Last day at Aiga elementary school

Today was my last day at one of the elementary schools I have been teaching at. I feel that I’ve made the least connection with the students at this school compared to the others. It was the only school where I was unable to play with the students during recess because of the schedule. The Vice Principal at this school was kind enough to show both me and Joe how to make soba. The experience was nice and it was really thoughtful of him to go through all this trouble for us. After making the soba we ate lunch with all of the students. It is a relatively small school, all of us could fit in this large tatami room.
During lunch they presented Joe and I with small thoughtful gifts. They thanked me for teaching them English for the year. Even though I didn’t feel a connection with any of the students in this school I couldn’t help getting choked up when it was my turn to address the school. I told them that it was a pleasure working with them, that the kids are really smart and that they should continue learning English. Some of the kids looked surprised that I said they were smart lol. I cut my speech short because I was afraid I was going to start crying. I felt sad that I wasn’t able to connect with them as I have connected with the other students. I also felt sadder that my time has run out, this was the last time I was going to see these kids.
After lunch I taught 1-4th graders. This little girl kept on smiling and saying “thank you” (for the sticker I gave her). When Joe and I were leaving she kept following us saying “thank you, see you” and I said “see you” but I knew that was it, I would probably never see this little girl ever again.

Things to do

My computer is now dead (I am using Joe's) so I didn't get much of last week's to do tasks done.

1. Mail out the envelope to Patrick Dempsey’s agent. -I will try to do this Monday.
2. Build a couple of good resumes.
. Sort my taxes. - I have to ask for a paper that will serve as an earning statement even though it is not an official earning statement.
4. Start clearing out our apartment. - We need to see who wants to take some of the stuff we are not taking back home.
5. Find Maker's Mark with the black cap for my friend back home. We have been to a couple of stores and we have not found it. :( We don't want to come back empty handed.

Stone Throwers

South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is the most recent politician to come clean of having had an extra marital affair. Many people on the left as well as the right are asking him to step down as governor. Most of those asking him to step down are doing so for political reasons. The same reason Mark Sanford asked President Bill Clinton to step down when the Monica Lewinski story broke. Nothing would please me more than having a GOP governor humiliated or lose his standing in his party. That being said I do not think he should step down for this affair. He should step down if he has done the South Carolina residents any disservice. He did oppose the bailout money that the state desperately needed, then he allegedly took trips to Argentina on the tax payers’ dime, and he left the state without leaving anyone in charge. Those may be reasons for him to step down as governor. Why not tell the lieutenant governor that he was taking off for a few days for personal reasons and that in the meantime the lieutenant governor should take over？ I understand that the governor’s office was trying to protect him by lying about his whereabouts. That is not how you talk to the American people; you don’t make up stupid stories about hiking or anything like that. You say, “he is taking personal time off to sort some personal matters” or, “Governor Sanford has taken a five day trip to South America, he has left the Lt. Governor in charge for the time being, we will not elaborate on the matter, thank you.”

This is the second story this month of a politician involved in an extramarital affair who had previously called for Bill Clinton’s resignation over the Monica Lewinski affair. Maybe in the future these stone throwers will think twice before condemning someone or their actions. Personally speaking, if you know something is wrong, you have the ability to decide not to do it. I’ve never been unfaithful, not because the situation didn’t arise, but because I didn’t want to. This doesn’t happen accidentally, like falling off of a bike. There is thinking involved; you think, “Wow, has the flirting crossed the line? Will this person get the wrong impression? Would I approve of the way I am acting if I was my spouse? DO YOU THINK FLYING TO ANOTHER CONTINENT IS TOO MUCH?” Seriously, WTF? Ensign went as far as putting his mistress’ son on the payroll. You cannot just come out and say “I regret my actions” and think everything is okay… you owe your family a lot. Both of these men took steps to make this affair thing happen, you cannot just have an affair and say “oops!” or “I am ashamed of myself” and think your family can just forgive you or who ever you lied to. I don’t buy it. It takes a lot of effort to sneak around and maintain a separate relationship with someone else. Don’t BS us, you enjoyed it, you had fun and you are just sorry you didn’t get away with it. When you were flirting back and forth, sending sonnets to your mistress, did you think of your wife, children or anyone who trusted you? When you took trips to Argentina to inspect someone else’s tan lines, did you think of your wife? Mr. Ensign when you saw your staffer pass by, did you think of how you were caressing his wife the day before? When you saw your wife did you think of how you betrayed her? NO, you probably didn’t, and if you did you didn’t feel bad enough to STOP yourself from cheating; don’t come out with crocodile tears and say you are sorry now. God, I wish someone would come out and say, “ I am embarrassed because I was caught, and I am sorry my family was hurt by finding out that I was lying to them. I meant to keep it secret, but I was careless. I am also sorry my career is potentially over because I couldn’t keep it in my pants.” I’d be more willing to forgive a politician who got sloshed and had an orgy with 10 staffers ONE time. I’d think “wow, that must have been some crazy night” and that would be that.

