The past month.
So anyways, figured I'd write up the prior month's happenings (in English) for you here.
To start with, I got a part-time job while studying at school. I'm working at a small Apple shop teaching people how to use their Macs. Right now though I haven't been doing any teaching really. I'm starting from the ground up and need to put together and design classes. I've got like 5 classes put together so far and we're launching with that starting Saturday. The majority are just 30 minute free classes but we also have more in-depth paid classes as well.
The really nice thing about the job though is outside of the class schedule (which I made), I can pretty much come and go as I please. The boss is happy as long as classes are being made and the customers enjoy them. It seems my tech support background at Apple and my teaching experience in Japan are getting combined which I enjoy. It's a nice little challenge while I study. I think originally he was wanting me help out the techs in the back with repairs as well, but since I plan on returning to Japan after I graduate, there's not much point in all that training. I also help out on the sales floor sometimes, but I'm a horrible sales girl. I'm great with the customers and am knowledgeable, but just not good at that whole selling thing ^^;
Anyways. School has been progressing along fairly well. No complaints there. I got slowed down a bit due to June's happenings but I'm picking up the slack now things are starting to settle down.
The big event for the month though, was meeting up with my Japanese friend Masanori. Masanori and I originally met at the Capsule concert in Osaka that I went to back in December. We kept in touch via Mixi and one day he sent me a mail saying his work was sending him to Cleveland for a month in June！He had no idea I'm chilling in Dayton at the moment so I told him we should get together sometime. He got really excited about that so we made plans.
Then on the 13th I drove up to Cleveland, picked him up, and then we were off to Sandusky for some fun at Cedar Point. And lots of fun was had! It wasn't hot, and rain was forecast for that day so it wasn't crowded at all. We had plenty of chance to ride whatever. It rained for like 15 minutes and they shut some of the rides for a little bit, but once it let up it was back to normal. Around 8'ish we were tired and sore so we headed to the hotel to get some rest.
The next day we drove over to Put-in-Bay for little half-day sightseeing kind of thing. I had never been up there so we both enjoyed it. Once we got to the island we rented a golf cart and I threw the keys to Masanori and told him to drive :D There's not a whole lot to do there so we pretty much saw everything and drove back to Cleveland. Once we made it back to his hotel, we walked over to the Starbucks for some coffee and we ended up just sitting there and talking for a couple hours I think it was.
Here's a really really terrible pic of him and I at the top of the Perry Memorial. Bright and windy FTL.
And Masanori on the golf cart xD
Mind you, the entire weekend together we spoke Japanese almost the entire time. He was grateful for the break from English as he still struggled with it a bit, and I love speaking Japanese plus as it's been about 6 months so everyone was a winner :D But we it came time for us to part and promised to meet again when I returned to Japan and I drove off.
But the story doesn't end there!
Maybe 2 weeks later I get an email from him saying his stay got extended two weeks and now he has nothing to do for the 4th of July weekend. Well I told him he wasn't allowed to be alone on the 4th and we should get together again! Of course he didn't object so I immediately got to planning our second weekend together. The plan was for me to drive up to Cleveland on Friday the 3rd and take him back to Columbus for Red, White, and Boom and then stay at my dad's house two nights and do random stuff around town.
So that's what we did. I drove up from Dayton to pick him up and after lunch we headed down to Columbus counting cop cars the whole way (we saw 20 on the highway). We arrived at my dad's and I introduced everybody and shortly afterwards we all went downtown for the fireworks show. The fireworks were great and we went back home and pretty much chilled for the rest of the night.
The next day we got up and got ready and the two of us went down to the Short North for the Doo Dah Parade which was fun. Masanori and I both got a big kick out of it I think. Definitely not your normal parade. After the parade we went to Easton to do some shopping and had lunch at CPK which was yum as always. I had mentioned to him about a section of town where there's a Japanese grocery store, some restaurants, and little gift shop. We ended up going to the Tensuke Market off of Old Henderson and he got a big kick out of that. He bought some provisions to last him till he went home and I also got some aloe yogurt flavored Hi-Chew candy.
By this time it was starting to drizzle so we drove around OSU campus, checked out the stadium, and made out way back for dinner. My grandma came up and made dinner as well so we had a full house that night. Around 8 people in all I think. As it started to get dark we hear this loud "BOOM!" from the front. It sounded like a war going on! We all ran out front and saw the neighbors across the street setting off low commercial-grade fireworks from their driveway. I looked over at Masanori and he seemed to be getting a big kick out of it as people don't really set-off huge fireworks from their house like that in Japan.
As we were watching the neighbors set off their fairly impressive fireworks, we hear even bigger ones going off. The local city fireworks had started which luckily were easily seen from my dad's back yard. We all ran back through the house to the back porch and sat down to watch them together. Well the neighbors weren't done yet! So while he had the city fireworks going on in front of us, the neighbors were still setting theirs off behind xD We were surrounded! Masanori and I both couldn't help but laugh. After the fireworks we all sat down for some dessert, coffee, and played some cards.
