I looked at my stats on the blog and realized that I was averaging 1 blog post per month this year...if that. So I want to remedy that, but all I have is snippets, so make do.
A few weeks ago, I was skyping my grandparents. I told them their camera wasn't working; it was a big ordeal to figure out where the little camera button was that they had to press. Finally, they got it--and there sat my shirtless and unshaven grandpa, with my grandma standing next to him in her underpants. Sometimes I wonder if technology is really the blessing we think it is.
An interesting part of Japanese life is the comments/compliments I get from Japanese people. Being a foreigner, I am aware that my level of attractiveness goes up about two points (I heard this is a similar experience for women in the army--a point made by my ROTC friend). A result from this is that anytime I alter my appearance--even minimally--I can expect feedback. This happened the other day when I wore my hair in not one, but TWO buns (extravagant!!!). In every single class, someone made a comment on this (except for my kids classes--but the moms made comments when they came to pick up their kids, so technically, still applicable)--and fortunately, it was all positive, or at least neutral (one of my students in her 40s told me I looked younger--seeing as I am only 24, how old do I look like normally?). At the end of the day, a (male) coworker told me, "Hey Jillian--just in case anyone said something, I think your hair looks good." I had been collecting the trash, but I stopped what I was doing to sputter, "Wait, what? Did...someone say something?" It turned out that he meant to say that in case no one said anything, he thought I should know it looked good--he just has a way of giving left-handed compliments. Yesterday, I wore what I thought was a classy, all black belted outfit with my hair down (a first in a long time since the summer began), and I got told that I looked "slick" and "wild". I'm fairly sure both were meant to be taken as compliments, but I often wonder what students are really trying to get at when they say these things.
Just in case anyone said something, I think your hair looks good?!! That's hilarious! At first it sounded as if he wanted to balance out your insult/compliment ratio. lol... I think it's fascinating how your students choose words in the english language. It must be really interesting to converse with them all the time (I mean interesting in a good way).
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