Malia Earns her Flight Wings (Desk Apple)

I think the previous teacher wrote "Bai Bai" Actually...

And then the little black marker was a student writing...

Then I wrote (Heart) you too!

I must say, before I left the U.S. I was pondering what other jobs might be open to a Japanese speaking person with a lot of people-experience through teaching. One job I considered was Japanese speaking flight attendant for Delta. That may have been exciting, but I decided I would rather have something a little more settled that would still allow me to be in touch with Japan and seeing the world (or Japan, at least) rather than just the world's airports in the world's biggest cities.

I'm very happy with my decision.

My work started at long last, just over one week ago. (Although I came to Japan 3 weeks ago) So far so good. Funds are tight but the necessities of life are pretty affordable. I should be able to start saving in no time if I stop train-traveling around, which I find is my biggest expense.

I work at a casual small-business language school, not a chain or corporation. I'm not an ALT. So my experience is different than other bloggers out there. I'm very happy. Of course, no place is perfect, but I've found myself an excellent fit. I get to see all ages and all personalities, every one of my students is so different- there is never a dull moment at my school. I'm on my feet all day. I don't get the vacations of ALTs, or the down time in the teacher's room... And even though although maybe one day I would still like the immersion into a Japanese school, but for now I am ever grateful to my school and to the city I'm living in. It was good to me in high school when I was an exchange student and it is good to me now when I am working-same city! I'm going out with one of my host family's tonight. Their ages are very close to mine... maybe 10 years old. Only 5-7 years older than my husband. We're in the same age group. Even though I'm ineikaiwa it's not corporate. Like I said, it's a small business and exchanges with my boss and co-workers are warm. We're paid fairly and it's good to be working with happy people.

For the first week I was training under the teacher who's leaving. Since I have experience with returnee students, middle, high, college, and adult students I was able to start out in those classes on my own from the beginning. All they require is patience and skill in moving from subject to subject and keeping the students talking (and knowing when to nix the Teacher Talking Time... because Teacher already knows English ;) ) All that ended yesterday when I took the reigns and did six classes or so... all age ranges. It was just fine. First week was a lot of planning and going to school early and staying late, but I think I've more or less got the hang of it. Just need to expand my repetoire of games for the kiddos. Usually we spend the last 5 minutes of our classes playing a game to leave them with a positive memory of English class.

Anyway, one of my little girls wrote "Bai bai" to the last teacher and "Malia-Teacher" on the white board in front of our school. It was a d'aww moment and my first little kiddo note about me. The picture is in the blog.

Peace.

Been a While, Down For the Count

Ladies and Germs.

It's been a while since I've been in. Combination of good and bad. Made it out of summer term with A- in both sections of organic chemistry laboratory. Summer brought a respite from my symptoms. I think it's because I wasn't taking on as much as the summer before (when I was doing many many classes and also volunteer teaching a Japanese class.) All those are things I love to do but my body just doesn't take it that well I think.

I would first like to tell a short story, naw, make it a long story.

In June 2007 I was about to graduate from high school, and I'd recently been informed that I received a Mazda Foundation Scholarship to go to Japan for 6 weeks. At the same time, my grandfather was passing away.

Before that trip, I went for a sayonara physicial at my pediatrician. Before this time I went to the doctor maybe once, twice a year. I was healthy, with the occasional ear infection as I'd always had some drainage problems. At that physical I was given a clean bill of health, expressed no complaints, and then they brought in the vacs.

This included Gardasil, Menactra, and a hepatitis vaccine. I'd been coming off a cold and my mother asked "is it safe that these be administered when she is coming off a cold?" Without batting an eye they said "yes" and in complete blind faith I accepted the vaccinations: I'd never been squeamish about them.

I don't have the exact date, but I think it was about a week or less before graduation. I remained sick... my cold didn't let up. Graduation day I was hit with the most profound, odd, and frightening feeling I'd ever had in my life. I needed to use the toilet and I felt hot and restless. I remember asking my mother if I should go to the emergency room. She looked serious, and being a nurse, she suspected a vaccine reaction but did not tell me at that time. I was determined to go to my graduation, but was feeling restless and on edge the whole time, kind of out of touch and focus. And it was a blur. Like the intensity I felt life with had been drained away and everything had become less. But I made it through and went to a party with my friends. And for the most part I felt things went back to normal after that.

I had a little nausea in the mean time, digestive system wasn't quite right, attributed it to the excitement of getting to go to Japan again. I'd been to Japan a year before and truly had the most beautiful moment of my life, besides those one shares with family. Both were exchange immersion programs and Japan was where my passions and my talents were. I participated in the state-wide language speech competitions (took home 5th/35 in Division 1, didn't place in Division 2 but did well), laughed hard and played hard with my friends, ate junk food like crazy... did school musicals. I was a normal teen.

And then I was off for an orientation outside of San Francisco then Tokyo-bound but two days later. Felt a little weird, attributed it to the tired feeling you get when traveling. Couldn't sleep well but attributed it to jet-lag. Felt extremely nervous but attributed it to excited energy when I was riding the shinkansen to meet my host family in Hiroshima. For the first few days... being swept through entering a new home, meeting neighbors, introducing myself at school, meeting new friends... things went alright.

However, there was an escalation of symptoms which has not since decreased however there tend to be flares and remissions of varying lengths. These includes:

-Chest tightness/difficulty breathing

-Rapid heart rate, including at rest

-Dizziness

-Feeling strange, difficulty falling asleep: restless, hot feeling, great sense of unease with urge to move

-Nausea

-Irritable Bowel

_______________

Toward the end of my stay, the symptoms progressed to include

-Strange feeling on face, around eye (right side worse)

-Hair loss

-Sense that something was wrong with eyes, jumpy (although now it includes floaters (started after taking Celexa)... could've just been the progression of whatever is going on...

How I survived, I don't know. The memories are still fond and I still yearn for the day that I may be able to go back to Japan, such as to teach English. Dealing with these symptoms made me desperately want to become a physician or naturopath doing research on problems such as these (which I believe was set off by the vaccine, regardless of whether it was an underlying issue... I truly believe that it would not be as severe as it is if I had never received the Gardasil vaccine, especially in conjunction with Menactra and Hepatitis B vaccine. I survived climbing up the steep staircase to put the clothes on the line and being attacked by wasps on the little balcony where the clothes were hung ;)

I do believe a lot of this I have documented in a journal I kept during my journey. I'll make a mental note that this is something I can show to doctors while looking for help. So that is a background story, but I'm also going to publish a blog of everything I have experienced since being vaccinated in June 2006 and if I am able to obtain specifics I will provide them. I will provide a blog detailing tests I have had done (good now that I'm having a full flare up of the symptoms) so that I will have everything in my mind and I'll try to make other posts more or less organized (I may use them to go to my appointments.)

And then when I get all this background information out of the way I can start writing about the day to day.