I opened my email this morning to find a lovely email from United Families Canada President, Jill Calhoon. I don't know if it was related to my post on Sunday, but at any rate, if it was, somehow they assumed I was against gay marriage. Oh, little did they realize my feelings on the subject. And they really didn't. So, I wrote them a letter, and emailed it. Here is the lovely letter/action alert I received in my inbox:

"Action Alert
March 28, 2006
An Urgent Invitation to Help Restore Marriage in Canada

Dear Fellow Canadian:

United Families Canada is launching the Restore Marriage Canada Project with the goal of restoring traditional marriage in our nation. This will not be easy, and we will need the help of hundreds of thousands of concerned Canadians like you to accomplish it.

You are receiving this invitation to join in this effort because you have participated on the marriage issue in one or more of the projects or activities that United Families Canada has sponsored in recent years. If you do not want to receive future alerts and updates from us on the marriage crisis, you can easily “unsubscribe” from our list by clicking here, but we hope you will decide to join us in this effort to restore traditional marriage in Canada.

It is essential to understand first of all that there is nothing more important than restoring traditional marriage in determining what kind of nation and society we will pass on to future generations of Canadians. Radically redefining marriage to include same-sex individuals undermines this vital institution. Throughout history, marriage between a man and a woman has been essential to forming strong families. Strong families, in turn, have always been the foundation of all successful societies. We ignore these lessons of history at our peril.

With the recent election of a Conservative Government, we have a chance—probably our last chance--to revisit the legalization of same-sex “marriage” that the Liberal Government rammed through Parliament last year without holding fair, balanced, honest and adequate hearings to consider all of the consequences of this radical redefinition of this fundamental institution.

As you will recall, Prime Minister Harper made revisiting the issue of legalization of same-sex “marriage” a key election issue and he has committed to at least bring the issue before Parliament for a free vote. It will not be easy for the government to win this vote, even though opinion polls consistently show that a solid majority of Canadians oppose legal same-sex “marriage.” One of the reasons he will have difficulty, of course, is that he was only able to form a minority government.

We all have an opportunity to make a difference, to be heard, and to exercise our rights in a democracy. For the sake of our future we must do it on this issue. This is why it is so essential that all of us concerned about our future pitch in and do whatever we can to help. We will provide you with information and opportunity to be part of the process.

One critical thing each of us can do to help is to sign the new, on-line National Restore Marriage Petition we will be sending to Parliament. Click here to go to the Restore Marriage Canada Website to sign it. It is essential that our MPs know that the majority of us still feel strongly about restoring marriage and receiving this petition with tens of thousands of signatures on it will help!

The second important thing you can do is to help spread the word to others and encourage them to also get involved in this effort. You can easily do this by forwarding this alert on to others. Or, if you wish, you can use the special feature on our Web site to send a suggested e-mail message from you to others on your e-mail list.

Our Restore Marriage Web site also has additional background information on the marriage issue and why it is so vital that we restore traditional marriage to Canada.

We do not know when the Prime Minister will try to revisit the same–sex “marriage” issue. He has said only that he will do it “sooner rather than later but not right away.” That means we could be having this critical vote within the next couple of months, so we must act urgently!

Thank you for joining us in this vital effort!

Sincerely,

Jill Cahoon
President, United Families Canada"



And here, ladies and gentleman, is my reply:

Au contraire, Madame President,

While I do feel the institution of marriage is threatened in current
Canadian society, I do not feel that same-sex marriage is threatening
in the slightest. That two people should be able to marry and build a
home or family together is a right I believe that heterosexual couples
are no more entitled to than their homosexual neighbours.

In fact, I think the people who pose the greatest threat to the
institution of marriage today are heterosexual couples who carelessly
enter into this legal union, with little or no understanding of what it will
involve. It has never been two men or two women who have eroded
matrimony, but people who have taken vows that they never intended to
keep.

Heterosexual infidelity is, in my opinion, far higher and
well-documented than homosexual infidelity, and if anything,
homosexual couples have actually fought for this right, and value it
more highly than many heterosexual couples. In addition, spousal
abuse in heterosexual couples is extremely high; the statistics are
sickening no matter how you view them:

-One-quarter of all women have experienced violence at the hands of
their current or past marital partner (includes common-law unions)
-One-in-six currently married women reported violence by their
spouses; one-half of women with previous marriages reported violence
by a previous spouse
-More than one-in-ten women who reported violence in a current
marriage have at some point felt their lives were in danger

Source: Statistics Canada. The Daily, Thursday, November 18, 1993.
http://www.womanabuseprevention.com/html/statistics.html

Attempting to strengthen and promote the union of marriage in Canada
without addressing the issues of infidelity and spousal abuse is not
only naive; it is negligent.

