out with the old and in with the new

We said good bye to Andrea and Carlo today. I skipped some work, with permission, and headed down to the ferry port. What I expected, and what actually happened were quite different. I pictured a few people saying good bye and then they would board the boat and the ferry would leave. Not so quaint. A large amount of students and teachers came to the send off. And while Andrea and Carlo boarded the ferry, the teachers attached hundreds of colorful streamers from the balcony of the ferry down onto the dock. I only wish I had had my camera. Deborah and I were both given three streamer to hold on rollers. Some people had up to six streamer rolls in their hands. Even some of the little junior high kids were holding lots of colorful streamers. And among the crowd of people the high school band played their high school song. Words can’t describe how amazing it was to see a huge crowd of people on the dock looking up at Andrea and Joe. Adding to the festivities, the sun finally came out. The mist over the mountains still remained, but it was definitely a picturesque moment which I could not take a picture of.
When the ferry began its departure the whole crowd of students – even teachers – ran down the dock yelling, “Come back, come back, visit!” I did not expect it at all, but ran with the crowd anyway waving at Andrea and Carlo the whole time. Shinkamigoto good byes are pretty spectacular. If I don’t get one like that, I think I will be bitterly disappointed.
And tonight come the new ALT’s : Robin, Shinju, and Kelly. All of us graduated this last year, and we are all working with junior high schools and elementary schools. I think we’ll be the bestest of friends. I can dream and hope! I’m planning a welcome BBQ at my house so that everyone can hang out and enjoy themselves. I hope I can get the BBQ working! Deborah has left over fireworks from Andrea, so hopefully we can turn it into a party.
Oh the turmoil of dealing with Toki-san. Update on my situation: I won’t have internet at my house until the 17th of August. That is in two weeks!! I think I might take things into my own hands and get the internet set up at my house. Toki-san told me the modem was broken or something like that, but I can always buy a new one to get the internet running faster. When I asked him if I could internet now he said, “Oh maybe, yes, maybe.” But, that doesn’t mean maybe in Japanglish, it mean no way not even when hell freezes over with the internet work today. I have so much to learn about Japanese pragmatics. After getting the same maybe five times he finally said, “I don’t think today, maybe, not.” He still included a maybe!!! In English it means there is an actual possibility, and so now I like to think that I have the instilled American value of optimism. I am going to learn a lot about my own beliefs when I pragmatics don’t connect in conversation. So I learned that I value optimism, and if someone tells me “maybe” I think it means that I have a definite and probably chance of something happening. There are exceptions to this rule, like with facebook invitations when I don’t want to go I usually put maybe, but even then maybe isn’t a definite “no.” With Japanese people most of the time maybe means no, actually it probably just means no.
Of course I may take more and more internet liberty at school if I can. That way I won’t have to worry so much. But, it’s hard to get anything done around here by myself as I just realized. I learned that I have school on Sunday to honor the A-bomb drop on Nagasaki. So, there will be a peace assembly in the gym. I got really excited and asked if I could go, and then Nakamura-sensei said of course I could but I need to put on my gym shoes. Gym shoes? Apparently I need different indoors shoes than my blue bunny sandals. The gym shoes have to be different than school inside shoes. When I asked if I need tennis shoes they told me that I they don’t play tennis in the gym. I quickly realized my mistake instead of saying sneakers I said tennis shoes –which is what I’m used to. Faster than I can say Shinkamigoto, the gym instructor came over carrying catalogues of shoes. He kept asking for which sport I need to shoes for. Volleyball, basketball? And when I pointed to regular all around tennis shoes he told me that those are outside shoes. Well of course they are meant to be outdoor shoes, but he didn’t understand that I wanted to wear them inside. So I settled on pointing at some indoor soccer shoes. That made everyone happier because they are meant to be indoor. And I can’t get these shoes on my own either. I have to wait till tomorrow to get them with Nakamura-sensei. She told me it’s better if she introduces me to the shop keepers. I know that building relationships is usually facilitated through other people, like a giant networking web. But, it would be really nice to be able to buy some shoes by myself.