I must be getting used to life in Japan, because nothing has struck me as different this week! It was a little bit of a slower week, so you know what that meant--lots of time to STUDY!! Yippee! Actually I did fairly well--no temper tantrums and a fairly full star chart! Today at the grocery store I was looking for green peppers and must have looked rather confused, even though I had just found them, because a nice lady asked me "May I help you?" in perfect English. It may sound strange, but I was kinda flustered by her English words and said, "I think I just found what I needed. Thanks." I continued my shopping, but as I checked out I felt like I should speak more to this nice lady. I was in a bit of a hurry to get back to the aftermath of my kabocha explosion,** but I went back in and thanked her properly. As it turned out, her English wasn't that great and I had to struggle along in Japanese. She seemed very nice and asked where I lived. I explained where I lived and gave her my phone number and name. When we parted, she said something about having "lunchey" together at the park. I hope she will call! I'm not sure of the proper etiquette for asking numbers, so I didn't ask her for hers. We'll see!
**In regards to the kabocha explosion, I was making kabocha (Japanese pumpkin squash) soup and put it in the blender. Well, as quick as I hit the switch, there was sticky kabocha all over me, and all over my kitchen! Arghh! Oh well, it ended up being really good soup, depsite the mess! I continue to enjoy trying Japanese cooking and haven't cut my fingers for a long time (I hesitate to say that--I had better be careful!)