Friday, May 27, 2011
Easter Activities: Photo Blog
Hello everyone! My last blog was a bit on the down side of things, but rest assure as many down times as there are, there are up times as well. Its a crazy roller coaster life living over here, and although the down seem quick and dramatic, the ups take us much higher that we thought we could go. But in the blink of the eye the roller coaster is over, and we're left thinking...really? That was it? So today I am going to post pictures instead of another long ranting blog. These pictures were from our Easter Activities in our kid's classes at Hongo. I have to give a shout out to my best friend Emily who sent me the egg dye and the Easter eggs, the kids had a great day and everyone enjoyed learning about Easter. These smiling faces always brighten my days, when no one else can. Our communication is so limited...but I love them all so much, and adore teaching kids' classes! 
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Changes
It’s the second week of May now, which means our classes have been in full swing for about a month. We have added 2 more children’s classes, and the kids couldn’t be cuter! So now I currently have 4 adult classes and 5 kid’s classes at Hongo, and 14 girls at Katerina. Teaching is in full swing. I changed from teaching two beginner and two intermediate to one beginner, two intermediate and one advanced class this year, partially because I wanted to teach an advanced class and partially because I believe the new Hongo J3 is more suited to teach the beginner classes. (He is an accredited ESL teacher, and is fluent in Japanese so it made more sense). I could not be happier with my classes and my students. These changes are welcomed as far as I’m concerned.
This spring many changes have happened and I have not welcomed all of them with such open arms. For many many many years the LCMS Lutheran Church has also had a missionary presence in Tokyo (VYM). Their job positions and our job positions ran right along side each other, 6 months language training, 2 years teaching. These people were close co-workers, friends, support systems and overall a social network. Due to unfortunate circumstances their program has officially ended their presence in Japan. Its sad to see a missionary community pack up and leave, but they have been working hard in Japan for years, and have planted so many seeds that will continue to grow and blossom here in Japan, so although they may be physically gone now, their work continues on in the students that they taught. This was not a change I welcomed. These missionaries were my peers. As some of you may know, the missionary group I came with….was an unusual group. Two married couples, one in their 40’s and one in their early 60’s, and myself; usually J3’s are straight out of college, so my group was a bit strange. We got along great and had an amazing orientation together, the entire while I had my peer group with the other Tokyo J3 missionaries (Charity and Matthew) and the numerous VYM missionaries to socialize with.
We would meet for lunches, have bible studies together, monthly worship meetings to re-gather and recharge, izakaiya nights and our lovely trips to Cost-Co. These were my friends in Tokyo, a group of fellow missionaries who I could share my daily struggles with, and they actually understood because they were in the same boat. We were all about the same age, single (well okay there were two newly wed couples, but they were single before) and we were all fresh in the field. We didn’t have obligations back home, or big families yet to call our own so our jobs basically became our lives, and that’s what being a missionary is all about. When these people were pulled from Japan as their contracts ended, it was during the time of the earthquake when so many things were happening and going on. The company pulled them out faster than anyone was expecting so proper good-byes and farewell parties were missed. Thus leaving many things unresolved. A change not welcomed.
The missionary positions in Tokyo are also a semi touchy subject with me, so lets just say I am currently working with someone I did not expect to be working with. My co-worker is awesome, and a FABULOUS teacher, which takes a huge burden off of me. I can relax and enjoy the bible study 4 times a week as he leads it flawlessly as far as I’m concerned. He is a great co-worker…just not who I thought I’d be working with. I was expecting a 20 something female to join me in Tokyo and to become my new bestest friend ever (which of course you ladies still are, even in the Mote) but due to back door meetings, this opportunity was short lived. My former co-worker, the glorious Matthew Linden, was a joy to work with. Everyday he made me smile at work and laugh even when I didn’t want to. He was always chattering and kept the atmosphere light and friendly. We had late night conversations over beers, shared our depressing moments, and moments of excitements as well as many hilarious youtube videos. We enjoyed working together and our lunch dates every Wednesday and Thursday (come on, we don’t cook). It was a time to teach and then to hang out with a friend. And although sometimes I didn’t enjoy the constant rambling… I look back at it now, and highly miss it. My work place atmosphere changed the moment Matthew left, and it’s not better or worse…it’s different. A change not welcomed.
