I'm Thinking of Something Yellow...

Events of note since my last post:

-- Last Sunday, I was invited to make another appearance in my softball team's golf tournament. Unfortunately, since my golf debut last November, I've been a tad busy working, studying for med school interviews, and pretending to be a Japanese pop star,* so I haven't had much of a chance to work on my golf swing. The softball men reassured me that I was still welcome to play, and took me out to the driving range twice in the week before the tournament. However, despite their advice/encouragement/fervent prayers, I couldn't seem to shake my tendency to slice the ball hard to the right about 3 out of every 4 shots.

After finishing up at the driving range, I casually suggested that perhaps I ought to sit this tournament out,** but the softball team wasn't hearing any of that, so I ended up playing after all. The results?

Well, let's just say I showed a lot of grit on Sunday. Got some good exercise too, chasing my ball all over the course and fishing it out of bushes and drainage ditches....I am, however, happy to say that based on a careful analysis of the trend in my golf scores, I have made a bit of an improvement since last November:

Last November: erm...quite a few strokes...lost count after the third hole or so

Last Sunday: 153

Still have a ways to go though...


-- Still no news from any medical schools, but then again, I wasn't really expecting to hear anything new until at least May 15th. I did, however, receive some interesting news involving a certain Japanese medical school.

This morning, I ran into one of the medical English students in the hallway, and she asked me how long I thought I would stay in Ehime. When I told her that I'm tentatively planning to leave in August, she looked very surprised, and then told me that there is a rumor going around that I'm going to enroll at the Ehime University Medical School next year.

Something must have gotten lost in translation somewhere...although it would be pretty sweet if I were to get accepted to Japanese medical school without even submitting a single form... Anyway, it's good to know that someone cares if I'm around. :D


-- The six elementary school girls at my Friday night lesson absolutely crack me up.

Just recently, we've been learning our colors and talking about our likes and dislikes, so last Friday, the textbook suggested that we do an activity like this. Each girl was supposed to draw a color flashcard and take turns making an "I like" or "I don't like" sentence involving that color. When I was planning the lesson, I actually thought that the activity sounded kind of boring and wondered if it would hold the kids' attention, but in actuality, it turned out to be quite entertaining.

S-chan went first, drew a brown card, and proclaimed that she didn't like brown cockroaches. Next was Y-chan, who drew pink and told us that she didn't like pink shrimp. And then came A-chan.

A-chan is a notoriously picky eater and always asks for no fruit in her post-lesson ice cream sundae, so when she drew yellow and exclaimed, "I know what I'll do!" the other kids and I were almost certain she would say that she doesn't like bananas. But then she surprised us all by saying, "I don't know how to say this word in English, though. Can you tell me?" and I leaned over so she could whisper the Japanese word in my ear.

I could tell that she was very pleased with herself for thinking of her word, because she was grinning from ear to ear and trying not to laugh, so I was quite anxious to hear what she had to say, but although she whispered the same thing to me several times, she was giggling so much that I couldn't figure it out. I finally asked her to write down the word on a piece of paper instead, and when she finished, I looked down to see オネショ (onesho = wetting the bed) written in large neat letters.

So true, A-chan, so true. たしかに、both yellow and unpleasantやね...


*More about the latest developments in my budding pop star career in another post.

**It's not that I mind looking bad in front of the softball men -- I've gotta practice somewhere if I ever plan on getting any better -- I just don't want to make everyone wait on me as I sloooowly make my way toward the green....