no rain
It is supposedly the rainy season, but we haven’t had a drop in weeks. Today it is hot and humid and I can tell people are thinking what I’m thinking–better not complain, because if we use up all the heat adjectives before July we’ll have no superlatives left when August comes. Only the visiting Americans are complaining. Out here in the country everyone is related to a farmer, and the subtle worry is palpable. Last summer was dry and brutal, followed by stormy and brutal. What will this summer bring?
Here at school we started off summer-uniform season with a visit from students of our sister school in Kansas. It was an interesting few weeks, seeing the six American students and their chaparone reflected back at me in all the stereotypical ways, enthusiastically loud, inadvertently rude, inappropriately joking, assuming every kind of right–the right to free speech, to all the rights guaranteed in America, including the right to be right. And talk about it constantly.
All in all it was going swimmingly, and we were down to the last 4 days, and then the shit hit the fan Monday morning. Apparently over the weekend there was a party held by the Badass Host Brother of one of the KS kids, we’ll call him Annoying Little Brother. ALB and the other male students from Kansas were invited. There was alcohol. The American kids signed an agreement not to drink, so alcohol was not supposed to be a problem, and indeed apparently ALB and the oldest one didn’t drink.
It wouldn’t have been a problem at all, but the third kid (a member of some student no drugs/drink association back home) drank. In fact the third kid, we’ll call him the Flamer, apparently drank enough to throw up and pass out.
Now, that still probably wouldn’t have been a problem, except that when his teacher asked (in jest!) if he had a hangover, he was dumb enough to admit to it.
This STILL wouldn’t have been much of a problem, if said teacher had considered the difference between Japanese and American rules and attitudes regarding drinking before going straight to administration to complain about the incident, Badass Host Brother, and the very integrity of the family as hosts. And insisting that the parents be given a lecture. And that ALB be moved from BHB’s house, in fact, for the remainder of their stay (three days).
To round out a week of uncontrolled blabbering, the Flamer topped off Monday by confessing that he felt Badass’s motives were less than pure, and that in fact Badass was trying to put the moves on him after spiking his drink (which the Flamer claims he only barely sampled, accidentally of course–says it was his meds reacting to booze that made him sick enough to puke).
And so, to make a long story (one that kept me at school until 7pm) thankfully short, fusses were made, people were called, ALB was moved to another homestay family for the final three days, and the school asked anxiously whether our homestay program would continue in coming years.
Hey, I’m not saying things were going perfectly–I don’t think BHB and ALB who stayed with him were getting along very well even before Flamer opened his gob, and I’m all about people’s right to non-molestation and upholding the agreement to not drink.
But shit, man, they ratted BHB out. He threw them a party and they could have not gone or not drank, but they did and then blabbed, and then backtracked and tried to change their stories several times. So, I’m not very sympathetic to my countrymen at the moment…and I guess that’s what it comes down to. I’m embarrassed that I represent people like them, and that we could be mistaken for each other.
Guess I’m really turning Japanese, huh?
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