Maggie lied & said I was a poet.

Nolan's friend Maggie invited me to join her for a day at the school where she works. The plan was I'd go & we'd figure out a plan. We went into the conference room to take this very seriously. It was decided that we have the kids make acrostic poems of their names using English adjectives. (Adjective: a word or phrase name an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it).Maggie & I walked around campus discussing our plan of action. Let me just remind you that this is Japan; we are wearing slippers in school. At least, I am. Maggie has some respectable shoes specific to walking in school. I had to look like Peg Bundy all day. Btw, this whole peace sign thing has nothing to do with me becoming a hippie & everything to do with Japanese culture: this is their cheese (or chizu in Japanese). So back to the whole obnoxious thing I did earlier when I defined the word adjective: Japanese middle school students didn't fully grasp this... they went more for the "let's make a perfect poster of my name & then write the first word in the dictionary that isn't offensive" attitude. Example:

Y: young
U: umbrella
K: kitten
I: I

But I joke. It was a lot of fun & the kids were super cute. I spoke too fast for them & they stared at me with their drool mouths. Occasionally girls came up to me to shake my hand & I would smile & give Maggie a weird look, until she spoke out of the corner of her mouth, "I told them you were a famous American poet & they want to shake your hand..." Thanks for having faith in me, Maggie.










The day progressed & it was time for lunch. Maggie said, "Not to worry. There will be lunch for you & I'll give you my vegetables & you can give me your hamburger." So as it turns out, there were no veggies, just salty fish flakes. I tried them & did not agree with the taste. I ate rice & soup (which had a chicken base, but rather than be rude, I chugged that f-er down & ate as much rice as I could so as not to throw up). Asai Sensei said, "You can use chopsticks?" Nolan told me later that night that saying, "Can you use a fork?" is an inappropriate response. I'm glad I didn't whip that johnson out...

After four classes, the principal wanted to meet me. I wasn't sure exactly why the principal cared so vehemently about my presence, but when I sat down Maggie told me through the side of her mumbling mouth, "I told him you were working on a book." I shook the man's hand & accepted his business card with two of my own, as per Maggie's secret, mumbled instructions. It was a serious great time. We had lots of serious fun. And when the day was over, I swiveled around in Maggie's chair & read.