Life on the N7

Life on the N7, has simply been heaven (rhyme not intended, I swear). In all seriousness, there are way too many wonderful things to share here, but I'll throw some of the highlights of my week at you for good measure. :)

For the past week, I've been working with the nurse aids Nakano san and Nishimura san on the North 7th floor. They're both great and usually laugh as they say "wakaranai!" ("you don't understand") when I look blank faced. Today, Nishimura san spent 40 minutes trying to explain to me that the vegetable that's used to make wasabi grows near clean water. I had to get her to write it down so I could look it up at home after.

I am becoming more comfortable speaking with patients and I'm very happy that I am; they're all so wonderful! They really appreciate my efforts speaking Japanese and always say "sugoi!" "amazing!" when I can understand and answer. They also understand when I say "I don't understand" and nod and say "Nihongo wa muzikashii desu." "Japanese is difficult". I also hear all of the "ganbatte kudasai" "please keep working hard".

ALSO, I experienced THE strangest of things today. There is a Russian patient at the hospital who speaks absolutely astounding Japanese, Russian of course and yet hardly any English. She's lived here for 10 years now and it is so strange seeing a blonde haired Western looking woman but having to speak in Japanese for us to communicate. The weirder thing is that she has a 7 year old daughter who speaks Russian, Japanese and is learning English. Watching this little munchkin run around speaking Japanese to staff (with much less difficulty than me) was the oddest thing! I spoke with her what I could manage in Japanese and gave her a Canadian pin to keep. She gave me a pencil. I'd say it was a fair trade. Her mom says we'll go for sushi when she leaves the hospital!

Over the last few days I've also become more comfortable with the nursing staff. They practice speaking English with me (I've inspired one of the nurses to practice more because I study Japanese "very eagerly" she says). One of the nurses today said I was "omoshiroii desu" which means "interesting". I later figured out she actually meant "unique" but I think it was her nice way of saying "this Canadian chick is weird".

The "Lattitude lunches" that run every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30 with the Fureai Center staff are the BEST. They practice speaking English and can't get enough of the variety of pictures I've brought with me to Japan. One of the women really likes to ask "What do you like in a man?!" to everyone. We then discovered the English word "bald", which quickly followed "YOU IS BALD!". We've made plans to see a Fukuoka Hawks baseball game (I'm missing my Jays!) soon. I'm the most excited! Worth noting: the current short stop for the Blue Jays, Munenori Kawasaki, used to play for the Fukuoka Hawks What's up?!

This evening I helped at another TOEFL English study class at 7pm at the Hospital. I got a free sandwich and drink too which was excellent timing considering I didn't have dinner. Amazing! Today we practiced pronouncing the 'L', 'R' and 'V' sounds that aren't in the Japanese language and difficult for Japanese speakers to say. Keiko san, the leader of the class drew some fantastic photos to help. :)


A final wonderful thing to mention, I've shown my interest in observing surgeries to Ogata san, the head nurse of the OR, and now she's given me permission to stop by every Wednesday and Friday afternoon to observe! What an amazing opportunity! So tomorrow I'll be in the OR again watching and learning, weee!

Finally (if you've made it this far), golden week starts tomorrow in Japan! I've used 3 of my 10 vacation days to secure 10 days in a row off from work (April 29th, May 3rd and 6th are national holidays). Myself and two other volunteers that I met at the Tokyo Orientation, Michelle and Heather, are going to visit Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo! I'm really excited. Iizuka...I love ya, but you're a calm and collected laid back city and I'm ready for the hustle and bustle of the craziness that is Japan. Here we GO!