OK. Heads up, everyone: I’ve already posted two long entries to my blog today. This is my third post. Scroll down for the other two.
Stef took Mia to the doctor yesterday. She’s almost up to 8 pounds now. She’s strong, healthy, and growing. She’s very alert—often more so than we’d like. It’s always nice to hold her, but sometimes holding her keeps us from cleaning, or other things we need to take care of. I’ll try to post some pictures later.
We ordered a bunch of stuff from The Flying Pig, a service that ships Costco goods to your door in Japan. We got a box full of:
Pickles
Dr. Pepper
Those Huge Costco Dogs
Bagels
Pretzels
Tim Tams: Australian chocolate covered wafer cookie awesomeness
I never would have imagined I’d consider pickles to be a comfort food.
Close to our house, there’s a store that sells things in larger quantities than those of the normal stores. You can get ground beef, chicken, butter, baking ingredients, and all sorts of frozen goods at awesome prices. Some people don’t shop there because not all of the products sold there are made in Japan. Patriotism is fine, but call me a traitor if it’ll save me 30% on my groceries.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
So This is What it Feels Like to Actually Work
If you care about my routine, feel free to read on. Otherwise, I've left you other things to enjoy today.
Just look up or down. On the screen.
Imabari and Uoshima couldn't be more different. On the island, I had one junior high school student that never came to class, one 6th grade elementary school student that I taught nearly once each week, and three other elementary school kids in a combined first-and-second grade class that I taught twice every three months. In my last four months on Uoshima, I taught a total of four or five classes. Seriously.
My first day teaching at Minami Junior High School, I taught four classes. Minami is one of my five new schools, and it's my base school--the one I where I spend the most time. In Japan, junior high schools are made up of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. At Minami, there are four groups of students in each grade, each group having about 25 kids. The classes are numbered based on their year at the school--7th graders are in classes 1-1 through 1-4, 8th graders 2-1 through 2-4, and 9th graders 3-1 through 3-4. Students traditionally stay together in their home room while the teachers rotate between classrooms. It's probably a bit harder to get to know all the other kids at your school, but I'm sure that some kids grow pretty close after spending all year in the same class.
Each month, I teach five or six times at Minami. The classes are very simple; I'm often nothing more than a tape recorder for the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), who's done most of the preparation for the lesson. It's nice to not have to stress about preparation at Minami, and the three JTEs that I work with are all pretty easy going. They're not all as comfortable with the English language, but the team teaching generally works pretty well. The kids don't usually have an ALT (assistant language teacher) in the classroom, so they get pretty excited when I show up. On average, I teach two classes a day at Minami, and usually with the same JTE.
It's a lot different having large classes. Games take a lot longer to complete, so it's easy to burn through class time. It's nice to have kids running around the school. Most kids are pretty well-behaved at Minami, though there are a few that like to be heard. I don't get upset, since that's probably what my teachers had to deal with. I'm pretty enthusiastic in class, and the kids usually feed off that energy.
Four to six days each month, I go to Sakurai Elementary School. There are three classes in each grade, each with 25-30 students. Instead of working with a JTE, I teach with varying levels of support from the HRT (home room teacher). My other elementary schools share the same setup. Most of the teachers understand a little bit of English, so they can help translate very basic words. Sometimes they are very self-conscious about their English and won't say a word during the lesson. Luckily, my Japanese has progressed enough to where I can translate most of what I say in English to Japanese.
Every time I teach at Sakurai, I teach all three classes of the same grade. It's nice having to prepare only one lesson for three separate classes. It makes it so that I don't worry as much about not being able to plan lessons with the HRTs until the night before, when I receive a phone call in Japanese.
Shimizu elementary, where I go four or five times each month, is basically the bane of my existence. I teach two classes of two radically different grades (like 1st and 5th, 2nd and 4th, or 3rd and 6th), for a total of four classes each visit. English classes so far have taken place in a special foreign language room with materials and props--but the students have no desks. They sit on uncomfortable chairs and have no way to write. I'm beginning to see myself as an entertainer. Most of the teachers thus far haven't been too willing to help with the lessons, and they stand off to the side while I talk to the class.
Honestly, it's not that bad. It's just that it's so much busier than the other schools, and there's no communication with the staff. As I become more and more comfortable with Japanese, I am going to take it upon myself to initiate the communication with the teachers. I already communicate pretty well--I just am not yet familiar with all the school vocabulary (there wasn't much to discuss on Uoshima). In a month or so, I think I'll be up to the challenge. Also, as I learn which teaching strategies work best with each age group, I'll have a better idea of how to prepare lessons. Things will work out fine.
