Friendly Updates

Where have you gone dear friends?

Some are here, some are there, some are dancing in their underwear; but really, where have all my friends gone? Those silly bumpkins of love. Those silly seamstresses and tramps! Those silly, rambunctious goats.

Henry is somewhere.

Gabe is in Claremont starting a new business: Claremont Tutors. http://www.ClaremontTutors.com

Tye is starting his own business as well, Warren Construction Services.

Nick is on the Oregon coast studying marine biology and other biological organisms.

Micheal is somewhere in the US causing a stir as he always does, maybe in NYC with that crazy Van.

Morgan is living at his distant cousins’ house (cough) in beautiful South Carolina (on an island) before he takes DC by storm.

Pete and Sinead are currently in DC (as is Nora) and are preparing a move to Namibia to do WorldTeach there “to spend one year teaching English, science, mathematics, and HIV/AIDS prevention to primary and secondary school students.” They are currently doing some fundraising in order to be able to afford to go do this amazing thing. Get in touch with me (or with Sinead or Pete) for more info.

Dave and Mike are in LA county leading there org Idealistics. Check it out at http://idealistics.org/

Pamela is in Michigan.

Leon, still enjoying beautiful Portland?

Karebear is in Scotland.

My mom is here in Ubuyama and getting a celebrity’s treatment. I thought I was special in this town; well I guess I hadn’t seen my mom arrive here yet. She is currently starting some publicity for her program that will happen next summer. This is the website:

http://www.riovida.net//Travel/Tuscany2006/

Bro Nicholas and Bro Anthony are both working in sweatshops. Padre is their boss.

Thanks again, brothers, for not being too successful or prestigious.

Cara is in NYC acting, yes?

Nathan has pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth; last I heard he was in Portland, or NYC. If someone he knows reads this, please let him know I say hi. He’s a good guy. He’s got a good head on his shoulders even if it is whacked at times (always in good ways I might add). Maybe Alison, Anne, or Andrea has seen this rare species?

Britta and Lisa are both teaching in New York like true young leaders.

Heartie is in Costa Rica and it sounds amazing there, from what I hear.

How’s LA, Douglas?

Rob is traveling the world right now, check out his bloggie about his trips studying throat singing: http://throat-singing.blogspot.com/

Mags is in Boston doing research. So is Lalani Lisa, but in psychology, not chem/bio.

Aaron, my man, is in Vermont learning how to make a lot of cool things and smelling the fresh air.

Aki is in northern Japan having a lot of fun being her crazy, silly self.

Sam is also working in a sweatshop. Our mutual friend Justin is in England being the world’s biggest stud at Downing College (soon if not already).

Slaven is starting his a band in Seattle or Portland (if he dares) soon.

And where are my cousins? One is in India doing cool stuff. They are all over the place, aren’t they?

Montoya is moving back to the LA area for a job.

Teresa has her own crazy blog which is oh so professional. Teresacentric, quite humorously. http://teresacentric.typepad.com/

There are many others hiding here and there. And there are many that although I may know almost exactly where they physically are, I may have no idea where they really are. Like Nicole and Danner (actually I have no idea where you are, Danner). Henry from Puntey. There is a Japanese kid here who reminds me of him. Aras, Thishi, Eddie are all people who are somewhere out there being their great selves. And Adrian, of course. Henry from Eugene, is he still rapping? I hope so. Yoni is on his way, somewhere.

Sometimes it’s hard to live here where my house is less than 100 meters from where I work. Sometimes I have no privacy or way to escape other than to (literally) run away. But it’s always nice when I do get some time by myself to write something for this odd ‘blog’ or to talk with friends (if I am lucky to catch them on the phone) or to read a book.

It’s odd also to be in such a different situation here than most of my future life will probably be. One of my JET friends here also refers to the program as “one of the world’s biggest loopholes” as if there is really no reason in hell why all of us random, mostly white, foreigners should be parading around all parts of Japan in our cars and with our good salaries and job security. As if we actually do something! But we do; it’s just incredibly weird. Most of what I do is just being a member of the community. I wish I could more effectively teach English to the kids here but the program really isn’t set up for that nor would they be willing to change it all that much (at least in a short period of time). But luckily the students here have incredibly astute, hard-working teachers who make it so that they can learn a healthy amount of what they need to learn. Not to comment on “what they need to learn” for that would be a wholly different conversion—one that involved discussing culture and norms and the importance or detrimentalities thereof.

Just to simplify it: individuality is not stressed in schools here. In fact it is systematically repressed. It may be almost the opposite in many schools in America. Both systems/pedagogies have problems and benefits. It is amazing how different it is here. It reminds me of what a couple of my good friends told me about Cuba and what I often hear about China. I’ll try to elaborate in the months to come...