Brian’s Japan Adventure

October 31st, 2007

An Actual Adventure!

Yes, just when you though everything had settled down, it’s time for more adventuring. The day started out normally enough, but I did remember to take my camera along. I got some shots of the “little station” building, and those will be posted soon. Then I got a few actual videos taken from a speeding Shinkansen. Those are the actual speeds, nothing in the videos are sped up or altered in any way! I then took a picture or two on the approach to the kindergarten, and then a few more from inside. The last picture taken at the kindergarten was one of me standing next to “Mr. Principal,” so now you can see at least one of my partners in crime over here.

The three kindergarten clases went smoothly enough. We reviewed the usual flashcards and then when we were nearly done, I read them a story from a book we had here at the apartment called “What is Halloween,” starring little mouse, mama mouse and papa mouse. It was (the term escapes me) one of those book where little panels fold away to reveal something underneath. For example there is a picture of a pumpkin and then you open the little “door” that the pumpkin is printed on there is a jack-o-lantern underneath. They all liked it, and the office staff there got a kick out of it too. Next week I do more review of the flash cards, but need to start moving in to “what is your name?” and “How Old are You?” Those are important things to learn to be sure, but how much time will those take? Maybe there is some kind of game I do with that information.

At the end of the classes, I handed my “What can I do to help?” note to Mr. Principal, and he asked around. I’m not sure whether they had nothing for me to do or if they misunderstood my intention to be, “what can I do here?” (as in Hiroshima in general, not the kindergarten specifically). He suggested several places to visit. His own preference is Miyajima, but I felt that I didn’t have time for that today. Also, it looks like a pretty complicated trip, involving not only trains and buses, but ferry boats as well. I think I’ll wait for spring if it’s warm enough to go by the time I’m done here. The school secretary decided that I needed to visit Shukkeien and the Castle. The folks at the Community Center had recommended both those places in the past, plus those places were actually on my visitors map.

I took the bus back to the train station and put my books and jacket in a locker (300Y) and went to the other side of the station. I thought about taking a bus or trolley car, but decided to walk instead. Maybe I could find somewhere interesting to shop or eat. I almost stopped in at their Mos Burger, but figured that I was so close to Shukkeien that I could get it out of the way first and then eat. So, I walked and walked and walked and walked to find Shukkeien. It was easy enough to find, but a lot further than it looked on the map. Hiroshima is a BIG city.

Shukkeien Garden

Ueda Soko, a master of the tea ceremony, first began Shukkeien Garden in 1620 and the name “Shukkeien” actually means, “shrink scenery garden.” It collects and miniaturizes many scenic views in a very small area. This garden is much smaller than the Korukuen Garden I visited last month, but I actually like this one better. The other one was very “open” and large, while this was more compact and densely packed. I don’t know if these guys starve the fish or not, but they kept jumping way up out of the water to catch bugs. I found a whole family of turtles too, and got a picture of them. Like Korukuen, this garden had many little spirit lanterns and little shrines. Like most everywhere else in Hiroshima, the place was burned to the ground in 1945, and there is a memorial stone here about that as well. There are many little bridges and islands in the pond, and the whole thing is probably a third the size of Korukuen. As I said, I like the smaller one better!

Hiroshima Castle

From Shukkeien, it was only a block or two to Hiroshima Castle, so I knew I ought to do them both today. If not, I’d probably never get around to it. The folks at the community center had told me in advance that Hiroshima Castle was not as big as Okayama Castle. I disagree; I’d say they are about the same size. Hiroshima Castle is certainly taller and higher. The view is probably farther as well. Without any doubt, Hiroshima castle has more to see on the inside, with many swords, sets of armor, helmets, guns, and other period artifacts, I don’t remember how many floors there were, but I counted 121 steps coming back down. Sigh.

The castle, as well as the garden, was destroyed by the atomic bomb, and has been rebuilt, but not in its entirety. The main building that you see in my photos is just like the original, but there used to be a lot more to it. The castle walls used to surround an entire city block and had dozens of smaller buildings inside those walls. Now only the main tower remains. This is basically the same story as in Okayama. It seems these folks lost most of their major landmarks and buildings in the war.

A Streetcar Named Starvation

I left the castle, having decided to go to Shogo, the department store where I had the great Tonkatsu a few weeks ago, but after finding the building, I couldn’t remember which floor it was on, and decided to skip it. At this point I was pretty worn out, hungry, and just in the mood to get finished and on the way back home. I couldn’t find a bus that was headed back to the train station (I didn’t look all that hard), so I took a trolley (streetcar) back to the station. The trolleys all cost 150Y and are easy to find (tracks in the street, duh!). So I hopped on and rode back to the station.

