Monday, August 3, 2009
♥ In which Kristina gets lost for 6 hours and defeats a spider
So this weekend I decided I wanted to explore Yaizu, which is all good and well and needed to be done. I decided I'd finally get on that damn bicycle after 12 years of not riding one, however, I ran into a snag. I couldn't get the kick stand up. This really makes no sense as it seems like it would be a very simple process, however I am special. I kicked it, I pushed it, I laid the bike down and grabbed at it. A half hour later I got the ingenious idea to push in this tab like thing... and lo and behold... the kickstand went up and I was left staring at it like it was laughing at me. I bet it was. Stupid bike. So after my debacle with the bike I successfully made it to the 100 Yen store where I got an assortment of towels, folders, and little bags for omiyage. Tomorrow I have to introduce myself in front of all the teachers, so I thought this was the best time to bring omiyage as everyone will be in the office. Otherwise I'd have to wait until the first day of school in september... the day I have to make a 5-10minute speech in Japanese to all the students. Errr... at least I get a paper I can read off of? Aaagh. Smiley-Sensei says I can use English too, but I would like to try and do as much of it in Japanese as possible. Speaking of students... DO THEY NEVER LEAVE?! It is the summer holidays and there's still a ton of students here taking extra lessons and doing activites. Yesterday as I was walking to the supermarket, all the archery kids (in their awesome Japanese outfits) were piled onto the sidewalks, there had to be around 30 of them. I mean, I know its what they're used to, but to never get a break... that has to blow. I suppose thats why teachers are seen as those who raise children, not the parents... they just see them more often. Err tangeant, my apologies.
Yes! Bike of doom. Okay. So I got out of the 100 Yen store and thought I'd try and find the train station! Success! There is a beautiful little place (which I will upload pictures of tomorrow) I found and made friends with around... 50 carp, haha. They were very interested in my melon bread as I sat on the bridge. I also made friends with a very brave, but stupid pigeon. I swear he would have been devoured by the carp had he actually chased after the bread like he was preparing to. So after exploring the station I wanted to see what was more to the south... and I think that's where I went wrong. I wandered around a bit, but after trying to retrace my steps I got a bit confused. You see... I've developed a taste for raddish salads. They are delicious. However, I wanted one so badly that I decided to stake out a combini that wasn't my own to see if there were some other types. Coco... you suck... FamilyMart... a bit better. I got one there and thought I'd find my way home in time for lunch.
The raddish salad doomed me.
I don't know how it happened... but I wound up around 8miles from my apartment before I got the gumption to ask for help. There were these three ladies chatting in a neighborhood when I approcahed them in my horrible Japanese. "Sumimasen?"... "Haiiiiiii?".... "Eto... Yaizu Chuo koko?" (basically Yaizu Chuo HIgh School?) and they were like... AAHHH??!? And pointed in the general direction of which I came and made a motion that it was very far away. After failing at Japanese, they told me to just speak in slow English at which point we started to work on a map while one of the ladies ran and got the elementary school English teacher who clarified some directions. He said I had to go a long way, but that I would find it. So following his directions I wound up at Yaizu Station... still quite a ways from where I live (considering Nishi Yaizu Station is a 3min crazy fast train ride away from Yaizu Station.) That's when I decide instead to just follow the train tracks, which eventually led me back to Nishi Yaizu and then to my apartment. Oh... did I mention it was raining? I also got sunburned.
All for a raddish salad... which was destroyed by the heat and rain.
Fucking raddish salad, why are you so good?
So yeah, I got back around 4:30 after leaving around 10. I'm in a foul mood and I need to meet another ALT at 5:30. So I turn on the tv and what is on? Pokemon. Suddenly it is all okay. I get ready and head out for an amusing idnner filled with... babies? Yeah, I don't know what they were, baby somthings... we think they were either eel fetsues or fish fetuses or something, but they had eyes and Adam (the other ALT and I) just... couldn't do it .He ate more than me and lamented it the rest of the night. Haha. We then went to a bar in Fujieda called the Peaceful Dog (with a very ANGRY looking bull terrier on the sign) where I ordered "something pretty", haha. I got some sort of blue fizzy lime drink that was rather nice. Met up with another ALT and then Adam had to go back for a prior "engagement". I hung out with the other ALT for a bit and we headed to his (Scottish) friend's birthday party. Adam had warned me about too much at once and I quickly experienced that. It was fun for the most part, don't get me wrong, I had just had such a long day, I was so tired, i was sunburned, and I wanted to go home... but I'm too nice a person to say as much so I just went into the bathroom and cried, haha. I felt bad because then the last train was leaving and BIrthday Boy took me to the train and I just kept crying. He understood though and he very nicely and drunkenly held my hand and bought my train ticket to send me on my way. He wanted to give me his number but i had nothing to write with and i have no number yet so I will just have to get it from some others. So I arrived to Nishi Yaizu Station safely... only to go down the wrong staircase and promptly get lost for another half hour... cry some more, and then realized my mistake and finally made it home and went to bed.
