As I type this, it's raining like Niagara Falls and I lay awake for two hours this morning listening to the wind howl around my building. We're in the middle of a very big typhoon that arrived on land at about 2 AM this morning. I have plenty of water, a flash light and food to last me through Monday, so I'm feeling very self-sufficient. I wish this typhoon could have happened on a week day, though. Church is canceled and that's a highlight of my week. It's been a big month for typhoons. Last week school was ended 30 minutes early because three typhoons started swirling around Taiwan, 1 in the north and 2 in the south. I suggested to Clinton that we go up on the roof of our apartment building to experience it. Those only merited the level of tropical storm, but this one is a level 2 or 3 typhoon. Three is as high as the scale goes. Two days previous it was so stiflingly hot and humid, a phenomenon that heralds typhoons. I guess it makes you happy to have the storm break. The air pressure felt to me like someone was playing on my spine like it was a xylophone. You feel as if you're being squeezed. I felt like I couldn't sit still, couldn't think and the school dogs were all acting strangely, too. Weather here is much more of an event than it is in Rexburg.
I'm a little worried for my scooter and I wish I'd thought to take my rain slicker out of the seat compartment so I could have it with me. No umbrella is going to last more than a few seconds in this wind. Clinton sent me a Doppler update on the storm and I said with surprise, "It looks like a hurricane!" Turns out hurricanes and typhoons are the same thing but hurricanes turn counter clockwise and happen in the Atlantic while typhoons are Pacific. Hurricanes are usually a lot meaner, too. I guess that's why Pacific means peaceful. I think everyone else in the world knew this but me.
I've been toiling over 7 syllabi for my 20 hours of class. So few of my classes use the same book. It would be easy if I taught out of one book, or even was able to repeat lessons in the same day, but I can't here. The scheduling has been absolutely insane these past two weeks with placement and getting the right books, the right student, the right teacher all into the same classroom. I don't know why it has been such a nightmare, except that maybe they have one little Asian lady, Yvonne, doing the work that several should be doing. I've spent hours this week planning things. If the typhoon lasts through Monday, I will be very grateful.
We do have a holiday coming up: The Moon Festival on the 22nd. In preparation everyone has been giving Clinton and I and everyone else the traditional gift of a moon cake. I knew from previous experience that oriental holiday food should be treated with caution. Because 'holiday' means 'traditional' and 'traditional' means 'ancient' and 'ancient' means before germs, salmonella and calories were invented. I remember experiencing food poisoning after New Year's in Japan. Sister Mortensen and I just lay in our futons groaning and waiting for the Resurrection to come. A Moon Cake is a strange pastry that weighs about 4 pounds each. Inside there is a duck egg yolk partially cooked while the egg white has been mysteriously disseminated through the cake as it cooked. The school gave us a gorgeous, gold, be-tasseled box of them. Clinton and I looked at each other when no one was around and groaned. Nothing says "Happy Harvest Moon!" like a gelatinous brick. They come in many flavors but just what those flavors are I couldn't tell you. The filling is some kind of super thickened, unidentifiable paste. I bravely ate one in front of the office people, worrying about the digestive repercussions all the while, and then gave the rest to the apartment security team. The Moon Festival means barbecue and fireworks and no school on Wednesday as well as a retelling of the legend of the rabbit in the moon, which is what Asian's see when they look at the moon. The moon is a big deal here where the school calendar and other auspicious events and holidays are according to the lunar calendar. The ward has planned a shindig at a nearby park and then Clinton's goign to teach a bunch of us some hip hop and I'm going to Dream Mall with some of the Huang sisters and the Young Women. As far as I can tell, no one really buys anything at Dream Mall, you just go to walk around and look.
