Can you say "um" in more than one language?

This one caught me by surprise at language school. During a class my teacher told me if I could say "eeto" instead of "um" I'd sound much more Japanese. And, of course, she was right. You can also say "aaaah" or "air-". Now they've become so natural that I even sometimes say these things when speaking in Engliah.

Other words that creep into my native language are exclamations like "ahre?" and "e?" (Short sound). 

I just Googled "Japanese interjections" and got a great page: http://lang-8.com/168601/journals/947474/ I'm surprised at how many I use or know the gist of. 

So, how many languages can you say "um" in?

Quick wrestling update

Quick update on yesterday's wrestling feast. It was a smaller meet, seven schools instead of last Saturday's twelve. But still we watched our team in more than 45 bouts. 

Because it was a smaller meet, and because it was held much closer (only about 40 minutes to get there, longer on the way home), we're feeling less exhausted today. Making it home for dinner last night made a big difference. Way better than last week.

Our son only had four bouts this time and he won them all. Three fairly easily (one pin and two technical falls meaning our son got 10 points more than his opponent and means the bout is called off at that moment) but the other was close and difficult to watch. 

Me and Renee, a new member of staff, mother of another
wrestler and friend at wrestling yesterday.
Her son is a champion cross-country
runner, so they know about spending weekends at
sporting events.  We spent NYE with her and her
family. So wonderful to have other mums around to help
support each other while we watch our kids wrestle.
Oh, they live not far away (300m) and were our lift to
and from the meet yesterday.

Here's the drama: he quickly pinned this guy when he met him in December. Last week they wrestled for a full six minutes and our son was beaten on points. So yesterday was like a tie breaker. 

This kind of repeated meeting of wrestlers who are closely matched are interesting to see played out over the weeks. Last time this happened for our son was in eighth grade. He wrestled the same guy (I called him JK) four times in four meets. They won two each. It was, again, gut wrenching to watch and live through, but it was also very good for them both. It pushed them to become better wrestlers. I hope it will be the same this time as I'm sure they'll meet again.

The gold medal winner of last Saturday for this weight class didn't wrestle yesterday, we don't know why. He's going to be a significant challenge. His team is scheduled to wrestle ours on Wednesday, so we'll see if our son gets a chance to take him on then.

I loved this sight: our son talking with one of CAJ's former students, teachers, and
member of the wrestling team and coach. He lives close by but now works at another
 international school, but obviously has still has strong connections in the CAJ community.
He also has a real heart for young people and loves wrestling.

Our son receiving the gold medal for his weight class, which
only contained five people yesterday.

Painless Dentist

This hangs in the waiting room over the desk.

Today's ordinary life included over an hour waiting at the "painless dentist" this afternoon (plus more than an hour of commuting). This is our middle son's orthodontist. 

Orthodontic treatment is uncommon enough in Japan that this one out in the "burbs" needs to also do regular dental work.

I don't know what else to say, except that I think that "painless" is a little optimistic . . . our son who hates medication has just come and asked for some painkillers after our visit.

Wrestling at CAJ last night

Well, it was wrestling again last night. This time a treat: an at-home dual*. Not only is there no commute for a home meet, but more people from school come. On Saturday we were just a small island of supporters, four sets of parents and a team of about 15 wrestlers, two coaches, four managers, and a handful of siblings (but a lot bigger than the Queensland team at the Australian National Championships last year). Oh, and there were two alumni team members (they wrestled for CAJ two years ago as seniors).

But last night, we had other members of the school community come, and it was wonderful. I talked and talked and talked about wrestling.

Last night I also spent a lot of time explaining rules and scoring to people around me. I can't believe I've ended up something of a minor expert‽

But I also had a headache, one that started at lunchtime and got worse as the day went on. By 9.30, after we got home, I crashed. Good thing, because that much adrenaline can be bad for getting to sleep! The other good thing was that David didn't have a headache, because he stayed up until 11 with our middle son while he finished an assignment due today (grrrr).

Wrestling is exhausting. I'm talking about me here. It is gut-wrenching to watch. Never mind that this sport is so strenuous that that each wrestler only has two-three minute periods to win or lose. Spectating isn't for wimps. The match starts out with a handshake and a whistle, then what looks like girls on a playground reaching out to one another trying to get an advantageous hold. Then suddenly they're lurching this way and that, one wrestler is underneath, then the other with not even a breath in between. The opponent is scoring points too fast and you're shouting "be careful" or your wrestler is on top and you're screaming "that's it, you can do it", then it reverses again and they're on the bottom. The speed can be tremendous. Three referees watch the two competitors, because there's so much to see.

Then you look at the score and there's only 30 seconds left, and the points aren't going your way and you yell again. My heart is out there on the mat, and I can't but help holding my breath as he grapples and strains and manoeuvres. The worst for a parent is when you see your child in a position where he or she is about to be pinned (shoulder blades both on the mat).

Our son seems to be skilled at looking like he's in trouble when he really isn't, or maybe only just a little. He's a magician at getting out of tricky spots. One of the other dads of the team said they find him hard to watch because so often he looks like he's about to go down and then he suddenly reverses it. It happened numerous times last night and he only wrestled for less than four minutes. I'm a little bit used to it because it happens so often, but still the stress gets at you!

