Musical Chairs

I'm teaching summer school this week at an elementary school and I have to fill up 2 hours of time with about 10 kids. It would be easy if they were junior high kids, cause I'd give them a worksheet and be done with it. But since they can't read, I have to play more games than usual.

So I have put together a musical chairs CD, and I thought I would share the playlist:

Boyfriend - Alphabeat
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
When I'm Sixty-Four - The Beatles
Viva la Vida - Coldplay
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
Worried About Ray - The Hoosiers
Better Together - Jack Johnson
Is This Love - Bob Marley
Love Today - Mika
Life With You - The Proclaimers
Shine - Take That

Driving

Today, I passed my driving test.

I've been panicking a bit, because every time one fails, one has to wait at least 10 days to take it again. My first attempt was in the beginning of July, and I failed because when I backed up, I did not go through the proper motions: rear mirror check, right mirror check, full body turn, left mirror check, full body turn.

If I had failed today, I would have had only one more chance to pass before my international driver's license expired. To give you an idea of the chances of doing that, there was a guy today who failed today on his 4th attempt. He said he knew a guy who had taken it 9 times. However, he wasn't a JET, and JETs seem to have a quicker passing percentage rate. Not because we are better drivers, but because we are smart enough to actually go to driving school for a few hours.

The instructor seemed to be in a good mood today, because 6 out of the 10 people passed. 3 on their first try. I even bumped a plastic pole when doing a turn (which caused another JET to fail) and passed.

I will get my license on Monday, when I drive down to Naha (again) for a lecture. Why couldn't I have just gone to the lecture right after I passed the test? Why do I even have to go to the lecture when it's all in Japanese? No one knows. After Monday, I think I will have spent around $400 in the entire process. But this is nothing compared to the Japanese driving school almost all young people do. That runs around $2000-$3000. I enjoy telling my teachers I spent $10 on my Florida license.

Last Tuesday, I received my orange belt and have a level of 8-kyu. The levels go backward, from 10-kyu to 1-kyu. Once you attain black belt, the numbers go from 1-dan and up. My sensei is at 7-dan and is awesome.

I also found out last week I passed my kanji test for 4th graders. I plan to take the 6th grade test in February.

Racial Profiling

Last Friday, on my way to karate, I stopped by to pick up another teacher. We met in a little side parking lot next to a department store. He jumps in, and as I'm about to pull away, two guys wearing kariyushi (think aloha) shirts come up next to my window. Thinking they are Mormons or something, I tell them I'm in a hurry and start to pull away. Then they flash me their badges.

"We want to see your driver's license and registration."

In my mind, I'm already guilty and about to be deported. As I'm looking for my stuff, they tell me that my license number is suspicious, and they want to make sure the car is mine. I begin to wonder if I transferred the vehicle information under my name correctly, or if that the previous owner's boyfriend (who was Okinawan) might have been some kind of criminal. 

As they are going through my documents, they start up a casual conversation of "Where do you live?", "Oh, you're a teacher.", etc. I didn't have the dread of talking to these cops as I would talking to a cop in America. Probably only because in this situation I knew I wouldn't be paying a $120 ticket. 

To give a quick summary of Japanese license plates, plates here have a Japanese character on them, such as a ま or a た, followed by a few numbers. Since there is a military presence here, military plates have a roman Y on them instead. (The running gag being "Y are you here?")

After writing down everything they wanted, they say they were suspicious of the car because if has a Japanese license plate and I'm not Japanese. They were just making sure the car belonged to me.

Where's Jesse Jackson when I need him?

Spiders

Okinawa has big brown spiders. I think we have them in Florida too, but in all my time in Florida, I think I have only come across 1 or 2. Since I've been in Okinawa, I've had 3 or 4 in my apartment, and have come across a lot more in various other places. The first time I had one in my apartment, I freaked, and chased it with the vacuum cleaner (they're fast!). Now, they don't bother me as much. I heard they eat cockroaches, so the last one I had in my apartment, I trapped and let it outside. 

Here's a blog entry from Zamami Dave, however, that describes a situation that would not be cool with me. Ever.

Have you ever heard the urban myth that you swallow three spiders during your sleep each year? Well, just in case it’s true, rest assured that I took care of your quota last night. I noticed this spider in my big tatami room and was curious about that big ‘plate’ she was clutching beneath her.

It didn’t take much time to determine that plate had been holding her thousands of babies, which were now crawling all over my apartment. They were everywhere, but also small enough that I wasn’t too concerned with swallowing them.