First homework assignment

Last night I finished my first homework assignment, and actually today I’m almost finished with my homework until Sunday!

昨日最初宿題ができた！日曜日の宿題も今すぐ終わり！

The first assignment was to make a timeline of L2 learning (for me Japanese). Many of the events are recent and while I've been in Japan. Here are a few of them.

最初のは日本語を習うのタイムラインを作る。たくさんイベントは日本でした。この後少ないのある。

Leaving for the JET program, with not nearly as much Japanese as I would actually want to have.

JET Programのため日本へ引っ越した。その時日本語あまりできなかった。自己紹介だけぐらい。

The garbage poster. Figuring out how to sort my garbage was a difficult thing.

ごみは難しかったけど、必要。

Riding the train. I was so worried about getting lost that I used wikipedia to look up all the city kanji and put them in my phone’s ‘notes.’ 

電車を乗る。最初時にウィキペディアで全部市の漢字が探した。携帯に漢字を入れた。

Coming back my first year and realizing how much my Japanese abilities had grown (my first ski lessons were my first weekend back).

最初の冬休みの後の方が来る時より日本語できた。そして、最初スキー教室した。

Joining choir. I could barely keep up when I first got here, and even though I’m still far from perfect, I have a lot of fun singing with these ladies.

合唱。最初にあまりできなかった。今も完璧じゃないけど、とても楽しい！

Going to see the lavender fields and telling people we were doing ‘hanami,’ which means ‘flower viewing’ but it’s specific to cherry blossoms.

最初の夏に友達とラベンダー場へ行った。先生と話に「今週末花見するつもり」と言った。理由は花と見があるから、花を見る時に花見でしょうと思った。違った。桜だけは花見。

My car accident. It was a major pain, BUT I was able to explain what happened in Japanese! 

Thankfully God provided and I didn't have to try to explain to my supervisor – a family in town showed up and took care of me.

車の事故。ててもめんどくさい。でも、警察に説明ができた！キリストは与えた。町から家族が来た、私が手伝った。

Moving on up to intermediate level textbooks!

中級の教科書がはじめた。

Learning the word for snow plow and finally being able to use it. I have no snow plow pictures that I could find, so the dump truck of snow was the best picture – dump trucks of snow were completely unfathomable when I lived in the Portland area.

除雪車の言葉が習った。その写真がない。でも、日本来るの前にこのぐらい雪は考えなかった。

Finishing two novels – Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

日本語で２つ小説が読んだ！

And, best of all, making Japanese friends and being able to talk to them!

１番楽しいことは日本の友達と話している！

Update

Woke up to really bad neck pain, nothing else still hurt from snowboarding, so I knew it wasn't related. On a happy note - it's the fastest I've bounced back so far! 

Got the email just before second period that, as I thought, my insurance didn't cover my car. Sadly, I've had it less than 6 months. I spent most of second period trying not to cry (the neck thing really didn't help). 

After my last class, my supervisor and I went to the hospital in the big town. They took x-rays and everything in  my neck is fine. He basically gave me a prescription version of what I had been doing - Salonopas patches of amazing and pain reliever. 

Then we headed out to my car to collect my stuff. The minute I saw it I had to hold back the tears again. More than anything it's frustrating. And the whole pile of "what if I had . . ." questions wanted to jump back in. 

Thankfully my supervisor was then willing to head back into town to give a friend a box for an upcoming ALT meet, so I don't have to try to get it on the train (or in a car with friends). 

Now I'm back and feeling loads better with just the patch on my neck . . . kinda wishing I had refused the pain meds and only taken these.

Yesterday

I’ll start this post off, by saying I’m ok. 私は元気です。

You probably realize something not so happy is coming after that.

The short version of the story is yesterday I hit some ice, lost control of my car and it’s pretty badly damaged. But, as I addressed before, I’m ok.

For the longer version of the story, read on.

Last week a friend had come out and so we did a bit of shopping, went to an onsen and rented movies. I had exactly a week to watch them and return them. Meaning, they were due on Saturday.

When Saturday rolled around, I was tired and let myself sleep in. I decided I’d go to the movie store after boarding with some students (which was awesome and I intend to blog about it later). Off I went, with a mug of chai in one hand and a purse in the other.

Though we’d had a pretty good blizzard while my students and I were boarding, the weather had cleared up. The roads in my area and the farm-y next bit were perfect.