I do hope that it is your last chance to address the same-sex marriage
issue in Parliament. Unfortunately, while there happened to be a
majority of Canadians who were opposed to these measures, it is
sometimes the job of elected government to do something in the
interests of ALL citizens. You'll recall that at many points in history,
including democratic nations such as the United States, people have
been discriminated against for their colour, religion, heritage or
gender, among other senseless reasons. If we once discriminated
against Chinese immigrants and built a railroad on their dead; if we
interned Japanese in Canada because it was the fashionable thing to
do; if we sold children into farm-based slavery in Quebec because they
were born out of wedlock or worse... this is all the more reason to
do the right thing for once, and recognize the rights of ALL
Canadians, whether all Canadians are human enough to do the same, or
not.

Sincerely,

(Y'all know my name.)
That's it for today.

A lovely sunny Sunday... a bit muddy, but otherwise beautiful.

Sitting in the living room, with "Midnight Train to Georgia" blasting.... er, playing on my tiny itty bitty white speakers and ipod. Perfect environment to make a far overdue blog post.

I logged into my email last night, and actually bothered to open the annoying WAYN (Where are you now?) email with monthly updates. Lord knows why I signed up for this service. I think someone I know signed up and I figured why not. (Stupid stupid stupid.) At any rate, I bothered to sift through my old emails and find the one with my username and password. (On another note, I HATE when they don't tell you a password can only be a certain number of characters and then it slices yours into some haphazard word that you'd never ina million years enter! Like, for instance, if your password was "preposterous", and the site in question decides your password is ACTUALLY "prepos." Grrr.) I logged into www.wayn.com and, low and behold, safari kept booting me off the site! Seriously annoying. Also annoying were the numerous 35+ men who saw fit to send me a "hello." WTF, guys, did you really think I'd be enticed? Enough said.

My fellow bloggers, Sima and Jon, have decided to rename their blog, on account of the fact they will be relocating to Yuppieville. I guess I had not realized how permanent the move out west really was. Sad!!! Truthfully, I am happy for them; I hope the move is great and their new condo rocks. It's just weird. A whole bunch of my friends are getting, or have recently been, married, and from the perspective of a fellow 20-something (and an early one at that), it feels like being single is going out of style. Not to assume that it was ever chic to be solo, but I thought it was generally accepted.

Some people actually seem happy and well-adjusted. (The Joshi-Koops are a great example of this, including their well-balanced and mouth-watering meals.) Some people, though, I find myself rather bahhumbuggishly (damn straight, it's a word) wondering how they can be getting married! For numerous reasons, of course, and I'm not an expert on successful relationships, but COME ON! You're young, you have a lot left to learn, is now really the time to be getting hitched? It's mainly my female friends getting married, as I don't have THAT many male friends who actually like women, but it begs the question: what's so different about this guy? About this relationship? I find myself hearing the same things I once heard about their exes. ("He just gets me." "He's the first guy who truly loves me for who I am." "II can be myself around him." "There's never a dull moment.") If, at some point in the near (or far!) future, I start spweing such stuff, please stop me. Please take me aside and give me a good hard slap.

It's not that I don't believe a young marriage can work out; my parents got married at the ages of 20 and 22, and they've been happily married for many, many years. I just wonder why some people don't wait longer before jumping into such a life altering decision. (I sound like a majior commitment phobe, and that's not my intent.) I'm just curious...

I digress. At least on that topic.

I really miss Bridgehead. I have lots of pleasant memories of sitting there, sipping some fair trade and talking politics or summer or whatever happened to be on my mind. I think it's because I'm thinking of Sima and Jon that Bridgehead comes to mind. It also reminds me of Brad, and of Gwyn. It's been ages since I set foot ina Bridgehead. www.bridgehead.ca in case you're curious and not Canadian. (Shame on you!) Apparently, it's a purely Ottawa phenomenon, but it's a good one. Japan had Starbucks, but I've never been a big fan of their coffee. It made me long for Two Dollar Tuesdays at Second Cup, and all their delicious icey drinks in the long, hot days of summer.

In other news, I am escaping this hockey season relatively unscathed. I didn't even realize there WAS hockey until last night, when my friend Leana was over, and I was channel surfing and she asked me to turn back to channel 6. It was hockey. How I could have forgotten about it so completely is a mystery even to me.

Oh, also, apparently, we have MTV Canada now. (On channel 72, of all places. RANDOM!) That's all for now. More to follow at some point.

