Blooming Through the Concrete

5/25/10

So it’s been a while since my last entry, and it feels like a lot has happened and nothing has happened at the same time. I think falling into a routine tends to make everything blur together and seem uninteresting, which is probably why I haven’t felt a strong desire to write anything. Also, there has been a small series of unfortunate events.

My birthday was back in the beginning of the month. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I was quite homesick during that week. The week after, I discovered that I had burned through all the money I had earned over the summer and during my work-study at school. Not having money never feels good; luckily, I have loving parents who are willing to support me so I don’t starve while I’m in another country. A couple weeks later, my host brother caught the flu, and I caught a minor case of it. While he was bed-ridden for a week, I was just stuck with coughing and a sore throat. My host mom took me to the doctor yesterday where I picked up a prescription that should hopefully heal me up pretty fast. To top it all off, my ipod broke today. I charged it last night, and when I tried to turn it on this morning, nothing happened. I don’t know if it’s the battery or something else, but I really hope I can fix it. Otherwise my daily commute to and from school is going to get very dull.

Among all this chaos and panic, it can be hard to find reasons to kick back and enjoy the fact that you’re in another country. Still, you can find enjoyment in the little things that cross your path. Good things always come with the bad, right? An adorable little kid held my hand, mistaking me for his mom (how you mistake a foreigner for your Japanese mom, I have no idea but it still made me smile). My host mom took me to a huge ceramic market where I was able to buy a bunch of nice rice bowls for really cheap. She bought me a cake and prepared a nice dinner for my birthday. Once my friends got back from their Golden Week travels, we went to Monkey Wrench (the bar we frequent every week) where I received a fruit tart from the guy who owns the place and got 50% off my tab that night. I spent two, maybe three hours introducing my host brother to American music. I have discovered a truck that comes to a neighborhood near the school every Wednesday morning and sells delicious strawberries for really cheap. I’ve been meeting people and getting to know them more and more, slowly forming international relationships that I can only hope will last as we get older.




In Nagasaki, you find flowers growing out of stone and concrete, which I find to be quite poetic. Among the gray and the grit that you run into, you can always find something beautiful that will make you smile and forget your troubles.