It isn't just the watching of the wrestling, it is the anticipation of what is to come, the hours leading up to it can be worse than watching. Excitement coloured by nervousness of what I'm about to witness. I'm generally far more nervous than him. 

Our son getting set-up for his final move that won, a leg-lace,
where you grasp your opponent's legs and roll them over 360 degrees,
getting two points every time you do so. He did it twice and gained a margin of
10 points over his opponent and won the match.

I really wish I could find a chill pill for this sickness. A win brings with it an adrenaline rush. That's the addictive side. A loss brings a rush of disappointment. On a whole I feel like I'm on a rocky boat, all the time trying to keep a calm demeanour so that other people don't know how truly sick I am. A mother addicted to watching wrestling!?!

Our team did really well last night, it is always great to follow the team through the season and see the wrestlers, particularly the newer ones, improve in confidence and skills. Oh, and our son won too. Not in his preferred way (a pin), but he won. Possibly more important, he (and the rest of the league) has been given a 2-pound allowance meaning he only has to be 150 pounds (68kg) before a meet, not 148. That is closer to the weight he was prior to the season starting, so less stressful for us all.

What I'm again loving is the camaraderie with other wrestling mums (see my previous post called Wrestling Mums Club). We can commiserate about the agonies of watching our boys try to keep their weight down and suffering their moods. We can celebrate wins together and support one another when our kids lose. And we can talk about those more intimate things that we can't believe we're having to have conversations with our kids about . . . I could give you an example, but I don't want to embarrass anyone here.

Next meet is in two sleeps and it's another big one with two key differences: nine schools instead of fourteen and the venue is less than an hour away instead of two hours. Can't wait.

*A dual is when two teams go up against one another: each weight class in turn. So our team's 148 wrestler vs their 148 wrestler. Last Saturday was an individual tournament where all the wrestlers were grouped into their weight classes and wrestled off against one another. 

Three common Japanese things

1. Onigiri

Japanese rice balls. As common as sandwiches in Western countries, these are a cheap filling snack or meal. These ones are wrapped so the seaweed is separate to the rice till you open it. Ingenious. The seaweed isn't soggy. They cost me less than a dollar each. Onigiri were close to the top of the list of things that the boys missed about Japan while in Australia.

2. Hot drinks in vending machines (discerned by whether the price is displayed on red or blue background). 
Very common this time of year. I took this in a supermarket car park and had a choice of four different machines to photograph. There were more down the road. Japan has a staggering number of vending machines, especially drink, but a number of other things as well. Apparently more than 5.5 million!

3. Cute traffic barriers. 
It is very common to see various animal or other cute likenesses on traffic barriers. Not sure why! These two photos were taken from the same vantage point on my ride this morning. 

I do have a life outside of wrestling

Today's challenge, can I write a blog post that isn't about wrestling? It's been five days since I last did that . . .

I made these empanadas with left-over
chili mince for dinner last week. They
made great transportable food for Saturday.

I'm also in the middle of magazine matters. In the last week I've been finishing up the editing on the winter issue which is a five year anniversary issue. This March it's five years since Japan's triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear). We've got some great articles about what God's done since that time through his people. The designers are about to take ahold of the content and do their thing, so I'm moving on to other things, like:

• thinking about the cover of that issue
• starting the ball rolling on the spring issue (receiving proposals this week and next)

Plus other non-magazine things like . . . oh, I can't mention wrestling, can I?

But truly, I do have a life outside wrestling. Sometimes it is hard to concentrate on, but it's there. I've:

• answered emails from across the world, people wanting to know about or get involved in mission in Japan. Since the start of this year I've received emails from people in Malaysia, South Africa, Afghanistan/Germany (same person, not sure of the story), US/China, Canada, Cameroon, and Singapore
• kept the family larder stocked, and food on the table (that included a bunch of stuff including breakfast, that we took with us for our all-day marathon on Saturday)
• put boys to bed when they were too tired to make the decision for themselves
• got boys out of bed when they were too tired to do it
• folded washing, washed up dishes, and other usual household tasks
• done exercise
• gone to a couple of prayer meetings
• yesterday I spent several hours with parents from 11th grade over a potluck lunch, getting to know one another and having fun.
• started organising the hospitality room for the 30th when CAJ is hosting five other schools for a sporting event that I'm not going to mention...

Oh, and this afternoon I've had a massage, haircut, and a coffee at a local shopping centre. That's helped with the fatigue from the weekend.

Off balance

I fear that I'm headed down this path again: Conversation Bore. 

I'm a mama bear with a muddled head who is having trouble talking (or listening) to other people about other things at the moment. I'm usually a reasonable conversationalist (I think) and am usually pretty emotionally stable. Wrestling season messes with my relational and emotional antennae. It actually scares me a little bit. I'm not used to being this off balance.

Here are some people who may feel similar to me today,
I'm not sure. These are some of the CAJ parents who sat through
the 10 hours of wrestling on Saturday. (I've blanked out our son
and another child's face, I don't post photos of our kids here
on my blog).

On the edge of ordinary? Yes, I feel that right now. Perhaps more on the edge than usual? Five and a half more weeks of this season and things will begin to right themselves again. In the meantime, if you come across me in person, you may not find me quite as I usually am. Perhaps you'll want to give me a wide berth until mid-February? Your choice, don't say you weren't warned.