World Autism Awareness Day

"It must be hard having a brother like that...?

What do you mean like that? With Autism?

Yeah, that. You know..you can't like...talk or anything. It must be hard.

Ah, well no. No, it's not."

Words may fail at times, but there are ways beyond speaking. Even though Paco cannot say many words, he can surely find a way to communicate through his drawings, playing music, and his enigmatic facial expressions. He is certainly not afraid to protest when he's upset, or cry when he's sad. I think a common stereotype associated with people who have autism is that they're these emotionless voids trapped in some far off world. No. My brother is present. He is human.

Paco and I connected through the movies we watched. We'd watch a movie or a show and then reenact it. Paco loooooves to re-wind his favorite scenes from movies. Heehee, I think he picked that up from me. Together, we'd act out scenes from Alice and Wonderland, Jurassic Park and countless Disney movies. We had dance parties to the song "I Like to Move It" from the movie Madagascar and pretended we were the silly penguins. If one of us wasn't up to playing, we knew something was wrong. Words were not always necessary.

But when we were happy, we got lost in worlds of the Jurassic age and Dr. Seuss. Side by side, we read our school books and did our math equations. We picked out Christmas trees and lit up the house during the Holiday season. Autism does not inhibit our family from loving one another and growing together. We'll all here for Paco and he's here for us.

I dedicate this blog post to my little brother Paco, who's not so little now. He now towers over me at about 6'4. I pray for all the researchers and teachers who work with people with autism. To the families, I pray that you stay strong, stay patient. Every day, we found out more about autism and how we can help our loved ones. Hang in there!

Thank you to my lil bro for teaching me to keep the imagination alive and to keep constant love in our hearts.

Happy World Austism Awareness Day.

To learn more about autism, please visit the Autism Speaks Website.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/

It's a Woman...Thing?

About a week ago, my lovely lady cycle paid her monthly visit. Dudes, I promise this isn't graphic at all, but it is vital to know this bit of information for this story. And most of my friends know, I have no problem saying I'm on my period....

Guy friend: Hey Jasmine...Are you okay?

Me. No! I'm on my period.

Guy friend: Oh.....

Back to the story....

On this particular sunny day, I went to work at one of the elementary schools. Auntie Rose came a knockin' that morning, but no big deal. I was wrong. By the afternoon, I was almost bent over my desk in pain. The pain became so unbearable, I knew I couldn't make it till 4:30 and left two hours early. When I got home I slept for FOUR hours! When I finally awoke from my deep slumber, I told myself that it was probably a good idea to go to the store and buy some pain killers so I wouldn't be suffering the next day at work.

I slolwy get out of bed, gather my purse and keys and then drive to Daiei. I do a little food shopping and head off to the drug store counter. Now, I remembered at this point that ibuprofen is pronounced a lil differently in Japanese. Well, at least to my ear it sounds the same, but there's something in the word, for when I say it, Japanese people just blankly stare at me as this pharmacist did.

I go up to him.

"Sumimasen, (excuse me). I-bu-pro-fu-e-n....arimasu ka?" Do you have any ibuprofen?

"Hm.?"

He kinda jerks his head to the side, bringing his ear in my direction as if he can't hear me.

I repeat and he still doesn't understand me.

So, I start throwing words like "itai desu" It hurts.

Well obviously he now wants to know what hurts. I begin to motion towards my stomach, but I figured that would say I have indigestion. I'm unsure at this point if I should tell him I'm on my period because last time the topic of women things came up was during my contract reading. My supervisor was going over the terms and when it came to the part dealing with "women matters" he awkwardly looked at me for a bit and said that I was able to read it on my own.

So fast forward to this moment, I'm trying to make this the least awkward for him as possible. So I hold up my arm. It hurts, I say in Japanese, figuring that this might get me to the I-bu-pro-fen.

He nods and brings me to a shelf. Lo and behold, there's medicine for a hurtin' arm.

"Noooo," I say. "koko(here)" and I place my hands over where I think my uterus is located.