The first Monday of each month, I have an office day. I go to the city office and sit in a room with other ALTs from 9 until noon, and then I get to go home. From July 20th until August 30th, the students will be on summer vacation and I'll have office days. It's going to be great to sleep in until 7 and be home at 12:15 every day--and still get paid the same.
Every day I get up at about 6, put a cartoon on for Kelsey (who usually wakes up at about 6:15), and get ready for the day. I leave for work at 7:30 or 7:45, depending on the distance of the school I'm set to visit that day. Minami is a 15-20 minute bike ride from the house, while Shimizu takes about 20. Sakurai is a good 25-30 minutes away.
Two or three times a month, I travel to my last two schools, Okamura and Sekizen. They're really the same school; it's a junior high and an elementary school sharing a big building on Okamura, an island in the Seto Inland Sea. It's actually a lot like Uoshima--there are five or six junior high school students and about six or seven elementary school kids. It takes 20 minutes to bike to the port, and I take an 80-minute ferry at about 8:30. I arrive around 10AM and walk up to the school. I generally have two junior high school classes (about two students in each class) before lunch and two elementary school classes after. When I finish my last class, I leave the school early to catch the 4 PM boat back to Imabari. My time on Uoshima prepared me very well for Okamura. I know how to make lessons for small classes, and I really enjoy the face-to-face time with the kids.
Of all my schools, Minami is my favorite. John Scott's boy, Taro, is a student there. The kids really like me, and the teachers love to help me with my myriad Japanese grammar questions. They are often stumped when I ask about the difference between words. It's not surprising--imagine if I asked you to describe the difference between drop and fall. But I love the proximity to my house, the comfort I feel with the staff, and the stress-free quality that comes with working with good JTEs. The teachers genuinely seem happy to have me there; my predecessor wasn't quite as outgoing, from what I hear.
I love the island schools and Sakurai. I really enjoy eating lunch with the kids at those two schools. At Minami and Shimizu, I eat lunch in the staff room. It's quick and easy, but I miss out on QT with the kids. Today, at Sakurai, I ate lunch with the sixth graders. They sat me with a group of giggly girls that spent the whole time asking me questions about America and my family. It was a blast.
I really do love the kids. For the most part, the elementary school kids are peppy. The junior high school kids are a lot more self-conscious and unwilling to make mistakes in front of their peers. The same two or three kids will raise their hand every time in junior high, while a good 60-70 percent of kids will be willing to raise their hand in the elementary schools. Occasionally I'll run into a class that is either exhausted, famished, unprepared, or some combination of the three. They won't respond to any kind of game or question. When that happens, I just push on through, staying positive and trying to get them to participate. Having large groups of kids has reminded me how much I enjoy teaching. I love how I feel after a successful class.
Now I just need to get my own internet connection at home so I can fill you all in more frequently.
Just look up or down. On the screen.
Imabari and Uoshima couldn't be more different. On the island, I had one junior high school student that never came to class, one 6th grade elementary school student that I taught nearly once each week, and three other elementary school kids in a combined first-and-second grade class that I taught twice every three months. In my last four months on Uoshima, I taught a total of four or five classes. Seriously.
My first day teaching at Minami Junior High School, I taught four classes. Minami is one of my five new schools, and it's my base school--the one I where I spend the most time. In Japan, junior high schools are made up of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. At Minami, there are four groups of students in each grade, each group having about 25 kids. The classes are numbered based on their year at the school--7th graders are in classes 1-1 through 1-4, 8th graders 2-1 through 2-4, and 9th graders 3-1 through 3-4. Students traditionally stay together in their home room while the teachers rotate between classrooms. It's probably a bit harder to get to know all the other kids at your school, but I'm sure that some kids grow pretty close after spending all year in the same class.
Each month, I teach five or six times at Minami. The classes are very simple; I'm often nothing more than a tape recorder for the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), who's done most of the preparation for the lesson. It's nice to not have to stress about preparation at Minami, and the three JTEs that I work with are all pretty easy going. They're not all as comfortable with the English language, but the team teaching generally works pretty well. The kids don't usually have an ALT (assistant language teacher) in the classroom, so they get pretty excited when I show up. On average, I teach two classes a day at Minami, and usually with the same JTE.
