Author: hannah.ananas

Slumber Party

Last night, I had a slumber party with a few friends.  It was entirely unplanned, and utterly unexpected. I always keep very careful watch of the train schedules, but, after having checked what felt like a hundred times between only eight and nine-thirty pm (trains home end around midnight from where we were), I finally took a break from checking the time constantly.

And then, at about the same time, a friend got in touch about meeting up with us.  I suppose my brain then linked his arrival to shortly after when he got in touch about joining us – around 9pm.  When he actually arrived closer to 11pm, I had already taken to my breather from checking the time, and so had no idea of how late it actually was.  As we were having a blast in a karaoke bar, which I didn’t even know Japan had, he suddenly asked me when our last train was.  We had missed it by not quite ten or fifteen minutes.

So, the same friend casually offered a place to stay at his home, leaving us to experience a wonderful Japanese home – there was food in the kitchen, instruments strewn about the living room (and kitchen, actually), and living plants all around.  This friend happens to be part of a wonderful family, whose loving space is fabulous.

And in this fabulous living space we all slept.  Even my friend decided he didn’t want to stay in his own bedroom downstairs by himself, and so he joined our living room slumber party.  Two friends slept on futons on the floor.  The other friend, the one who lived there, and I slept above them in hammocks.  It was fabulously tree-fort-like.  And, in the morning, this morning, he made breakfast for us all.  Stupenda.
Post-a-day 2017

The Yellow Rose of Texas…-ish… sort of

Tomorrow, I will see my mother.  For the second time in the past five years, I will meet her at the airport, and bring her to my home away from home for an extended stay.  Both occasions have been so unexpected – in the sense of reasonable likelihood – that I had difficulties in fully believing that she was coming to visit me.  And yet, both times, she has crossed a good chunk of the world to share in my newest world, and to adventure alongside me.  For this and for much else, I love my mom dearly.
Post-a-day 2017

Twilight in Vienna

When I was living in Vienna, there was one night where I was walking down the street, heading home (likely from school), and I noticed a girl walking near me.  I originally tagged her for an Austrian, but quickly altered the idea, when I noticed her looking around, as if somewhat lost.  Now, I don’t recall if I offered her help, or if she asked me (though I think she asked me, and I had just been wondering whether to offer her help), but it came out that she was looking for a specific spot that was supposedly somewhere nearby, but that she couldn’t seem to find.

I had no idea what place she meant, of course, because I only lived in the neighborhood newly, and smartphones weren’t quite standard in life yet, so, even though we both had local numbers and phones, they did us no service on finding this place.  We looked at my paper map, yet couldn’t find her place on it, and so that didn’t help us either.  So, I told her that I only just lived near the end of this street on which we were standing, so she could come over, and we could just look up the place online at my apartment.

Naturally, she was rather surprised, but rather easily acquiesced – our attitudes and general vibes got on well enough (otherwise, I wouldn’t have offered).  So we chatted as we walked, and hung out briefly in my room as she did her research and found her place, and became Facebook friends before she headed off on her way again.

A few months later, the Part 2 of the final Twilight Saga films was released in Austria.  I discovered this fact somewhat suddenly one night, and quickly looked up the film’s showing times for that night.  Now, I am in no way all lovey-dovey with these films.  I kind of find them a bit terrible, actually, but I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling aspect of the books, as well as the excitement and goofiness and creativity within the story.  And so, I tolerated the movies for the fun of seeing a visual interpretation of these stories.  But, upon moving to Vienna, I discovered a new value to the films.  Our lending library at my campus had a copy of Twilight, the first film.  English and German language tracks and subtitles were available on it, and I took full advantage of them all, once I discovered how useful the language used in the movie was to my daily life – they’re young adults hanging around with friends and family, and so was I!  So, after seeing the film a million times with German dubbing, Inhad developed a certain fondness for it, a certain bond with it.

Therefore, I jumped at the opportunity at closing out the series with a German version on the film, and on the big screen, of course, as I had done for free with our movie nights at my college in the US for he other films in the series.  It was just a perfect ending!  So, I found the movie playing nearby in just about 30 minutes.  I wanted company, though.  I somehow had this friend come to mind, and shot her a message.  She, too, took to the idea, and we both rushed out the door to meet our front of this theatre in 20 minutes’ time.

I worried that I wouldn’t recognize her, but we found each other quite easily at the theatre.  We were delighted and excited about our film all the way through, and even had our own jokes about it afterward, as we headed to her place for some tea and hanging out.  I’ll always remember when she stopped as she turned to me with an earnest expression of concern on her face, and said to me, “Hannah, ich will dir etwas zeigen,” and, after a pause, we both burst out laughing.  We were just too good at re-enacting that final scene of the film, I mean it. 😛  I later told my roommate about the film, and she taught me the phrase unfreiwillig lustig, which means “unintentionally funny”.

This is a favored memory of mine. 🙂
Post-a-day 2017

A slice of bread

Sometimes it really is the little things that count the most.  Today, I did some wonderfully awesome things.  I attended art class and mused over some amazing charcoal and pencil still-lifes coming to life; I taught traditionally silent and impassive kids to play charades, and to enjoy it; I played a bit of charades with some of those kids; I had lunch with a happy group of girls, while sitting barefoot in the wonderful and warm sunlight outdoors; I attended a master class on operatic vocal performance; I was given a private lesson in my first round of drawing with charcoal, and I did a decent job drawing; I had another personal lesson on how properly to put on a yukata and a kimono, and then did the yukata all by myself; I had tea and dinner with friends and acquaintances, and was given free amazing stuff to take home with me.

And yet, with all of that, the part f the day that stands out most to me, possibly as most fulfilling, even, was when I found myself spontaneously sitting on the floor with the two girls who had been teaching me to draw with charcoal, literally breaking bread together.  We were sitting and chatting and munching on a shared loaf of bread that we occasionally dipped in a bit of Bonne Mamman, enjoying ourselves completely.  We were silly and exhausted, and entirely content in one another’s company.  We knew we only had a short time for this little pause in the ever-forward movement of the day and its activities, and it was beautiful and blissful.  (And, funnily enough, it all happened, because the one girl had shown me her moldy bread earlier that she was using as a sort of eraser on her charcoal drawing, and I realized that I happened to have a fresh loaf of bread in my bag later on.)
Post-a-day 2017

Student love

I walked into class today, and a kid I didn’t even recognize looked up from his origami, and called out loudly, “Haaannnaaaaaaah!”  😀

Later, when talking to a teacher whose classes I no longer teach, I was informed that her male students miss seeing me and my amazing fashion sense in their class.

There are some parts of my job that really are amazing and filled with love, and that I definitely will miss.  😀  ❤ ❤ ❤

Post-a-day 2017

They are like cats

I have been to visit the Kyudo (Japanese traditional archery) club a few times now, each time for multiple hours.  Today, at long last, the students in the club related to and interacted with me with a sense of ease.  It was as if they suddenly knew me and trusted me, knew me as a friend instead of foe.  They are – along with most of Japanese culture that I have encountered – just like cats.

The first several hours and visits, they were truly skittish, and utterly nervous whenever they had to pass near to me.  It was like they were terrified that I might, dear goodness, speak to them or something.  And today, from the moment I arrived, they were warm and welcoming to me – I could almost feel the cats rubbing a quick greeting on my leg.  No, they weren’t entirely comfortable with me, – they weren’t ready to play and hang about with me constantly – but they were comfortable enough to go about their business without having caution around me; though I was not yet a good friend, I was no longer a potential threat, and the alteration was palpable and delicious.

 

Post-a-day 2017