I know everyone is capable of err. If I was his wife I’d get an HIV/STD test right way, file for divorce and move out with my children right away or ask him to leave. But if he was my governor, I wouldn’t really care what he did UNLESS his actions compromised his work. What really irks me is that both Ensign and Sanford are the same people trying to “protect” the sanctity of marriage by blocking homosexuals from getting married, yet they are tarnishing the sanctity of their own marriages. They have misrepresented themselves using religious/moral rhetoric to block marriage rights for a considerable segment of our population. They have misrepresented themselves to the public for political gain. How can they have respect for the American people they are elected to represent if they have no respect for the people closest to them? You don’t deceive someone you respect and you don’t respect someone you deceive.

To do list. - A procrastinator's list.

I am starting a public to-do list to force myself to get things done. Every Saturday I will write how many of the previous week’s tasks I’ve completed and a new set of tasks for the upcoming week, starting today.

1. Mail out the envelope to Patrick Dempsey’s agent. - One of my students is a huge fan and I promised her I would try to get his autograph for her.
2. Build a couple of good resumes. - I mean a couple because even though I’d like a job in teaching, I do not have teaching credentials and I heard teaching jobs are scarce in California due to budget cuts. So I will put my hands in several pots to see what I can nab.
3. Sort my taxes. - The BOA still hasn't and won’t give me a W2 form to file my taxes. So I need to figure out what I need to do to file my 2008 taxes. I already got an extension but I’d like to file them ASAP.
4. Start clearing out our apartment. - We have less than two months to go in Japan and we need to start getting rid of some things.
5. Write a couple of angry letters to my government “representatives”. - I felt like adding a fun activity in my to-do list. I am heart broken with the California Supreme Court decision on Prop 8. They upheld it.
6. Buy a charger or a battery for my computer. It is completely dead.

Just wanted to add a cute breads...

Sarah Palin vs. David Letterman

I am considered a feminist and hypersensitive when it comes to offensive comments. I do understand that we have a bias in the way we read “jokes”. That being said, I did not find anything insulting in the joke David Letterman made. I didn’t see it as being an attack on a 14 year old girl. I did see it as being an attack on Sarah Palin’s parenting skills. I did see it as being a commentary on Bristol Palin’s past history and her current mission to promote abstinence. Certain members of the Palin family are fair game because they are constantly throwing themselves in the limelight “promoting family values”. It is like Bill Clinton going around promoting fidelity right after he got caught red handed. There is nothing wrong with repenting on a bad decision; however must you shove your child in the limelight and call him a mistake? Okay you think young kids shouldn’t have sex, okay, now shut up and take care of your child. I would say the same thing to Bill Clinton… You want people to be faithful to their spouses, fine, now shut up and work on your marriage.
Are we really stupid enough to believe that Bristol would have promoted abstinence if she didn’t get pregnant? Would she go around saying “I had sex, but it wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, so please don’t do it?” I highly doubt it. Would Sarah Palin have cared about children with disabilities if her child hadn’t been born with Down Syndrome? Taking into consideration no prior mention of helping people with disabilities, I’d say she probably wouldn’t have cared much for them. She also was against funding children health insurance in Alaska and against the Community Choice Act; two pieces of legislation that could help people with disabilities. I think the way the Palin mothers use their children to further their “careers” is despicable. It is equivalent to saying, “look at my black coworker, this proves that I care about black people and am willing to work with them.,” or, “I got into a car accident while drinking and driving, so don’t drink.”

