Andrea's Rambling Notes - once from Japan, now from Canada

::Andrea's Rambling Notes - once from Japan, now from Canada::

My notes and my memories: sometimes about a mom - sometimes about a wife - sometimes about a woman - sometimes about our life

::Author::

Name::Andrea
From::Small city/town, B.C., Canada
I am a short girl from the west cost of BC, Canada and I am a proud Canadian. I went to Japan in 2000 because my Dad told me I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't. He was right. I lived a good life found my husband from the other side of the world and have a beautiful daughter. Basically we lead a pretty normal life filled with normal ups and downs. We both come from different cultures: me Canadian, him Chinese. Living in Japan was a real eye opener about who I am and about the people I associate myself with. I lived and loved in Japan but the time to move on came upon us and in May of 2006 we left and moved to Canada: a huge move for us all. We are now trying to start up again, remodel our lives and create our future for our family. I now feel like a tourist in the country of my birth, my eyes see different and my life will be forever changed. This blog is my notes and observations of our life, our changes, our adventures and new beginnings. Welcome.
View my complete

::Recent Entries::

::Personal Links::

My Japanese Culture Teaching Notes

::My Family's Sites::

Alisha - a site set up by friends and family of my little sis

Phrax - my step-brother

Blue Mountain Stable

::Index::

An Index of past posts - the Japan Years

::Archives::

::Image Event Album::

My Image Event Photo Album

::My FlickR Photos::

www.flickr.com

::Tech Sites::

Tech2all

Blog Flak

::Extra Internet Info::

Canadian Atlas

National Geographic

Wikipedia

World TimesZones - please check this BEFORE calling me!

Currency Converter

eigoNavi - a pretty good language converter

The Samurai Appliance Repair Man - a funny repair site for N

::World News::

Generation Woman

Japan Times

Counter Punch

Japanese General Union - a must! read before working in Japan

::RSS Feed::

Blogarama

Buttons created with the Chicklet Creator

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Monday morning's weekend rambling

Warning!! Long ramblings.

Friday:
I went to the dentist Friday morning. Arrived a little late but no problems. I walked in the office and changed my shoes to their open toed, cheap and not so comfy slippers.
Most doctors offices make you change your shoes. I actually get surprised when I don’t have to I am so use to it now.

I signed in and waited my turn. This little (tiny) old lady came in with her daughter. Her daughter looked mid sixties so this lady had to be close to 90!!! She was still walking and still had teeth! I was impressed. She was also so cute.

My name was called and I went into the dentist room and slipped up onto my chair.
This is when I noticed I had a HUGE hole in the big toe of my one sock!!!!
I pretended to straighten my pant legs and tucked the offensive hole between my toes. I ended up with a foot cramp at the end of the visit from scrunching my toes to prevent the hole from popping out again.

I also got in trouble from my dentist.
I had gone to get my teeth cleaned and checked just before and after BabyJi was born. Pregnant woman have crappy teeth and mine are not the best to begin with. At the last check he told me to come back again in three months.
Dumm daddumm
One year later.
I had a cavity. Oopps.
Not a bad one, and easily fixed. He just ground it clean: no pain killers and no pain. He then applied some sort of plastic cap on it: the plastic came out of a calking gun.
It worked and was really fast. My teeth were then scaled after.
All for 30bucks.
I love my Japanese insurance: I pay tons for it every month though so it better be good!!

After that I got a taxi to take me to the large supermarket in front of the station. This is the conversation that followed:

A: Bigu suppa onegaishimasu.
T: Doko?
A: Bigu suppa.
T: Bigu?
A: Ekimae suppa.
T: ahhhh BiKU.
A: So.
T: Is it all right if I speak English?
A: Huh uh ya sure ok.
T: I used to work for a large company in Yaizu. I was a manager of a whole section.
A: Really? Are you retired now then?
T: Hahaha NO. I am restructured.
A: ahhhhhh
T: Restructured in Japanese means ‘head chopped off’. Hahaha (neck slicing motion)
A: I understand completely.
T: Just so that you understand it is BiKU not Big, they spelt it wrong. BiKU actually means ‘surprise’, so it is a Surprise Supermarket. (bling fingers off the steering wheel for effect)
A: Ahh I didn’t realize that. I understand now. Thank you very much.
T: Is here ok?
A: Yes perfect. You speak very good English, thank you.
T: No Thank YOU.

Not a single word I wrote was altered to make this man’s English sound better. He really spoke very, very well: perfect business English, and at an almost natural speed.
Yet one more reason why, I can’t speak Japanese. LOL!

On Saturday:
BabyJi and I went for an afternoon walk and I found three packing boxes in the garbage area that had never been unfolded and in perfect condition. Scoffed those up quickly. Packing boxes are a necessity in my household right now. Turned out to be a perfect grab: one box fit all of my girly shoes perfectly. (Yes I have a lot of shoes: 25 pairs in that one box to be exact!)

On Sunday:

I went to Jean’s for a Plum Blossom picnic again with a different group of people.
The best was that Sheri was there!!!
We have been blogging buddies for a while now and I really wish we had met sooner. She was totally my kinda girl.
We had a wonderful warm, blue-sky day, doing a whole lotta girl talk and relaxing.
A nice, lazy day.
Didn’t get any packing done though. Hehe

Update:
Today's Blessings:

1. BabyJi's passport came back early!!! Now we can get out Chinese visitor visas.

2. Li made dinner!!!

Return Home

Posted by (Top)Andrea::3/05/2006 :: 10 Comments:

Post/Read Comments

---------------------------------------