It's a lot different having large classes. Games take a lot longer to complete, so it's easy to burn through class time. It's nice to have kids running around the school. Most kids are pretty well-behaved at Minami, though there are a few that like to be heard. I don't get upset, since that's probably what my teachers had to deal with. I'm pretty enthusiastic in class, and the kids usually feed off that energy.
Four to six days each month, I go to Sakurai Elementary School. There are three classes in each grade, each with 25-30 students. Instead of working with a JTE, I teach with varying levels of support from the HRT (home room teacher). My other elementary schools share the same setup. Most of the teachers understand a little bit of English, so they can help translate very basic words. Sometimes they are very self-conscious about their English and won't say a word during the lesson. Luckily, my Japanese has progressed enough to where I can translate most of what I say in English to Japanese.
Every time I teach at Sakurai, I teach all three classes of the same grade. It's nice having to prepare only one lesson for three separate classes. It makes it so that I don't worry as much about not being able to plan lessons with the HRTs until the night before, when I receive a phone call in Japanese.
Shimizu elementary, where I go four or five times each month, is basically the bane of my existence. I teach two classes of two radically different grades (like 1st and 5th, 2nd and 4th, or 3rd and 6th), for a total of four classes each visit. English classes so far have taken place in a special foreign language room with materials and props--but the students have no desks. They sit on uncomfortable chairs and have no way to write. I'm beginning to see myself as an entertainer. Most of the teachers thus far haven't been too willing to help with the lessons, and they stand off to the side while I talk to the class.
Honestly, it's not that bad. It's just that it's so much busier than the other schools, and there's no communication with the staff. As I become more and more comfortable with Japanese, I am going to take it upon myself to initiate the communication with the teachers. I already communicate pretty well--I just am not yet familiar with all the school vocabulary (there wasn't much to discuss on Uoshima). In a month or so, I think I'll be up to the challenge. Also, as I learn which teaching strategies work best with each age group, I'll have a better idea of how to prepare lessons. Things will work out fine.
The first Monday of each month, I have an office day. I go to the city office and sit in a room with other ALTs from 9 until noon, and then I get to go home. From July 20th until August 30th, the students will be on summer vacation and I'll have office days. It's going to be great to sleep in until 7 and be home at 12:15 every day--and still get paid the same.
Every day I get up at about 6, put a cartoon on for Kelsey (who usually wakes up at about 6:15), and get ready for the day. I leave for work at 7:30 or 7:45, depending on the distance of the school I'm set to visit that day. Minami is a 15-20 minute bike ride from the house, while Shimizu takes about 20. Sakurai is a good 25-30 minutes away.
Two or three times a month, I travel to my last two schools, Okamura and Sekizen. They're really the same school; it's a junior high and an elementary school sharing a big building on Okamura, an island in the Seto Inland Sea. It's actually a lot like Uoshima--there are five or six junior high school students and about six or seven elementary school kids. It takes 20 minutes to bike to the port, and I take an 80-minute ferry at about 8:30. I arrive around 10AM and walk up to the school. I generally have two junior high school classes (about two students in each class) before lunch and two elementary school classes after. When I finish my last class, I leave the school early to catch the 4 PM boat back to Imabari. My time on Uoshima prepared me very well for Okamura. I know how to make lessons for small classes, and I really enjoy the face-to-face time with the kids.
Of all my schools, Minami is my favorite. John Scott's boy, Taro, is a student there. The kids really like me, and the teachers love to help me with my myriad Japanese grammar questions. They are often stumped when I ask about the difference between words. It's not surprising--imagine if I asked you to describe the difference between drop and fall. But I love the proximity to my house, the comfort I feel with the staff, and the stress-free quality that comes with working with good JTEs. The teachers genuinely seem happy to have me there; my predecessor wasn't quite as outgoing, from what I hear.
I love the island schools and Sakurai. I really enjoy eating lunch with the kids at those two schools. At Minami and Shimizu, I eat lunch in the staff room. It's quick and easy, but I miss out on QT with the kids. Today, at Sakurai, I ate lunch with the sixth graders. They sat me with a group of giggly girls that spent the whole time asking me questions about America and my family. It was a blast.
I really do love the kids. For the most part, the elementary school kids are peppy. The junior high school kids are a lot more self-conscious and unwilling to make mistakes in front of their peers. The same two or three kids will raise their hand every time in junior high, while a good 60-70 percent of kids will be willing to raise their hand in the elementary schools. Occasionally I'll run into a class that is either exhausted, famished, unprepared, or some combination of the three. They won't respond to any kind of game or question. When that happens, I just push on through, staying positive and trying to get them to participate. Having large groups of kids has reminded me how much I enjoy teaching. I love how I feel after a successful class.