Now he thinks my stomach hurts and he's probably so confused becuase the pain went from arm to my stomach. I try to tell him that I'm on my period and I've got cramps. I try to find the Japanese for what I want to say and nothing comes to mind. One thing they never teach you in language classes, "my uterus hurts, get me the meds!"

However, I do know how to say it's a woman thing...or at least I thought I did until that backfired on me too.

"Onna no mono desu........."

He still doesn't understand. My hands are still resting and gesturing towards the location of my lovely and suffering uterus. I slowly indicate where my ovaries all the while saying "it hurts," hoping he'll get the message.

"Your stomach?"

I'm thinking, "Nah, dude, a bit south."

I start to overemphasize that I'm a woman, with woman pain.

"Watashi wa onna desu." I'm a woman.

"Koko, itai desu." It hurts here.

Onna no mono." It's woman thing.

I'm throwing all the Japanese I know into a gumbo pot and hoping for the best.

I think he's finally getting it because he takes me to another counter. Nevertheless, I start freaking out that he may be giving me the wrong medication, so I call Kat, my deus ex machina. She teaches me the pronunciation and then from there all is well. I buy the meds, apologize for my horrible Japanese skills and run off to my car.

Moral of the story, ladies... Come prepared with what you need so that you may avoid awkwardly gesturing towards your uterus and ovaries in the drug store.

Oh, and if you must say it's a women thing in any situation, according to Google Translate, its josei no koto.

Much love!

Count Your Blessings....

I've decided to stay another year on this little island in Japan. Why? You know those moments when you have to stop, take a look around, and say "this is my life?" Everything has been a blessing, the good and the bad. I feel as if I've just touched the surface with teaching and honestly, I enjoy it. I really do and I hope to gain some new skills in my second year.

Other than that, I have nothing major to report. The past few weeks have been a wonderful bliss of every day events. Not life-changing or newsworthy I suppose, but you gotta count the blessings no matter how small.

I've got a couple of serious blog posts coming up in which I'd like to start some sort of dialogue because I'm about to crazy keeping it all to myself. It's just some things that have been in the back of mind since coming to Japan, but until then here's some of my favorite moments from the past couple of weeks.

Cinnamon Challenge Yvonne.

Valentines Day-As I told my friend, it was just another day at work. Except this year I used the holiday to justify the ghastly amount of chocolate and desserts I ate. And, my students gave me cake and presents! I totally felt the love!

Eating lunch with my students. It's been a long road, but I'm finally at a point where the 3rd years and I understand each other and get along! Oh, but wait...they're graduating! Argh!

One of my students made me laugh so hard at lunch that the home teacher yelled at her. I'm sure he was really yelling at me. She didn't care though, she kept on making me fun of me.

Japanese lessons with my JTE.

Mos Burger. Nuff said. I love this place, but I'm giving it up for Lent. Waaah!

Working with the 6th graders on their career projects and the JTE decides to play some American music. It started with Bruno Mars and Beyonce and then changed to Enimem and Chris Brown. After a certain point, I couldn't take it and told him that this music isn't the best for children even if they can't understand the lyrics. However, he claimed that it set the mood for class. Eh???

One of my students made me feel like a star when he asked for my autograph.

Playing free dodeball(whatever that means) while a game of soccer, basketball and volleyball are happening in the same gym. O_O

ALT gatherings and dance parties.

Peace y'all. <3

Maman! Je Peux Faire un Gâteau!

On Sunday, Becky and I gathered with some of our Iki friends-the super cool Moms- for a baking lesson. These women are fierce! I can dedicate a whole blog post or two to them, but I'll save that for later!

Back to Sunday! I baked a pineapple rum cake (sans the rum) and Becky baked scones. As always, these lil events are fun and full of very genki children.

Although I have the occasional identity crisis about my Haitian heritage...

"Do I call myself Haitian-American? OMG, I'm so Americanized, my Creole sucks!!"

....I was extremely happy that I could share something from my family's culture. I told some stories about when my Mom baked the cake for family gatherings and how my Auntie taught me to always be happy, to smile, to sing, and to dance when you bake or cook. If you are happy then the people who eat your food will be happy. However, that last part was hard for me to explain in Japanese. I hope the gestures helped.

