Yokosuka Gazette 9/27/13
Welcome to this Friday's edition of the Yokosuka Gazette, reaching a far-flung audience of 12 readers. Thank you, faithful readers!
What happened this week in Yokosuka? Well, it has cooled down. A lot. We're like a bunch of old Minnesota farmers talking about the weather in these parts. It's like the first day of spring in Minnesota, only it's feeling fall-like in the jungle that is Yokosuka. Thank God for cooler weather, for not needing to schlep along a 40-gallon drum of water every time we go out the door, for not having to change clothes three times a day like Scarlett O'Hara, for less sweat and fluffier hair. Thank you for cooler weather so that we can be free from the confines of this ugly house.
Monday, had lunch with CDW's current CO's wife. Will went to Miss Sara's (and he behaved all week long and didn't try to eat any of the babies or beat up any of the bigger kids, thank you Jesus, amen!), so I was able to go out alone with her and have curry. Curry! That's like, my first adult meal since I've come to Yokosuka, seriously. The curry was divine and came with a piece of nan as big as a newborn baby. And the nan was divine as well. And the adult conversation without a three-year-old constantly asking to be pushed on the swings was nice as well.
School is going...okay. I keep getting reports home about the mean art teacher. The neighborhood agrees that one of the art teachers is mean. I want Josiah to switch classrooms. I don't care for his teacher. He claims that she yells a lot. She doesn't communicate very well and Josiah has almost no homework, even though the other 4th grader in our cell block, I mean HOUSING unit, has scads of homework to do every night. Josiah still only has spelling and reading, which of course are important, but no math? No science, social science, history?
They're studying US geography right now and Josiah was bummed that Mrs. Smith didn't exclaim in delight over the fact that he can draw a map of the US with borders, freehand by heart. I tried to explain to him that she can't exactly get excited in front all the other kids, but that he's still totally cool and better at geography than some adults.
Sigh. It's hard to know what to do. There's no standardized curriculum so each 4th grade teacher is on a different trajectory. The teacher whose class I want to get him into heads the geography bee and sounds amazing, but Josiah keeps putting his foot down and saying that he doesn't want to change classes. And then he complains about his teacher and lack of challenge. What to do, what to do? I think he's getting entrenched, digging in for battle with Mrs. Smith.
Annika, on the other hand, loves her teacher. The only drama in her class was when her teacher (who has been in Yokosuka for less time than us) took a snack away from a kid at snack time. The kids start school at 7:40 and don't break for lunch until almost noon, so a snack is required and by the Edict of DoDDs Schools that snack shall consist of something "healthy". Apparently, some teachers loosely define healthy as "just not cookies or donuts". Annika has been bringing chewy granola bars, for example. This poor girl brought Teddy Grahams, which Mrs. LaMay classified as cookies, though I'm sure they had as many grams of sugar as Annika's granola bar. Mrs. LaMay got strung up on the spouse Facebook page, poor lady. She had a pretty enraged parent on her hands. When I told Hans about the situation, he told me to send Annika to school with a five pound bag of sugar and a straw just to see what would happen.
I guess he wants to see ME tarred and feathered on Facebook. There are several different sites for spouses, for selling things, for homeschooling mothers, for babywearing mothers, for homeschooling babywearing mothers selling things, etc. It's only natural that drama ensues on an almost daily basis. There appear to be a cabal of wives on these sites that live to answer every single post and insert drama where there is none.
It delights me to read. I have managed to only get involved once and then as the voice of reason in the middle of the fluff.
Anyway, back to the week. Middle of week, nothing too exciting to report. Will went back to Miss Sara's on Wednesday, so I got my first good workout in. Yesterday was typhoon-like without it being a full-on typhoon. Lots of wind and rain, just sort of generally miserable. Today was bright and sunny and cool. The kids were out of school at 11:00, so we went to Home's, which is kind of like a combination of Wal-Mart and Home Depot, plus furniture, plus clothing at Uniqlo (sort of like Old Navy only for tiny Asian people). They have a McDonald's IN Home's, so we ate there. So clean, such polite and happy employees! I love Japanese McDonald's.
Anyhoo. We ambled around Home's for awhile, then crossed the street and played at the park, where we discovered some kids sliding down this hill...I'll try to describe it. It's like the hill is covered in heavy plastic honeycomb material, but the grass grows through a little. You buy a little sled like a tractor seat with a handle, made out of heavy plastic, put the handle between your legs and zoom...down the hill. We needed our slide sleds last week at the roller slide. Anyway...we went on down the street to Livin, did our required Pokémon shopping/playing of Japanese video games there and then stopped again at the auto store, Autobacs. I think I posted on Facebook about Autobacs.
