November 06, 2002:
Right now I’m sitting on the floor of my room with the heater right next to me and turned up to full power, and soon I’ll be called down for my turn in the lovely bathtub. The morning and evening commutes were both long and cold and wet, but that just makes you appreciate the warm times more, right? I feel very funny, shifting positions here on the floor with my laptop, turning around every so often so I can keep the heater at full power and not have just one leg get too hot!
I woke up at six and huddled in bed until 6:15. The other homestay students have been whining since the onset of fall that Japanese houses are way too cold for their liking, and sadly they haven’t been exaggerating. (The heater is a new addition to my room, and it’s a welcome one. Nice to have one downstairs too.) Around 7:00 Hideko and I went outside to wait for the bus. There’s a little path down past the garage and a couple of houses that takes you to a relatively major street - which doesn’t mean all that much since I believe we’re out in the middle of nowhere - where she and I waited, fretting since neither of us had a watch. The bus, however, showed up right on time at 7:12, and she saw me safely on and explained something to the bus driver that ended with “dozo yoroshiku o-negai shimasu” - probably in this context best explained as “please take care of this poor clueless girl and get her to the station and back safely.” One of those handy Japanese phrases. It’s a cozy route, and everybody on the bus seemed to know each other. I tried to figure out where exactly we were going, should I ever have to walk home, but I got myself turned around and settled for doing a bit of studying. I got a bus pass from Kakuda-san which lets me ride from that point to the station and back as much as I like for the month. My train pass works the same way, from Inae to Hikone and back to my little heart’s content. When I got to the station, I asked someone if the train pulling up was the train to Hikone and was directed to the other side of the station, where I got on board a crowded train. There are two stops between Inae and Hikone, so I had ample time to admire the cornrows in the hair of the high-school student standing in front of me. Back at Hikone - man, sometimes you’re so glad to see the right kanji you’re embarassed - I had to wait for the 8:20 bus to Maibara, which stops by JCMU. I had arrived around 7:50, which meant I had a long wait. From this point on I’ll be riding my bike back and forth, and right now it’s parked by the station waiting for me, but today there was nothing I could do but sit in the cold and work on some homework. After a while Nicole, one of the girls I sit next to in class who is also doing a homestay, showed up and rode with me. It seemed very strange to be speaking English with someone after this last weekend…
Before class I told anyone who’d listen about my homestay and the five dogs. I was feeling fine when I left the house, so I hadn’t taken any cold medicine since it tends to make me drowsy, but I started feeling terribly sick a ways in to class. Aaron gave me some medicine and I felt better, but I’m afraid most of the lesson was completely lost on me; I was tempted to skip the second and third hours and nap on the dorm lobby couch, and it probably would have done me more good than sitting through class. I felt so awful that I didn’t go to the elementary school today - I wouldn’t have done much more than infect a classroom full of fourth-graders. I felt really badly about it, but Lindsey and the lady in charge of internships understood, especially since I think I looked pretty awful.
Didn’t do too much else - studied and rested and mentally shut down when I started feeling light-headed - but I was feeling better, thankfully, by the time I needed to get back home. Getting back home might be a bit of a pain; I can take the bus home at four times (1:15, 4:06, 6:51 and 7:28) and realistically speaking it’ll usually be the second or third time, probably closer to the third since I think I’ll do most of my studying at JCMU after classes. Before the homestay I usually did it in the early morning, but I don’t really have that option anymore. So there are two trains I would want to catch to be able to get back on that third bus; one leaves Hikone at 6:10 and arrives at Inae at 6:19, and the other leaves Hikone at 6:38 and arrives at 6:49. Taking the first one means I hang out at Inae Station for much longer than such a puny little place warrants, and taking the second one means I have a two-minute window to get to the bus. I made it today, though, so I think I’ll be good. I don’t like depending on schedules and little pieces of paper to get to and from places, because it makes me fret that I’ll miss something or do the wrong thing… which is what tends to happen.
I got back home and Hideko was waiting to make sure I had gotten through OK, so we went back home and had dinner. I told her about not taking medicine in the morning and feeling sick in class as a consequence, so she found some Japanese medicine that she said wouldn’t make me feel drowsy. So I’ve been feeling better.
Brian wanted to know how big the house is, considering that five dogs and four humans are currently living there. It’s not very big at all, but the dogs don’t roam around freely, they’re tied up instead.
Liana | 5 comments
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