Nagasaki Lantern Festival

Last weekend, I met up with my JET friends to experience the awesomeness that was the Lantern Festival.

Alrighty, loves! Here are some pictures in reverse order. So New Years to Nagasaki Conference.

Pictures of my new apartment coming soon.

1. New Years celebrations. Every year since high school I go to a family friend's home to see the Waraguna dance. They're from Belize and they do this dance every New Year's Day.

Happy 2012!

2. Christmas! On Iki, we had a Christmas party for the lil kiddies. We ate, made cards, and snowflakes. So much adorableness in one room!

Becky made the cookies!
3. Iki Thanksgiving. This was the 4th annual Iki Thanksgiving. Good times and so much good food!


My pineapple rum cake! Owain's first Thanksgiving(he's from the UK)!
I don't know what this is, but it's funny. We went for lunch at a favorite spot and this guy walks in wearing a woman's dress and wig. So, we just had to take a picture with him.

Nagasaki Conference

UPDATE!!!

I aimed to update you all during my winter vacation, but you know how it is....fine California weather, places to be and people to see. Ah, honestly, I was super lazy. But ah, let's see...events from mid-November to December. Here it is a nutshell!

November

November was all about the business swag. The Nagasaki JETS gathered for the Mid-Year Conference in Nagasaki City. It was about 2 days of workshops and 3 days of fun. Felt more like a holiday than a business trip. As always, it's always good to see my fellow JET colleagues.

My Internet gets cut off...long story, but that has contributed to why this blog post is a bit late.

Iki Thanksgiving! Oh, what a lovely event. Given the tragedy early November brought, it was good to be around so many fun and energetic people. I was finally able to really smile and laugh on that day. I made a pineapple rum cake...from scratch. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but..mm, it was pretty damn good. Big ups to Kat and her crew for a fabulous dinner!

December-The Holiday Season

The Big Move! I moved from Ishida to Gounoura! I'm loving it so far. I had to tell myself to calm down with the home projects-I was planning to re-stain the wood, re-paint a wall, and start a garden. Alas, this is not a permanent home. I rent it, therefore I will only be re-painting that one wall. The garden will start in the spring. I've dropped the wood project. However, it looms in the back of my mind. The girl scout in me just wants to fix everything...and install central heating.

Oh yeah...IKI IS COLD!!!!!!

Anyway, it's about the same size as the previous apartment. It feels a bit bigger because it's two stories and it feels too much for just me. Anyone wanna move in? I'm in the midst of decorating now. What to do with the bedroom? Hmm...

Christmas parties galore!

Home! I went home for about two weeks. Now, honestly it was a bit of hard break. Going home, I had to fully confront the death of a friend. Being home didn't feel quite the same, but I was happy to be with my family and friends. As always, I spent too much money, cursed the L.A. freeways, and ate too much Mexican food.

Now it's January! 2012! A status my friend posted about the new year captured my sentiments perfectly:

"Usually, I charge into a New Year at full gallop, like a Mongolian warrior. This year, it is more a slow meander with many naps under trees, like Buddha with a full tummy."

Dude. I feel this. Since college, I've been on the go. Classes, working on shows, study abroad, write this, write that, update resume, find a job, always asking what's next. I know things are not set in stone, but for the moment I know I have a job, I know my loan situation ( that's very important), and I have my health (at least some it). I just want to take it easy this year. As twenty-somethings we're always looking for the next thrill and I pretty sure even in the comfortable position I'm in, I'll still seek it, but I truly want to take one step at time. I'm finally in a place in life where I can stop and listen to myself.

"What does Jasmine need?"

More chocolate........

Haha, no. Seriously, I've been focusing on other people and making half/empty promises to myself for too long! I remember I posted a post in another blog I have awhile back about being single and I was all womp womp about it. Well, now I'm all for it. Allow me to enthusiastically renew my membership in the singles club once again. I mean really...I'm only 22. It's okay!

So I guess that's my New Years Resolution. Oh, and more water, more exercise and more vegetables!

Alright, so I wrote this at work. Oop. Therefore no pictures for the moment. Anyway, that's what I've been up to in the last month and half. Ayiee!!

Happy New Year everyone!!!