As other missionary friends fulfill their contracts and look forward to moving home in the coming months, my military friends are also ending their tour of duty and returning to America. I’m still here. I'm not going to say out right that I don’t want to be here…but things have changed and it is much harder now than it was two months ago.
I feel I have lost my community, my social outlet, my place away from home to kick back with a friend while we lesson plan for the week. The recharging services and bible studies are trying to take place over skype, but with time differences…they don’t always happen. I still have a few amazing friends here in Tokyo and an amazing missionary family down in Kawasaki that are my saving grace, but things are different. My immediate peer group is gone, and I’m not sure they will ever be able to be replaced. I feel more alone here than I have in a long time, and the constant aftershocks from the earthquake are also beginning to play on my nerves a little bit and then I get the, ‘ugh, I can’t wait to go home!” feeling.
I don’t’ say all this to complain or to make people feel sorry for me, but merely to share that this is part of the reality of being a missionary, having an international life style means friends are constantly coming and going, and things are always changing. I realize I can’t count on people to always be there, because when a contract or a visa is expired…they have to leave and that’s just the reality of this job. So instead of depending on others I have joined a gym and am now focusing on me for the next year until I too hang it up and come home (in less than a year). So hopefully this will keep me occupied and give me something to do when I have no one to call and hang out with. So I am trying to be proactive and positive about the current situation, as its reality and I cannot change it. I just wanted to shed light on some of the struggles that I do face here, because all too often I think I might sugar coat my blog entries and only paint the happy picture, today’s picture…not so happy. Changes are not always welcome.
This spring many changes have happened and I have not welcomed all of them with such open arms. For many many many years the LCMS Lutheran Church has also had a missionary presence in Tokyo (VYM). Their job positions and our job positions ran right along side each other, 6 months language training, 2 years teaching. These people were close co-workers, friends, support systems and overall a social network. Due to unfortunate circumstances their program has officially ended their presence in Japan. Its sad to see a missionary community pack up and leave, but they have been working hard in Japan for years, and have planted so many seeds that will continue to grow and blossom here in Japan, so although they may be physically gone now, their work continues on in the students that they taught. This was not a change I welcomed. These missionaries were my peers. As some of you may know, the missionary group I came with….was an unusual group. Two married couples, one in their 40’s and one in their early 60’s, and myself; usually J3’s are straight out of college, so my group was a bit strange. We got along great and had an amazing orientation together, the entire while I had my peer group with the other Tokyo J3 missionaries (Charity and Matthew) and the numerous VYM missionaries to socialize with.
We would meet for lunches, have bible studies together, monthly worship meetings to re-gather and recharge, izakaiya nights and our lovely trips to Cost-Co. These were my friends in Tokyo, a group of fellow missionaries who I could share my daily struggles with, and they actually understood because they were in the same boat. We were all about the same age, single (well okay there were two newly wed couples, but they were single before) and we were all fresh in the field. We didn’t have obligations back home, or big families yet to call our own so our jobs basically became our lives, and that’s what being a missionary is all about. When these people were pulled from Japan as their contracts ended, it was during the time of the earthquake when so many things were happening and going on. The company pulled them out faster than anyone was expecting so proper good-byes and farewell parties were missed. Thus leaving many things unresolved. A change not welcomed.
