I'm famous!

I made it into the slide show at the "farewell party" for the third year students. I win.

and then we went to Kingdom Hall to hang out with the J.W's

Most of you know I've been church hunting here in Moka. 

Yesterday:

I checked out a Catholic church that one of my students told me about. She said it was a Spanish-speaking church, which got my hopes up. Joe took me to find it. When we arrived, no one was there, and all the signs were in Portuguese. Boo. So we got back in the car, and as we were pulling away, we saw three Spanish-speaking women. Joe stops the car and says, "Go talk to them! Ask them about the church!" So, after a minor hesitation, I do.

Turns out, the church is most likely Portuguese only. BUT Sara, one of the ladies, invited me to go to her church - an "English-speaking, evangelical church."

Today:

Side note:  two Jehova's Witnesses came to our door. I answered the door and boldface lied to them when they asked me if I had their "Bible study booklet." Two other Jehova Witnesses visited us a couple months ago and gave us some other printed materials, so I said they had given me said book and kindly ended our conversation.

At 2 this afternoon, Meghan and I met Sara, and walked with her to her house. She invited us inside while we waited for her sister to come pick us up. Her sister came, along with her brother, and a few other family members. We divided up between two cars - Meghan and I with Sara's brother and nephew. On our drive, we chatted it up in Spanish. Miguel, Sara's brother, is from Peru but has lived in Moka for 18 years. He was really kind. As we continued driving, farther and farther from Moka, I asked Miguel how he heard about this particular church, thinking to myself, "this is a long way from Moka, too far to simply stumble upon..." Miguel told me people from the church had come to talk to him, and then he started going to their church. #$%*. That was how I responded in my head. I knew exactly what it meant, and I didn't have the courage to ask what denomination the church was, I already knew.

We drove on and finally, I asked Miguel the denomination, just in case Meghan hadn't drawn the same conclusion I had. The answer "Salon del Reino, Testigos de Jehova." Boo.

So, we went to Kingdom Hall with the Spanish-speaking J.W's today. So much for an "English-speaking Evangelical" church. Maybe this is my punishment for lying to the JW's that came to my door. Jesus didn't condone lying, no matter what the subject. Oops.

Regardless, we had wonderful conversations with Miguel in the hour long car rides to and from Kingdom Hall. I'll be thankful for those. :-)

green tea onsen

when I came back from Thailand, I  brought "omiyage" for my coworkers because that's the japanese way. the Thai omiyage I presented were little keychains with wooden Thai people dolls. the head English teacher, ms. tanaka, sits next to me in the teacher's office and keeps her little Thai person on her desk, atop her computer tower. just behind the Thai person she keeps a  little desktop calendar. now the scene is set.

today, while placing my laptop on my desk, I nudged the corner of ms. tanaka's little calendar, causing it to fall over. it nudged the little Thai person, causing it to fall over, off the edge of the computer tower, for a perfect dismount and a 10.0 landing... in ms. tanaka's cup of green tea. perfect.

i proceeded to gasp loudly and jump to my feet, causing my coworkers to call out in unison "daijobu?" (are you okay?). as i fumbled frantically, i reached into the tea cup, pulled out the doll, held it up, and, while motioning toward the Thai person with an awkward grin, said "swimming." 

they laughed.

phew.

i took the doll and ms. tanaka's tea cup to the sink, rinsed off both and returned them to her desk.

ms. tanaka was not at her desk when this occurred so when i saw her later that day, i told her "i gave your Thai person a green tea bath today. it was like an onsen."

she laughed, as well.

yokatta. saved by a desperate attempt at humor.

a note to a friend in Spain.

This is not significant, and it's written in a foreign language. But it made me happy to write it, so maybe it will make someone happy to read it. Enjoy!

こんいちは!! Todavía estoy aquí en Moka.

Tengo mucho interés en el puesto de Acento. Acabo de solicitar. Ahora, solo puedo esperar la decisión. Espero que me elija, pero, sobretodo quiero estar donde el Señor me dirija. ¡Ojala que mi deseo tan fuerte de estar en Sevilla sea un signo de Dios!

Y ahora, algo de Japón. ¡El idioma es imposible! Ya llevo 6 meses aquí y me siento que no puedo decir más que mi nombre. (Watashi no namae wa Jennifer desu.)

Me siento que es una sociedad bien educada pero no es muy amable. Es algo interesante. Es como la gente es amable en apariencia pero no hay nada más profunda. Se dice que es por ser una sociedad muy tímida, y a veces me parece así, pero algunas veces, me parece algo más… No sé. Pero no quiero decir que todas las personas son pocas amistosas, porque tengo unos amigos muy simpáticos y los estudiantes de mi escuela son genial.

Otra cosa – todo es muy formal aquí. Todo tiene que ser bien preparado. No se puede improvisar nada. Como en el trabajo, tenemos horarios para cada cosa que ocurre – y se da pena apartarse del horario.

Y más importante – ¡la comida es muy rica!

¿Cómo está todo de Sevilla? ¡Me encanta oír de mis amigos sevillanos! ¡Gracias por no olvidarme!

Por favor, ora para la gente de Japón porque la gran parte no sé nada de Cristo. ¡Tengo mucho esperanza para este país!

¡Un besito!

progress

i just sent my application for the Semester in Spain Student Ministries Coordinator position. now it's time to pray for the Lord's will to be done.
i have come to a place where i will be excited to spend another year in moka, if that is how my next year should look, because my love for my job, students, and co-workers is an endless source of joy, and not many people can say that about their jobs, so i will count it a blessing.
i am fully aware of these facts: i don't love kousuke (okay that one was obvious), i don't want to love kousuke, i don't want kousuke to love me, and most importantly i want kousuke to love someone who will really love him because he is a wonderful person.

all of these things are signs of progress in my life. praise God.

i'll have one ticket for the next plane to tokyo, please

once upon a time i had an extra ticket to see coldplay in tokyo. the night before the show, i was talking online to a friend in indiana, and i offered him the ticket. a few hours later he was on a plane to tokyo, where he would meet me at the gates of the concert venue about 30 minutes before the show started. fantastic.
he stayed for a few days and we enjoyed japan together.

sushi

I eat a lot of sushi here. I will try to post some photos of my "life as usual" because if I do indeed stay another year, I know these things won't strike me as interesting, and I'll forget to record them for you.

Sushi here is far less complex than sushi in the states. Sushi rolls have one type of fish and perhaps one other ingredient (like onions or lettuce). There aren't caterpillar, volcano or rainbow rolls. There's mostly just fish and rice. I like it, but I won't pretend I don't love the States' version of sushi.

This is one of my third year classes. They are the same age as US freshman. I have three of these classes, and I love them!