Field Conference

First, my apologies to those of you who were not expecting me to fall off the face of the planet. I am sorry, I truly am... the hotel didn't have easily accessible internet so I wasn't able to update as I wished. However I'll make up for it by giving you a Moby Dick of a blog post. On Monday we woke up bright and early (for me, that is) to catch to 9 o' clock train to Haneda airport. Twas a bit stressful for me since I have never been in such a busy train station, but I think I'll get the hang of it quite soon. Once at Haneda we loaded onto an airplane full of OMFers heading for Sapporo for the OMF Japan conference. The flight was a sweet 1 and 1/2 hours :) fairly bearable so soon after a 12 hour flight. We landed at Chitose airport and met up with some more OMFers to take a 1 and a 1/2 hour bus ride to the hotel. Let me tell you, if you want to see beautiful, lush mountains, go to Hokkaido in the summer time. It's absolutely lovely. We arrived at the hotel in late afternoon hours, and I was promptly in awe. This hotel was THE swankiest hotel I have ever seen. Chandeliers, marble everything, mirrors and bedazzlements everywhere...it was like a palace! Even more to my surprise were the rooms, which had classic tatami mats and futons instead of beds. Supa cool. Anywho, I met my roommate, Winnie (we're chums :D) who is from Hong Kong, and went to the main meeting where we all introduced ourselves and so on and so forth. After that I went swimming with the other girls doing under 3s childcare, Katie and Jesse. I am so thankful for those two... I had a wonderful week spending time with them and getting to know them. So sad to have had to say goodbye so soon :( On Tuesday, we had a full day of baby-sitting from 8:30-12:15 and from 1:30 to 4. Needless to say we were quite pooped, yet me and Katie gathered up the energy to head out for a bit of exploring with Winnie. It was well worth our while though, because we happened upon a path which led down to a great little secluded beach area along the river. It was close to sunset so everything looked absolutely peachy and nice, so we decided the next day during free time we would go for a swim. On Wednesday after a morning of childcare we gathered some friends and headed down to the river, though sadly the sun was not shining quite as sunnily as it had the day before. We were not deterred however and all summoned the strength to plunge into the icy waters of the river. Now to understand just how icy this water is, you need to know that for the majority of a Hokkaido year, there is at least 1 meter of snow on the ground at all times. let that sink in Pennsylvanians. 1 meter. is tame. Remember that 4 foot snowstorm that shut the whole state down? Sapporo residents powder their noses with 4 feet of snow. 5 feet? sugar on a funnel cake. 6 feet? a bad case of dandruff. Basically, nothing to sneeze at. Now that you have that picture in your head, you can fully appreciate how blessedly brave we were to enter that river. I shall take the applause now and later, thank you very much. After our plunge, all of us ladies headed up to the Onsen for a good soak in reward of our exploits. After experiencing onsen, I've decided that I will slowly squirrel away money until I have 1 million dollars with which to build my own. I am fully convinced that heaven will be 50% onsen and 50% strawberry tres leches. Where will the throne of God fit, you might ask? why, in the onsen, for there is no more blessed throne than that of a steaming hot marble pool. Need I go on? onsen is great. Wednesday night the young adults played Dutch Blitz and also some Jungle Speed, which I think is a game that the armies of the UK use to toughen the ninnies among them. I'll leave its contents to your imagination. :D Thursday was a full (and rather difficult) day full of childcare, as the children were tired and fed up with being stuck in a room with strangers who deceived them into thinking their mums would be back soon and toys they'd already drooled on. Thankfully that night we had a wonderful time playing Dutch Blitz, Never Have I Ever, and Jungle Speed so it ended up being a good day :) Friday was our last day. At the end of the last session they called all the helpers in and thanked us and gave out sweet little thank you gifts, so we felt very appreciated :) lastly we had lunch in the fancy restaurant and those of us leaving Hokkaido boarded the bus to Chitose. While waiting for our planes we got in a few last minute Dutch Blitz games and then parted ways :( Very sad to meet so many wonderful new people and then have to say goodbye, but that's the life of a short termer so I suppose I'll have to get used to it :/ Anyways, on a happy note, enjoy these pictures! The rest will be loaded on Facebook :)

Last but not least, the promised discussion about toilets. I have made further discoveries into this realm, this time concerning public toilets. While using the restroom in Haneda Airport, I took the time to do some light reading a.k.a examining the numerous buttons found on the side of one's toilet- often times they resemble R2D2 more than a human waste receptical- and I happened upon a button which read "Flushing sound" with a little music note. Now of course I had to try this button... but I'm not sure what kind of tom-foolery I was expecting, because it did indeed just make the sound of a toilet flushing, without actually doing the job. Of course I wonder to myself, why the need for such a feature? And then the pure genius of it comes to me; how many times would shame and embarrassment in the public sphere have been avoided if only one had had the option of drowning out certain noises? how many times would a person have had a relaxing, relieving experience rather than a stressed experience of walking on eggshells, so to speak? The answer is uncountable. Truly, the Japanese have mastered the art of the toilet. Hats off, kudasai.