Cyborg Name Generator - wicked fun!


width="240" height="180"
alt="Lifeform Intended for Logical Yelling"
border="0">

Is that not me, to a T?

Love it. Try it here: http://cyborg.namedecoder.com/

So, voila, here are some photos of my evening out at the Duke of Argyle with my friend (and his) Mike.

Mike, with his newly-minted Guiness neck tattoo.


Lily, Mike and Dee. This is relatively early on, I think, so we're not as trashed as we were when we left later on.


This is the whole gang at the Duke of Argyle's. I have no actual idea, but I believe we had 12 people at the peak of the evening. It was quite fun. (I think someone was trash talking me during the photo, hence the middle finger action.)


This is Mike, making a stupid face. I don't actually recall why.... Funny story. we got these Guiness beer glass tattoos (faux, of course) and everyone thought it was a good plan to put them on their faces or necks. Thank goodness I didn't do that, but I did notice mine on my upper chest the next morning, when I realized my lower cut T-shirt didn't actually cover the beer! Damn.


This is our huge, huge, HUGE bill from the Duke of Argyle's on John Street in Toronto. We, as you can see, drank vast quantities of beer. Happy St. Patrick's Day INDEED. I only drank, no food, which is PROBABLY why I fell on my ass when we got back to Mike's car. (Turtle shelled!)


Jordan and I. (Jordan is Mike's housemate in Oakville.)


Post-Duke of Argyle, Mike, Jordan and I trekked it to the car, which was parked just off Spadina. (It felt far at the time.) I had some street meat. (Veggie dog with saurkraut, onions, and mustard, What the HELL was I thinking? The colours were pleasing to me at that time...) I tried to get into the car and fell backwards and stuff. I SUCK. Also, managed to wake up in a shirt I didn't own before we got to the bar. FUN. On the way to work the next day, Mike and I got sort of lost, and we couldn't find OSC. Genuine stupidity can be amusing.

This is me, wearing my OSC labocat, on my last day during March Break. It was so much fun. I really enjoyed being back there, in a place teeming with children and amazing hosts. On Monday, I thought we had tons in there, and we had maybe 7,400 people. By Friday, we were getting upwards of 10,000 people EVERY DAY!

So, rather belatedly, here is a post with photos of myself and some of my students, among other things. It took me about a week to get home, get reasonably settled, and get my wireless connection up and running. At long last, please enjoy some pictures of my students. They were great, and while I do not miss the school, I do miss the great people I had a chance to meet and teach during my time in Japan.

Wednesday's afternoon Discovery class! Tomoko, Hiroko, and Tomoko. The two Tomoko's always made it a bit tough for me to call on the class for answers. ("a... Tomoko? I mean, uh, Tomoko in green?")


Tomoko squared.


Ah, Wednesday afternoon Voyage! This was a funny class. It started out for me as one student, Yasuko, who is the eldest woman in the photo. She barely spoke any English at all, but she was fun to teach. One day, we had 6 students and she was shocked. On this particular Wednesday, however, we only had three students: Yasuko, Maiko and Kaori.


Kaori, Lily, and Maiko


Another great student, Satoko. She was in my Tuesday evening Encounter class most weeks, but after I told her I was leaving, ashe asked me out for lunch at Pastel. I had given her a few simple romance novels to read, and she was doing SO well! After a couple months, she was about 125 pages in, and this with New Years and all that hoopla going on. Very nice woman, and I hope to see her again someday.


One of my kickin' students, Tomoe. Wednesday evening Frontier class, Masaji and Tomoe. Tomoe was absent for a few months, but luckily I got to have two ways classes with her before my departure.


This is Candice's Checkpoint class, asking lots and lots of burning questions!


This was my Thursday afternoon 1st class, Hiroshi. It was a private lesson and always a pleasure to teach.


Kawai!!! These kids were so cute. We have (L-R) Taiyo (the best behaved child in all of Kansai), Haruka, and Kano. They all had class on Thursday afternoon, during my Viewpoint class. Always yelling and screaming and running down the hall. Grrr! Cute when caught in a still, though!


Some random students in the lobby on Thursday night were kind enough to let me take their photograph....


Thursday evening Discovery class, usually with Rieko and Satomi, but on this Thursday only Rieko. This entry makes it look like a I taught a lot of virtually private lessons, but this was an off-week. Usually, I had many more students.


Usually, Thursday nights saw a huge Odyssey class in my room, but the class had been small for a few weeks, what with Michael's upcoming departure. At any rate, on my last Thursday, only Naohiro showed uop, so it was a nice small class for the evening.