The missionary positions in Tokyo are also a semi touchy subject with me, so lets just say I am currently working with someone I did not expect to be working with. My co-worker is awesome, and a FABULOUS teacher, which takes a huge burden off of me. I can relax and enjoy the bible study 4 times a week as he leads it flawlessly as far as I’m concerned. He is a great co-worker…just not who I thought I’d be working with. I was expecting a 20 something female to join me in Tokyo and to become my new bestest friend ever (which of course you ladies still are, even in the Mote) but due to back door meetings, this opportunity was short lived. My former co-worker, the glorious Matthew Linden, was a joy to work with. Everyday he made me smile at work and laugh even when I didn’t want to. He was always chattering and kept the atmosphere light and friendly. We had late night conversations over beers, shared our depressing moments, and moments of excitements as well as many hilarious youtube videos. We enjoyed working together and our lunch dates every Wednesday and Thursday (come on, we don’t cook). It was a time to teach and then to hang out with a friend. And although sometimes I didn’t enjoy the constant rambling… I look back at it now, and highly miss it. My work place atmosphere changed the moment Matthew left, and it’s not better or worse…it’s different. A change not welcomed.
As other missionary friends fulfill their contracts and look forward to moving home in the coming months, my military friends are also ending their tour of duty and returning to America. I’m still here. I'm not going to say out right that I don’t want to be here…but things have changed and it is much harder now than it was two months ago.
I feel I have lost my community, my social outlet, my place away from home to kick back with a friend while we lesson plan for the week. The recharging services and bible studies are trying to take place over skype, but with time differences…they don’t always happen. I still have a few amazing friends here in Tokyo and an amazing missionary family down in Kawasaki that are my saving grace, but things are different. My immediate peer group is gone, and I’m not sure they will ever be able to be replaced. I feel more alone here than I have in a long time, and the constant aftershocks from the earthquake are also beginning to play on my nerves a little bit and then I get the, ‘ugh, I can’t wait to go home!” feeling.
I don’t’ say all this to complain or to make people feel sorry for me, but merely to share that this is part of the reality of being a missionary, having an international life style means friends are constantly coming and going, and things are always changing. I realize I can’t count on people to always be there, because when a contract or a visa is expired…they have to leave and that’s just the reality of this job. So instead of depending on others I have joined a gym and am now focusing on me for the next year until I too hang it up and come home (in less than a year). So hopefully this will keep me occupied and give me something to do when I have no one to call and hang out with. So I am trying to be proactive and positive about the current situation, as its reality and I cannot change it. I just wanted to shed light on some of the struggles that I do face here, because all too often I think I might sugar coat my blog entries and only paint the happy picture, today’s picture…not so happy. Changes are not always welcome.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
March Madness
I realize I have not posted a blog entry in some time, and for that I apologize. My last blog was entered on March 10th… if only I had waited one day later to write it, that blog would have been a totally different story. As everyone is well aware by now, Japan suffered a horrible 9.0 earthquake on Friday March 11th, at 2:46pm. The school year runs a little differently than back in the States, and due to this the month of March is all vacation for me, so this particular Friday I had no work, and was at home. I was planning on heading down to the ministry site in Yokosuka to spend the night, and my bags were packed and ready to go. I wanted to finish watching an episode of House, so I was procrastinating a little longer than planned, in retrospect; I’m SO GLAD I procrastinated.
I was at home when the earthquake hit, and at first shrugged it off because we have plenty of earthquakes and I was sure this one was no different. However this one was different, it lasted a much longer time and was getting stronger with every shake. Things were being thrown around in my house, and at this point I realized, this was no regular earthquake, this was a big one. I ran upstairs and immediately started taking down anything that was glass and moving it to the floor, because things were falling off of shelves and for a minute I thought my entire bookcase was going to fall over. After I had moved everything to the ground that I felt might break, I ran back downstairs and braced myself as the earthquake continued to shake my house. It was quite possibly the scariest few minutes of my life. Realizing for the first time, I live alone, and have NO idea what to do in case of an earthquake…I had no preparedness kit, not even bottled water and no evacuation plan. Oops. Compared to how I could have reacted, I think I remained quite calm doing the whole ordeal. After the ground finally stopped shaking, I could hear lots of people outside talking, so I headed out the door, to be around people. I might not understand what they were saying, and everyone was just as shaken as I was, but being in the mere company of other people, made me feel a lot better.
