Good ole сша (USA)

It’s odd to think that I’ve been away from home for a little over a month and a half now. Living here in Ukraine has been a little surreal and I’m wondering if it will all finally hit me once I’ve moved to my permanent site and have to actually start doing meaningful work (not that the work we’re doing now in training isn’t meaningful). It’s hard for me to put into words how I feel. It’s like, my brain hasn’t accepted yet that I’m going to be here for two years and it’s really rather hard to conceptualize what two years here is going to feel like/be like. I almost feel that I’m going to be going back home soon, that I’m only here for a little stint and then I’ll be back home, ready to push the restart button on my life. But no, I’m not going back home soon. I’m here for two years and while I’m already a month and a half in this realization that I’m not going back home for a while still hasn’t hit me. I don’t know why but it’s a very strange feeling that I haven’t felt before, even during the other times I lived abroad. Those times weren’t the same as now, those times were just child’s play compared to what I’m doing now. And oddly enough, coupled with this feeling of unreal-ness I have this feeling that my life in America is simply on pause and that when I do go back everything will be as it was when I left. I know this is going to be false but that’s how I feel and it is a very 

unnerving sensation knowing that I will not know what my life will be like when I do finally go home.

Anyway

We’ve had the past week off from teaching because of fall break. It’s been nice having more time to dedicate to my language studies (read: it’s been nice having more time to sit back and read a book in English/watch American TV shows). Honestly though, my language is really catching on. I’m able to understand a lot more than I was just a couple weeks ago (hell, I’m able to understand more than I was able to last week even!). We have been working with our rotational language teacher for the past week-ish and she’s been wonderful (halfway through training they make the language teachers rotate to a different cluster for two weeks so that us trainees can get a taste of a different teaching style/accent). Ira has been a wonderful teacher and has been pushing us a lot more than Natasha did as far as speaking strictly Ukrainian when we’re in class or speaking to her. She even threatened us with a yellow and red card system (sports fans, I’m looking at you) and if we get three strikes that meant we got a red card and we’d have to write a poem in Ukrainian and present it to the class the next day (dear god, anything but poetry. My arch-nemeses of high school English lit. –however writing a poem in Ukrainian would be extremely comical to say the least). It worked for the first day but then the second day we seemed to have forgotten the threat and spoke English with abandon. However, she never followed through with the threat. Poor move on her part—never threaten and not follow through when you’re a teacher, otherwise the students will never respect you). Granted, it’s not that we don’t respect her, it’s just that we have a lot to say all the time and, well damnit, sometimes you just have to say it in English!

In other news,

I am always very sad to be away from the States on Halloween. It is most definitely my favoritest holiday because I love to go all out with my costume. I found a way to compromise though and I did get to dress up but it just wasn’t the same. I watched Hookus Pookus, which brought back lots of childhood memories. And yes, I also watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

A lot of impromptu costuming supplied by Jake's host mom 

Me and Ira

I'm a fish!

We have a fish, a pumpkin, a cat-princess, a lampshade, and a racially inappropriate Asian costume (I guess, work with what you got? Sorry if it offends anyone out there.)

Did I mention that we have a menagerie? Like, seriously, we have 4 cats; we did have a bird but it died after one day; we now we have two bunnies (one photoed above). All animals that I am not found of. I am waiting for the day that the puppy arrives because honestly, puppy HAS to be the next step. 

Which brings me to my next topic of I have Wifi now. However, having wifi has been pissing my host troll off immensely as for some reason I get the stronger connection and he’s left with the end dregs. I told him it might be the USB he’s using to connect to the wifi on his desktop but I don’t know if he listened. He complains quite a lot though and I do believe he complains the way he does strictly for the benefit of my hearing it.  Because, after all, it was me who suggested us getting wifi (you’re welcome next volunteer that stays here). I think he’ll live though. Although my host mom doesn’t like the troll being such a troll, she thinks that it’s better for him to be plugged into the computer than drinking at the local dance club, which is what a lot of teenagers do here, unfortunately. There’s a dance club here in town named “club tornado” and while I have no desire to ever go there I am rather curious. We have been warned that only the secondary school kids and creeper adults frequent this place so it’s strongly advised that we do not even look sideways at it least a Ukrainian notices us looking at it and starts a rumor that we also have been frequenting the place (seriously, the rumor mills in this country are enough to make your head spin). However, I’m feeling that forbidden fruit sort of curiosity leerking every time I pass it and while I will most definitely not go inside, I can’t help but wonder what exactly is going on in there…

Here's some pictures to help you to conceptualize where I live!

