Dancing in Mexico

I was wrong again (in terms of camera). The conference was OK, or to be honest, I don’t care about the conference. I finished my presentation this evening, and I’m free already! So, if I wanted, I could have escaped from everything related to the conference. But I went to the welcome party tonight anyway. It turned out to be something! I’m glad that I went there, but I’m blaming myself of forgetting my camera. The party was very much fun, which was beyond my expectation. AS from my school was, haha, hilarious.

I decided to share the room with someone (to save money) who I met yesterday in the hotel. She is also attending the conference. Through conversation, we found that we have some friends in common. So, I thought I could trust her to share the room. We will see.

In the Air Again

Man! It’s too early! I woke up 4:00 am to catch the 6:10 flight though I’m still struggling with jet lag (of course, I just came back from Japan yesterday evening).

On the flight, the first thing that came to my mind is, “Oops, I forgot my camera.” Well, that’d be no problem. I’m going to Mexico City to attend the conference, and I probably won’t have time to hang around the city.

The Mexico City Airport is conveniently located to the city center. There is a subway station close to the airport, urgh, like the Fukuoka Airport. Anyway, in 20, 30 minutes, you arrive downtown.

People were kind and nice though most of them do not understand English. Yes, I know I should speak Spanish. But I realized I have lost my Spanish terribly. I’m bad.

Because of media images of Mexico, in my poor imagination, people are killing each other in Mexico City, wearing a mask to avoid swine flu. As educated people do, I say that it was not true.

Urgh, I'm home ...

After 40 days without stress, anxiety, or study, I don’t blame myself of whining, “I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to go to the United States!” So, I whined a lot. But, I have a flight to catch, and the flight leaves on time. Damn, this modern society.

I left Osaka around 5:00 pm, and arrived in San Francisco around 11:00 am. It’s still 19. A long day.

My connecting flight was scheduled to leave around 8:00 pm. Nine hours to kill. OK, let’s think about what to do after a beer. I had an expensive airport beer lunch.

On the way to the gate, I found an airlines ground staff at the counter, who seemed to do nothing. So, I spoke to her, “Hi. My flight leaves at 8:00, but I wonder if there’re any available earlier flights.” The lady typed the keyboard for a second, and said, “Well, the next flight is all full.” “OK, then, I give up. I will wait until 8:00.” “The flight is full, but I can put you in standby. It’s worth trying.” Isn’t she nice? I was moved to know that kind of customer-friendly staff is working for United.

She is great. I could catch the earlier flight, and arrive in the final destination around the time when I left Osaka. Today is a long day.

Fake New York Times

If this is true, the world would be very happy and peaceful!

Udon & Konpirasan

Bow wow at Konpirasan. Duck called me "Koma-inu san (fox)," but she was wrong. In fact, she was pointed out by a miko san (shrine attendant) that I am a dog not a fox. Hee hee hee.


The first udon in Kagawa.


The second udon in Kagawa.

Fight Union!

This open letter by Newspaper Guild president Dan Totten represents all newspaper wrokers' frustration. Go for it, Totten! Fight against greedy management!

The Teaching Term is Over! Over! Over!

OK, it is not over yet. In fact, I need to grade this stack of papers. I'm sorry for students that they had to do assignments every week, but now I am so sorry for myself that I need to grade their assignments. It's my fault.

During this term, my mood went up and down, from "Yeah, I kind of like interacting with this crowd of students. They are cute, aren't they?" to "I hate teaching. I spent a lot of time for the class, but they didn't show any interest!" Well, it was hard.

But today, in the very last class, some of my students gave me very nice comments (which they may not mean anything more than greeting). As you may know, I'm kind of a simpleton. So, I felt rewarded by their cute wording. I was like, "Oh, I love my students." OK, you are allowed to say, "What a simple person she is!"

Every veteran teacher tells me that teaching is hard, but at the same time, it is rewarding. They say, rewards usually come late, say, three years, five years, or ten years later. Well, I began to think they may be right.

But for the time being, no thank you for a teaching assignment. I need a break.