I walked by the train station in my neighborhood and that’s when the first big aftershock hit. Let me tell you, some of these aftershocks are like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Buildings in Tokyo and in all of Japan for that matter are built to sway. I’m use to sturdy brick homes in America, that don’t budge. In Japan buildings rock, sway and move to prevent damage when earthquakes hit, and they do quite an effective job too I might add. However, being in a building that sways (to a foreigner who is not used to that) feels like the building is going to fall over on top of you. The swaying aftershocks are also a quite impressive feeling. Imagine being on a boat on a windy day on the water. The boat rocks back and forth and many people get sea sick. Now, imagine your house is doing that…crazy huh? The ground literally is swaying beneath you and everything is rocking from side to side….not a comforting thought to think that ground is swaying underneath you. I walked around my neighborhood for awhile to see what most people were doing, to get a feel for what I should be doing. All the time I was trying to call my friends in Tokyo to see where everyone was, and make sure everyone was ok. But that plan did not work as EVERYONE in Tokyo was trying to do the same thing, so the cell phone lines were jammed, my phone quit working for close to 10 hours.
I decided to head home and came to the conclusion I wouldn’t be going to Yokosuka that night, since all the trains had shut down. I had a Japanese friend come over that night, to watch the news with me, and just to keep me company since I was still pretty shaken up. The internet was still working, so I began to get in touch with people by good ole facebook, and learned that everyone was okay and trying to find their ways home. The entire city took to the streets that night as millions (literally millions) of people had to walk home from work, school, shopping wherever they were when the earthquake hit, because the trains were down for the night. I had students tell me they walked hours to get home only to find all of their valuables broken.
To be quite honest, everything was kind of a blur and I still didn’t know the damage caused everywhere by this earthquake, nor did I know at that time where it had originated from. As the days continued on I realized the extent of the damage and learned of the travesty in the Tohoku region. Things in Tokyo remained to be a bit chaotic for the next few weeks. Everyone panicked like people do everywhere (although much less here than other places), and the food quickly disappeared from the grocery stores, the trains remained shut down, and flights in and out of Tokyo were suspended briefly. This had me worried… As I stated before this happened on Friday and my younger brother Daniel, was suppose to be flying in on Monday. So I was playing the waiting game to see what would happen. We had aftershocks about every 15 minutes so the trains were running slow, sporadically or not at all. I had talked with Daniel and he assured me he was still coming out here, so a friend from church graciously offered to drive me out there to pick him up, when she realized the trains to the airport that day were not running. I am so thankful people here are looking out for me!
About the time of Daniel’s arrival into Tokyo is when all the foreigners were fleeing Japan, so it was really nice to have him with me during this time. His trip to Japan was a lot of fun, with a few modifications due to the earthquake. But overall it was a great time. We even had my birthday dinner with our two Japanese friends from Milwaukee, which was really cool; Mariko, Ken, Daniel and I enjoyed a nice dinner in Shinjuku and had a good time catching up. I’d say his trip to Japan was quite a success, we had enough food and never lost power so I’d call that a success.
After Daniel left I spent the next two days in Tokyo just hanging out and taking a break, still having aftershocks quite frequently. I had learned most of the Lutheran missionaries (LCMS and ELCA) were no longer in Tokyo. The ELCA missionaries had planned trips out of the city prior to the earthquake, and then I learned the LCMS missionaries had all been evacuated. I started to get a bit worried, but I had a trip previously planned to go to Hong Kong to visit my friend Laura. Despite what the American news was telling everyone, things in Tokyo remained rather calm and unaffected by everything that was going on. People in America telling me things and reporting what they heard was freaking me out much more than what the American Embassy or my bosses were telling me, so to be quite honest everyone at home was making me much more frightened and nervous than I needed to be. So it was also nice to escape that by calming everyone’s nerves and telling them I was in Hong Kong.