After gathering my books, bag, and jacket, I stopped in one of the little restaurants under the train station. This one was called Straight Burger, which specializes in hamburger sandwiches with a soft-boiled egg on top. The pictures look pretty good, but I don’t much like soft-boiled eggs, so I got a “Straight Cheeseburger” that was pretty much a basic cheeseburger without egg. The fries there come in a little paper bag with your choice of powdered seasoning. The only choices I understood were barbeque and cheese, although she did give me other options. I picked cheese. You put the powdered cheese in the little bag of fries and then shake it up, so the powder gets stuck to the fries. It was actually pretty good. I was pretty starved, so to be honest, just about anything would have tasted good. But I’ll try them again if I get the chance.

Speed Train!

Then I got on the Shinkansen train back. These things are confusing. You can always tell where they’re going, so there is no chance of getting lost, but how long they are going to take is always a mystery. My usual morning trip to Hiroshima on Wednesdays has only one stop at Fukuyama and then it’s straight on to Hiroshima; this takes just about exactly 40 minutes. The trip back, however, is always a gamble. Sometimes the train stops at eight or nine stations on the way home; if they do this, the return trip can take an hour and a half. This is the way it usually works in the evenings. One time I got on a train that only made one stop in the evening and that too, took about 40 minutes, just like the morning trip only in reverse. Today’s train made no stops, and just zoomed straight to Okayama; it was actually on the way to Tokyo and Okayama was just the first stop. Still, with no stops, I imagine this is about as fast as the journey can be made: 34 minutes.

The trains don’t all take the same route either; today’s ride was almost entirely in tunnels and in the countryside. The ride there is mostly through cities. Then when I got to Okayama, the train to Hokkain was almost ready to go as I rushed to catch it with only about two minutes of waiting. So basically the trip from Hiroshima to Hokaiin took about 45 minutes total. Not bad, and it’s a number I doubt I could ever improve on.

Still a little hungry, I stopped at the carry out and bought a chicken meal, and asked for “extra rice.” She repeated back “extra rice?” and I answered “Hai!” No problem. I knew there was a problem when she charged me 290Y for it. When I got it home, it looked like some kind of noodle dish, no rice to be found. I really am getting tired of noodles, but it wasn’t too awful. At least she didn’t give me something with fish in it. So between the Straight Burger and cheese fries, the regular chicken meal, and the not-rice noodles, I am pretty stuffed right now.

So What’s Up For Tomorrow?

I’ll head up the mountain first thing and get the blog updated. I haven’t posted anything since Sunday, and if I don’t get it all updated I’ll start getting phone calls. “Are you dead?” No, not dead, just no Internet this Wednesday! The photos will have to wait until Saturday at the library. Those just don’t upload well from Mrs. Y’s computer. I’ll post a special note when the photos are available.

I have K-Sensei’s class first, so I need to read his article this evening. It’s something about bacteria this time. At least he has interesting topics. Then of course, its yet another coma-inducing Japanese class where we repeat the same old crap and never progress any further due to slackass’s unwillingness to study. If Y-Sensei doesn’t have answers about splitting us up tomorrow, I am going to press the issue. I was ready to move on to the next chapter last week. I think tomorrow after finishing at the language school I’ll go to Big Boy again since it’s so near the school.

October 30, 2007 

Takahashi Today 

I got up way before I should have this morning and had a lot of time to kill before leaving for class.  I skimmed through one of the books I brought with me, Japanese Step-by-Step, and have come to the conclusion that it’s no so good.  The author is completely infatuated with the “system” he has designed, talking all about V3 verbs, V2 verbs, flow charts, and so forth, and it’s all completely unique to that author. It has a lot of vocabulary words in it that I can memorize, but as far as learning grammar and usage, just forget it. 

Eventually it was time to leave. I shifted my schedule a half-hour early just like I described last week. I don’t have anything else to do in the morning anyway, so why not make the long walk up the mountain easier by arriving early?  I arrived early as planned, made some copies of certain pages of the Business English book that one of the students loaned me, since I figure I can explain the vocabulary listed in that book and keep everyone happy. 