Now I just need to get my own internet connection at home so I can fill you all in more frequently.
Not Even the Internet Can Avoid the Japanese Beaurocracy
Updates have been pretty rare lately, and I'm sorry about that. 3 weeks ago I went to the electronics shop to set up an appointment for broadband internet installation. I was told that since I don't have a home phone line (which is necessary for ADSL), it would take three weeks for them to come out and activate the service. My predecessor described this arduous task as "flipping a switch". Who knows--maybe it's a really big switch.
Stef set up a doctor's appointment for Mia for Wednesday the 22nd (yesterday), so I needed to call and let the internet people know that we wouldn't be there that day (they gave us a three day window, from Wednesday to Friday). When I called the English tech support line on Monday, the lady told me that I had given them the wrong address, and that I needed to fix it before they'd come out--and I'd have to wait another 3 weeks after fixing the address. I checked the paper carbon copy of the application that I had filled out, and lo and behold, I had written the address correctly. The person doing the data entry had left out the words "dai" and "ichi" in front of the building which together basically mean "number one" or "first". Never mind the fact that in my ward, Katayama, there are no other Tamai buildings. This was apparently a very serious problem. Of course, I've already received mail from the internet company at that address since filling out that application. But whether mail could be delivered or not, a missing "number one" just wouldn't do.
So, I got on the phone to fix the address that I had correctly given, but I had to call the Japanese customer service line. After waiting on hold for about 15 minutes, I gave up and decided to find a different internet service provider. That turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise--our new provider is actually about 10 bucks cheaper per month, and it's much faster. With YahooBB, we would have paid about 58 dollars a month for 12Mbps service, but since it's ADSL and we live far from the relay center, we would have been getting a 700kbps connection. Our new service, NTT, costs about 45 dollars a month and offers speeds up to 100Mbps (though 25 Mbps is actually a more realistic expectation due to various factors). In other words, we're paying less for something that's at least 35 times faster.
I'm interested to see exactly how fast we can download. If it gets up to 100Mbps, we could download 3.5 gigabytes of data in as little as 5 minutes. That would take almost a full day with the other service. Most people don't care as much about that stuff, but for a tech geek like me, that's heavenly.
Up until now, we've been borrowing our neighbor's wireless internet connection. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to connect for about 3 days now. So, until May 8th (when our service is installed), we probably won't be able to keep in touch. I was really looking forward to hearing from people on my birthday, but that's probably not going to happen. Hopefully we'll at least get the slow wireless connection up and running again. We can at least do Skype with that. I'm going to write another post or two today and post them above this one.
Stef set up a doctor's appointment for Mia for Wednesday the 22nd (yesterday), so I needed to call and let the internet people know that we wouldn't be there that day (they gave us a three day window, from Wednesday to Friday). When I called the English tech support line on Monday, the lady told me that I had given them the wrong address, and that I needed to fix it before they'd come out--and I'd have to wait another 3 weeks after fixing the address. I checked the paper carbon copy of the application that I had filled out, and lo and behold, I had written the address correctly. The person doing the data entry had left out the words "dai" and "ichi" in front of the building which together basically mean "number one" or "first". Never mind the fact that in my ward, Katayama, there are no other Tamai buildings. This was apparently a very serious problem. Of course, I've already received mail from the internet company at that address since filling out that application. But whether mail could be delivered or not, a missing "number one" just wouldn't do.
So, I got on the phone to fix the address that I had correctly given, but I had to call the Japanese customer service line. After waiting on hold for about 15 minutes, I gave up and decided to find a different internet service provider. That turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise--our new provider is actually about 10 bucks cheaper per month, and it's much faster. With YahooBB, we would have paid about 58 dollars a month for 12Mbps service, but since it's ADSL and we live far from the relay center, we would have been getting a 700kbps connection. Our new service, NTT, costs about 45 dollars a month and offers speeds up to 100Mbps (though 25 Mbps is actually a more realistic expectation due to various factors). In other words, we're paying less for something that's at least 35 times faster.
I'm interested to see exactly how fast we can download. If it gets up to 100Mbps, we could download 3.5 gigabytes of data in as little as 5 minutes. That would take almost a full day with the other service. Most people don't care as much about that stuff, but for a tech geek like me, that's heavenly.
