Thursday, October 21, 2010

Childhood Memories Part II

I just discovered another hidden benefit of relating childhood memories on my blog: Jazmyn Hall will have material to write for my biography. Killing two birds with one stone is really a nice way of doing things. Today we are going to go over some of my more distinct memories from my year in Japan. Yes, I did spend a year in Japan. I am still surprised by the number of people who don't know that about me; it's not like I hide that. In fact, it's pretty much the first thing I say after people learn that I am young for my year in school. But I digress.

In my sixth year (when I was five years old for those of you who are math challenged), my family decided to move to Japan. My first memory of this experience was sitting out on the lawn in our fortress of luggage waiting for the airport shuttles to come pick us up. Then we took the long ride up to the airport, where we ate at a...was it Burger King, McDonald's, or Wendy's...I'm not sure. Anyway, we ate burgers and got on the plane and went off to Japan (after stopping at Los Angeles and waiting forever in the Korean airport; never, ever take 7 kids and make them sit in a crowded airport for several hours surrounded by kids who don't even speak the same language as they do). I also remember waking up in the middle of the night that first night because of the time difference and because the humidity was unbearable. Seriously guys, for a child that had lived in Utah all his life, taking him to Japan was almost cruel and unusual punishment. That much water should not be allowed to be in the air at one time.

Anyway, the next big thing I remember is trying to get me into school. In Japan they don't do kindergarten like they do here, but I was kind of old for their preschool, and my parents didn't feel comfortable putting me in first grade in a Japanese school when I could barely say hello in Japanese. We went to several different schools, and my parents eventually decided to put me in the preschool.

And that's long enough for now. Tune in next time to hear David's tales of preschool in Japan.

No comments:

Post a Comment