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The line break symbolizes me taking a break to head up to the roof as I heard the wind escalating and screaming like a banshee outside. I met Clinton on the stairs. He had the same thought. We went out, half scared, half excited and had the wind blow us around. The sky is one great cloud and you can only see the tops of the trees being lashed and tanged in bits of cloud. The rain doesn't fall in a regular pattern from sky to ground but in irregular patches and sheets. Sometimes it feels like its' falling up into your face. We were only there a few moments. It was hard to see with all that water in your face. Then I came back and took my shower for today, just in case the water system does get knocked out, but I don't think that it will. The storm is bad, but on the ground floor it wasn't to the point of uprooting shrubbery or blowing debris. I fetched my rain gear from my scooter in front of the complex in case Clinton and I venture out to a ward member's house today.
I'm enjoying my students a lot lately. These past two weeks have been stressful, but when I am in class, it's easy to forget about myself. I don't know if I want to be a traditional teacher, but I can see myself doing something related. I railed a bit over my confusion, over being given no objectives for most of the classes and very little direction but I'm beginning to realize that this kind of situation is an opportunity. I am so free, so unsupervised, that I can do what I like in my classes. It's a time to experiment and figure things out, to develop my own way instead of teaching along the lines of a set program/curriculum. I'm really excited for my pronunciation class. I was given no book and no guidelines, but I took two classes on phonetics and speech and I was realizing all the things, the very authentic, pertinent things I could do. Add to that the fact that the members of the class are enthusiastic, good participators and fairly bright. The class dynamic really does make or break a teacher. So, we will do some theatre, some storytelling pieces, we will do scary stories for Halloween, poetry and talk about making the sounds and what rhymes with what. I may even introduce writing a rap and talk about the rhythm of English. I didn't realize until I was in Chiba and talked to Sister Isa one day (She studies Linguistics in the States) that English speakers speak in iambic pentameter. It's going to be a blast every Monday for 2 hours.
We have a new exchange student from Mapleton, UT: One American in a sea of 10,000 Asian students (We have other foreign students but they are Vietnamese, Japanese, Mongolian, etc.) Clint and I like to play Where's Waldo, with blonde-haired, blue-eyed Nathan at the opening assembly. The first day of school was pretty fun. They had some lion dancers in brilliant colors and drums and everybody out on the field to welcome in the new freshman. Chinese cultures are pretty good when it comes to color and noise and large parties. I took pictures. Then we listened to a really long speech in the sweltering sun. All the teachers had to stand in the front and I didn't understand a word. It was really militaristic, as most things are here. While the students were standing at attention one of them fainted on the front row. They just lifted him up and put him back in line. Then they all sat cross-legged on the grass. I sympathized with the girls in their skirts. It's events like these where I realize just how huge this high school is.
I've been having a real spiritually refreshing week. I've been doing some reflecting and after I lost my cellphone I worried so much about getting up in time for school. It's my only alarm clock and since it was Sunday, I couldn't go buy another. I asked the Lord to help me wake up and the past few mornings I felt like he wakeneth mine ear with plenty of time to get ready and time to think too. I wake up thinking about my country, thinking about family. I worry for the United States. I have been reading in Helaman and it is interesting how parallel our world is with those times. We have complications and divisions among the people. It is hard to know who is right and what should be done. It's a time of secret combinations. It got to the point that Nephi gave up the judgment seat, washed his hands of political finagling to go preach the word which ended up saving Nephite society because as he and Lehi converted the Lamanites, they did what Moronihah and his army could not do. The Lamanites returned the lands they had taken and came to convert the Nephites, their old enemies. Both became wealthy and prosperous through being industrious and open trade relations. I wonder if things will ever get to that point. I have been feeling more and more that I need to serve my country somehow in my future. What does a person do? Right now, it's becoming clearer and clearer to me that one of the best things a person could do would be to have a family and raise their children in an environment of love. So many of society's problems started when people were young. Thanks again to everyone I know who has the courage to start a family. I'm sure it's such a lot of work. I know there must be sacrifice, but it has meant the world to me to have grown up the way I did. Whatever I end up doing, I'm going to be involved with youth and education and maybe in teaching English to non-native speakers.