Up until now, we've been borrowing our neighbor's wireless internet connection. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to connect for about 3 days now. So, until May 8th (when our service is installed), we probably won't be able to keep in touch. I was really looking forward to hearing from people on my birthday, but that's probably not going to happen. Hopefully we'll at least get the slow wireless connection up and running again. We can at least do Skype with that. I'm going to write another post or two today and post them above this one.
Friday, April 3, 2009
First week in Imabari
Last night, I put Kelsey down for bed right before running to the store to check for deals. When I got back 20 minutes later, I checked to make sure she had gone to bed, and she was laying in the exact same position, fast asleep. Stef and I watched the last part of a movie, and then got ready for bed. Stef peeked in to check on Kelsey and groaned when she saw Kelsey's face covered in ink. It must have all happened in the 20 minutes that I was gone.
Today, I saw exactly how bad it was. Kelsey drew on her hands and face, and then stuffed eight felt-tipped markers inside her footed pajamas. She had a leaky diaper, and the combination of liquid, ink, and rolling around at night covered her whole body and pajamas in permanent ink. After an hour-and-a-half of scrubbing, she's still got ink all over. At least it's light enough that it shouldn't transfer to other things. And I got most of it off her face.
What a little stinker.
So, as I said before, Mia's home, and we're living in Imabari, where we used to go to church every week before Mia came early. I got transferred early, and I start work here on Monday. It's the beginning of a new school term, so a lot of the teachers will be new. In Japan, government employees transfer to new positions in new places after three years or so. People often have to work away from their families, and some even have to live on islands during the week and travel to see their families on weekends. Most just have to commute every day.
I have five schools that I visit--three elementary schools and two junior high schools. My main mode of transportation is a small ladies' bike with a basket in front. I haven't yet seen my schools, but I know that it takes between twenty-five and forty-five minutes to pedal to my different schools. I'm going to get a lot of exercise.
Mia is doing pretty well, though yesterday she started needing to be held all the time. She gets very upset if she's not lying up against our chest. When she is up against us, she sleeps. Before that, she really liked to sit vertically and just look around. So far we haven't taken a lot of pictures. I bought batteries for our camera, but they weren't even strong enough to keep the camera on for more than 2 seconds. I turned it on, the lens extended, and then the digital display flashed "battery depleted" and it shut off. We got some new batteries yesterday and took a few pictures. Mia wasn't in a picture-taking mood, so I snapped some of Kelsey. Those are the ones that we posted to facebook and Stef's blog.
At Mia's discharge meeting with the doctors, they showed us pictures of her MRI. They said that her left cerebral ventricle is a little larger than the right one, but that it wasn't really anything to worry about. She might experience some difficulty with motor skills, but most of the time, there aren't any problems. We'll be keeping an eye out for the first few years. Everything seems normal so far.
Stef has been getting between five and six hours of broken sleep every night, which is much better than when Kelsey was a newborn. I've been getting about 7 hours of broken sleep. So we're dealing with everything pretty well. It's a lot easier when you're sleeping.
Our place is pretty cozy. It's old and has sparkly corkboard walls and tatami floors, but it feels like home. Kelsey has her own room, we have a small living room with a couch, and we have a bigger kitchen. The fridge was much too small, so we had to buy another small one in order to have enough room for all our food. At Hard-Off (I kid you not), a second-hand shop that sells everything from video games to couches, we found a practically brand new fridge for $150. We also found a baby bath for about eight bucks. To keep Kelsey out of the fridge, we got some locking plastic belt-clips.
Even if our place in Uoshima was slightly larger, this place is much more convenient. We have a big shopping complex called Saty that's five minutes away on foot. Inside the three floor building, there's a nice 100 yen shop, a play area, a nice grocery store with great prices, an arcade, a clothing store, and much more. Within a half-mile or so of our apartment, we've got two or three other grocery stores, a full-size 100 yen shop, a two-story electronics store, Hard-Off, a video rental store, and a full-size McDonald's that serves breakfast.
We're looking forward to things getting back to normal, so we won't be tempted to go to McDonald's. It's hard sometimes to ignore the convenience. And Kelsey loves chicken nuggets. Back in Matsuyama, I took her to McDonald's and got her some nuggets. Stef also took her a few times during her grocery shopping trips. One time, she told Kelsey that she had to get money from the ATM, and then they'd go buy some nuggets. When we tell Kelsey that she's going to get to eat nuggets, she shouts, "Mommy get da money, Kelsey eat nunnets!" The other day, I mentioned that I had to get some money for the next day, and Kelsey Pavlovianly chirped, "Nunnets!" Awesome.
