Punctuality

Hey all!

I haven`t got really much to post because I haven`t been to a school all week... :(
But I have got a small but long something to post because I haven`t been to school all week, and so here it is:

On Tuesday (11/1) I was scheduled to go to Ukashima elementary school, one of my two off island schools. But due to a series of unfortunate events, I never made it. It all started in the morning after breakfast. On a regular day I wake up around 7:25 eat breakfast, mozzy around, get dressed, and roll out of the apartment at 8:25 and get to work at just about 8:30. Which is perfectly on time. And normally there is no reason why I should worry about leaving the apartment before 8:25 because I know that without fail I will get to work at the latest, 2 minutes late. Well, it seemed that on this particular morning Murphy was trying to give me a fair warning by giving me a small taste of his infamous law.
So, what happened?
At 8:20 I am all dressed with my lunch packed, my school supply bag packed and ready to walk out the door when I reach to grab my keys off of the key hook. And lo and behold. When I drew my hand back there were no keys dangling from my unfortunately empty palm. Shit.
On a regular day without fail I always remember to place my keys onto the key hook to avoid one of these exact situations. So I try to maintain my cool and think for a few seconds....`aha! yesterday was not a perfectly normal day. It was actually a really exciting day because my large box of winter goods and oatmeal had arrived from my dad, which I had unpacked right beneath my beloved key hook!` So, with that burst of inspiration I begin to grope around within and around my box hoping that in all of my excitement of unpacking I had knocked the keys off the hook. But blasted, things are rarely ever that simple. Keys were nowhere to be found. Commence low-medium level freak out. I rush over to my little dining table scan about lift up a neatly folded sweater that had been lying there. nope not under that. Lift up my Japanese language notebook. Nope not under that. What the hell, might as well check under my laptop. Nope, not there either. And now it is 8:25. Double Shit. I look on my desk, dont see it there. Hurry and check the pockets of all the clothes I wore the previous day. Not there either. At this point I am freaking out. No keys, I`m going to be late, and although I can easily walk to work, there is no way I could walk to the ferry to catch the boat to my school at 11:30. Major freak out session ensues. I quickly double check everywhere I had already looked. not on my bed, not in my pockets, not on my table, not in or near my box. It`s 8:30 and I am screwed. Well, I figure I may as well walk to school and hope that my supervisor will drive me to the ferry and pray no one will decide to see if the foreigner remembered to lock her door (because yes, my car keys and apartment key are on the same chain).

So I begin the short trek to work, call my supervisor and tell him in the best Japanese I can muster: Hello! I am coming. Excuse me, I am sorry for being late!
Once at work, I figure it is best to bite the bullet and get the unfortunate car situation aired at the start. So again I try to think of the best way to tell them about what happened with the limited Japanese I have. And this is generally how it went.
`Good Morning...` (not as chipper as my usual good morning greeting) shuffle over to my supervisor....`....uhhhh excuse me, sorry, uhhh excuse me, today my car is not here`. (pause) I see the fear begin to creep into my supervisors eyes and I realize a moment too late that this statement was probably not the best way to open my conversation with my supervisor since he is quite aware of my track record in regards to my car (car in a ditch ring any bells?)...and so I quickly jabber out that: `ohh ohh ohhh my car is fine. it is fine. it is at home but...` and here begins the charades act because my Japanese is not good enough to string this into a proper sentence. I tell him I am ready to leave my apartment, and I begin to act out grabbing my keys off the hook and my astonishment at coming up empty handed and begin to say `not there, notthere....hmmm where where where where?!?!?!?` And pantomime a rabid search that turns up with nothing. At which I say: where?!? I dont know. lost (it). But In my apartment. My supervisor asks/pantomimes if I checked if I left my keys in the car Which then begins a conversation about my apartment being unlocked because the keys are together.

And needless to say, everyone in my office was at that point watching the spectacle that is me making little to no sense. Thankfully, the main guy in our office tells me (in all Japanese) Keri, you do not have school until 11:30, how about you go home with Mrs. Yanagihara and the both of you look for your keys. And so that is what we do. We get to my apartment and look through the box, and around the box. Check my pockets, my laundry basket. And Mrs. Yanagihara is checking under my sofa when I lift up my sweater off the table and my keys come tumbling out from one of the folds. AHA! and embarrassment all at once. Here are my keys!!!! What the heck are they doing folded in my sweater???? Who knows. But hooray, success, thank goodness! And we drive back to the office I show everyone my keys and hold a small slightly subdued (due to embarrassment) celebration of finding my keys.

But the unfortunate events sadly do not end here. Due to my fiasco of the morning you would think I would`ve gotten Murphy`s message (Primarily being that today was the day he was out to wreck havoc on my life) i get ready to leave for the ferry to go to school at 11:10. I figure it is more than enough time to do the 10 minute drive park and get on the ferry. FALSE, well partially.
I did get to the ferry in plenty of time. I was there at 11:20. but naturally (anything that can go wrong....) the parking lot was full. Shit. I recall that my supervisor told me it was ok to park at the elementary school nearby. So I drive over there. And ahaha, the usually 2 empty parking lots are chock full of cars (....will go wrong). Double Shit. I call my supervisor explain in the best Japanese I can muster which roughly translates to this. `Now I am at Shimanaka elementary school, but there are lots of cars. ` Thankfully he takes this to mean that there is no parking and he tells me that he will call the school and see if a teacher can help me out. Ok, well that is nice, except by the time the teacher rolls out it is 11:26. She tells me (in Japanese naturally, thank goodness I understood) That I could park at the closed down middle school, she points me into the direction. I drive over, park, shout my thanks, and break out into a run to catch the ferry because it is now 11:28 and this is Japan, if the ferry is supposed to leave at 11:30, it leaves exactly at 11:30.
And so I tear around the final corner of the ferry port, I am so close that I can see the ferry and the captain. I take a quick peek at my watch. Shit. it is 11:30. So I throw my hands up in mad desperation and begin waving away like a woman gone mad and shouting in Japanese (wait! Please Wait!) and in English (I`m coming! Dont Leave, please!) And what does that good ol ferry captain do? Give me the finger, rev that engine and tear out of the port like the rude fella that he is laughing hysterically. Well almost. Maybe there was no finger. And there might have been laughing, but it could`ve been a normal laugh at something the toll collector had said (maybe/probably about the psycho foreigner [me]). And needless to say I was left standing at the gangplank watching the ferry recede at a snail pass (having half the mind to jump into the water and go swimming after it it was moving so slow.) and hoping just maybe the captain was going to pull a U-turn because yes, I was still waving my arms in the air like a crazy woman. After a few moments I realize, no they are not going to turn around. I am screwed and I better call my supervisor.
After about 7 minutes of a mixture of Japanese and English I manage to tell my supervisor that I am fine. but I am not going to Ukashima elementary because...begin english...the ship left me. confusion ensues because he thinks i am saying that I am fine, I am on the way to ukashima on the ship. Anyway, after getting all of it sorted I was told, dont worry keri, come back to the office.
And so in a pissy defeated mood I hop into the car and drive at a snail pass back to work.

And that was my Tuesday.
I was rescheduled to go to Ukashima today since I missed Tuesday, and what does my supervisor say after our ritual morning greeting. Keri-san, please ferry Ukashima...Japanese Japanese.
hang my head and say: today I will leave at 11:00.
Now not only will I always be reminded of being a safety driver, but it looks like I will also always be reminded of my need to leave extra early to make the ferry.

Japan.

Hopefully not missing the boat (Modest Mouse reference?!)
Keri

http://youtu.be/YSfTdzoO4ic