I wonder sometimes if this blog is still fulfilling its initial purpose of serving as a good view of the life of a JET in Japan, or if it’s just evolved into a “this is what I did today” entity. I feel like I haven’t had much insight or speculation to provide lately…I think after a certain point, it’s easy to gloss over all the differences, because you’ve been here for so long, doing the same thing, that it just loses its novelty and becomes a little more ordinary. It’s definitely not an ordinary experience, but…driving on the right doesn’t faze me, bowing and the scent of fish in the air don’t faze me, walking everywhere in my town and driving almost nowhere don’t faze me, my work situation and the fact that I barely use English at work don’t faze me…it’s just what I do. I guess that in itself is something to think about, though.
Anyway…I somehow totally neglected to mention the Mosquito From Hell that bit me (read: mauled my face) overnight on Monday, so when I woke up Tuesday, I honestly looked like I either had been in an accident or like somebody had hit me across the face (I was thinking of taking a photo, and just didn’t–I sort of regret it now). My left eyelid was swollen and that eye wasn’t opening all the way, my right upper cheek was puffy, and my chin to the right of the cleft was noticeably bigger than the left side. It thankfully receded by that evening, but I got plenty of horrified looks and lots of sympathy at school.
Today, a teacher suddenly clapped her hands in the air as she tried to get a mosquito, and explained that one bit her arm several times. I then asked her if she by any chance saw my face last Tuesday, and she admitted, a little abashedly, that she honestly thought I had either been in an accident or that someone hit me across the face, and so she didn’t want to ask me about it initially in case it was a touchy subject–but when she thought about it later, she realized the areas were puffy but not red/bloodied, and that my face wouldn’t have healed as quickly as it did as the day went on if I’d actually incurred an injury, so she figured it had to be a mosquito.
Luckily, that night after school, I managed to kill the offending mosquito–but not before it bit me on my finger, with enough venom in that sting to make my entire arm start itching and to make my finger start tingling. Either that was one incredibly nasty mosquito, or I’m developing an allergy. I think it’s a bit of both. A friend suggested I look into an epi-pen, in case my reaction gets worse with each bite…I doubt it’s to that point, but I do have mosquitoes in my apartment and the plug-in mosquito repellant thing I have that worked well for Hannah has done nothing to kill them, so I need to do something.
Hmm, what else…my order from AmbikaJapan came in tonight! (Well, 20% mine, 80% Brian’s.) That means I have samosas and frozen parathas and all this other Indian grocery GOODNESS. I’m really excited! I just wish I could remember the recipe for this awesome, awesome chick-pea curry with some kind of brown base that my mom makes to go with the parathas. Oh, and with the order, I also got a coupon from Yamato/KuroNeko Takkyuubin (the delivery company) that gets me discounted rates on international shipping, and it has no expiration date! That’s going to be extremely handy when I’m shipping stuff home next year, especially for the stuff I’ll need until the end and again soon after I return to the US, but that I can’t pack into my suitcases.
I’ve also been studying hard for the GRE, and I think it’s coming along really well (heh, jinx)–I didn’t get to do much this weekend, since we had part of our Mid-Year Conference on Saturday (it used to be an optional English camp at a large high school just outside Tokushima City, but they decided to make it required for all ALTs this year and refer to it as a “seminar,” though it really wasn’t–it was fun working with high school kids, but we’ll never be in a situation where there’s a team of ALTs working in a classroom like that, so we really didn’t get anything out of it), and the first 2007 Tokushima AJET Musical planning meeting yesterday. (We’re doing Pinocchio, and the way Chris pitched it, it sounds like it has a lot of promise.) In the process, though, I bought some new classical CDs at Art Records (the proprieter actually ordered me a cup of coffee from Cha-Cha Coffee down the street) and several discount CDs from BookOff (Spice Girls “Spice” and two Sting CDs–I’ve been shamelessly singing along to “Wannabe,” “2 Become 1,” and “If You Can’t Dance” at the top of my lungs for the past 2 days’ worth of car rides).
Okay, I’m off to eat some samosas. SAMOSAS!