Kelsey's being a good big sister. She's occasionally too rough when she wants to hold or kiss Mia, so we have to keep a close eye on her.
We won't have internet access at home until the 23rd or so. I can walk out into the neighborhood an pick up an unsecured wireless network, which is enough to check e-mail and post to the blog. Last night, I was walking around with the laptop in my hand like a waiter holding a tray, watching the top of the screen to see how strong the connection was, when I walked across the street. Suddenly, I didn't feel the ground under me--I had stepped into the meter-deep gutter. I knew it wouldn't end well, so I tried to protect the computer. It flew up into the air and landed upside-down on my neck, and I grabbed it before it could fall off. I bruised my left leg just above the knee, but was lucky to not have suffered worse.
Things are great here, but I wouldn't recommend walking into meter-deep ditches.
Today, I saw exactly how bad it was. Kelsey drew on her hands and face, and then stuffed eight felt-tipped markers inside her footed pajamas. She had a leaky diaper, and the combination of liquid, ink, and rolling around at night covered her whole body and pajamas in permanent ink. After an hour-and-a-half of scrubbing, she's still got ink all over. At least it's light enough that it shouldn't transfer to other things. And I got most of it off her face.
What a little stinker.
So, as I said before, Mia's home, and we're living in Imabari, where we used to go to church every week before Mia came early. I got transferred early, and I start work here on Monday. It's the beginning of a new school term, so a lot of the teachers will be new. In Japan, government employees transfer to new positions in new places after three years or so. People often have to work away from their families, and some even have to live on islands during the week and travel to see their families on weekends. Most just have to commute every day.
I have five schools that I visit--three elementary schools and two junior high schools. My main mode of transportation is a small ladies' bike with a basket in front. I haven't yet seen my schools, but I know that it takes between twenty-five and forty-five minutes to pedal to my different schools. I'm going to get a lot of exercise.
Mia is doing pretty well, though yesterday she started needing to be held all the time. She gets very upset if she's not lying up against our chest. When she is up against us, she sleeps. Before that, she really liked to sit vertically and just look around. So far we haven't taken a lot of pictures. I bought batteries for our camera, but they weren't even strong enough to keep the camera on for more than 2 seconds. I turned it on, the lens extended, and then the digital display flashed "battery depleted" and it shut off. We got some new batteries yesterday and took a few pictures. Mia wasn't in a picture-taking mood, so I snapped some of Kelsey. Those are the ones that we posted to facebook and Stef's blog.
At Mia's discharge meeting with the doctors, they showed us pictures of her MRI. They said that her left cerebral ventricle is a little larger than the right one, but that it wasn't really anything to worry about. She might experience some difficulty with motor skills, but most of the time, there aren't any problems. We'll be keeping an eye out for the first few years. Everything seems normal so far.
Stef has been getting between five and six hours of broken sleep every night, which is much better than when Kelsey was a newborn. I've been getting about 7 hours of broken sleep. So we're dealing with everything pretty well. It's a lot easier when you're sleeping.
Our place is pretty cozy. It's old and has sparkly corkboard walls and tatami floors, but it feels like home. Kelsey has her own room, we have a small living room with a couch, and we have a bigger kitchen. The fridge was much too small, so we had to buy another small one in order to have enough room for all our food. At Hard-Off (I kid you not), a second-hand shop that sells everything from video games to couches, we found a practically brand new fridge for $150. We also found a baby bath for about eight bucks. To keep Kelsey out of the fridge, we got some locking plastic belt-clips.
Even if our place in Uoshima was slightly larger, this place is much more convenient. We have a big shopping complex called Saty that's five minutes away on foot. Inside the three floor building, there's a nice 100 yen shop, a play area, a nice grocery store with great prices, an arcade, a clothing store, and much more. Within a half-mile or so of our apartment, we've got two or three other grocery stores, a full-size 100 yen shop, a two-story electronics store, Hard-Off, a video rental store, and a full-size McDonald's that serves breakfast.
