I'm crabby

Yeah, that's lame and cheesy, I know. The picture above is of an other crab I saw in the peace park at night. However, I'm feeling crabby cause I'm sick of being sick. I have awesome students though, I have to say that. Last night one of my students drove me to the pharmacy and got me some medicine. It was very kind of her. However, the medicine didn't do so much, though the cough drops seemed to lessen the coughing a little. I think Japanese OTC drugs are much weaker than American ones. That's what I'd heard from a lot of my colleagues, and now I think that might be true.

Then today another really awesome student did me the hugest favor, and she volunteered, I never would have asked this of her. She lives an hour away and drove into town and took me to the ear, nose, and throat doctor who deals with allergies and played translator this morning. I am so grateful that I have awesome people like these that are there when I need them. I couldn't have gone to the doctor without her. The paperwork alone was unreal, which I couldn't read except for the kanji for "name" and "address" and "date". The doctor spoke a little English, but my student is a higher level, so I really needed her there to describe my symptoms. I called into work today because my body is just shot after working a busy schedule all week when I felt like absolute turd. Last night was the worst though. I couldn't breathe right, so I didn't sleep at all. So today I feel like ass, naturally. I just took my medicine, and now I'm waiting for something to kick in so I can feel decent enough to get some sleep.

So the doctor was really nice and I got metal shoved up my nose and got to try some breathing machine thing. It was kinda cool. No needles so I was extremely happy. Apparently I have really bad hay fever most likely, but they are unsure as to what the allergen is. It's obviously something they have in Japan we don't have in the US because I've never had extreme allergy problems like this.

Thank goodness for generous, kind people. I have been showed so much kindness here. I think about the way a foreigner gets treated in American (at least in the south where I grew up), and it makes me sick. People go out of their way to try to help me here because of the language barrier and cultural differences. In America, in the south, people in general don't talk to the foreigner. I hear them saying bad things about them like, "Why don't those damn &**$# learn to speak English!" or "Dirty foreigners!" No joke... I want to punch someone when I hear that, even before I came here and experienced being the foreigner I felt that way. Now that the tables are turned, I feel it even more strongly. I hope to show a foreigner in the states the same type of kindness I have been shown here. I wish more people would do the same. I want so desperately to learn the language here, and I'm making progress, although it may be slow progress. People want to learn the language of the country they're in for nothing other than it would make it a hell of a lot easier to get around and do daily activities. However, it's easier said than done, and we should be nice to people that want to learn about our culture, and we can learn about them at the same time. I have learned so much from my Japanese students and friends here, and they ask me questions about America and they learn something as well. It's a wonderful thing. I wish people would be more open minded. That's why there is no way in hell I can move back to the south if I can help it when I get back in the good old US of A. Just because something is different than the way you're used to doing it doesn't make it wrong, or make you any more right! America is a great country, but it's not the "know all, end all". I understand you might have pride for your country, but thinking every other person from another country is a "dumb foreigner" or whatever is screwed up. It's that whole, "America, F&$# Yeah!" attitude that I can't stand. Have you seen that movie? Team America, World Police? Holy crap, that song is the best part! haha I know people that listen to that song and think it's serious and it makes me laugh. Ok, I'm going to get off my soapbox now.... I've probably pissed some people off, but I'm crabby and really care, cause honestly, that's how I feel.