A day of insanity

So those of you who are my friends on facebook have an idea about my day... I got to the bus stop with plenty of time and was waiting there with everyone else. Suddenly a bus arrived that had the wrong number but other people who are typically on the same bus as me were getting on it. I asked one of my students and she said that it wasn't the right bus. So this girl, me, and three boys all stood there. Then it became apparent after waiting and waiting... that WAS the right bus. Dah! I should have just got on it! I was so miserable. I called the office for help. Sato-san told me to keep waiting and he would call the school at 8:20 (this was at 8:00). Uh, and have the school think I waited until the last minute to notify them!? No thank you. I asked him to call right away and told him that they had their meeting at 8:20. "Oh I will call at 8:25 then." "PLEASE call them now." "Ok, ok." In the meantime, I sat on a bench and cried. (Actually while I talked to Sato-san, who is my branch manager, I suggested he could call the school and say, "We noticed you didn't schedule any lessons for her and we're going to have her work at the office." Ya, he didn't go for that.) Eventually he called me back and asked to speak to a bus center employee. I walked quickly over to the bus center and you shoulda seen the look on this employee's face with I pushed my phone through the little hole in the plastic wall between us. She looked at me, then she looked down at my phone. "Tasukete kudasai! Uh... hanashimasu." Please help! Uh... you speak. (Not the command - as though I was saying she was speaking. Still, she understood.) This whole time I was gesturing with my hand in phone shape. She picked it up and to both our relief started talking (as for her suddenly she was speaking with someone who is Japanese and could explain what this crazy Gaikokujin wanted). She whipped out her book (when I was at the bus stop there were no other times listed for my bus and I just ... I lost it. I cried and cried. I felt so incredibly lost and vulnerable and didn't know how to help myself) and started looking for alternate buses I could take. It took her about 10 minutes, but she figured out a bus I could take that didn't stop TOO far from the school. She told me the bus stop (wano), which I promptly forgot in my panic even though I was repeating it. The second I stopped saying it, poof! It was gone. Oh man, I wanted to throw up I was so upset. During this whole time I was messaging my mom through email and she was doing her best to calm me down. Finally the woman handed back my phone and Sato-san said, "Ok, she told you the stop?" "Yes, what's the name?" "She told you. I don't know." What dread coursed through me! She had walked off but I was going to ask her again as soon as she reappeared. Then Sato-san explained to me that she was making a copy of the map for me. I wanted to cry with appreciation. She went above and beyond! (As I hung up with Sato-san I had started to cry again so I was standing in the bus center, despairing.) Suddenly the girl appeared at my elbow (startling me) with the map. She saw I was crying and took great pity on me. She walked me to the correct bus and then she told the driver my stop. At this point, I was leaving AFTER the time I should have arrived at the school so I was WAY late. It was a very stressful and tense (is that redundant?) ride for me. I was determined to redeem myself a least a little and push the button for me stop. When the recorded voice said, "Uwano," I pressed the button. Tears had been leaking out of my eyes the whole ride and I was trying to get ahold of myself. I ran my card through the machine, thanked the driver, then .. one minute I was standing on the bus, the next minute my chin was FLYING at the pavement and I jarred my head into the ground. Because of the suddenness of my fall and the narrowness of the exit, I hadn't been able to stop myself with my hands. I extricated my hands (which had gotten scraped somehow anyway and were bleeding on the front and back and got up as quickly as I could manage. (Thank goodness for garments as I was wearing a skirt and with the slope of the stairs, I'm not sure if it flew up or not, but if it did, I was covered modestly! The driver was very concerned and I could see people staring wide-eyed out the windows. "Daijobu!? Daijobu?" He asked (Are you ok? ~ok?) I stammered out, "Hai, daijobu." The second the bus pulled away I started to sob. I was so humiliated and didn't understand how the day had gotten this bad! Then as I hurriedly walked the 5-6 blocks to the school, suddenly I saw how ridiculous it was. I messaged my mom, "Maybe the school will think I was mugged and it will be ok that I'm late." My shins were badly scraped and already bruised. My knees were bleeding, my palms were bleeding and scraped, two of my fingers were bleeding pretty badly, and my chin was bleeding and ACHING. All I could think was, "Thank goodness I didn't damage my teeth!" I had hit that peaceful acceptance of what life had thrown at me. (As I said once to Jerod, "Once I can joke about something, you'll know I'm ok.") I took a picture of my face (my chin) as I walked and posted it to facebook. I wanted my mom to be able to see it. When I got to the school I was shaking with pain and with fear of how the principal would react. As I knocked on his door a bunch of students passed me. They loudly called out hellos and I said hello back and smiled. It was comical to see when they noticed my chin. Suddenly their eyes went wide and concerned. I had already knocked on the principal's door (oh and while on the bus I had looked up the most formal apology in Japanese "There is no excuse") and I didn't hear anything. I opened the door, apologized for my rudeness of entry "Shitsureshimasu." I bowed deeply and long and said, "Basu... ha.. missed. Moushiwake arimasen deshita." Then the principal smiles, waves his hand at me and says, "Daijobu! Ok, no worries!" I was floored. I was relieved and then mad at myself that I had almost caused myself to vomit because of my worrying! I "Shitsureshimashita"ed my way out of his office. I thought this would mean that the vice-principals would be nice about it too (and as they had favorable reports about me before I was sure they liked me and would know I was sincerely sorry). Sure enough, they waved off my apology and asked if I was ok. Suddenly Sato-sensei (one of the vice-principals) saw my huge bleeding chin. "Daijobu!?" "I will go to the nurse. Basu kara... I fell." (basu kara - from the bus) I used the ASL for "I fell" but I'm sure he understood. I showed him my bleeding hands and he was quite startled. I told him again I was going to the nurse and went downstairs to the infirmary. I told the nurse the same thing I told Sato-sensei. "Basu kara, I fell." I showed her my legs and hands and fingers and chin. She asked if I had washed my hands. "Not yet. MADA!" (Mada is "not yet" and I shouted it because I had suddenly remembered it.) She had me wash my hands and then had me sit down. Suddenly Suzuki-sensei (the woman) showed up. She asked me what had happened and I told her while the nurse clean up my knees. The nurse asked Suzuki-sensei what had happened and she told her in Japanese how I had taken a rap on the chin from the pavement. They both felt so badly for me! Then the nurse gave me a bag of ice for my chin. I started to get blood all over the bag so she ran back to get a bandaid. She came back with a package that looked the size of knee-bandages but when she opened it, there was this dinky little bandaid inside. She looked at the wrapper dumbfounded and all three of us laughed. I said it looked like a blister bandaid (it had these little cushion-pads on it). And she put it on my chin. I was then free to go. I thanked the nurse and went back to the teacher's room with Suzuki-sensei. It hadn't occurred to me before to wonder how Ms. Suzuki had known I was in the infirmary but she said that Sato-sensei was VERY worried about me. I was quite touched. The Japanese people are SO GOOD. It humbles me how much they go out of their way to help people. When I got back he asked if I was ok and I said I was and started working on my lessons. (I didn't teach today as it was a testing day. I was able to work on my lesson plans for next week. I asked Fujieda-sensei and Hashimoto-sensei yesterday what I should prepare so I would have something to do. They gave me tall orders too so I'm glad I was prompted to ask!) Then Sato-sensei approached me, gave me two chocolates and told me to take care of myself. He was so very sweet and I really appreciate it! (He was the one who "talked" to you know who about yelling at me.) I thanked him and decided I would write him a thank you note later. I made 12 die (is that how you spell the plural of dice? I only have heard it said) that only went up to 3. Then I made ten board games (by hand) - and they still aren't done - for my first graders for next week. I made all the boards but I need to go back and write on all 40 squares of the games. 40x10. Yeesh. I also blocked out most of my plan for my third graders. I got a TON done today. At lunch I pulled out my dictionary so I could look up "kindness" and wrote a short note thanking Sato-sensei for the chocolates and his kindness. I waited until the other vice-principal walked away so it wouldn't look weird that I didn't have a note for him. (Not that my subterfuge worked in the long run as during cleaning when the three of us - the two vice-principals and I were in the copy room, Sato-sensei complimented me on my kana! :D) Most of the teachers were horrified when they saw my face (my chin). The few students I passed in the hall during lunch and when I went to the bathroom did the same thing those other students did. Smiled big and greeted me then abruptly stopped in their tracks and stared when they saw my huge bruised chin. I took two tylenol in the morning to help dull the pain and those pills made me so sick to my stomach (or the leftover stress). I'm quite grateful (mmm) that I didn't throw up at the school because it was close a few times. After lunch I took two of the other pills I got here (less pain killers in them but a little caffeine). When I was working I also thought about my Tuesday routine. I always (well as of 4 weeks ago) go workout on Tuesday evenings. I was in so much pain and still shaky and just didn't want to go. But then I told myself, "Not good enough." Even nearly vomiting was not a reason good enough not to go workout (for me at least).