When I got to the forest-y bit of the drive, the weather turned horrible again. It was snowing so badly that the visibility was really low and the cars ahead of me were kicking up tons of snow. I got through that just fine and after the forest-y bit of the drive it was pretty good weather again. Because of this I took the back road into town, instead of the slow road filled with lights.

I realized that when other cars drove past, I would suddenly lose visibility and suddenly. So I kept pretty close to the speed limit – 60k (around 35mph). Not fast by any means.

Along that road, my car slipped and suddenly wasn’t going straight any more (this was a long, straight road). Instead, I was headed across the other lane and for the snow covered fields on the other side. I tried to slow down, but my car wasn’t to be deterred. I saw the power pole coming, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Thoughts flashed through my mind of what the outcome might be of this one.

I hit on the left passenger side, right about the same place as that wheel and did a 180. My car stopped facing the road. I turned on my hazard lights, in hopes that someone would stop, as people have every time

I’ve gotten myself into a snow jam.

I decided it was time to get out and see how bad the damage was. I couldn’t open my door. I decided to crawl out the window, because sitting and not knowing was going to make me even more nervous about what happened.

Outside I discovered that my door was just jammed in the snow my car had jammed itself into. I walked around to the other side. I found that I had smashed in the panel above the wheel and the wheel was at about a 30-45 degree angle. I didn’t know whether my wheels were turned so I wasn’t sure whether to be worried or not yet.

After sitting there for a minute I finally managed to wave someone down from within the car – surprisingly a few cars passed. That car and one more stopped to help. The guys who got out called the police for me, gave a description of where I was and passed on my number. Then they headed off.

I waited. When L texted me back from my “please pray” text. I decided to call and talk to a familiar voice. L was good company in something like this. She has a super calming voice and wouldn’t let me regret what would happen, with all of my “if only I had done . . . instead” comments, she came back with you never know when these things might happen.

After a few minutes on the phone with her I saw emergency lights getting closer and closer. Suddenly, about a quarter mile from where I was, they stopped. Then another one came. I didn’t know why they weren’t coming, but I could only imagine something worse had happened on the road.

After about 25 minutes on the phone with L, I decided I needed to call the police and see what was happening. L looked up the numbers for me and I was about to get off when another car pulled over. It was another guy who seemed to have a car full of people. This time though, when he spoke, I realized I knew the voice (he was wearing glasses that I’ve never seen). He’s one of the men in my eikaiwa and his family (all of whom I teach at eikaiwa or elementary school), the S family, were in the car.

He and I talked for a few minutes, when the tow truck showed up. The tow truck guy helped me out of the car and then suggested I wait with the S family in the car. I discovered that his kids who I adore were in the back. Mrs. S asked me what had happened and I told her.

As I was telling her, the phone rang, it was the police, telling me there had been an accident down the road and they’d be along soon (probably 40 minutes after they had been called).

The tow truck looked at it for a while, but I suspect they weren’t allowed to do anything until the police came, since they were called. They came a few minutes later.

The police man climbed into the car (he was invited) and took my name and info and then asked me questions. Mrs. S helped for the bits of Japanese I didn’t understand.

After he left, Mrs. S told me she’d call a name I didn’t recognize at the BOE. Just as she was telling me this, my supervisor Mrs. K called. Mrs. S took the phone and explained what happened in Japanese for me. 

Then they finally began to pull my car out. Initially it was thought I’d be able to drive my car, but when they pulled it out, it was increasingly obvious that the tire was not in the direction it should have been. It turns out that the hit not only damaged that panel but my axle as well.

The S family followed the tow truck and my car to the shop in the big town. We retrieved my stuff and a few things I thought I might need in the next week. I left loads of stuff in my car and figured I’d get it out later.

The mechanic estimated it costing 50-60 man ($5-6,000) to fix it. Mrs. S said something about insurance and when I said I didn’t think it covered my car, she said Mrs. K had said something. I’m not sure what will be the result of that, but I’ll find out tomorrow at school.

In the end the S family stayed with me through the ordeal with the tow truck and then to take my videos back (most expensive video rental ever!) and to grab something to eat (I had expected to eat dinner in Furano and it was past 9 pm at this point).

The funniest part of the whole thing is that during the combini food stop, Mrs. S and I headed in, walked past the mat for wiping your feet and hit a wet spot, I could see her lose her balance and couldn’t do anything as I lost mine too. We both went down on the floor hard.