The second class had asked last week to learn about Halloween, so I was prepared for that, too.  I took a plastic mask that was on our bookshelf, a candle that had pictures of jack-o-lanterns, spiders and bats on it, and a squishy rubber skull that when you squeeze it, the eye pops out and messy blood drips in the eyeball. Ha!  I also made up a list of twenty or so “Halloween Vocabulary” words that was ready to go. 

When they arrived, they immediately noticed the “toys” and I had to demonstrate. One of the Cambodian girls screamed at first sight of the bloody skull and then had to carry it around the study center showing it to everyone in the place. That was interesting.  We worked through the list of words, and it seems that pretty much every culture has a word for ghost, ghoul, and vampire. Werewolves, however, were new to all of them.  The word I had the hardest time explaining believe it or not, was “witches.”  We talked about spells and magic, and they just didn’t quite get it until I mentioned Harry Potter, and then the discussion was over since they all knew about that. 

We then got on to real work, including the business English, we finished reading about the volcano Vesuvius from last week, and one or two other items.  When we finished all the serious stuff, we talked about our weekends, and one of the Cambodians mentioned that she went to the Hiroshima Peace Park this past weekend, and I told her that I had been there twice now.  Then she asked me “Why did that war start?” Twenty-five minutes of very careful explanation later, the class was over and everyone left happy.  There aren’t actually any Japanese students in the class, so I didn’t have to whitewash things too much.

Then the second class started. Or at least the bell rang. Nobody came. Uh-oh.  I only have two students in this class on a good day. Week before last, one of them skipped, and last week the other skipped. This week they both skipped. I like a day off as much as anyone, but this probably doesn’t look good for me. If I was keeping them interested, they would be showing up right?  I waited about twenty minutes and then told my “keeper” there about the situation, and she said to go on home.  I wonder what will come of it next week if anything? 

And speaking of my keeper, she also told me about the party that Marc hinted at.  It really actually is for the Rotary Club. It’s way off though; December 16^th. The 16^th falls on a Sunday too, and Takahashi is an hour’s ride each way IF you catch the trains at the right time.  She also added that there would be a student party afterwards as well. Oh joy.  Maybe I can arrange to have something else to do that day?

A Town about Nothing
 
Since I was able to leave over an hour early, I wandered around Takahashi a little bit, and I have come to the conclusion that there really isn’t anything worthwhile in that town, not even shopping. There are a lot of historical places situation on the periphery of town, but nothing of any interest at all in town. Bo-ring! 

Then I caught the 4:09 train back to Okayama, and at just about exactly 5:00 I got off that train and switched to the 5:27 train to Hokaiin, which dropped me off at the little station around 5:31. Yup; just about an hour and a half. Sigh. I picked up the “sampler plate” from the carryout, the same thing I had last time, and rode my bike home.  I ate it in front of the TV, but all that was on was the news and an anime that makes no sense to me.  I then flipped through the same Japanese book from this morning just to see if my opinion had changed on it. It didn’t. Next up was blog time, and here I am now, at 7:40. 

I guess the next thing will be to get in some more of reading “The Best Buddhist Writings” which I expect to finish probably Friday or Saturday. My book pile is getting short again; maybe I’ll have to get something from the library soon. Why not, it’s not like I don’t get there every week anyway. 

Suck-Up or Just Smart?

Tomorrow of course, is a little unusual for a Wednesday. The two afternoon adult classes are cancelled because the community center is closed. That means I go to the kindergarten only, and then my day is free.  I have a couple of options. I can come home when the kindergarten classes are done and have a half a day off. I can go downtown to Hiroshima and sightsee or something. Or for a third option, I have come up with something a little bit insane. I had Mrs. Y translate a note from me to Mr. Principal, explaining that I had the afternoon off and that if he wants, I could help out around there.  I figure there are two possible outcomes; first, he gives me a “No, but thanks for your offer” which at least will give me goodwill points with him. The second possibility is that he actually comes up with something for me to do, which gets me the same goodwill points, plus I might even learn something from the work. The only thing I have to lose is maybe some sightseeing time. Win-Win.  This is the plan unless some reason not to do it presents itself.

October 29^th, 2007

Discussions and Donuts

I read a little bit this morning and eventually meandered up the mountain to do this morning’s class. I stopped in at Mrs. Y’s office and told her everything went well and to maybe expect a call sometime for a Christmas party. She was happy that it all went well; she obviously wasn’t completely sure about those people. 

