12.31.2005

More about Doughboys!

Thanks to an alert reader, we now know more about doughboys!

From: Doughboy Center: The Story of the American Expeditionary Forces
 
For us today, and maybe for all Americans who will follow, the Doughboys were the men America sent to France in the Great War, who licked Kaiser Bill and fought to make the world safe for Democracy.
 
The expression doughboy, though, was in wide circulation a century before the First World War in both Britain and America, albeit with some very different meanings. Horatio Nelson's sailors and Wellington's soldiers in Spain were both familiar with fried flour dumplings called doughboys, the predecessor of the modern doughnut that both we and the Doughboys of World War I came to love. Because of the occasional contact of the two nation's armed force and transatlantic migration, it seems likely that this usage was known to the members of the U.S. Army by the early 19th century.
 
Independently, in the former colonies, the term had come to be applied to baker's young apprentices, i.e. dough-boys. Again, American soldiers probably were familiar with this usage. This version of doughboy was also something of a distant relative to "dough-head", a colloquialism for stupidity in 19th Century America. When doughboy was finally to find a home with the U.S. Army it would have a disparaging connotation, used most often by cavalrymen looking down [quite literally] on the foot-bound infantry.
 
In examining the evolution of doughboy these pre-existing streams of application need to be kept in mind. There is, however, an absence of literary citations clearly connecting either to the American miliary. Doughboy as applied to the infantry of the U.S. Army first appears, without any precedent that can be documented, in accounts of the Mexican-American War of 1846-47.
 
But wait, there's more!! For more information on the history  and origin of the "doughboy," visit this site
.

12.30.2005

Catalina Island, California



My girlfriend Gilda and I took a catamaran out to Catalina Island today. We were prepared to pay $50 each for the roundtrip boat trip. Instead, a good samaritan gave us two free tickets as we waited in line. We will certainly pay it forward in the future. The ride out was a little bumpy, but nothing two water lovers couldn't handle.

Upon arrival to the island, we went to the bike rental shop and took out an 18-speed tandem bike to conquer the hills above Avalon. It turns out those are off limits for tandems, but we still had a whole day of exploring. I had ambitions of circumnavigating the island, but when I learned that the island is about 1/2 the size of LA, we decided to save that journey for another day (or week more like it!) It takes some coordination and communication to stay balanced on tandem bike. Good practice for couples!

We trudged up the gradual valley grade to the Wrigley Memorial Botanical Garden. Yup, the same person whose name graces the friendly confines of the Chicago Cubs. Turns out he owned the whole island during the 20s and into the 30s.

Then we coasted down the slope to the world famous Casino. It's no Monte Carlo, but the Casino is the landmark of Avalon. Gilda and I learned that the Casino on the island isn't a place of gambling, but just a meeting/entertaining place that is true to its definition in Italian.

We found some cozy cafes to enjoy tea, chai, cold french fries, buffalo burgers, and ice cream. Gilda and I both share the favorite flavor of butter pecan! Overall it was a very special day. A unique way to close out 2005: sharing a special moment with someone you love on an isolated island from the #2 metropolis in the USA. 2006 here we come!

12.29.2005

A visit to my hometown

A visit to my hometown
A visit to my hometown,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.
Yesterday I visited Naperville, Illinois. It is my hometown. This is a memorial to the "doughboys" of World War One. I don't know what a doughboy is. Maybe it is someone who went to fight in that war. This statue is right next to the train station, not the centre of town. Naperville has grown from 40,000 in 1983 when my family moved there from Venezuela to over 140,000 in 2005. It has been a fun week in the Chicago area. Today I fly to Los Angeles!

12.19.2005

this is an audio post - click to play

Bed Head KGJH

Bed Head KGJH
Bed Head KGJH,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.
This is the "in" style of haircut at school. Short hair gets texture with styling gel. In junior high I sculpted one side of my hair straight back while the other flopped over. Now I'm embarrassed about my lack of style back then. Will the "crazy bed heads" of Japan feel the same way? Check back to this blog in 2017 to find out!

A Snowy Kyoto Morning

A Snowy Kyoto Morning
A Snowy Kyoto Morning,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.
A fresh white blanket... The morning sun slowly climbs... A clock is ticking

12.09.2005

this is an audio post - click to play

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District
Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.
I visited the Japanese urban phenomenon of Dotombori tonight. I desparately needed to get out after a week of home-school-home and cold weather. There's nothing like neon lights to get you stimulated again! I went on a ferris wheel that surrounds a buiding here. It offers great views of the neon signs that line the pedestrian mall. I think the signs are so impressive because the streets are so narrow: the line of sight is so narrow, businesses keep moving up and up to get the best line of sight. The result is an exciting night out. However, I wouldn't want to live in this neighborhood. I'd never get any sleep!

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District
Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District
Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District
Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District

Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District
Dotombori: Osaka's Neon District,
originally uploaded by fuzzyjefe.