After the whole thing we drove back into town together. I’m so thankful that God provided someone to help me with all the Japanese and all the details. I’m not sure I could have explained what had happened or done any of it as well as the S family helped me with it.

Four Years Ago, Today

Four years ago, a drunk driver took you away, my friend since kindergarten. Since that day you've missed so much.

You were supposed to graduate with me, just a few weeks later, start school and finish it together.
Your niece that you had just heard about and were so excited for is getting so big and by the sounds of it, more and more like you every day.

C, your little sis, got married. You’d have been so proud, she was such a beautiful bride. You should have been there celebrating the day with us.

You have a nephew too, who I’m sure you’d love. I haven’t met him yet either, but all the pics C posts of him are adorable.

K joined the Navy. You would have been so proud of him, too. Had you been in the car with us, you would have had a great time with A, M and I in the car on the way back from C’s wedding when we got a flat in insane Arizona heat with him in his “whites,” unable to do anything for fear of staining them.

My sister got married without telling anyone (ok, well except maybe the judge). You would have loved getting to hear about the craziness of it just before your sister got married and how my parents reacted.
I wish you could be here to see all of the things that have happened in both of our families and with our friends. To share in the joys, laugh at the insane things and just be here.

We miss you Cara.

Cara and I before our first week at summer camp

An accident

Almost two weeks ago, there was a car accident on the highway near the school. It was fairly serious because they had to call for a helicopter to take the victim to the hospital.

My town is so small though, that we don’t have a heli-pad for the helicopter to land on, so they landed the helicopter on our school field. It made for an interesting afternoon.

First, our local firefighters came over to have a look and hang some sort of flag to tell the helicopter where to land.


After that, it was a bit of a wait before we even caught sight of the helicopter.


It landed.


The joys of living in a small town. Our kyoikucho (Superintendent) came out on his bicycle to see what was happening.


After a very long wait to see what would happen, they flew off with the person and a small child. But knowing what little I know about health care, I was surprised at how long the ambulance sat next to the helicopter before they transferred the person.


The details that I heard were this: a bus and a small k-car (like a smart car) were in an accident.

As I heard what little I did and saw some of the aftermath, I was quite thankful that so many people advised me against getting a small k-car. My car is fairly huge and if I were in an accident, my odds would be decently good.

Two years ago

Two years ago, today, my longest standing friend, Cara, died in a car accident. In a lot of ways I’m surprised at how untouched I am, and at the same time I miss her a lot.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget her. She was such a big part of my childhood. Cara’s family was like an extension of mine. We shared Kindergarten, annoyance with our younger sisters, girl scouts, snow days and so much more.

At the same time, I’m amazed at how much time has passed since then. I’ve graduated – we should have graduated together. We would have started school together and finished together, but in one night, one drunk driver took that away.

Cara, you will always be missed, but we had so many good memories.

I remember the last time I saw you, you came in the door on Friday night so proud of your new glasses and that you could see well again. Because of that moment, I had to think very hard when my parents told me what had happened early that Sunday morning. My first thought, “but I saw you last night.” Then realized I was forgetting that Saturday happened in between.

I’ll never forget all the fun times we had as apartment-mates, and all the times you cooked things for our all of us. The cake cookies I learned to cook from you. Or all the crazy things you did – like keeping pizza in the cold oven until you had finished the whole thing (this always made me laugh). Or keeping your bedroom window open when you had the heat on. Or the giant shoe collection (maybe mountain is a better word) that always plagued our entryway. Or Liz & Melissa’s weddings we got all dressed up for and went to together. Or watching you get excited that you were about to be an aunt (and you would have been an amazing one).

It often just feels as though you’ve moved back to Arizona. We didn’t talk often after you moved there, in sixth grade, but when I hear something that makes me think of you, I want to call or email you. I’ll never forget the first time it happened. I was home and I was reading something that mentioned Chandler, and I wanted to call you and ask you about it. As I thought about moving to get my phone (your phone number still in it), I realized I can’t call anymore.

All that to say, I miss you. There are some days when I don’t think of you at all, similar to when you were alive and in Arizona, and other days when I can’t believe that it’s been so long since you’ve been gone. You were an amazing friend and I am thankful to have been a part of your life. Know that you will always be remembered.