Sarah Palin’s response to the joke was a joke in itself. Sarah Palin states, "Concerning Letterman's comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he'd ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter): 'Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands -- that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.'" You know what is really disgusting? Forcing rape victims to pay for their own rape kit, that is disgusting. Also, David wasn’t talking about rape; she made that connection on her own. Even many Palin supporters acknowledged that it wasn’t about her 14 year old daughter. So is it okay to insinuate that he is a pedophile just because she didn’t get the joke? And in response to his second apology, she thanked the US troops for protecting the first amendment (which was an out of the blue attempt to pander to the troops). If she cared about women and women in the military, why doesn’t she speak out for the many women in the military who have suffered discrimination and even rape by fellow soldiers and superior officers? She is an opportunistic hypocrite.

If David Letterman owes anyone an apology it would have to be to Alex Rodriguez (Joe pointed that out). Well now that David Letterman issued an apology, let’s hope he never mentions her name again. Many would think that he if ceases to mention her name again, that she has won; I see it more as a national victory. The less we hear about her the better.

Playing Catch Up.

It got warmer in Japan. Hot to be exact. We are entering rainy season which means more slugs… yippy… err I mean YUCK!
My dad came to Japan early May to visit his little girl. We went to Kyoto, Hiroshima, Hikone and all around Koka-shi. Here are a couple of interesting pictures highlighting his trip.






Joe and I are having a blast in Japan, but we are a little stressed out over our final trip to Kyushu. We’ve yet to book our hotel rooms, but we already have our plane tickets out of Fukuoka to Los Angeles. We are also growing sad day by day knowing that our days in Japan are numbered. To make up for the fact that we probably won’t be able to come back soon we’ve been taking a couple of trips visiting several interesting places in the Kansai region. Here are a couple of pictures of our trip to Tottori as well as pictures from our trip to Mie prefecture.











The one thing I will miss the most is how cute everything is in Japan. I would put pictures of my students but I’ve been forbidden to do so.  They are uber可愛い (kawaii- cute), but I cannot post pictures of minors, no matter how innocent it might be.
Here are a couple pictures of cute Japanese foods.

My choice.

I am pro-life/pro-choice. I have never nor will ever have an abortion. If I were to be raped, I would like the morning after pill to prevent the pregnancy. I like having that choice. I am against the death penalty and do not eat animals (vegetarian). <- That makes me pretty pro-life. I believe everyone has the choice to do as they please with their own body. For as long as I have been sexually active, I have always practiced safe sex. I like being in control of my reproduction.
Women for ages have done all it took to terminate unwanted pregnancies. They have ingested poison, used hangers, and all sorts of other things. Some of these methods led to their own death. Now with the advancement of medicine women have more control of their bodies to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
I personally think late term abortions are horrible. I feel that if it is going to save the woman then it is okay to have the procedure. If a woman could not seek the termination of the pregnancy earlier (because they were obstructed by others), then it’s okay to have the procedure. Aside from those two conditions, late term abortion seems irresponsible.
I would be more inclined to listen to a pro-life stance if I didn’t find pro-life activist to be contradictory in their statements. Many of the people on the pro-life side are against birth control and other methods of preventing pregnancy with the exception of abstinence. Abstaining from sex is only good for those who want to abstain. The general population does not abstain. The extreme side of the pro-life movement has gone too far, by using life as an excuse to end it. A doctor’s job is to save life not end it. Although I understand that the doctors who perform abortions seem like the baby killers, they are not. They should be seen as the women savers. Women who want their pregnancy terminated will do what ever it takes to end the pregnancy, even if it means endangering their own lives. <- They’ve done it for centuries.
When I hear about people bombing abortion clinics I get sick to my stomach. Abortion clinics do not only perform abortions, they are also places where women go for pre-natal care. They are killing the same lives they are seeking to protect. By killing doctors, they are going against their original stance of being pro-life. They are choosing what life should be spared and what life should be terminated.
If these people are really interested in protecting life, they should work with others to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Obama had it right when he said we should seek to reduce the number of abortions. They should also work to provide social services for low-income families. They should seek free education and medical care for all children, and I mean ALL children. If protecting children is what they are after, they should protect all children. We should make sure no child goes hungry and all children should have proper medical care and a good education.
If you want your movement to be taken serious, you must practice what you preach.