This trip came at a great time, I was able to get out of Tokyo for a week and truly relax with a friend from college. I slept and the ground never shook to wake me up, and I got to enjoy normal life again without the worry of radiation. My trip to HK was a huge success. While I was visiting Laura, I also had time to meet up with another missionary friend Rebecca as well, and the three of us had high tea at the Penninsula Hotel, great experience I encourage everyone to try it! I also happened to be there on Sevens weekend. Sevens is the biggest sports event in Hong Kong, its a weekend long Rubgy tournament where teams from all over the world compete to be rugby champion. It was a LOT of fun! Laura and I got tickets to go on Friday to watch the opening matches, so granted the teams weren't matched well, but it was still a blast to watch and hang out with my new friends!
I immediately fell in love with Hong Kong, it was the perfect blend of Chinese and Western c/2ultures, island and city living, relaxation and business savvy, its a great place. Most, if not all, people speak English! I was able to communicate and make friends faster there than I have here in Japan for the past 1 1/2 yrs. The way of living is much different there, and its definitly a place I could see myself living...more on that in the future ;)
I returned to Tokyo as planned, with a slight delay of flight, and started work that same evening. Everything now has calmed down a bit, some schools had delayed starts due to the earthquake and some stores are still running shorter hours, but other than that, its life as usually here in Japan. In my next blog I’ll try to catch everyone up on how this new school year has been going!
I was at home when the earthquake hit, and at first shrugged it off because we have plenty of earthquakes and I was sure this one was no different. However this one was different, it lasted a much longer time and was getting stronger with every shake. Things were being thrown around in my house, and at this point I realized, this was no regular earthquake, this was a big one. I ran upstairs and immediately started taking down anything that was glass and moving it to the floor, because things were falling off of shelves and for a minute I thought my entire bookcase was going to fall over. After I had moved everything to the ground that I felt might break, I ran back downstairs and braced myself as the earthquake continued to shake my house. It was quite possibly the scariest few minutes of my life. Realizing for the first time, I live alone, and have NO idea what to do in case of an earthquake…I had no preparedness kit, not even bottled water and no evacuation plan. Oops. Compared to how I could have reacted, I think I remained quite calm doing the whole ordeal. After the ground finally stopped shaking, I could hear lots of people outside talking, so I headed out the door, to be around people. I might not understand what they were saying, and everyone was just as shaken as I was, but being in the mere company of other people, made me feel a lot better.
I walked by the train station in my neighborhood and that’s when the first big aftershock hit. Let me tell you, some of these aftershocks are like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Buildings in Tokyo and in all of Japan for that matter are built to sway. I’m use to sturdy brick homes in America, that don’t budge. In Japan buildings rock, sway and move to prevent damage when earthquakes hit, and they do quite an effective job too I might add. However, being in a building that sways (to a foreigner who is not used to that) feels like the building is going to fall over on top of you. The swaying aftershocks are also a quite impressive feeling. Imagine being on a boat on a windy day on the water. The boat rocks back and forth and many people get sea sick. Now, imagine your house is doing that…crazy huh? The ground literally is swaying beneath you and everything is rocking from side to side….not a comforting thought to think that ground is swaying underneath you. I walked around my neighborhood for awhile to see what most people were doing, to get a feel for what I should be doing. All the time I was trying to call my friends in Tokyo to see where everyone was, and make sure everyone was ok. But that plan did not work as EVERYONE in Tokyo was trying to do the same thing, so the cell phone lines were jammed, my phone quit working for close to 10 hours.