The living room

The eating table

The kitchen

the bathroom

the mudroom

the hallway looking into my bedroom

mah bedroom

Kozelets group 46. Good looking group indeed.

-Jamie

Last night in the United States

No,I was nowhere near the shooting that happened today and yes I heard about it and yes I am fine. Now that that's out of the way, on to the post:

Saying goodbye is always hard and these last two days have been the hardest. It is now really hitting me that I am leaving for the Ukraine and that I won't be able to simply pick up my cell phone and call my friends and family when I want to (of course I'll have Skype, but not for the first few days). Soon I will be surrounded by a language I know not, as well as become immersed in a culture I know almost nothing about and this is causing me to have stomach aches.

"But Jamie", you say, "you've been through this before!"you say. "Twice!", you remind me.

Yes, I have, but it was also different circumstances and for a shorter amount of time. Not to mention that I actually had somewhat of a grasp on the Japanese language and culture before I entered the country. I have only managed to learn how to say "good morning" in Ukrainian which only covers me for one quarter of the day. Also, both those times I did't feel like I was leaving behind as much as I am leaving behind this time around.

But I do not regret my decision because I like to live on the motto of "no regrets" and this is the opportunity of a life time so I am doing my best to swallow all those feels I have been struggling with in an attempt to emotionally prepare myself for this next journey in life. It will be fantastic and all those wonderful, amazing, caring people that I left behind to go on this adventure will still be around and still be amazing and wonderful and caring for the rest of my life so I really shouldn't be so worried. 27 months is nothing compared to the amount of time some people spend in a job they absolutely loath.

I'm excited. Super excited to start this new adventure. But I'm also overwhelmed. Super overwhelmed. At least I am not alone in my overwhelmed state as it is safe to say that all of the other 48 volunteers present at this pre-departure orientation are feeling the same way. It just sucks to have this giant knot in your stomach all the time. Feeling the urge to simultaneously burst into tears while destroying your hotel room with all your belongings because you can't find the one skirt you wanted to wear also sucks. Seriously, it was at the bottom of the very last bag I went through.

Anyway...

I'm a tad disappointed that I was not able to get out and see all those historically significant monuments that I wanted to see while rendezvous-ing in DC. There was just no time which means there are no pictures again. Sorry to disappoint you, my lovely audience. Perhaps when I fly back state-side I'll stop over on the East Coast for a spell and get my fill.

That being said I do not have much to say on DC itself other than the water taste completely awful and I'm glad that I have a water bottle that uses filters. Living in Portland (and really Oregon in general) has really spoiled me for goo tasting tap water. I did have a bagel this morning because I figured that was an East Coast thing to do but then I laughed because I totally went to Star Bucks to get that bagel. Oh well, what can you really expect from a Pac Northwesterner? Star Bucks runs through our veins. It was a good bagel though.

The other volunteers that I had the pleasure of meeting all seem to be very cool people though. We all sat at little round tables around the conference room in the hotel while the orientation leaders lead us through ice breaker activities and preached a little on the Peace Corps Core expectations. We are from all over the the US but mostly there are a lot of Minnesotans and East Coasters. However, I did happen to find one other legit Oregonian who is from Hillsboro! And, to make that even more exciting this particular gentleman knew of the high school I went to in Keizer and confessed to have dated a girl there that I was in jazz band with! Small world indeed. He even graduated from U of O so, go Ducks! There are also three married couples here which I find to be ultra amazing and romantic at the same time (but it also makes me miss a certain person in my life and does not help the overwhelmed feeling I am feeling). But seriously though, what a fantastic idea to do if you're married (also what a way to challenge your marriage at the same time!) I wonder if it's a honey moon thing for any of them...I'll have to find out. There is even a lady here who is a second timer, her first service being in Guatemala years ago. She is also one half of the married couples but this was the first assignment for her husband.

We did not hear much country specific information as we will apparently be told all of that stuff in country at our 2 day pre-pre-service training in Kiev. Regardless, it was a good distraction from all these feels I've been feeling about going and missing the all the important people I'm going to be missing.

Tomorrow we head to the airport at 12 and fly out at around 6pm. We will receive our fancy diplomat passports tomorrow which we will be required to use for any and all out of country travel during our service. However, will we not be able to travel outside our communities until after 6 months have passed, nor can we have any state-side visitors until after that milestone passes *nudge nudge, hint hint* ;)

We have a short lay over in Frankfurt but not long enough to enjoy anything there. It will take us about 8 hours to get to Germany and then another 3 or so to Kiev. It's going to be a long day of flying and sitting and no sleep for Jamie. Wish me luck.

