OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

... it really sucks. It sure does.

It's been three months since I moved into my parents' house in this super-rural town. Yes, I love the beauty of the nature, fresh food and laid-back way of life. It could have been a paradise... IF I had a job and friends here. But the truth is I didn't -- still don't, and you know what I've learned? I can never enjoy life without them, no matter where I live!

For the record, I DID reach out. One day dad's friend told dad that in another small town, about an hour drive from here, some local people including "a native speaker of English" often get together to chat at a cafe, and I could join them. I was given the contact info. of the "native speaker of English" guy and emailed him. I haven't heard from him yet.

Also, I tried to join a local sports club to meet people and get some exercise. For several years I've been wanting to learn to play ping-pong. I was almost going to join one in Kochi city, but I left there before I started practicing. So after moving in here in my hometown, I kept looking.

The biggest problem, though, is that here in this rural place, "word of mouth" is almost the only way to get any information. No one have dared to put together the list of local sports or cultural clubs and contact information of the leaders. You just have to hear from someone that such and such club is meeting on which day and where, and actually be there to talk to the members.

Then one day dad heard from someone that there was a local ping-pong club practicing at city gym Friday nights, so I could go take a look. I did, and found out that it was a club for kids. It was so embarrassing.

The situation is not any better regarding job hunting. There is no employment agency in this city; you have to drive for about an hour to the neighboring city to use their service. I did go there, but found nothing good. There is no such thing as a "community bulletin board" anywhere. Even the community newsletter issued by the city doesn't have a section like that nor a classified ads section. Yeah, I could put up an ad on the prefectural newspaper and say, "I can teach English" or something -- if I could afford it. Or maybe more realistic idea would be placing an ad on the Internet for free, which I'm going to do soon. Wish me luck... The majority of people around here do not even know what the Internet is. Hope someone who does know and lives within a driving distance becomes interested in learning English one day ...

Such being the case, I had to depend on dad's network. Lousy idea, but I've got no other choice, right?

As I had expected, it's not working out. Though I truly appreciate his enthusiasm to help, I'm not counting on it, to tell you the truth... He doesn't really understand what I can do and want to do. He doesn't even know the word "computer" and calls it a "machine." So his description of my ability is like, "She is always doing something with her machine." LOL And no matter how many times I explain to him what I can do and what my plans are, an overnight sleep seems to reset his memories. And no matter how much I plead, he wouldn't let me talk directly to any of his acquaintances. HE must be the one to set it all up, always, which caused several troubles in the past... But he's not going to change, you know. *sigh*

But I shouldn't be totally discouraged. There IS a bright side. This afternoon I'm going to go to a three-day lecture on local geology by a high school teacher. It's a summer course at a local night school (i.e. high school for those who work in the daytime) and open to community people for free of charge. It should be fun. I'm pretty much looking forward to it.