We're looking forward to things getting back to normal, so we won't be tempted to go to McDonald's. It's hard sometimes to ignore the convenience. And Kelsey loves chicken nuggets. Back in Matsuyama, I took her to McDonald's and got her some nuggets. Stef also took her a few times during her grocery shopping trips. One time, she told Kelsey that she had to get money from the ATM, and then they'd go buy some nuggets. When we tell Kelsey that she's going to get to eat nuggets, she shouts, "Mommy get da money, Kelsey eat nunnets!" The other day, I mentioned that I had to get some money for the next day, and Kelsey Pavlovianly chirped, "Nunnets!" Awesome.
Kelsey's being a good big sister. She's occasionally too rough when she wants to hold or kiss Mia, so we have to keep a close eye on her.
We won't have internet access at home until the 23rd or so. I can walk out into the neighborhood an pick up an unsecured wireless network, which is enough to check e-mail and post to the blog. Last night, I was walking around with the laptop in my hand like a waiter holding a tray, watching the top of the screen to see how strong the connection was, when I walked across the street. Suddenly, I didn't feel the ground under me--I had stepped into the meter-deep gutter. I knew it wouldn't end well, so I tried to protect the computer. It flew up into the air and landed upside-down on my neck, and I grabbed it before it could fall off. I bruised my left leg just above the knee, but was lucky to not have suffered worse.
Things are great here, but I wouldn't recommend walking into meter-deep ditches.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Mia's home!
So, after nearly 4 months of visits to the NICU, Mia's finally home, and she's doing great. We've moved to Imabari, but I'm currently on the island at the town hall. I leave today for good. We won't have internet for a while, so updates might be a bit infrequent. We'll do what we can to keep you all informed.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Some video of Mia
Here are a couple videos of Mia from this week. She's getting so big! We haven't gone to the hospital today, but we expect she'll be up to 5 pounds today. Enjoy!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Long Week Ahead
Yesterday, we got to give Mia a bath for the first time. They had Stef hold her awkwardly in one hand and use the other hand to soap her up and pour water over her. It looked pretty tough, and it was made tougher by the fact that it was hard to communicate with the nurse. But it was nice to see Mia's reaction to the water. Like Kelsey before her, she seems to like it.
As I was helping to dry her off, she started to get a bit fussy. I crouched down and got close to her and started talking, and she quickly calmed down. She's a real sweetie. I'm sure her eyes are blue.
After spending the few minutes bathing her, it was time for Stef to breast feed her. They curtain off the section and the men leave, so I took Kelsey out to get some food. The plan was to go eat and come back by 3 PM so that I could spend a half-hour with Mia before I had to head back to the train station to start the trek back to the island. I told Kelsey beforehand that we were going to get some chicken nuggets, and she was giddily talking to herself and me about how she was going to eat nuggets. The two of us rode the bike to McDonald's, where I got a couple 100 yen menu items (like the dollar menu in the U.S.) and Kelsey got her nuggets. Kelsey smiled the whole time as she tore little pieces off the nuggets and dipped them in barbecue sauce. In between bites, she enthusiastically pointed out features of the second floor of the restaurant, where we sat. It was really nice to have a little daddy-daughter date with her. I think I'll continue them when we get to Imabari.
We left McDonald's and biked back to the hospital, arriving at 3. When we got to the door of the NICU, I rang the bell to ask a nurse if she could watch Kelsey while I saw Mia. Stef was standing in sight, holding Mia. I lifted Kelsey up and explained that the baby that Mommy was holding was Mia. I'm still not sure if she really gets it, but she was pretty excited to announce that Mommy was seeing Mia.
When I put Kelsey down and tried to enter the NICU, I got bombarded by a doctor, who wanted to tell me that we should call the days before we want to bathe Mia ourselves. The nurse who had come to help didn't really watch Kelsey, so I had to chase Kelsey around while trying to end the conversation with the doctor. I told them that I had to leave for the island by 3:30, and that I really wanted to see Mia. The conversation continued until 3:20, and I was getting really upset that they wouldn't just leave me alone. All I wanted was to see my daughter for a few minutes before I left to be alone on the island all week. At 3:25, I finally got rid of the doctor, but it didn't leave me enough time to go in, since I'd have to wash my hands twice and get dressed in the plastic hospital poncho before entering.