I decided to head home and came to the conclusion I wouldn’t be going to Yokosuka that night, since all the trains had shut down. I had a Japanese friend come over that night, to watch the news with me, and just to keep me company since I was still pretty shaken up. The internet was still working, so I began to get in touch with people by good ole facebook, and learned that everyone was okay and trying to find their ways home. The entire city took to the streets that night as millions (literally millions) of people had to walk home from work, school, shopping wherever they were when the earthquake hit, because the trains were down for the night. I had students tell me they walked hours to get home only to find all of their valuables broken.
To be quite honest, everything was kind of a blur and I still didn’t know the damage caused everywhere by this earthquake, nor did I know at that time where it had originated from. As the days continued on I realized the extent of the damage and learned of the travesty in the Tohoku region. Things in Tokyo remained to be a bit chaotic for the next few weeks. Everyone panicked like people do everywhere (although much less here than other places), and the food quickly disappeared from the grocery stores, the trains remained shut down, and flights in and out of Tokyo were suspended briefly. This had me worried… As I stated before this happened on Friday and my younger brother Daniel, was suppose to be flying in on Monday. So I was playing the waiting game to see what would happen. We had aftershocks about every 15 minutes so the trains were running slow, sporadically or not at all. I had talked with Daniel and he assured me he was still coming out here, so a friend from church graciously offered to drive me out there to pick him up, when she realized the trains to the airport that day were not running. I am so thankful people here are looking out for me!
About the time of Daniel’s arrival into Tokyo is when all the foreigners were fleeing Japan, so it was really nice to have him with me during this time. His trip to Japan was a lot of fun, with a few modifications due to the earthquake. But overall it was a great time. We even had my birthday dinner with our two Japanese friends from Milwaukee, which was really cool; Mariko, Ken, Daniel and I enjoyed a nice dinner in Shinjuku and had a good time catching up. I’d say his trip to Japan was quite a success, we had enough food and never lost power so I’d call that a success.
After Daniel left I spent the next two days in Tokyo just hanging out and taking a break, still having aftershocks quite frequently. I had learned most of the Lutheran missionaries (LCMS and ELCA) were no longer in Tokyo. The ELCA missionaries had planned trips out of the city prior to the earthquake, and then I learned the LCMS missionaries had all been evacuated. I started to get a bit worried, but I had a trip previously planned to go to Hong Kong to visit my friend Laura. Despite what the American news was telling everyone, things in Tokyo remained rather calm and unaffected by everything that was going on. People in America telling me things and reporting what they heard was freaking me out much more than what the American Embassy or my bosses were telling me, so to be quite honest everyone at home was making me much more frightened and nervous than I needed to be. So it was also nice to escape that by calming everyone’s nerves and telling them I was in Hong Kong.
This trip came at a great time, I was able to get out of Tokyo for a week and truly relax with a friend from college. I slept and the ground never shook to wake me up, and I got to enjoy normal life again without the worry of radiation. My trip to HK was a huge success. While I was visiting Laura, I also had time to meet up with another missionary friend Rebecca as well, and the three of us had high tea at the Penninsula Hotel, great experience I encourage everyone to try it! I also happened to be there on Sevens weekend. Sevens is the biggest sports event in Hong Kong, its a weekend long Rubgy tournament where teams from all over the world compete to be rugby champion. It was a LOT of fun! Laura and I got tickets to go on Friday to watch the opening matches, so granted the teams weren't matched well, but it was still a blast to watch and hang out with my new friends!
I immediately fell in love with Hong Kong, it was the perfect blend of Chinese and Western c/2ultures, island and city living, relaxation and business savvy, its a great place. Most, if not all, people speak English! I was able to communicate and make friends faster there than I have here in Japan for the past 1 1/2 yrs. The way of living is much different there, and its definitly a place I could see myself living...more on that in the future ;)
I returned to Tokyo as planned, with a slight delay of flight, and started work that same evening. Everything now has calmed down a bit, some schools had delayed starts due to the earthquake and some stores are still running shorter hours, but other than that, its life as usually here in Japan. In my next blog I’ll try to catch everyone up on how this new school year has been going!
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