Email to the teacher:
Good afternoon. This is (student’s name). I'm very sorry I didn't tell you that I couldn't go to class. I went to a hospital because I had repeated attacks of explosive diarrhea since yesterday. So...would you tell me what today's class did and what should I do by next class?
Well, what can I say to that? My student’s writing has really improved since she starting taking my writing class earlier this year! I’m a very proud of both the clarity and the colour of her message. Good job (insert student’s name)!
Today I had another conversation with a student that went something like this:
Student: I have stomach ache.
Teacher: Oh, that’s too bad!
Student: My diarrhoea is REALLY bad. Can I go to the toilet?
Now, I’m not sure if it’s a language thing or if Japanese are always so open about some things that we consider taboo and yet so secretive of other things… like hobbies, or boy/girlfriends or families... that we consider general knowledge. Definitely keeps life interesting!
Ahh school... well, the spring semester is almost at the halfway point and I’ve memorized about half of my students’ names (308 students is a lot to remember, especially as the years go by). By this rate I should have everyone committed to memory in time for the final exams and then I’ll forget everything over summer vacation and start from scratch in September. No kidding!
On another note, swine flu (buta influenza, or bubu flu) hit Osaka for a week. One, then 30, then 251 people in the area were positively identified with the H1N1 virus within days. The entire population instantly donned white masks in all public places. Osaka turned into a sea of 'surgeons'. Trains were relatively empty so I could even sit during rush hour – though that could have been because I went mask-less. (A mask-less foreigner is a very scary thing you know. From now on I'm going to rub some cayenne pepper around my nose before I get on the train. Then NO ONE will want to be near me on the train!)
School was cancelled so all my students reconvened at the local malls and teachers reconvened for dinner parties and afternoon bbqs. It was an unforeseen holiday in which no one had plans or homework prepared and people seemed to really enjoy simply not being busy. The week, of course, will have to be made up and so we will lose a week of summer vacation. Regardless, I thought that it was really nice to have a few extra days to ‘do Laura things’.
Zumba is probably the biggest, most exciting news for me this (and next) month! I start teaching Tuesdays on June 30th at a posh Studio in Kobe called acordar studio. Then, this fall I’ll hit the masses by starting Zumba Fitness Night (Wednesdays) at a favourite nightclub! I just started this blog: zumbajapan.blogspot.com. Check it out! Then come and checkout one of my classes!
The second biggest, most exciting news is that I think the pigeons are gone. Maybe. Hopefully. When I came back to Japan in February after a week away, mommy pigeon and daddy pigeon decided to build a nest under my air conditioner. They must have been really busy that week, cause there was an egg in there and they were talking to it incessantly. It came down to cute baby bird vs. the filth and disease carried by pigeons nesting beside my laundry line. Luckily the choice wasn’t left up to me and before I knew it the egg-laden nest was placed in the park downstairs.
Well, the pigeons didn’t follow the signs, and thus couldn’t find their baby. Everyday for the past three months those pigeons returned to the balcony at 4:30am for their reign of terror: wooowoooo poop poop here... woooowoooo… poop poop there. (Hey, at least I’m not as graphic as some other people I know!)
I would scare them away and before long they’d be back. They’d come right up to the window and give me the evil pigeon eye me while I researched and wrote my papers. And so the game of cat (Laura) and mouse (unhappy pigeons) began. These were some stubborn birds that didn’t scare easily. They wouldn’t leave when I went outside and hardly budged when I gently pushed them off the balcony with my toes. They’d then fly up and around and right back to my balcony.
Finally they must have realized that their baby was not coming back. So they decided to make another one… over and over and over again on the ledge directly in front of my balcony. And they’d look at me while doing it. Creepy! Well, I think I won, as they haven’t been back in over a week. I beat you pigeons! Don’t come back! Yatta!
To end this note, and just in case you have pigeons, I have recently been informed of a better anti-pigeon technique: break the egg in the nest. The parents will think it’s a dangerous place and never return! I'll try that one next spring!