The Japanese are such reserved, quiet people. The Germans are such reserved, quiet people. The Japanese apparently love their stores to be not peaceful, but filled with blaring music and flashing bright lights. Tiny flat-screen TVs up and down the aisles advertising the various products, all with their volume up to be heard over the blaring music. Did I mention the flashing lights? Holy crap, I just wanted to be in a dark room to desensitize after I was in there. I guess the point I'm driving at is this: Germans and Japanese are alike, but I think any good German citizen would be horrified stepping foot in a store like that. So loud, so full of (I kid you not) the scent of 300 different car air deodorizers. The flashing lights.
Too showy for the Germans. Too showy for this German. Uffda.
I'm going off on a tangent again, sorry. Autobacs happened to carry the little sleds since they are right next to the park. Smart move, crazy Autobacs people...I'm sure they cost twice as much there too, but I bought three.
And guess what? Remember Kannonzaki last week? Remember how much I wanted to see the glory of my children being children and having fun? Delighted smiles? And I was crushed by Kannonzaki.
But that hill and those sleds were the best. time. ever.
The Lord answers our wishes when the Lord desires to answer our wishes...I wish I could get that through my head. Maybe when I'm 92.
I'm seriously considering heading back to Kannonzaki to do the roller sled tomorrow. NOW I know where to go and we have the proper equipment AND I have new, cushy shoes.
Knowledge is power, people.
Pictures:
What happened this week in Yokosuka? Well, it has cooled down. A lot. We're like a bunch of old Minnesota farmers talking about the weather in these parts. It's like the first day of spring in Minnesota, only it's feeling fall-like in the jungle that is Yokosuka. Thank God for cooler weather, for not needing to schlep along a 40-gallon drum of water every time we go out the door, for not having to change clothes three times a day like Scarlett O'Hara, for less sweat and fluffier hair. Thank you for cooler weather so that we can be free from the confines of this ugly house.
Monday, had lunch with CDW's current CO's wife. Will went to Miss Sara's (and he behaved all week long and didn't try to eat any of the babies or beat up any of the bigger kids, thank you Jesus, amen!), so I was able to go out alone with her and have curry. Curry! That's like, my first adult meal since I've come to Yokosuka, seriously. The curry was divine and came with a piece of nan as big as a newborn baby. And the nan was divine as well. And the adult conversation without a three-year-old constantly asking to be pushed on the swings was nice as well.
School is going...okay. I keep getting reports home about the mean art teacher. The neighborhood agrees that one of the art teachers is mean. I want Josiah to switch classrooms. I don't care for his teacher. He claims that she yells a lot. She doesn't communicate very well and Josiah has almost no homework, even though the other 4th grader in our cell block, I mean HOUSING unit, has scads of homework to do every night. Josiah still only has spelling and reading, which of course are important, but no math? No science, social science, history?
They're studying US geography right now and Josiah was bummed that Mrs. Smith didn't exclaim in delight over the fact that he can draw a map of the US with borders, freehand by heart. I tried to explain to him that she can't exactly get excited in front all the other kids, but that he's still totally cool and better at geography than some adults.
Sigh. It's hard to know what to do. There's no standardized curriculum so each 4th grade teacher is on a different trajectory. The teacher whose class I want to get him into heads the geography bee and sounds amazing, but Josiah keeps putting his foot down and saying that he doesn't want to change classes. And then he complains about his teacher and lack of challenge. What to do, what to do? I think he's getting entrenched, digging in for battle with Mrs. Smith.
Annika, on the other hand, loves her teacher. The only drama in her class was when her teacher (who has been in Yokosuka for less time than us) took a snack away from a kid at snack time. The kids start school at 7:40 and don't break for lunch until almost noon, so a snack is required and by the Edict of DoDDs Schools that snack shall consist of something "healthy". Apparently, some teachers loosely define healthy as "just not cookies or donuts". Annika has been bringing chewy granola bars, for example. This poor girl brought Teddy Grahams, which Mrs. LaMay classified as cookies, though I'm sure they had as many grams of sugar as Annika's granola bar. Mrs. LaMay got strung up on the spouse Facebook page, poor lady. She had a pretty enraged parent on her hands. When I told Hans about the situation, he told me to send Annika to school with a five pound bag of sugar and a straw just to see what would happen.
I guess he wants to see ME tarred and feathered on Facebook. There are several different sites for spouses, for selling things, for homeschooling mothers, for babywearing mothers, for homeschooling babywearing mothers selling things, etc. It's only natural that drama ensues on an almost daily basis. There appear to be a cabal of wives on these sites that live to answer every single post and insert drama where there is none.
It delights me to read. I have managed to only get involved once and then as the voice of reason in the middle of the fluff.