I decided to go around the side and just look at Mia through the glass, since she's right up against it. When I got there, 8-10 nurses flipped out about how I wasn't in there with her. I frantically tried to communicate with gestures about how I had no time, and so I just wanted to see her for a minute, and that I wanted them to just leave me alone, but it was too late. Wanting to be helpful, they sent a doctor around to talk to me and ask me why I wasn't coming in. I quickly explained that I had to leave in 4 minutes, and that I just wanted to see her before I left. She said that she understood, but then started asking me questions about where we were going to live and how the TV interview went. At this point, I lost it. I gave short, monosyllabic (or at least the Japanese equivalent) answers and then stopped answering her questions altogether. She eventually got the drift and turned around. As she walked away, I apologized. I looked at Mia for about thirty seconds, and then I had to turn and leave.
I feel bad that I was short with the doctors, but I really wish they would have just left me alone. In their efforts to help, they robbed me of one of the few chances I get to see my daughter. It took a lot for me not to start sobbing. The stress of the situation got to me and I was short with Stef. She had had stresses of her own while waiting for me inside the NICU. In the end, I didn't even get to have a proper goodbye with her and Kelsey. No hugs. Nothing.
For most of the five hour trip home, I distracted myself by reading Orwell's 1984. I'm really enjoying it. Some of the parallels with modern government are spooky, to say the least.
Sigh. It's going to be a long week.
As I was helping to dry her off, she started to get a bit fussy. I crouched down and got close to her and started talking, and she quickly calmed down. She's a real sweetie. I'm sure her eyes are blue.
After spending the few minutes bathing her, it was time for Stef to breast feed her. They curtain off the section and the men leave, so I took Kelsey out to get some food. The plan was to go eat and come back by 3 PM so that I could spend a half-hour with Mia before I had to head back to the train station to start the trek back to the island. I told Kelsey beforehand that we were going to get some chicken nuggets, and she was giddily talking to herself and me about how she was going to eat nuggets. The two of us rode the bike to McDonald's, where I got a couple 100 yen menu items (like the dollar menu in the U.S.) and Kelsey got her nuggets. Kelsey smiled the whole time as she tore little pieces off the nuggets and dipped them in barbecue sauce. In between bites, she enthusiastically pointed out features of the second floor of the restaurant, where we sat. It was really nice to have a little daddy-daughter date with her. I think I'll continue them when we get to Imabari.
We left McDonald's and biked back to the hospital, arriving at 3. When we got to the door of the NICU, I rang the bell to ask a nurse if she could watch Kelsey while I saw Mia. Stef was standing in sight, holding Mia. I lifted Kelsey up and explained that the baby that Mommy was holding was Mia. I'm still not sure if she really gets it, but she was pretty excited to announce that Mommy was seeing Mia.
When I put Kelsey down and tried to enter the NICU, I got bombarded by a doctor, who wanted to tell me that we should call the days before we want to bathe Mia ourselves. The nurse who had come to help didn't really watch Kelsey, so I had to chase Kelsey around while trying to end the conversation with the doctor. I told them that I had to leave for the island by 3:30, and that I really wanted to see Mia. The conversation continued until 3:20, and I was getting really upset that they wouldn't just leave me alone. All I wanted was to see my daughter for a few minutes before I left to be alone on the island all week. At 3:25, I finally got rid of the doctor, but it didn't leave me enough time to go in, since I'd have to wash my hands twice and get dressed in the plastic hospital poncho before entering.
I decided to go around the side and just look at Mia through the glass, since she's right up against it. When I got there, 8-10 nurses flipped out about how I wasn't in there with her. I frantically tried to communicate with gestures about how I had no time, and so I just wanted to see her for a minute, and that I wanted them to just leave me alone, but it was too late. Wanting to be helpful, they sent a doctor around to talk to me and ask me why I wasn't coming in. I quickly explained that I had to leave in 4 minutes, and that I just wanted to see her before I left. She said that she understood, but then started asking me questions about where we were going to live and how the TV interview went. At this point, I lost it. I gave short, monosyllabic (or at least the Japanese equivalent) answers and then stopped answering her questions altogether. She eventually got the drift and turned around. As she walked away, I apologized. I looked at Mia for about thirty seconds, and then I had to turn and leave.
I feel bad that I was short with the doctors, but I really wish they would have just left me alone. In their efforts to help, they robbed me of one of the few chances I get to see my daughter. It took a lot for me not to start sobbing. The stress of the situation got to me and I was short with Stef. She had had stresses of her own while waiting for me inside the NICU. In the end, I didn't even get to have a proper goodbye with her and Kelsey. No hugs. Nothing.
For most of the five hour trip home, I distracted myself by reading Orwell's 1984. I'm really enjoying it. Some of the parallels with modern government are spooky, to say the least.
Sigh. It's going to be a long week.
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