Then it was time for N-Sensei’s class. These were the students who had so much trouble reading last week, and I said I would tone it down a bit for them this week. I did tone things down, quite a lot in my opinions. I talked more slowly, more precisely, with more repetition, most writing on the board, more simplicity in my vocabulary.  It didn’t help. I’m tempted to just say these kids are dumber than a box of rocks, but at this point I’m still going to accept the blame and try to make it a little easier next week.  In all bluntness, I am not sure why I am doing that class. The kids in this class are not getting any benefit from hearing me as a native speaker if I have to talk that unnaturally slow. I think at their level, they would probably do better with a Japanese person teaching them English. They seem to follow N-Sensei just fine when he explains things.  Oh well, next week I’ll try it again, even slower and more carefully. 

Break time; I ran downstairs to the convenience store and bought a pack of donuts and a mini-carton of orange juice. In retrospect, a carton of coffee would have been a better choice. It sure is convenient knowing that store is there. It’s actually better stocked than the regular convenience store on the corner of my street. Too bad it’s on the top of a mountain buried under university buildings.  I sat around listening to my iPod as I waited for Japanese class. I study a little bit too, but I know the current chapter by heart. Marc really is slowing me down substantially. 

Watashi wa Nihongo o Hanashimas 

Then Marc showed up and we entered the classroom together. I know he did his homework and has been studying this past weekend. Not a lot, but some at least; better than usual. Y-Sensei still hammered him pretty hard about not knowing the entire alphabet on sight. Yes, he should have had it memorized a couple of weeks ago, but I will grant him that it is hard to remember all of them, especially when the pressure is on.  She talked a bit more about splitting the class up, but so far, no real action.  

She did mention that if we split up, we still both have to take final exams, but his might be on more basic material than mine. Huh?  I’m not sure if she was simply pointing out once again that he was behind me, or if she was saying he will get an easier exam because he’s lazy and they don’t want a failure on their record (for all I know the language school might “guarantee” success or something). As I said before, I don’t need a grade in the class, so I don’t really have any vested interested in caring one way or the other, but that hardly seems fair. Then again, this is the real world now, not academia; I get the benefit of learning and knowing more of the language than he does; what difference does a grade make?  These Zen books that I have been reading must be having an effect me; I’d have ranted and whined about that all weekend normally. Today, I don’t care and I’m just letting it go. 

When class was over, I zipped over to Happy Town for a refill of the usual stuff, and hurried back since it looked like rain. I timed it just right. I wasn’t back to minutes and the downpour started.  It didn’t last long, but it would have been very unpleasant to ride a bicycle through. 

So next up, I get to plan for tomorrow. The first class should be easy. Last time we got halfway through reading an article in N-Sensei’s reading book as well as about halfway through a stack of idiom worksheets. We can finish those two things, and then I want to do something with the “Business English” textbook the one student loaned me last week. I don’t really want to do business vocabulary, but one student wants it pretty badly, so I guess I can do it. For the second class, only one student was there last week, and she wanted to talk about Halloween.  I have some stories printed out, and I am going to make a Halloween vocabulary sheet tonight. We’ll get through the class just fine. 

Can They Rotate My Tires At Least?

 While at Takahashi last week, the coordinator talked to Marc about going to some kind of special function in late November or December. Marc called it the Rotary Club, but I doubt that it’s really the Rotary Club. I expect she’ll tell me about it tomorrow as well. One thing Marc was clear on is that there is no pay involved. Sigh. What exactly does the Rotary Club do, anyway? I thought they were just some businessman’s association. If that’s the case, why do they have branches all the way over here? No point in speculating on the information I have; details tomorrow I assume.

October 28^th, 2007

West Side Story

Got up this morning, talked to Mom on the phone for her weekly call. Not much new to report there; she’s still short and Dad still has little to say. I quickly did some laundry and then zipped on over for McBreakfast and the library, as I had an online meeting pre-arranged at 10:30. Yes, folks, you who have access to the chat room CAN actually schedule a live conversation with me. And I probably won’t even make you pay for it.

I have no afternoon classes this Wednesday, so that significantly cuts down on my preparation time for next week. I had to look up some Halloween stuff for my Tuesday class, but that’s about it. The rest was playtime. When I eventually finished with that, I rode home to drop off the computer. Then, as promised yesterday, it became time for some exploring.

As I mentioned, I have never actually gone to the other side of time. Most of the scenic stuff is on the East side of town, and everywhere I go or have visited is on that side too. Today I decided to see what else was out there. I rode past the little station, past the language school, and saw the Okayama Sports Park for the first time. It is huge. It has the Momotaro Stadium, the Momotaro Arena, The Okayama Municipal Pool (closed since before I arrived here), and just a gargantuan park area. It’s very nice, very clean, and very large. Many pictures are at my online gallery.