I was thinking of the products of my having grown up the way I did. Justin, my brother-in-law (I hope I'm quoting you right) said that there are a couple of orientations to a person's thinking that is taught by parents. One is seeing the world as a bad and difficult place. The other sees the world as a generally good place. Both views seem to be correct, but I'm glad I was raised to see the world as an interesting, exciting place. My mother had done a long stretch of study abroad and served a mission in France. My father travels a lot for work and without knowing it, they taught my sisters and I to see the world as inviting and interesting. After the experiences I have had, I'm led to conclude that there are many wonderful people and hospitable places for a wanderer and a pilgrim on the earth. This has also prompted my other sisters to live far from home, to travel to distant places and to make friends with people of all different nationalities and experiences. My two younger sisters do not fear or feel uncomfortable with people who are different, with people who don't fit the norm. I admire them. I think when I was younger I was a lot more fearful.
The Huang family (not the Bishop's family, but the other family with the daughters who are in college and speak English and Japanese) have been good as gold. We comfortably sit and watch Taiwanese TV together to keep from feeling awkward about not talking. They are the ones who were so entertained when I climbed their fence a few weeks ago). As soon as I got back from Japan, they invited me over for dinner again and as usual sent me home with something to eat. (This time: a dried fruit called 'dragon eyes' which will make your nose bleed if you eat too many.)Mrs. Huang has shown a mother's heart and really taken me in. She asked how my parents could bear to send one of the children off to a distant country where they wouldn't know if she was safe or comfortable. I told them about my parents' belief in God and that I knew they prayed for me and trusted Him to watch over me. Michelle translated this to her. Many people here and in Japan see the world as a difficult and dangerous place. I'm glad I was shown by example not to live in fear but to live by faith. By the way, my parents have been wonderfully cool about things like typhoons, motorcycle accidents, not to mention my little sister Suzanne's escapades whiel she was studying a semester in Vishakhnaputnam, India. Many of my Japanese companions, knowing the haphazard, absent-minded way I live, are sure that I can't even tie my shoes by myself. One of them admitted to me recently that as she put me on a bus for Kumamoto, she was worried and thought, "Poweru Shimai na node daijoubu kana" (Because it's Sister Powell, is she going to be okay I wonder). I replied, "Ochitsuite! tenshitachi wa dokodemo irassharanai no?" (Calm down! Aren't there angels everywhere?) I told them all that I was living proof that angels look after you even when you are not a missionary.
I remember a fireside that was given for the youth on New Years a few years ago. There were several musical numbers and then one talk by Elder Holland. He told the youth that it was still a wonderful and exciting time to be alive, that there would be wonders to come in our lives. The world may seem like a frightening and wicked place, but the earth is still a miraculous and fascinating place, too.
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That line break represents the last four hours in which I received a text message from Yvonne that school is canceled tomorrow. Clinton and I donned our rain suits and went out splashing into the typhoon. Then we walked to the Huang family cram school where we invited in, played a game of monopoly, talked a lot and were fed. I came home to have Brother Chen, who served a mission in America and who owns a noodle shop in Fong Shan there with two beautiful cakes for the he-giraffe and I and best of all, they were lovely Western cream cheese cakes and not moon cakes! I love typhoons! Everybody needs a break sometimes. That's all for now. This next week I'll try to write a little more or a little better. I realized avter reading my last email that my writing needs work. I know about things like sentence variation, transitions and organization, not to mention spelling. I just need to edit.
Oh, President, as for Elders Yamaguchi and Ogawa, I asked about both of them while I was in Japan. Sister Kawano said they were genki and she sees them from time to time but I never ran into them. I did see Elder Kanemaru who died while I was a young missionary. I think he started his mission with President Eyring. He is a great member of his ward and a fun guy.
That's all I've got for now.
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