So after school, I go out to the bus stop and when the bus comes.. guess who was driving! It was the same guy who drove the bus off which I had fallen!!! Seriously. Small world. He got up out of his seat and turned around and leaned out of his little driving booth. "Daijobu??" I hadn't noticed it was the same guy until he talked to me. I'm pretty sure I blushed. But I said to him, "Daijobu. Just a big bruise!" And pointed to my chin. He sat down and off we went. Then when I got off the bus he told me to watch my step. DAH! I think of everything I learned today, THAT is the lesson that would definitely stick! But I nodded and got off the bus safely. Then I went to the bus center to buy another bus card as mine will run out halfway through my return fare from the school tomorrow. Luckily the same woman was still at the bus center. I said, "Kesa ha, arigatou gozaimashita!" (This morning, thank you!) She waved away my thanks and I bought my bus card. I went home, changed, and cycled the 20 minutes to the gym. I worked out furiously, determined to get in a good workout and really exorcise all that stress in my body. Then I cycled back home. At home I made dinner, saw I had missed 2 calls from Limor and called her back. We spoke for a few minutes then she had to go to her Taiko practice. I then decided to relax! I ate my dinner, ate some popcorn, and read a Dean Koontz book (well started one). After dinner I poured myself a small glass of milk and had one of those dark chocolate cakes. It tasted AMAZING. Made me very sick to my stomach though. Glad I was reading as thinking about the cake probably would have made me throw up. In any case, I survived today. I got pictorial evidence and tomorrow is another day. I believe that my chin will be my attention-getter for my lessons tomorrow. I doubt I can get away with not telling my students. I'm teaching all first grade classes tomorrow and they are more inquisitive (at least they show it more) than my third and second graders. Side note: because the lesson I'm teaching the third graders is on music I'm heavily considering bringing in my guitar and playing a little for them as my attention-getter. My only thought not to do it is that I am probably feeding my vanity rather than helping the students! I'll make a final decision about it later. Hope you all had a better day than me (though it ended up really great)! XOXO, A

no facial emotion so you can see the size of the swelling

the bruising and my little bandaid

bandaid off

here is one scraped palm and you can see where my fingers were bleeding

my other palm

my worst shin-scrape (I got a bunch of them and bruises)

one of my knees

my hair looked awesome post-workout ... it hurt my Leno-chin to smile though!