Finals at the Junior High

Right now its finals at the junior high. Reflecting the Japanese value
of group unity, students are organized into 45-member classes. They
travel from subject to subject with the same members of their class.
At finals, the entire grade of 180 students takes the same subject
test at the same time. Naturally the teacher of that subject cannot be
in 4 classrooms at once, so we have proctors in four classrooms and
the subject teachers stay in the faculty room. The subject teacher's
responsibility is to visit each classroom and see if the students have
any questions. Usually students' "questions" are covert attempts to
get outright answers. So far, I've been hip to their tricks. Because
my Japanese is not so good, I don't proctor the exams. Parents have
been concerned in the past that their child won't get the help they
need if the English teacher doesn't have the language to explain a
concept. I'd agree with them. Meanwhile, it makes for a slow day. But
it is nice to be on the other side of the test, where all my work is
done (except for grading) and the onus is on the students to perform.
Japanese classes don't have the discussion/interaction that American
classrooms do, so the teacher must take the floor for the entire class
period. Not my idea of learning, but I'm not here to change things.

12.07.2005


I took this photo on the same roll as the tree child below. Many people love to take walks and see the fall foliage in the Imperial Gardens. Others read or share a moment with loved ones. This photo shows all three coming together. A couple flirts with a camera phone in the background. Is the single girl dreaming of someone as she reads? Is the older man remembering his youthful days of romance? A photograph inspires the video camera of the mind to take over. Each viewer directs the scene with their own memories and dreams.

Food, Finals, and Fun!

Its Wednesday again, but I'm going to spare you the details of the faculty meeting. Not that it was so bad or long, but just that it was unexpectedly short so there's nothing of consequence to rave or rant about.

Classes have finished and finals have started. Its my first time to be on the other end of finals. This time I'm making the test instead of taking it. So far I've learned that the days get less busy for teachers during finals. Proctors administrate the tests instead of the teachers themselves. This is because 4, 45-student classes take the test at the same time. My role is to check in halfway through and see if students have any questions. After the 45 minute test period, me and my co-teacher get 200 tests to hand grade. Now I see why teachers design multiple-choice tests to grade on Scan-Tron sheets: grading convenience! But it took me about 3 hours to grade 180 tests. Some multiple choice, some open entry. Enough of this testing mumbo-jumbo, let's get to some Japanese culture.

Winter is here! It snowed on Monday night, but it melted as it hit the road. I only noticed the snow from someone's shaded lawn in the morning. My heating unit is mounted about 8 feet up on my wall. I know the Japanese are excellent planners, but if hot air rises, there's not too much further for the heat to go before it lingers on the ceiling and escapes my cold feet. But then again there's another nifty invention called the こたつ"kotatsu" which is a blanket-rimmed coffee table with a heater underneath it. Talk about efficiently warm tootsies! So Yao Ming can enjoy my heater while I take the kotatsu! Meanwhile I'm wearing my Navy Pea Coat, skull cap, brown crusher, and woven scarf to ward off the winter cold. My students are wearing the thin coats of their uniforms and few other accoutrements. What are the Japanese eating to make their blood so thick? Don't tell me its 納豆 (nattoo, fermented soybeans). I don't think I'm ready for that yet. In Jamaica, all the kids tested my toughness by asking me if I eat "spring chicken" which I learned was frogs's legs. Considering that I'd eaten snake and rat in Benin, West Africa, I wouldn't rule out eating an amphibian. Nevertheless, I didn't eat frogs legs while in Jamaica. Here in Japan, its nattoo. I'm told you either love it or hate it. Either way, the smell is strong. Somedays I'm greeted with the smell as I enter the faculty room at school by a teacher who eats it at her desk which is adjacent to the entrance. So far I'm not enticed.

One thing I have gone out on a limb to try is 生卵 (nama tamago, raw egg with soy sauce and rice). I was introduced to it when I was WWOOFing it in the hills above Toyama. My hosts had a free-range organic chicken farm, so the eggs were fresh each day. I've been conditioned to believe that raw eggs carry salmonella or whatever, so at the time I was torn between trying something new and fearing repurcussions from it after. I balked at eating the nama tamago at the farm, but on Monday I took a free-range egg and cracked it over my steaming 嫌前(gen mae, brown rice), added some soy sauce, stirred it up, and wolfed it down. The egg is more of a binding agent than a flavor enhancer, so it didn't taste that bad. I'm not having it every night yet, but maybe again.

Okay, big tangent there. Sorry. It will be just two now before I fly Chicago for Christmas with the family. All the siblings are coming to Chicago to celebrate. I don't think we've been together for Christmas since 2002. Its been so long, I'm not even sure. But its certainly something to look forward to. The blogs will continue from Chicago. I think the reentry and pause moments of international living are just as insightful as the immersion ones. For example, I don't think I've learned a lot of Japanese over the past 4 months. But perhaps when I fly back to Japan on January 6th, I'll realize how much I know. And that goes for cultural insight too. I don't think I've grasped too much, but coming back again I'll get a new perspective. I will be missing one of the festive times of year: Christmas and New Years. Christmas in Japan is celebrated a little bit differently than in other countries. Perhaps next year.

In the next week, I'll try to take a trip into Osaka or somewhere else of cultural significance to have another story to tell you. Thanks for keeping in touch with me through the blog!

Countries I have visited

Where I've been in the USA