Diversity Exploring Part II

A Few Residents from Asbury Overseas House

(Countries Represented include: India, Venezuela, China, Italy, UK, USA,

Congo, Egypt, Vietnam, Korea, Norway)

Since I’ve moved in, my Sri Lankan, Ghanaian, Russian, Korean and French floor mates have moved out and been replaced by an female Egyptian doctor, a Christian Egyptian, a Parisian man originally from Togo, his girlfriend from Gabon and a British woman who lives in the Ukraine.

The Egyptian doctor helped me find the local GP when I was sick. She also brought me a plate of veggies with mayo one night. She studies cardiovascular disease.

I’ve had several interesting conversations about ‘liberalism’ with the Christian Egyptian in our wireless internet room which prompted me to put stickers of Hindu gods and “save Tibet’ on my laptop which prompted him to give me a few interesting looks the next time.

I met an Indian family from Madurai living in my house. And another family that used to live in Chennai.

My sticker of Lord Muruga on my computer sparks lots of conversation among the Indian children when I’m checking Internet in the common room.

During a house potluck dinner I complimented the woman from Madurai on her delicious payasam in Tamil.

Several weeks ago my German classmate invited several of us over to her flat to watch the Eurovision Decision-England. As usual I was the only native speaker among Polish, Spanish, and Korean women.

On the bus to London I sat next to a Muslim Tamil-speaking man from Sri Lanka.

On the bus coming back from London I sat next to a man from Nigeria.

I went to a birthday party for a woman from Iran. She showed us pictures from her wedding and taught us Persian dancing.

Several days later she came to my birthday dinner and brought her Persian music—more dancing with women from Germany, Spain, South Korea, the US and Iran.

While my mom was visiting, several people stopped us in stores to comment on our ‘cute’ American accent. One woman had diamond and gold studs embedded into her teeth.

In the course of my moms four-day visit we ate pub grub, Bangladeshi curry, Persian chicken with tea for two, a Full English, and enjoyed a New York family restaurant.

I gave a presentation on “English as a Global Language” with a classmate who moved here from Algeria when she was in middle school and didn’t speak ANY English. She is now studying to become an Arabic-English translator.

This same friend from Algeria invited me to her house and baked me sponge cake, biscotti, and jam cookies. While I was enjoying tea and cake, we heard the call to prayer and she went in another room and prayed.

I was invited to an Iranian New Years dinner with students from Mexico, Indonesia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, the US and of course, Iran.

The next night I went out drinking with the above Iranians. At the table there were Americans and Iranians drinking beer, vodka, and whiskey while comparing international gestures of offense. If only the US President Bush and the Iranian President Ahmadinejad could have a similar light-hearted conversation.

I have had lots of great conversations about fundamentalist Christians with the American on my floor who is studying theology. We were kindly handed Easter ‘booklets’ by our British floor mate.

I attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the city center with the above mentioned American. In addition to the dance troops, bag pipers, and every other person with painted green faces, there was a Sikh drumming group and an African music group in the parade.

The rich international community and experiences I’m having in Birmingham continue to surprise me! It is unlike anything I have experienced anywhere in the world. The only sad thing is, I don’t feel like I have many British friends as part of THIS experience. Although I know lots of Brits from my three years in Japan so I don’t feel as if I’m missing out too much! If I had the money I could spend my days traveling the UK visiting them all…alas the funds have quickly disappeared and I’ll be living out my last weeks in Birmingham enjoying the diversity and multi-culturalism.

The Ultimate Enkai!

Nishichu, my main school, threw the ultimate farewell enkai for me. I had no idea what to expect, but I didn't expect this. It was a super great night! It was full of laughing, singing, dancing, crying, speeches, food, beer, more beer, and more beer. And the highlight was of course dressing me up in a yukata! It was fun playing dress-up and everyone loved seeing me dressed up...it was wild! It was a really great night with lots of teachers that I have come to think of as my family! They have all helped me in so many ways. I'm really really going to miss Nishichu! 'Miss' is an understatement....it's just too overwhelming to try and put into words what so many of these people have meant to me, that unfortunately, all I'm left with are these meaningless expressions like 'miss' or 'thank you' when really I want to say so much more! I just don't know how in these kinds of situations.

My dinner table!

The crazy lady dinner table!

Whoa...I'm wearing a yukata!! Thanks Everyone!

The English Teachers

The strongest guys in town!!

Nishichu's previous VP!

Nishichu Teachers and Staff

Crying through my speech!

A good-bye message card from the teachers!

Going crazy at Karaoke!

本当にありがとうございました！

Thank you EVERYONE!

The last few months have been really hard. A friend of mine wisely reminded me that in December I had a nice long vacation at home and spent almost every waking minute with people I absolutely adore! I had lots of attention and I felt very loved by lots of people. And then I came back to Japan, back to my cold apartment, back to work, back to studying and back to being that friend or relative that lives on the other side of the world--far far far away! Out of sight, out of mind. Or that's how it felt! It was a bit shocking and I hit an all time low. I won't get into the details, but there was lots of random crying for no apparent reason. And a lot of self-pity!

An impending birthday didn't help! Actually it just made me fall into the hole even further. I thought I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but as the big day approached...it got worse and worse and worse! And then, thanks to lots of family and friends all over the world...it got better!! On the big day, I got lots of calls from family and friends! I was surprised to hear from so many people because I never get calls and because these particular people have never called me. It turns out, it was the first international call many of them have EVER made! It was great to hear from them, even if it kept me running out of the staff room and into the storage room every 15 minutes. Thanks MOM...you educated people and got them to make an international call! Hurray!!