-Jamie

So, um...what country am I living in again?

DONE WITH INITIAL CERTIFICATION TRAINING FOR GABA!! WHOOO HOOO!!!!

...Sorry, but it's really been a grueling 3 days. From Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-7pm, non-stop learning how to be a good Gaba instructor/customer service bitch. That's right, customer service...my favorite. Even though I am an instructor, we are supposed to carter to the whim of the "clients" (not students), and make sure that they leave a "satisfied customer". Makes since, but I hate to look at it that way (I bow down to NO ONE, you hear? No one!) yet, I understand the importance of making sure all our "students" (clients just sounds so stiff and impersonal) feel like they're getting their moneys worth (one "package deal" of lessons at Gaba costs about a small fortune) and actually learning something, which is what every teacher in any field should be concerned about. I think just putting the "customer service" label on it is what bothers me the most so, from now on I'll just ignore that bit (but not in the sense of not making sure i'm giving my all to every student, of course).

I officially start on Monday, and I'll be working at the learning studio in Tokyo, which sounds like it will be a busy one (more money for me, whoo!). I met some pretty chill people during training, including the guy that was training us. Yet, from hanging out with all these other gaijin (foreigners) and speaking nothing but English for the past couple of days, I've sort of forgotten what country I'm living in. Every time I stepped out of the Gaba building onto the crowded streets of Tokyo was like a little culture shock experience. I've been getting home late as well so I haven't really seen my host family much (hence haven't spoken Japanese much) which has also thrown me for a loop. To top off the unbalanced-ness, last night I performed at this place called the Pink Cow (i'll get into the performance details in a bit)

Even their bathroom was made up with art work~

This place was amazingly chill. It's part restaurant, part bar; part art gallery, part stage, and all parts awesome. The lady that owns it is from San Fran and has been running her place for 11 years now. It's located in Shibuya, in the basement of some other building and it's very spacious (a rare commodity in Japan). In the front it has a little stage equipped with a DJ hole. There are tables and benches with colorful pillows strewn everywhere surrounding the stage area. Off to the left of the stage there's more seating and artwork displays (actually, this whole place in itself was an artwork display). Towards the back was even more seating and sound equipment. TV's were placed everywhere so that you can watch the performance from where ever.

Micheal discovered this fact out fast. 

Even further back takes you into this little cozy hole of a bar area where the friendliest bartender will gladly use you as his guinea pig for the various drink concoctions he thinks up (for free, if you sit there long enough). Somewhere in there is a kitchen (I saw the chef make an appearance every once in a while, but I never saw where he came from), and all the employees are foreigners with the same goal; just trying to make a life for themselves in the busiest little city around.  I have no problem picturing this place in Portland, and it made me a little home sick to tell the truth. Now, why was I there??

As mentioned before, I was performing~! Well, I ~accompanied~ my friend Maria Sekiya on guitar. I did do a solo bit as well though. How did it go?

I butchered everything.

This picture about captures how the
performance went; Maria, beautiful
and perfect; me, a mess and slightly retarded. 

Maria was born to sing and nailed every song; me on the other hand, well...perhaps if I had had more time to practice I would have done a better job (only had about 4 days to prepare due to finals at school and the damn job training). But actually getting up on stage and doing it was the hardest part and what counts the most right?? I mean, I actually played and ~sang~ one song by myself. I've never had the guts to do that before and even though I royally screwed up Muse's "unintended" I still got a round of applause and shouts of encouragement from friends and acquaintances a like, which made it worth it. I didn't have anyone video tape it (for obvious reasons) but I did convince my friend, Micheal to take pictures and as soon as he gets them to me I'll post them for your viewing pleasure.