So Saturday was... eventful.
I decided Sunday would be a rest day and slept until 11 (WHOOHOO!). However... Fate was not yet done with me and I was met with my deepest, darkest, enemy. The huntsman spider (DO NOT GOOGLE IT IF YOU NO LIKEY SPIDERS!). I opened my bathroom door to see it on the far wall. My heart stops, the gasp reaches unheard of octaves and I stared... before slowly inching it to look in the mirror... and then slowly inch out to shut the door. I panic... what do I do? How do I get rid of it? WHY DOES THE WORLD HATE ME?! I run to the pantry and grab roach spray and a tuberware to trap it in. I open the door.. AND IT MOVED... like two inches to the right... but it moved and that was enough to make me flail. As I get closer and decide how I'm going to do this, I remember our PA saying to not spray the spiders because they just freak out and run at you. So I walk back out and flick the lights a few times... but it doesn't move. Okay. SO I go back to the pantry and abandon my tuberware for a mop with a very long handle. I spray the mop with the spray and walk back in... it moved again. Fucker. Its too far away so I turn on the water and spray it... this was... a veyr bad idea. It starts scurring around and I scream bloody murder, running back, flialing with the water, making it keep moving. I stop the water and catch my breath, readying my mop. I lean forward.. it moves... I scream. This repeated two more times before I just scream andlaunch myself, smacking it. It falls into the tub and I look down very carefully... it starts moving again. It's not dead! I scream once more and just start flailing with the mop. I keep missing until finally I land on top of it, and in good horror movie spirit, I press down and grind that sucker into the tub... and then slowly move it over to the drain. Holding my breath I slowly lift up the mop to see it shrivel up and die... only then moving it with the mop to the drain and drowning it, making it leave my apartment forever.
The rest of the day I very slowly opened that door, but as of yet no spiders have come back. Yay. I didn't do a whole lot the rest of the day, took a brief trip to the supermarket to get food... since I had none, and picked up some ketchup for my chicken nuggets! I cooked last night... green beans, french fries, and chicekn nuggets (I was feeling nostalgic) and I have decided that Japan doesn't actually know what a chicken nugget is, and what they do know of it they know from McDonalds. They weren't the tastiest thing, but it was dinner and it was good. I watched Memoirs of a Geisha to try and get myself in a more positive Japan mood, and then promptly went ot bed... only to not sleep until like 2 because I kept worrying about that damn spider.
But today is a new day! Going to try and get my bank account again and maybe a cell phone is the bank account thing works. Here's hoping!
Yes! Bike of doom. Okay. So I got out of the 100 Yen store and thought I'd try and find the train station! Success! There is a beautiful little place (which I will upload pictures of tomorrow) I found and made friends with around... 50 carp, haha. They were very interested in my melon bread as I sat on the bridge. I also made friends with a very brave, but stupid pigeon. I swear he would have been devoured by the carp had he actually chased after the bread like he was preparing to. So after exploring the station I wanted to see what was more to the south... and I think that's where I went wrong. I wandered around a bit, but after trying to retrace my steps I got a bit confused. You see... I've developed a taste for raddish salads. They are delicious. However, I wanted one so badly that I decided to stake out a combini that wasn't my own to see if there were some other types. Coco... you suck... FamilyMart... a bit better. I got one there and thought I'd find my way home in time for lunch.
The raddish salad doomed me.
I don't know how it happened... but I wound up around 8miles from my apartment before I got the gumption to ask for help. There were these three ladies chatting in a neighborhood when I approcahed them in my horrible Japanese. "Sumimasen?"... "Haiiiiiii?".... "Eto... Yaizu Chuo koko?" (basically Yaizu Chuo HIgh School?) and they were like... AAHHH??!? And pointed in the general direction of which I came and made a motion that it was very far away. After failing at Japanese, they told me to just speak in slow English at which point we started to work on a map while one of the ladies ran and got the elementary school English teacher who clarified some directions. He said I had to go a long way, but that I would find it. So following his directions I wound up at Yaizu Station... still quite a ways from where I live (considering Nishi Yaizu Station is a 3min crazy fast train ride away from Yaizu Station.) That's when I decide instead to just follow the train tracks, which eventually led me back to Nishi Yaizu and then to my apartment. Oh... did I mention it was raining? I also got sunburned.
