OKINAWA

Oh my god! I can update all about my life in Okinawa now. YESH!

This is more or less my email to Erin, but I feel it is a good enough summary of everything that has been going on, and really, what's the point of retyping the same thing? Enjoy.

About my stay in Okinawa. First, about the first couple days. When we first arrived we were picked up by Ric. It was night time, but he drove us around to show us some important things which I promptly forgot because I was tired. Then we got our rooms. We live in apartments right next to the school. Literally. It's basically on school grounds. So we randomly picked our rooms. There are two rooms on the 10th floor, which is the top floor. Then one room is available on the 8th and one on the 6th. The one on the 6th floor is the smallest, the 8th floor room is fine, and the two rooms on the 10th floor actually used to be one room, so one is quite big and one is teeny tiny but it gets good internet connection and the a/c unit is good and new. I am in the big room on the 10th floor! Yay!! I was so happy. It took a bit of cleaning, but I really like having all that space. I brought a ton of stuff.

The next day we figured out banking stuff, taxes stuff, and other boring stuff. Then at night Ric drove us around the southern half of the island. We still had jet lag and I had a horrible horrible headache and really didn't feel well. He also brought us to Nitori which is a good place to buy things for our apartments. It was good to go there, but I wanted to slam my head into the wall. Or throw up. I couldn't decide.

The next day he drove us up north. We saw some sweet beaches and then went to the giant aquarium and botanical garden. It was so cool! I love that aquarium. And the botanical garden is pretty awesome too. We also went swimming at the beach there. The water is so nice! That night we went to eat and saw some eisa drumming from the restaurant. We also tried awamori which is strong alcohol. I ate squid ink with noodles. It turned our tongues and teeth black for a while! Then we stayed in a hotel for the night because the next day Ric drove us around the entire rest of the island. I literally spent 12 hours in a van looking at pretty beaches.

The day after that we bought our cellphones! Yay! I love my phone. It is pink. It took foreeeeever to get that phone, though. But I don't care. I love it I love it I love it.

Okay, the days between our trip around the island and starting work are a little fuzzy. Um. Some highlights of things I remember: I ate pig heart. There's a giant turtle on the roof of one of the buildings near our apartments. I can cook Okonomiyaki. We went to American village and I saw my friend Julia. My supervisor took us all out for dinner and drinks (he's seriously the coolest). Oh! We went to another eisa festival thingy and drank while we followed these kids around (the ones doing the drumming obviously, not just random kids). We went to an all you can eat/drink type place that rules way more than any similar type of place in the States. That was a TON of fun. Nick doesn't remember some of it. I've walked to Kokusai street a couple times. That's the international street. It is pretty sweet, especially at night. I also talked to my friends Mike and Taichi on the phone for a long time.

So then this past week I have been working. I've introduced myself probably 8 million times now. "Good morning. I'm Andrea. I'm from Minnesota in America. I graduated from St. Ben's/St. John's. I was an English major. My hobbies are reading, writing, and traveling." That's basically what I say.

I have gone to at least three or four meetings here. Two of which were longer than 2 hours. And no, it was not translated for us at all. I think it must be some sort of joke.

In the mornings we have to help the kids who clean (sweep and pick up garbage). By helping I mean my supervisor let's me off easy and I just watch the kids who came late. Their punishment is to clean the stairwell. I'm not sure how that is worse than sweeping outside...but I feel awkward just standing there. Actually, I think I made a friend with one of the girls I had to watch, so that's nice.

For class I just stand there and read whatever Ohama-sensei (my supervisor) wants me to read in English. I'm a tape recorder. It's not difficult, but I get bored. A couple girls have introduced themselves to me, though. Oh yeah, I forgot...I had to help give a test a couple days before real work started and one of the girls I gave the test to also seems to like me. She always waves when she sees me in the hall. I'm glad she likes me because she's the VP's daughter!

So yeah, classes aren't too exciting. I watched some kid in the back of class clip one of those black paper clip type deals to his elbow. (they clip paper, but not actually a paper clip...you know?) I had to try really hard not to laugh.

For lunch I buy cheap bento box. It's awesome. And did I mention cheap? This makes it twice as awesome.

Back to school type things....Um, two days ago we had "Open Campus." This means nothing to me except I had one class in the afternoon. It was so potential students could have a look at the school and see if they want to apply here. The high school department didn't have much to do though, because the high school gets all of its students from the junior high. So the junior high department had been busy and that's who I helped. I work in the high school, otherwise.

I also have to help with SIBA on Tuesdays in the morning. Nick does too. I will have to teach for two class periods by myself. Yay! I'm actually looking forward to this. It's the voacational school that is connected with Okisho. But they're way more relaxed. This guy, Mark, has the most calming voice I've ever heard. We went over to SIBA to check it out and introduce ourselves to the important people. Then a couple days later I had to meet with Mark again but this time at the radio station. They make tapes for practice tests for some of the kids learning English. I'm the girl voice! It was kinda weird doing that. Mark was the guy voice. I had to speak really slowly. They said I did a good job, but how would I know if they're telling the truth?

OK, ummm...what else? Last night I ate pig bone and pig tongue. Did I mention I ate pig heart here too? I'm trying new things. Still hate tofu. But I tried to eat some again the other night.

So I've seen a bunch of the kids from SAP (the camp I worked at these past two summers). Some of them are too cool to talk to the new teachers, but a lot of them seem happy to see us. This one kid, Kosuke, yelled "ANDREA!" and jumped over a table the first time he saw me. Literally. Scared me just a little. I saw him again the other day when I was bored and walking around. He is so loud. A couple of the girls have visited me in my office type area and there are some kids from camp in my classes. When I walk down the hall I can hear them talk about me in Japanese, the kids I don't know. It's kinda funny seeing their different reactions. I get, "hosoi!" a lot. It means "slim."

Today I got a package from Laura! I was so excited. I shared some of my chocolate already, though. I'm trying to remember the names of students on my floor and it's easiest to introduce myself if I have some form of American candy.

Oh yeah, two nights ago I went to a beer festival with my supervisor and a bunch of other people. It was sweet. We watched fireworks, too.

Anyway, I know this is long, so I'll stop now. Just know (for those of you skimming to the bottom) that I am having a really good time :) ...and I miss Laura and my family and all my friends. Yeah.