So Much For the Diet

Friday, September 29, 2006

Today I didn’t teach any classes and thank god for that! Instead, it was homeroom day which means that all the students leave the school and do some outing just for funs sake. Most classes went out to different camp grounds, parks, or river areas and had bar-b-q (aka Yakiniku). I decided to go with my supervisors second year class (11th graders) about an hour up the mountain to an Onsen (hot bath) where we ate yakiniku and for an extra $6 took a nice hot bath. Ah, it was exactly what I needed!

As for the diet. Seriously, I tried my favorite pants Wednesday and they just didn’t fit as well as they used to. I’ve decided that I need to drink and eat less. This is easier said than done. In America I never had a problem starving myself. As much as I loved food, I never had a problem not eating. It wasn’t that I ever wanted to starve myself, it was just that I could easily say no to food because I was too busy. Here, when I get home, I have nothing to do really except eat and go shopping for food.

So today, I figured I would be way too busy to really eat much of anything. I figured I wouldn’t have time in the morning for breakfast, I would eat a big yakiniku lunch and then right after that I was going to be whisked away to a farewell/welcome party for the foreign students at Kochi University of Technology. (don’t ask) I was told that I wouldn’t really had time for dinner and they weren’t going to have more than a few snacks at the party. So, I figured all was well enough. I wasn’t going to pass out or anything from not eating and it would be all the better.

No such luck.

Not only did I have plenty of time for a sugary role, I also gorged myself on yakiniku (that’s a whole lotta beef people!) afterwards, we got home around 3:30 and the party didn’t start until 5 so I ran home and bought some instant Udon. I wasn’t even hungry because I was still full from the yakiniku 5 hours earlier. I forced myself to eat because I didn’t want to be hungry whenever this party was going to be finished.

Once at the party, I realized that the “snacks” were in fact dinner and there was food ranging from sushi to sandwiches to spaghetti. Ugh. I am so full!

And what do I do? I go home around 8 and start eating the Japanese crackers that I’m so addicted to. I have no self control.

The only solution is the internet!!!

As for more specifics on the day. I first got to school and it was completely deserted. There weren’t any classes so students were just doing their own thing. Show up when the group is about to leave. I got on the bus with the rest of the students and…I just wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t have it in me today to try and speak Japanese and I …. Just wanted someone to talk to.

We drove up to through the mountains and it was absolutely gorgeous. Breathtaking really. I couldn’t be in a blah mood all day with that kind of weather and scenery. I sat with the students for lunch (since my supervisor wasn’t much in the mood for socializing with me) and I kept telling myself that the reason why the students didn’t seem to want to talk to me was because they’re shy and also because I’m not exactly inviting them to try and talk to begin with! Maybe I’m just tired of making the first mood and usually getting mixed and not always good results. By the middle of lunch I was trying out a little more Japanese and I think it made the students a little more comfortable. They would come up to me to ask for a picture…but they wouldn’t talk to me. What’s up with that?

Then, something happened that just totally broke the ice around me. A student came out from the back and in his hand was a bag of four fish. They looked like they had been cleaned and gutted but at least one was still flipping around in the bag. He then stuck them on a chock stick each and began barbequing them. It ended up taking about 2 hours to finally cook them that way since the fire was more smoldering that flaming. But when he first brought them out I just couldn’t stand being timid anymore and I got up out of my seat and walked over to check out what he was doing. It finally broke me out of my slump and I got some great reactions from the students. We all ended up playing uno and it was so much fun!

These students actually liked the American version and each student that way was interesting in their own way. Particularly these two boys. One boy would talk only in a rap. His Japanese was difficult to understand but he ended every sentence with YO, OH RIGHT YO! Because he wanted to make it rhyme…I guess. The second boy was much more calm but every time he had to draw a card he would say Yea…Yea…Yea….Yea… (he had really bad luck of having to be the person that ends up drawing half the deck) but his “Yea”s began sounding like the retarded puppet on Crank Yankers on Comedy Central. Think of a retarded boy that can only say YEAAAA. (look it up on youtube) No joke, that’s what the kid sounded like.

I’m finding out that I really like the 2nd and 3rd years way better than the 1st years. How ironic. I only have two of the former and a million of the latter. Blah

Now am drinking warm Sake. What the hell is wrong with me? Must find friends to occupy time instead of drinking and eating too much.

Actually, at the party tonight I kept my eyes peeled for possible friends. No luck. All the foreign students are either from China or another Asian country. They speak strange English and almost no Japanese. Half the party was in English just because it’s the one language that everyone understands!

I’m not giving up though. I think I’ll take a few more trips over to the college as it’s a sure fire way to meet people my own age. There’s one woman that I want to be best friends with but she wasn’t taking the bait. She’s apparently older than 30 (wow, can’t tell at all!) and she studied in Australia for some time. Her accent is amazing! It’s good conversation when I talk to her. But I don’t know if I made a very good impression. I’m not as genki as I used to be in America. I can’t get up the same energy because (I’m realizing) it was mostly based on how fast I could talk. Can you imagine me being bouncy and happy and talking slowly? They just don’t mix with me.

1 shared their love:

Anonymous said...

Hey, this maybe too late, since you might have already lost the extra pounds. But stay away from any instant soups since they put MSG in them and that what scientists use to make their lab rats nice and fat. :)

 
Spreading Nina Love All Over the World - by Templates para novo blogger