Food Spots

I found a second Co Co Ichiban, although why I would need two isn’t clear. I found another open-air arcade area, but since it was late on Sunday, the stores were mostly closed. I found yet another McDonalds; this was elevated and very nice. I was tempted to have dinner there, but a little voice kept telling me to wait. I rode a little farther, and I identified whose little voice that was. It was none other than BIG BOY!

I thought I got a picture of the whole restaurant, but it’s not here now, so I guess not. It’s one of those elevated restaurants where you park on the ground level and go up some stairs to the main building, so you even get a little bit of an elevated view. I went in there expecting tiny little hamburgers with either burnt or half-cooked fries. Or maybe a “melt” sandwich that the cook insists isn’t supposed to be melted. Or a neglected salad bar covered in flies. You know, like an American Big Boy restaurant. Not so here; I think Big Boy is going to be my new best friend.

First, there are no Big Boy sandwiches. There are no sandwiches at all. As far as I could tell, there was no resemblance at all between Japanese Big Boy and American (i.e. Frisch’s) Big Boy. Not even hot fudge cake or the Big Boy sandwich itself. They have a salad bar, which is going to be a really good thing for me. Beyond that, it’s mostly steaks. They have regular hamburger steaks, real beef steaks, chicken steaks (what we would call breast patties) and other kinds of “real dinners.”

I ordered a hamburger steak sitting on a mound of onions with cheddar cheese melted over the top. It was about an inch and a half thick, and came with small potato chunks, broccoli and carrots on the side of a “sizzling” metal plate. You could order regular fries or onion rings as an option, but I ordered steak fries instead. Big, fat steak fries, with lots of ketchup and salt. I didn’t understand a word the waitress said, nor she me, but they have a beautiful picture menu, so we worked it all out pretty easily. I didn’t understand to order the “drink bar” which I assume is a fill-your-own glass fountain, so I survived with only water this time. The bottom line is that it was fantastic. Probably the best meal I have had in two months. Guess how much? 990Y; that’s under $10.00. Most of the menu items, even the “big steaks” are under 1500Y.

I could go there within minutes of my Japanese classes and probably will do exactly that. It’s probably not more than a 15-minute bike ride from home, so it’s technically closer than Co Co Ichiban. Yes the discovery of good old Big Boy was easily the high point of my week!

October 27th, 2007

A Halloween Horror Story

Yes, today was the big Halloween party at the language school. I got up and changed shirts three times, not really deciding on what to wear. When I finally left the house, I turned back and changed one more time. I ended up with exactly what I wore to the meeting yesterday; I figure that way she would get what she was expecting. As I was wandering around the house waiting to leave, I looked out the window and noticed that the trees on the mountain aren’t all green anymore. There are a few red and yellow ones mixed in now. There isn’t so much color that I think it’s worth taking a picture yet, but changes are coming.

The ten o’clock hit, and it was time to go. As I rode down the street, it occurred to me that this is my first “assignment” in Japan that hadn’t involved a train or a mountain; just a simple and short bike ride. I need more of those! I arrived and there was a man waiting for me out in front of the building; it was exactly the building I thought it was, so finding it was a non-issue. I parked the bike and went inside. Shoes off; uh-oh, I didn’t bring slippers along. Everyone was in sock feet, so that was a non-issue too. Children arrived and they all said “hello” or “good morning” so I knew they were going to have at least some English ability.

One little boy, age 4, was dressed like a black and yellow bumblebee. ALL the rest were dressed as witches in black pointy witch hats. I heard the name “Harry Potter” mentioned about sixty-two dozen times today, so I assume Harry Potter Witches are the in-thing for Japanese Halloween. Everyone arrived on time and we started promptly at ten-thirty. Japanese, even the children, are notoriously punctual. I started off by introducing myself, and showing pictures of Dayton, Baseball, the house, and so forth. Then the first group of children stood up and I “interviewed” them with questions supplied to me by their teacher. Here is a nearly exact transcript of the questions:

“What is your name?”
“Kozumi”
“My name is Brian. What kind of fruit do you like?”
“I like grapes.”
“I like grapes too. How old are you, Kozumi?”
“8”
“Eight! Wow! What school do you go to Kozumi?”
“Seichi Elementary School.”
“What grade are you in at Seichi?”
“I am in third grade.”
“What can you do?”
“I can swim.” (most of them gave this answer, so I assume they all just had lessons.)
“What subject do you like?”
“Math.” (There were varying answers, but math was the most common.)
“It’s nice to meet you Kozumi.”
“It’s nice to meet you too Brian.”

