eat sushi? can you speak japanese? and.... naturally... can you use chopsticks?

i've begun studying for the GRE. a few weeks ago i discovered this masters program at UPenn that combines ESL and literacy... i was super excited but then decided i couldnt swing it financially and should surrender the idea. i tried my darndest not to think about it for the next week or so, but was completely unsuccessful. i thought about it almost constantly. and even though i tried to research some more financially practical grad schools, i had no interest, no excitement, just a tiny sense of obligation that it was the right thing to do. SO, after a bunch of deliberation, i've decided to work slowly and steadily toward my original dream. i can't give it up. i can't settle for a grad school i'd be doing simply to get the degree. i've gotta find some way to make UPenn [language and literacy] happen. and right now, from where i'm at, i can't earn extra cash, apply for scholarships, or anything like that. so i will study those antonyms, reading comprehension, and math strategies like crazy!

now, from my heart... it's impossible for me to understand the complexities of friendships. i know that since relationships are one of my highest priorities, they are also one of my strong points. so conversely, they can be one of my weakest. i'm quite aware that they have the potential to disappoint, frustrate, and perplex me. and thus also break my heart.

on a mini road trip after visiting melissa last year, i had the most significant conversation i've ever had with my friend kyle. he pointed out that despite what we may think, we aren't completely "free spirits". because we're humans. so we're relational. we don't all have the same social/emotional needs, but we aren't created to be completely alone. or completely detached. or even completely independent. so why don't we take care of each other?

there's nothing else to say on this subject. i think we should take care of our friends. let's stop making excuses and feeling sorry for ourselves. just go.

easy to please

it doesn't take much to make me happy. today was amazing for the following reasons...

1. i was leaving the teacher's room to go to the bathroom and two little guys walked in. they immediately asked me to make three more copies of the coloring page they were holding. we had a quick chat to make sure i understood their japanese. i made the copies. they walked out, forgetting to say "shitsureishimashita". i reminded them. they went back and said it. they said thank you to me. i grinned and walked away.
2. at recess i complained of the heat and told the tykes i was tired of playing tag. they had the grand scheme to change the game but i couldnt understand the rules. so they acted out one round of hide&seek complete with covering of the eyes and hiding behind another person. 3. in the midst of our game, three 1nen boys came up behind me and flicked my skirt. [i'm not sure why they think its fine to have the foreigner flash everyone, but apparently they do] these three beauties on the right then appointed themselves skirt protectors. they followed me around the play area keeping those rascals at bay <3

goodbye weekend 1

I don’t know why I decided NOT to take photos this past weekend. It was the last JET shindig- about 18 hours of fun with the people I’ve spent the last year getting to know and love… plus an introduction to people I can’t believe I haven’t gotten to know sooner!!! さびしい!!

All these pics are stolen from my photographer friends [thanks, guys!]

Weekend highlights include: receiving an award for “Most likely to be attacked by wildlife” [from annie], sardines, jenga, getting to chat with my favorites, genki new friends, sparklers, handstands, and sharing a twin bed with mandy one last time…

july 4th.

it's 82 degrees inside my apartment. WITH the air conditioner going. yikes!

happy independence day!! yesterday, as all american holidays, got no attention in japan. fortunately, there was a festival in a town nearby so at least i could enjoy the celebratory atmosphere. please feast your eyes on these photos...sarah and i BEFORE we met the genki japanese boys who wanted to chat <3anpanmanmandy: "kelly, is this yours? can we make funny faces?"
me: "yes, of course!"
later.....
me: "MANDY!! you say we should make goofy faces and
then you go and look cute with your kissy face!!!!"
mandy: "gomen"

twenty-one days to go

today is the three week mark. in exactly 21 days i'll be on a plane from kansai to boston. it's absolutely unreal. as always, there's no way to summarize life lately so i'll give a few blurbs...

at school i signed a million notebooks for a class of first graders. i played a game where i asked 'em in japanese if they wanted a BIG sign or a little sign. some of them were overwhelmed by the choice but most said "OKI" [BIG!]. i really don't understand the appeal of my signature, but i'm not gonna fight it.

also at school today, we had a demonstration lesson with my fav-o class! they're 5th grade and absolute darlings. the kids in my group were SO encouraging of each other and super duper sweet. my heart was smiling, i was so proud of their english <3

no certainty on the future job front at this point. i have a million options running through my head [grad school, subbing, nannying, etc.]. the BEST option at this point is a long-term sub position but i haven't heard anything from the school yet so i sent a follow-up email last night.

2 hilarious blurbs from ann's students:
"kelly is big bust" [EHH??? are they blind?!]
"he was baked by his father" [dude, bummer!!]

yesterday my friend wanted to go fishing at this super cool lake. it was a little bit slow so i wandered around and took a few photos. here's a sampling- the rest are on my photo blog.