Aside from the embarrassing-ness of it all, I met a bunch of awesome people. This particular night was dubbed "Ladies Night" and the focus was on getting intelligent women together to talk about how awesome we are (okay well, perhaps it was more like getting together to network and share what we're doing with our lives in Tokyo, etc). There were fashion designers, musicians, actors and theater owners, painters and dancers and just plain cool people. The Pink Cow holds loads of events to host local artists to get their work out and the owner even invited ~me~ back to the next open mic event. I also volunteered to be a model for a body-painting exhibit they're going to have in a couple weeks, so that will be exciting. AND ( so much happened last night, it's hard to type it all out) I got talked into performing at Japan Music Week at Shibuya La Mama (see previous posts for details on that place) on the 19th of this month. Yikes!!!! Need to practice. Oh and to top that all off, the guy that conducted training at Gaba just happens to be very involved in the foreigner music scene in Japan and said to keep in touch for some future gigs/networking opportunities. Thank you Japan, for giving me back my passion for music; I had lost it over these past two years and really appreciate being reunited. I feel like Japan gives a lot more opportunities for musicians than America does...or perhaps it's just that I don't know the right people in America...anyway.

One of my adoring fans, Namiko!

And possibly my #1 fan, Micah! 

The lady on the right (Joana) is the one that
will have be perform at Japan Music week. Micheal
was dragged into it as well. 

The performance by the belly dancer just reinforced the
feeling that I was in Portland rather than Tokyo. 

Overall, I give the Pink Cow 10 thumbs up and I will most definitely go back just to chill there, and recommend anyone who is coming to Japan to look it up (just follow this link to their home page). 

Now it's time to enjoy my day off.

PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie

Navy Base in Atsugi!

So one of my New Years resolutions is to improve my blog and blogging skills. One way of doing this is to update as much as possible! So, here's another update!

entrance to the base

I met up with my friend Natsuyo today and we went to go see her boyfriend in Atsugi. He is an American Navy guy and lives on the base there so I was a little excited to see what it was like. My grandpa was stationed at a Navy base in Japan back in the 60's or something (a different base from this though) and i've always wondered what living on a base would be like.

They took our passports and gave us entry permission slips at the gate. There wasn't really much there though me and Nat were only allowed to go into certain places. We went to the food court (that smelled so much like America!) where they had a Taco Bell (gross!) and some other fast food places typical of American food courts. Then we went into this mini wal-mart type store where I proceeded to squee over how cheap things were (and they only handle American money so all the price tags were in dollars which took me a moment to realize the change) and be all "natsukashii" (nostalgic) over all the familiar items.
 I bought my contact solution for half the price I pay at Japanese drug stores, as well as some Ibuprofen and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (Yum!). Since I didn't have any American money I had to have my friend buy it for me and I gave him yen in return. I guess even though the base is in Japan, you're technically in America...confusing? There is bigger grocery store on base but that was one of the places we weren't allowed to go into. They also have an elementary school and a huge pool with a water slide! It was like being in a mini American town almost (though I bet if we were able to go to where the residential housing was it would have felt even more like America, but he lives in the barracks so we didn't go that way).


It really made me a little homesick seeing all those familiar brands and food items, but i'm happy I got to go. We proceeded to hang out at his room and watched the Star Wars Family Guy series (never realized how awesome those are!) then had dinner in Yokohama.




Tomorrow I teach then go to the bank to try and figure out a money transfer, then hanging out with a new buddy I met a couple weeks ago!

Nature walk

Today was another BEAUTIFUL day in Tokyo. It was about middle 60's with a slight breeze and blue skies. Yet despite that, I was feeling really depressed all day....and for the past couple days for that matter. Can't seem to shake this funk. So today i decided that instead of sitting inside all day like I was wanting to, I was going to get out and enjoy the nice weather. Not that I've been couping myself up indoors all this time, it's just that every time I go out it's for some reason/matter or other. I haven't been able to just have me time outside of the house (plenty of me time in doors but it's not the same).

So I got dressed, looked up how to get to that fabulous park my host mom took me to a couple weeks ago and set off! I bought Onigiri (rice balls) and this green apple that was grown locally and tasted AMAZING and ate in the park. I actually pass the stop for this park on my way to and from school everyday but haven't had the time/energy to actually go there by myself. It's called 石神井公園　(Shyakujikoen) for those of you who live in Tokyo and want a nice park to meander in. It really is huge and they have a little lake in the middle where you can rent these paddle boats and go paddle around for a while (a popular thing to do among couples it seems; people holding hands everywhere I went!). I spent about 2 1/2 hours there just walking around and taking the occasional picture, It was really relaxing and brightened my mood considerably!

Look! They have swan paddle boats too! 

Truly one of the best apples I have eaten. 

lots of old people where fishing as well
Don't know if they can keep the fish or not though

HUGE ASS SPIDER AND IT'S EQUALLY HUGE WEB!
as well as the pretty shrine in the background

Add caption

Now to prepare for tomorrow's live performance in front of all my peers! Yikes!

Jamie