I think there were four of them in the first group. When the questions were done, they song two songs and then sat down. Then to older boys stood up, answered the same questions and sang two songs. Then two older girls did the same. This took the first half hour.

For the second half-hour, we talked about “stuff” including pets, favorite foods, most hated foods, games, brothers and sisters, and other very simple things. The teachers helped some of the students, but everyone spoke and everyone had fun.

During the last half-hour, we played bingo, and I spun the little basket and called out the numbers. I sat on the floor with them, and they started out in a circle around me of about four feet diameter. By the time the game was over, they were all over me, eagerly waiting for the next number. The boy dressed like a bee was on my lap, which I didn’t mind except that his little plastic-ball-and-spring antenna kept beating me in the face. Finally, everyone won and they all picked a prize from a bag of prizes. The I went and stood in the hallway behind a closed door, whole all the children knocked and said “Trick-or-treat” at which point I gave them a little bag of candy. Then their parents did the trick-or-treat thing too, nd most of them couldn’t keep from laughing through it.

Then it was done, and everyone said goodbye and left. The owner told me to come back at two pm, two hours away. I didn’t really want to come home, so I went to Co Co Ichiban for lunch. For some reason, I just wasn’t in the mood for it after all and ended up leaving a bit of it unfinished, which is unusual for me. After eating, I hopped on my bike and rode past the school to see what was on the other side. Wow. I didn’t have much time to explore, but there is a bunch of neat new places there. If the weather tomorrow is good, I have somewhere new to explore. Yay!

Then I went back, and this time, it was all adults. The youngest was a junior high and the next youngest was high school student, both sisters. The rest were adults. We talked about favorite things to do and to eat, places I should visit, places I have been, lots of food talk, the benefits of learning English and the difficulties with it too. The discussion was nothing new, nothing that I haven’t described here before with adult learners.

When we had talked for about an hour and ten minutes, we played Bingo too. This time, instead of calling the numbers, I got to play. And yes, I won! I pulled out a mystery prize from the bag and waited for the others to win too (everyone eventually gets a prize). Lastly, the main teacher told me to go back to the hallway and do the trick-or-treat thing for the adults too. That wasn’t on the agenda, but the first group liked it so much, she wanted to do it with this group too. Yes, they enjoyed it as well.

Then we were done. Everyone put their shoes on and left. They had me sign a receipt and paid me, and then they told ME to knock on the door, and they gave me candy too. Ha! Nope, I didn’t see that coming. On the way out, they mentioned something about a Christmas party, and I told them I’d love to do it, and that was that.
The Drums! The Drums!

On the way home, I noticed that there are little hanging paper lanterns everywhere, and they weren’t there this morning. I wonder if it’s Halloween or something else? As I typed the majority of this blog, I heard drumming, continually growing louder and louder. At first I thought it was some jerk with his stereo on too loud, but eventually it passed right by my door. It was some kind of hand-drawn cart with men and children drumming. I have no idea what it was for, but I intend to ask around Monday. I got several good shots of the cart and people. Obviously it’s some kind of traditional festival, but I wasn’t expecting anything.

[update]

OK, there were multiple carts, large and small, each being pulled by a separate group. Every group was accompanied by many children, all wearing a blue jacket with red kanji on them. The “group leader” for each cart kept yelling something like “O-Shay!” and then everyone would chant “O-Shay!” after him. This went on for at least three hours, and I sat on the front steps watching the whole time. It was great. I still have no idea what it was for, but it was fun.

Slackass: Demoted To Just Plain ‘Ass’.

Marc came home toward the end of the whole thing and he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. When I told him about it, he didn’t sound too interested, but said there was a baseball game on and rushed inside. When they finally walked by for the last time I tapped on the window. He came out, watched them walk by, and simply said, “OK” and went back inside, apparently in a pissy mood about something. I neither know nor care what his problem is. As a matter of fact, I think that was the last time I will bring anything interesting to his attention. A few days ago I knocked on his door to get him up for a class, and he got pissy about that too. I think I am just about at the stage where I not only start pretending Marc doesn’t exist, but I actively start avoiding him. The only problem with that plan is that if my roommate doesn’t exist, then who keeps making the messes in the living room???