Anyway, back to the week. Middle of week, nothing too exciting to report. Will went back to Miss Sara's on Wednesday, so I got my first good workout in. Yesterday was typhoon-like without it being a full-on typhoon. Lots of wind and rain, just sort of generally miserable. Today was bright and sunny and cool. The kids were out of school at 11:00, so we went to Home's, which is kind of like a combination of Wal-Mart and Home Depot, plus furniture, plus clothing at Uniqlo (sort of like Old Navy only for tiny Asian people). They have a McDonald's IN Home's, so we ate there. So clean, such polite and happy employees! I love Japanese McDonald's.
Anyhoo. We ambled around Home's for awhile, then crossed the street and played at the park, where we discovered some kids sliding down this hill...I'll try to describe it. It's like the hill is covered in heavy plastic honeycomb material, but the grass grows through a little. You buy a little sled like a tractor seat with a handle, made out of heavy plastic, put the handle between your legs and zoom...down the hill. We needed our slide sleds last week at the roller slide. Anyway...we went on down the street to Livin, did our required Pokémon shopping/playing of Japanese video games there and then stopped again at the auto store, Autobacs. I think I posted on Facebook about Autobacs.
The Japanese are such reserved, quiet people. The Germans are such reserved, quiet people. The Japanese apparently love their stores to be not peaceful, but filled with blaring music and flashing bright lights. Tiny flat-screen TVs up and down the aisles advertising the various products, all with their volume up to be heard over the blaring music. Did I mention the flashing lights? Holy crap, I just wanted to be in a dark room to desensitize after I was in there. I guess the point I'm driving at is this: Germans and Japanese are alike, but I think any good German citizen would be horrified stepping foot in a store like that. So loud, so full of (I kid you not) the scent of 300 different car air deodorizers. The flashing lights.
Too showy for the Germans. Too showy for this German. Uffda.
I'm going off on a tangent again, sorry. Autobacs happened to carry the little sleds since they are right next to the park. Smart move, crazy Autobacs people...I'm sure they cost twice as much there too, but I bought three.
And guess what? Remember Kannonzaki last week? Remember how much I wanted to see the glory of my children being children and having fun? Delighted smiles? And I was crushed by Kannonzaki.
But that hill and those sleds were the best. time. ever.
The Lord answers our wishes when the Lord desires to answer our wishes...I wish I could get that through my head. Maybe when I'm 92.
I'm seriously considering heading back to Kannonzaki to do the roller sled tomorrow. NOW I know where to go and we have the proper equipment AND I have new, cushy shoes.
Knowledge is power, people.
Pictures:
Kittens! I almost punched in the glass and stuffed this one in my shirt. If only the asking price hadn't been OVER $1,000USD. What the...what?
Well, I guess they're not exactly going to race outta there, but still...those are some pretty big turtles to just be chillin' in a box in the pet section.
In addition to kittens, puppies and fish, there were frogs, crawdads, tiny turtles, huge turtles, chickens, gerbils, rats, hamsters and a gigantic iguana. Since we can't afford a kitten, maybe I should get a couple of hamsters, they were cheap at around $10 each. We could get three. I bet they'd fight all the time.
Check out this bizarre plant. Picture of a fox on the tag...the "fruit" is shaped like a fox's head. I think they were maybe melon-like or gourd like. They didn't seem to have a skin or be scented like a citrus.
At the park...
William in the foreground, the base in the background.
A picture...hopefully now my description makes better sense. It was slick. I tried it. Almost broke my back and my lady parts, but it was fun!
Random picture of Will and Big Red...the green/yellow sticker on the front identifies me as a novice driver and pretty much guarantees that other drivers will give me a wide berth. I got it because if I cause an accident while driving with one of these stickers, it isn't MY fault, it's the other driver's fault, because they're supposed to be avoiding me. Because I'm an awful driver. Totally worth having the sticker. Actually it's a magnet because you all know that I would never put a sticker on my car...even my cheap Japanese car.
LESS THAN 10 DAYS UNTIL WE GET HANS BACK!
SAYONARA, FRIENDS!
Comments
I feel so bad about the school situation. It's been so long since I had kids in school, and it was all so different then. I don't recall ever sending snacks for my kids. I would love to see Josiah in a class where he is challenged. I know you'll stay on top of it.
The grassy hill for sliding looks really fun. I loved these photos. Too bad the kittens are so expensive.
That slide looks fun. A plastic hill....sounds fast. :)
I meant to mention how much I loved smelling new tires at Autobacs...that was the one thing that didn't drive me crazy at that store! Love the smell of fresh tires, except when it comes time to actually PUT them on the car!
Love you!
You could make back the amount of your plane tix if you and Eli each travelled with 3-4 kittens!! ;)
I'm sure it will be great when Hans get there and you can have a little time for just you. Go have a Mani/Pedi.
Keep up the wonderful posts, thanks!