After work, I had a dinner planned at a nearby restaurant! Luckily, my friends had a much better plan! In the end it wasn't a total suprise, but it was a good one! And much better than anything I could have thought of for myself!! Thanks guys and gals!! I'll keep the picture books forever...love that idea!!! It was great!! I really really appreciate all the thoughtfulness and planning that went into it!

And then I treated myself to a weekend in Tokyo with a few friends! It was a much needed escape from rurality! So...here are a few pics from the latest adventures!

Hina Matsuri (girls day) Dinner with my teacher's family! It's not exactly international women's day, but it was close....dinner, cake, singing and dancing with three generations + me!

We finally got snow last week!! It was beautiful!! I needed it! I was craving snow and winter and a white snowy expanse! I finally got it!

My friends and neighbors are great!! They threw me a very sneaky surprise party. The perfect kind...a potluck at a friend's house! They know me too well!! It was delicious! Lots of chocolate and lots of wine! Thanks for planning L, I heard you behind the whole thing!!

And of course there was a cake made by Chica-chan!! Thanks!!

Next, I was off to Tokyo! My good friend, Shinji, took me to dinner at an African restuarant. We had fabulous African beer and enjoyed live African drumming!

Kanako, the guys, and I explored Yokohama and ate Thai food!! Delicious!!

Happy Birthday girls!!

A reminder of what's really important...yesterday I said good-bye to "Star wars" teacher. She taught her last day, there was no farewell, no goodbye speech, no announcement during the teachers meeting..she just packed up her desk and left at lunch. She checked in to the hostpital to start her chemo today. She'll be there for a few months. After that her future is unknown.

"So This is Christmas....

....and what have you done? Another year older, and a new one just begun. And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun. The near and the dear ones, the old and the young. And a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let's Hope it's a good one, without any fear."

---name that Christmas carol---

Xmas in Japan

The last few weeks have been packed full with Christmas parties of all shapes and sizes. I've eaten everything from cake to jellyfish. I've sung disney songs, traditional Christmas carols and watched almost naked men dance to "Thriller." Presents have been exchanged (and re-exchanged--shhh!!). I've given Christmas quizes at lunch, played reindeer races and dressed Santa in my elementary lesson. It's been a holiday filled month already. And I'm not even home yet. What's waiting for me back in the US...only a few hours and I'll soon find out! I got tagged by Joe, here is a list of my favorite holiday things .

The first Christmas party I attended this year, was by far the strangest! What makes it that much stranger is that it is a town hall event. This is my third year at this party and the shock value has gone down, but it's still pretty crazy to see what the city employees come up with for a little holiday entertainment! I decided to skip the pictures and go straight to video clips.
The Town Hall Xmas Party--Michael Jackson Dance

A few minutes later--Thriller (must be 18+)

My adult English conversation class went to a Chinese restaurant for our bon enkai, end of the year party. After stuffing our faces, we sang karaoke for two hours!

After our last English class for the year, their mom treated us all to Christmas cake to celebrate the holidays! This family lived in the US for several years. So, even though these two kids are in elementary school, their English is really good!

Every class is doing Xmas lessons. This is my special needs class at one of my elementary schools. It's one of my favorite classes! They are great kids and we always have a great time. For xmas we "dressed" Santa, made cards, and read a xmas book.

Every year the international cooking workshop group hosts a Christmas party. We eat temakizushi, make your own sushi, and pizza. Then we play some games, sing some songs, listen to some music, and do a present exchange. This years songs were especially pathetic. All the ALTs got up on stage and sang three horribly out of tune renditions of "Deck the halls," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer." And then just cause JP and I are singing in a choir, we had to lead the entire group in "Silent Night" and "White Christmas." That was a sad sight too...both of us are sick and almost have no voices! But the best part of the night, my two favorite girls (the shy looking ones) were there for the third year in a row. Will there be a fourth?

The advanced elective English class at my junior high school made sugar cookies for their end of year Christmas party! Six students came after school the day before and helped make all the dough. Then during class they rolled, cut, baked and decorated about 50 cookies. The only problem was, there were another 300 that needed to be baked. Luckily, I didn't have any other classes in the morning, so I stayed and finished baking them. They all came back at lunch and continued decorating and eating! In all about 20 15 year olds devoured about 300 cookies that day! Some were really small....but they still ate a lot of sugar!! Their parents probably hate me!

After the Beethoven concert, a few of us headed to one of our favorite izikayas, Japanese pub, for some greasy grub. In the door way we found Santa greeting everyone. But the night didn't end there. Then we went to our favorite coffee shop because we heard rumors of an all-you-can-eat cake party. Turns out it was just a big potluck dinner and we only brought drinks. We were already full from the pub food, but we managed to enjoy lots of champagne, Christmas cake and chiropractic adjustments! It was a bit random, but I'll take a chiropractic adjustment wherever I can get one!

Last but not least, Linea's eikaiwa invited to their Christmas potluck dinner for the 3rd year in a row. It is one of the best meals all year. The food is fantastic and they are a funny funny group of ladies (and one man). We sat and ate and drank for over 4 hours. The night didn't end there...actually it never ended, I'm still going strong 24 hours later.

Now it's time to pack up the last few things and get on the night bus to Tokyo. Tomorrow at this time I'll be flying over the Pacific Ocean headed to the Pacific Northwest! I'm looking forward to more Christmas parties with lots of North American treats!

Wherever you are this holiday season, I wish you all a....

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS &

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!