The next day Masanori and I had to head back to Cleveland. He wanted to stop by this outlet mall near Cleveland to buy some stuff at the Coach outlet store so I mapped out a route and we were on our way. Well everything was going fairly well, at one point I was checking my directions and apparently missed my turn >_< I didn't realize it though so we kept going straight for a little while. We got to a gas station and asked where highway 43 was and the lady was like, yeah it's a few exits down blah-blah. So basically we ended up going in this big circle that took us through Kent but we did eventually get back on track and got to the mall at like 5:40pm and it closed at 6pm. Just in time! We did out shopping and made it back to his hotel.
Masanori was telling me about this lady he met at the hotel. Apparently the hotel he was staying at also doubles as apartments, and he met an 80-something year old Japanese lady who lives there. He went to her place a few times and talked with her about all sorts of things. She lived in Japan during WW2 as well so that was one of the things they talked about. I guess after the war she got married to an American naval officer and eventually became a professional translator. So when Masanori and I made it back to Cleveland, we went to her place to have tea and talk about all sorts of things.
She told us how in the early 80's she wrote a textbook for people learning Japanese by hand. And over time she wanted to write a proper second edition, but she wanted to be able to type English and Japanese on the same page in a certain way which proved to be impossible with PC technology at the time. So she told us about all of the computers she bought over the past twenty years and how everyone always had something wrong with it. Whether it be an impossibly small screen, or the english text being all half-width. It was fun talking with her though because with the three of us you would have English and Japanese flying all over the place. After tea we went to Lebanese restaurant down the street and talked some more over dinner. Before leaving, she gave me her card and said I was welcome to come up anytime to talk or for lessons. I only wish Cleveland wasn't so far away as I could probably talk all day and then some to her.
Needless to say, both Masanori and I were both surprised to meet such an interesting person like her. Masanori walked me to my car and we hugged and reiterated our promise to meet again when I returned to Japan.
I actually have a pic of Masanori, me, and the family together but I just need to get the picture from him or my dad.
So yeah, if you read all of that then congratulations! Needless to say, I had a great time and I felt like it was a good refresher because I've been running pretty low on happiness lately. It felt good to make a connection with Japan again and has renewed my drive to get through my school and continue my Japanese studies. And I think that my time together with my friend has been the most I've ever had to speak Japanese. Most of my Japanese friends knew English so our conversations would be mixed. Plus I had a serious self-confidence issue, but after this month it feels like Katie's got her groove back. And getting to translate for the family was a treat as well.
To start with, I got a part-time job while studying at school. I'm working at a small Apple shop teaching people how to use their Macs. Right now though I haven't been doing any teaching really. I'm starting from the ground up and need to put together and design classes. I've got like 5 classes put together so far and we're launching with that starting Saturday. The majority are just 30 minute free classes but we also have more in-depth paid classes as well.
The really nice thing about the job though is outside of the class schedule (which I made), I can pretty much come and go as I please. The boss is happy as long as classes are being made and the customers enjoy them. It seems my tech support background at Apple and my teaching experience in Japan are getting combined which I enjoy. It's a nice little challenge while I study. I think originally he was wanting me help out the techs in the back with repairs as well, but since I plan on returning to Japan after I graduate, there's not much point in all that training. I also help out on the sales floor sometimes, but I'm a horrible sales girl. I'm great with the customers and am knowledgeable, but just not good at that whole selling thing ^^;
Anyways. School has been progressing along fairly well. No complaints there. I got slowed down a bit due to June's happenings but I'm picking up the slack now things are starting to settle down.
The big event for the month though, was meeting up with my Japanese friend Masanori. Masanori and I originally met at the Capsule concert in Osaka that I went to back in December. We kept in touch via Mixi and one day he sent me a mail saying his work was sending him to Cleveland for a month in June！He had no idea I'm chilling in Dayton at the moment so I told him we should get together sometime. He got really excited about that so we made plans.
Then on the 13th I drove up to Cleveland, picked him up, and then we were off to Sandusky for some fun at Cedar Point. And lots of fun was had! It wasn't hot, and rain was forecast for that day so it wasn't crowded at all. We had plenty of chance to ride whatever. It rained for like 15 minutes and they shut some of the rides for a little bit, but once it let up it was back to normal. Around 8'ish we were tired and sore so we headed to the hotel to get some rest.
The next day we drove over to Put-in-Bay for little half-day sightseeing kind of thing. I had never been up there so we both enjoyed it. Once we got to the island we rented a golf cart and I threw the keys to Masanori and told him to drive :D There's not a whole lot to do there so we pretty much saw everything and drove back to Cleveland. Once we made it back to his hotel, we walked over to the Starbucks for some coffee and we ended up just sitting there and talking for a couple hours I think it was.
Here's a really really terrible pic of him and I at the top of the Perry Memorial. Bright and windy FTL.
