saru wa haato o nusumimashita (a monkey stole my heart)....

Yesterday, I played with monkeys at the Nagasaki bio-park. I also played with large rodent like animals, but I forgot what they are called and am too lazy to look it up right now. Who knew that exotic petting zoos could be so much fun though?? A thorougly enjoyable day the only downside to which was watching the horrendeous movie `the Holiday` and cringeing at it`s complete stupidity. Figures that the first movie I see in a theater in like 6 months has to be of the sort that makes you want to throw yourself down a steep flight of stairs. Ah well, the day still had a lot more good than bad in it -- how can a day with monkeys not?

Today I came back to work after a week off due to an eye infection and was greeted by a standing ovation! I have to say, nothing makes you feel quite as special as a room full of people clapping at you and congratulating you on basically being sick for a week. Things, I will miss.

It is the end of the Japanese school year over here as well so we are getting a bunch of new people at the center and losing some old ones. One of my favourite collegues is moving departments but she will still be in the same building. We promised to keep up our language exchange. Today she taught me the word `nusumu` and I in turn taught her the English translation, which is `to steal`. The explanation was done entirely through sign language. Since this co-worker is my gossip buddy I explained to her that in English we have an expression for falling in love using that verb, i.e. `he stole my heart`. She pointed out that you can say the same thing in Japanese with `nusumu`. Then she looked off into the distance kinda sadly and said that she wished someone would steal her heart, and that she had even left `the door open` to make it easier. She said this in Japanese and both her delivery and the methapor were quite comical. I responded that my heart was by contrast a high security facility, with nothing short of a high powered laser having any chance of getting through. Of course, any wit this might have contained was ruined by the fact that I had to gesture, mime, and draw diagrams in order to explain all that. I think she may have been left with the impression that I spent time in jail and that my heart shoots laser beams....the joys of communication.

Driving to the center today I noticed a few cherry blossoms on the trees finally. Hopefully that means the sakura will be in full bloom by this coming weekend!