I Survived Survivor

I’ve emerged from a self-imposed media blackout until I was able to see the final episode of Survivor. For two days I carefully avoided looking at any websites that might give away the winner. Tonight I just finished watching, so now that I know I can surf the web without a problem. It was a good season – lots of spicy stuff with hurt feelings and emotions – the kind of stuff I enjoy as personal entertainment.

Today was another four class day. I was busy all day long, but it made the time fly by.

After going thirty two years without a complete stranger slapping my rear end it happened twice today. Having never played in team sports where ass-slapping is more common, it was a strange experience. As I walked to one of my classes with my CD player in one hand and handouts in the other some of the baseball team guys came by and wanted to give me their customary high five. Since I had my hands full they gave me the low five equivalent.

Two classes later one of the girl students was running past me on the way to her class and she gave me a slap on the butt as she went by. I said “watch it!” in English, so hopefully she’ll get the gist of the message. The last thing I want is to be the whipping boy for five hundred Japanese schoolgirls. That’s the kind of fate you read about in spam e-mails.

A while back I had two of my classes listen to Radiohead, and nobody got too excited at the time. As I was talking with Mr. Yamamoto in the hallway, one of the students came up and asked him if he could ask me to bring the CD in for her to listen to. I was happy to turn someone on to Radiohead.

One of the part time teachers today stopped by to encourage me while I was studying Japanese. I had spoken to her a week or so ago to break the ice. She was more comfortable walking over to talk with me, so hopefully we can talk more. The good news for me is that she knows almost no English, so it forces me to use my Japanese in a professional setting.

My leftover grilled beef made an excellent BBQ Beef sandwich for lunch today. Some of the new teachers watched with envy as I bit into this dagwood of a sandwich. I felt like I was in some kind of carnivorous Wendy’s dreamland. This was a great sandwich.

After school I went straight home and cooked a relatively mild dinner of beef curry and rice. Gradually the temperature has been getting warmer. The good news is that my apartment opens up on both sides, so I can get the breeze coming off the inland sea as it cuts right through my building. Soon it will be too hot even for that, but for now I can sit and type on the computer as a cool breeze comes through.