And Masanori on the golf cart xD
Mind you, the entire weekend together we spoke Japanese almost the entire time. He was grateful for the break from English as he still struggled with it a bit, and I love speaking Japanese plus as it's been about 6 months so everyone was a winner :D But we it came time for us to part and promised to meet again when I returned to Japan and I drove off.
But the story doesn't end there!
Maybe 2 weeks later I get an email from him saying his stay got extended two weeks and now he has nothing to do for the 4th of July weekend. Well I told him he wasn't allowed to be alone on the 4th and we should get together again! Of course he didn't object so I immediately got to planning our second weekend together. The plan was for me to drive up to Cleveland on Friday the 3rd and take him back to Columbus for Red, White, and Boom and then stay at my dad's house two nights and do random stuff around town.
So that's what we did. I drove up from Dayton to pick him up and after lunch we headed down to Columbus counting cop cars the whole way (we saw 20 on the highway). We arrived at my dad's and I introduced everybody and shortly afterwards we all went downtown for the fireworks show. The fireworks were great and we went back home and pretty much chilled for the rest of the night.
The next day we got up and got ready and the two of us went down to the Short North for the Doo Dah Parade which was fun. Masanori and I both got a big kick out of it I think. Definitely not your normal parade. After the parade we went to Easton to do some shopping and had lunch at CPK which was yum as always. I had mentioned to him about a section of town where there's a Japanese grocery store, some restaurants, and little gift shop. We ended up going to the Tensuke Market off of Old Henderson and he got a big kick out of that. He bought some provisions to last him till he went home and I also got some aloe yogurt flavored Hi-Chew candy.
By this time it was starting to drizzle so we drove around OSU campus, checked out the stadium, and made out way back for dinner. My grandma came up and made dinner as well so we had a full house that night. Around 8 people in all I think. As it started to get dark we hear this loud "BOOM!" from the front. It sounded like a war going on! We all ran out front and saw the neighbors across the street setting off low commercial-grade fireworks from their driveway. I looked over at Masanori and he seemed to be getting a big kick out of it as people don't really set-off huge fireworks from their house like that in Japan.
As we were watching the neighbors set off their fairly impressive fireworks, we hear even bigger ones going off. The local city fireworks had started which luckily were easily seen from my dad's back yard. We all ran back through the house to the back porch and sat down to watch them together. Well the neighbors weren't done yet! So while he had the city fireworks going on in front of us, the neighbors were still setting theirs off behind xD We were surrounded! Masanori and I both couldn't help but laugh. After the fireworks we all sat down for some dessert, coffee, and played some cards.
The next day Masanori and I had to head back to Cleveland. He wanted to stop by this outlet mall near Cleveland to buy some stuff at the Coach outlet store so I mapped out a route and we were on our way. Well everything was going fairly well, at one point I was checking my directions and apparently missed my turn >_< I didn't realize it though so we kept going straight for a little while. We got to a gas station and asked where highway 43 was and the lady was like, yeah it's a few exits down blah-blah. So basically we ended up going in this big circle that took us through Kent but we did eventually get back on track and got to the mall at like 5:40pm and it closed at 6pm. Just in time! We did out shopping and made it back to his hotel.
Masanori was telling me about this lady he met at the hotel. Apparently the hotel he was staying at also doubles as apartments, and he met an 80-something year old Japanese lady who lives there. He went to her place a few times and talked with her about all sorts of things. She lived in Japan during WW2 as well so that was one of the things they talked about. I guess after the war she got married to an American naval officer and eventually became a professional translator. So when Masanori and I made it back to Cleveland, we went to her place to have tea and talk about all sorts of things.
She told us how in the early 80's she wrote a textbook for people learning Japanese by hand. And over time she wanted to write a proper second edition, but she wanted to be able to type English and Japanese on the same page in a certain way which proved to be impossible with PC technology at the time. So she told us about all of the computers she bought over the past twenty years and how everyone always had something wrong with it. Whether it be an impossibly small screen, or the english text being all half-width. It was fun talking with her though because with the three of us you would have English and Japanese flying all over the place. After tea we went to Lebanese restaurant down the street and talked some more over dinner. Before leaving, she gave me her card and said I was welcome to come up anytime to talk or for lessons. I only wish Cleveland wasn't so far away as I could probably talk all day and then some to her.
Needless to say, both Masanori and I were both surprised to meet such an interesting person like her. Masanori walked me to my car and we hugged and reiterated our promise to meet again when I returned to Japan.
I actually have a pic of Masanori, me, and the family together but I just need to get the picture from him or my dad.
So yeah, if you read all of that then congratulations! Needless to say, I had a great time and I felt like it was a good refresher because I've been running pretty low on happiness lately. It felt good to make a connection with Japan again and has renewed my drive to get through my school and continue my Japanese studies. And I think that my time together with my friend has been the most I've ever had to speak Japanese. Most of my Japanese friends knew English so our conversations would be mixed. Plus I had a serious self-confidence issue, but after this month it feels like Katie's got her groove back. And getting to translate for the family was a treat as well.