All for a raddish salad... which was destroyed by the heat and rain.
Fucking raddish salad, why are you so good?
So yeah, I got back around 4:30 after leaving around 10. I'm in a foul mood and I need to meet another ALT at 5:30. So I turn on the tv and what is on? Pokemon. Suddenly it is all okay. I get ready and head out for an amusing idnner filled with... babies? Yeah, I don't know what they were, baby somthings... we think they were either eel fetsues or fish fetuses or something, but they had eyes and Adam (the other ALT and I) just... couldn't do it .He ate more than me and lamented it the rest of the night. Haha. We then went to a bar in Fujieda called the Peaceful Dog (with a very ANGRY looking bull terrier on the sign) where I ordered "something pretty", haha. I got some sort of blue fizzy lime drink that was rather nice. Met up with another ALT and then Adam had to go back for a prior "engagement". I hung out with the other ALT for a bit and we headed to his (Scottish) friend's birthday party. Adam had warned me about too much at once and I quickly experienced that. It was fun for the most part, don't get me wrong, I had just had such a long day, I was so tired, i was sunburned, and I wanted to go home... but I'm too nice a person to say as much so I just went into the bathroom and cried, haha. I felt bad because then the last train was leaving and BIrthday Boy took me to the train and I just kept crying. He understood though and he very nicely and drunkenly held my hand and bought my train ticket to send me on my way. He wanted to give me his number but i had nothing to write with and i have no number yet so I will just have to get it from some others. So I arrived to Nishi Yaizu Station safely... only to go down the wrong staircase and promptly get lost for another half hour... cry some more, and then realized my mistake and finally made it home and went to bed.
So Saturday was... eventful.
I decided Sunday would be a rest day and slept until 11 (WHOOHOO!). However... Fate was not yet done with me and I was met with my deepest, darkest, enemy. The huntsman spider (DO NOT GOOGLE IT IF YOU NO LIKEY SPIDERS!). I opened my bathroom door to see it on the far wall. My heart stops, the gasp reaches unheard of octaves and I stared... before slowly inching it to look in the mirror... and then slowly inch out to shut the door. I panic... what do I do? How do I get rid of it? WHY DOES THE WORLD HATE ME?! I run to the pantry and grab roach spray and a tuberware to trap it in. I open the door.. AND IT MOVED... like two inches to the right... but it moved and that was enough to make me flail. As I get closer and decide how I'm going to do this, I remember our PA saying to not spray the spiders because they just freak out and run at you. So I walk back out and flick the lights a few times... but it doesn't move. Okay. SO I go back to the pantry and abandon my tuberware for a mop with a very long handle. I spray the mop with the spray and walk back in... it moved again. Fucker. Its too far away so I turn on the water and spray it... this was... a veyr bad idea. It starts scurring around and I scream bloody murder, running back, flialing with the water, making it keep moving. I stop the water and catch my breath, readying my mop. I lean forward.. it moves... I scream. This repeated two more times before I just scream andlaunch myself, smacking it. It falls into the tub and I look down very carefully... it starts moving again. It's not dead! I scream once more and just start flailing with the mop. I keep missing until finally I land on top of it, and in good horror movie spirit, I press down and grind that sucker into the tub... and then slowly move it over to the drain. Holding my breath I slowly lift up the mop to see it shrivel up and die... only then moving it with the mop to the drain and drowning it, making it leave my apartment forever.
The rest of the day I very slowly opened that door, but as of yet no spiders have come back. Yay. I didn't do a whole lot the rest of the day, took a brief trip to the supermarket to get food... since I had none, and picked up some ketchup for my chicken nuggets! I cooked last night... green beans, french fries, and chicekn nuggets (I was feeling nostalgic) and I have decided that Japan doesn't actually know what a chicken nugget is, and what they do know of it they know from McDonalds. They weren't the tastiest thing, but it was dinner and it was good. I watched Memoirs of a Geisha to try and get myself in a more positive Japan mood, and then promptly went ot bed... only to not sleep until like 2 because I kept worrying about that damn spider.
But today is a new day! Going to try and get my bank account again and maybe a cell phone is the bank account thing works. Here's hoping!
10:48 AM
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