1 day, 3 countries

internet issues have led to me only posting when i'm not in china.  i'm seeing what i can do about bringing the blog back no matter where i am.  we shall see.

i spent today in 3 countries.  at 8:30 AM today i was in shanghai, china.  by 1:00 PM today i was in tokyo, japan.  then by 9:00 AM today i was in california.  so kind of i was in california before i was in japan.  was i really in japan?  was that experience in another timeline?  (there have probably been one too many "jokes" about the international dateline...)  anyway, the layover in japan was awesomely real because i ate inarisushi that was deliciously juicy.  i bought stuff with US dollars and got change in japanese yen, which made me happy.  i did it on purpose with the idea in mind to be in japan again within the year.  add it it the list of reasons i should go to japan this year: i already have some japanese currency, which would otherwise be wasted.

i felt pretty smart today hearing airplane announcements in english, chinese, and japanese, and understanding significant parts of all of them.  there were actually a few times that i missed the initial english announcement and listened to the chinese or japanese one that followed to get the rest of the information that i wanted to know.  in the midst of feeling smart, i felt incompetent in a store in the airport when i understood perfectly what the checkout lady was saying to me but there were absolutely no japanese words in my mind that i could use to communicate with her.  my mind was blank of japanese.  chinese words were present, but completely useless.  today was a reminder that trilingual people are aweseome (and i don't count).  most of my students speak 3 languages, many of them fluently.  example 1: japanese student who speaks and writes chinese and studied at my school in english.  example 2: korean student who attended chinese school in the past and now studies in english.  these people are teengagers, high school students, and they are amazing.  and they are my students.