Finally

So today I had a "only in Japan" moment. I was going to a convenience store by my school today to grab a coffee. In Japan, they love their bottled drinks. There are so many different drinks. Far more than in the USA. You could probably have a different drink for every day of the week. Anyway, there are always interesting ways that they market these drinks. I saw a new coffee and it came with two, and it said "transformer inside". So of course I had to grab that. As I grabbed my lame coffee. An old dude came up to me and said in Japanese "Oh, you are a foreigner!". And in Japanese I replied "Yes, that is correct, I sure am!". He started to laugh because of my smart ass response. He asked how tall I was and I told him. He said that he was so happy to meet a foreigner. I told him that I was glad to meet him as well. Then I went to the register to pay for my sandwich and coffee. The dude came up to the register and told the clerk that he will pay for my items. I told him "No, no, that's OK!" But he insisted. It was only about 5 dollars and he gave the cashier 10 dollars. He insisted that I keep the change as well. I reluctantly took the change. He said that I just made his day happy. It was quite interesting. The funny thing is that the store I went to was the same store that the crazy lady screamed and ran away from me! haha What a difference in opinion here in Japan. There are people that just love foreigners and those that completely hate them. There is really isn't a medium. The man said that I made him have a happy day, however he did the same for me as well!

Tuesday was a Japanese holiday. Something about respecting dead family members?? Anyway, the important thing is that I had the day off. I cooked a lot yesterday. I cooked some Tex-Mex fajitas for me and my roommate. I had marinated the chicken for about 8 hours. I made some Guacamole, Refried bean, salsa and some veggies. We had a Tex-Mex lunch complete with flour tortillas. My roommate completely loved it. He was eating giant tacos! He had the perfect Taco technique, which was quite surprising since he is from Boston!! haha ;)  I had a great day. Anyway, I finally made a long blog post. I hope you enjoyed it. I will try to get some more stuff up here more frequently ok! Take care

peace

vince


p.s. here are some pics of the coffee and transformer toy

Rain

So it's been raining the past 2 days. Yesterday was a foggy day. It also happened to be a Japanese Holiday. I think it had something to do with old people. Like, respect for the old people day, or "Don't kick old people day", or "Don't knock over old gimps on their bicycles" day. Anyway, it was nice. I cleaned up my apartment, it was and still is pretty bad. My room is quite nice most of the time but the rest is in shambles, it needs a proper tidy up. It was quite cool yesterday because of all the clouds so I was able to just open up my balcony door and feel the cool breeze. My roommate's girlfriend cooked us lunch while we cleaned up the apartment. She made some tasty Chinese rice mixture. It was damn good and I really enjoyed it.

So last week I showed my students the DVD that I worked on. Their response to the DVD was basically silence. No emotion, reaction, comments etc. It was so lame. I even asked if they wanted a copy of the disc and nobody responded. Sometimes I really think to myself, "what is the point of me teaching here?". My other classes are very funny and happy except this one class. The atmosphere is similar to a damn funeral in my class. Oh man...

For those of you who read my blog, I'm sorry that I haven't exactly put anything exciting up on my blog for a while. I really haven't been doing much traveling or sight seeing to put up cool pictures or videos. I just can write my life here. I hope to go somewhere cool soon though. Maybe just a weekend and getaway from the big city for a while. Well I hope everyone is doing great. I will talk to you soon. Much love to all the people in Texas that are suffering from Hurricane Ike.

peace

vince

Death of a Legend

This post has nothing to do with Japan. It's all about my hometown, and a local hero and legend that passed away Sunday afternoon back in my hometown of El Paso Texas. Have you ever seen the 2006 Disney movie called "Glory Road"? Well Mr. Don Haskins was the focal point of that movie. He was the first coach in College basketball history to win the National Championship in 1966 with 5 black players in the starting line-up. He won the only National Championship for my University, UTEP. That all sounds amazing, but what Don Haskins means to my city is much more than basketball. He was probably the most well known and respected figure. Everybody knew who he was and he was damn humble. I've never met Don Haskins in my life, however he has somehow touched my life to write this blog. I think it's just because I grew up hearing about the story of Don Haskins and even saw him coach many games as a young miner fan. Well I just wanted to share that story with you. I was quite sad today when I heard about this. Well rest in peace Don Haskins.

1930-2008

peace

vince

Long time no see

Hello all you!! Is there any one still reading this blog? Well I had a pretty good few weeks. My birthday was quite lame. I ended up eating ramen at a ramen shop across the street. I'm waiting for the box my parents are sending me. I look forward to getting that box! :) Thank you! I have been editing the commercials that my students made last week. Some of them were quite lame. Most groups completely forgot what we were doing, so they made these really horrible commercials. I had to edit them completely! So they would be decent. Some of them I added some ridiculous things in them so you have to watch them. Well I'm doing pretty good. I hope life is treating you well. I'll talk to you soon!

peace

vince