the new normalcy

Today I taught three classes at good ol' Naruto Technical High School. A day pretty much like any other but I took note of how a half year of adjustment will make things that beforehand seemed so unlikely or strange just part of the routine at a technical school in Tokushima. Here are a few examples:

-Boys plucking each others' eyebrows during class while wearing pink Dolce and Gabbana scarfs.
-A student eating a huge hamburger and hiding under a curtain as I explain my lesson.
-Once again, a student taking his pants off completely during class (I STILL don't know why this happens or why it seems like I'm the only one that notices it).
-The 'hibernating' students (usually baseball players) that have slept through every one of my classes and I have literally never seen their faces.
-Classes in which 75% of the students are playing hand held electronic games.
-Endless hand touching, head rubbing, and groping. (yes, these are all boys...and they do this stuff as they send cell phone texts to their girlfriends).

This is pretty much all I can think of for today. The good thing is that I really like these guys a lot, even if class simply consists of me just hanging out with them (it happens more than you'd think). I've always got a lesson for them but some kids can benefit more from the fact of my presence as opposed to a game or a worksheet.

I am happy right now but a lot of my attention is being focused on my upcoming trip to New Zealand (in a month!) and when I visit the States again at some point. And I think I finally feel what 'real life' here is like, though it's hard to really define that because those words mean different things to different people.

I can, however, say for certain that there are some things about America that I miss at the moment. Here's a small list of things that are on my mind:

-Walking down the street and sitting down with a cup of coffee and a good friend. I did that a lot in Pittsburgh. And I wish that the coffee shop nearby didn't close at 6:00pm.
-Hummus and whole wheat wraps.
-ANYTHING but Japanese beer...even though I sometimes pay $3.50 for a bottle of Hoegaarden at the grocery store.
-Waking up to discover a foot of snow on the ground.
-Playing music with my best friends.
-Wide streets.
-Blending in, being 'normal' and not stared at when you're not in the mood for it.
-Signs of any kind of subculture.

But these things will keep me sane for as long as I need them to:

-The good people here that make it worthwhile to stay another year.
-The situations that I find myself in and how I never thought I'd experience them.
-The 13,000 songs on my computer.
-Syd Barrett's biography (it's in the mail).
-Homemade strawberry pancakes.
-Never running out of people to write letters to.
-Not saving money but seeing such interesting parts of the world.

Winter, yeah, it's OK...but I'm pretty ready for spring to show up out here.