Friday afternoon... Should be a lazy day, really, but it always started out with high-energy (or low-energy, somedays) Keita. Here we are: Keita, Anna, and I, in the lobby.


This is my only child student, Keita. I taught him Let's Go 2, which was always... uh... interesting. I was quite happy to have figured out how to teach him, as he was difficult to teach at times.


This is Keita's sister, Anna. She is adorable! I miss seeing her every Friday afternoon. She had a nasty propensity for bumping her head, generally on the hard concrete floor of the school. What a little sweetheart. Oh, Annachan.


This is Keita and his mom, when they were in on Friday afternoon for Keita's lesson.


Friday evening Focuspoint with Yoko. A very sweet woman, who I taught briefly in Viewpoint before she moved up to FP. Always great discussions with her.


Yuki, Michael, and I. Not that we asked him to be in the photo, but that's just Michael's *cough cough* charm, isn't it? Among his happy demeanor and positive outlook, of course.


Friday night Voyage class! Nami, Lily-sensei, Yuki, and Sunju. (Pronounced "sun-jay".) This class was hilarious, although sometimes a bit shy. Sunju was always very funny, and very abrupt. More about Yuki and Nami companies the photos below.


I left my camera at school on Friday night, by accident, and Candichan was kind enough to take some photos for me. So care of chan, here are lots of pictures of the Saturday students.














This is hilarious. It is a gumball machine at an izaka-ya (Japanese style pub) and it costs 100yen PER gumball. That's a DOLLAR for a gumball. And they know that some poor shmuck who's drunk out of his tree will gladly pay it because the gumballs come in rainbow coloured plastic containers. *SIGH* Oh, Japan...


This was, um, hmm on the Sunday night. My last Sunday night in Japan to be exact. This is a night shot of Kobe harbourland, before we managed to find a nice Italian restaurant and sit down for food. Earlier in the day I went out for coffee with Jose (bet Mark would be so scandalized, although I'm inclined to wonder what HQ was thinking when they let him go, and promptly lost almost all of the staff who were so against his presence in the first place. Ah, blessed logic.) Also, got to say goodbye to Jon, since we ended up not staying out too late the evening before, and thus missing his presence in Osaka.


Okay, this is the single creepiest thing that existed in my city in Japan. (Aside from my crappy apartment and the creepy skeezy dogs that lived in the neighbourhood.) This is the Akashi mascot, I don't even know what sort of animal it is. (I think it has a hat?) At any rate, I thought, the rest of the world deserves to see this ugly mofo. Seriously, poor Akashi. I wonder if Barrie has an animal mascot? Probably something ugly and rodent0like as well. I wonder...


Pucker up!


My regular Monday night Voyage class consisted of one student, Tomomi. Very friendly girl.


Also, a Friday night Voyage student. Nami, who was very shy at first, and then got more confident. I believe she was on her way to New Zealand...


This is my Friday night student, Yuki, who came on Monday evening so I could get a photo of her with me. Very cool Jr. HS student. I need to write her a letter, come to think of it...


My VERY last class at Akashi school. This is my Monday Discovery class at night. My students were fantastic. This is Rieko, myself, and Kazumasa. Kazumasa and Rieko were absolutely great, talkative and always curious.


This is the original okonomiyaki with art! I decided, why just drizzle the mayonnaise onto it? Why not make it reflect your name and personality? So, voila, Lily-omiyaki.


This is my last night in Japan, and, as it were, my very last supper in Akashi. Kind of sad, really. Here we are at an Okonomiyaki restaurant, actually owned by one of my students, named Junko. (I think!) Lily, Candice and Keiko.


Here is Candice's rendition of name-on-okonomiyaki. A great new talent on the food-art scene.


This a photograph of my ARC (Alien Resident Card) from Japan. Look at the awful photo! Terrible picture. I didn't get to keep it, though; they made me give it up at Immigration in Japan at Kansai Airport. I had to keep this little thing on me at all times.


And back in Canada...

Life has been interesting! It's been nice eating Canadian food again. I think I have exhausted most of the tried and true foods I was longing for. Lasagna, perogies, turkey and stuffing, primavera pasta, chocolate cake, cottage cheese, bagels and cream cheese, popcorn... More updates to follow.

This is the famous cat, Jakob. She's a rotten bitch, very bad-natured, but generally furry enough and soft enough to make up for her character deficiencies. Here she is, sitting outside on our verandah.


Here's my dad, standig in front of a fallen tree, covered in nice, Canadian snow.


On a walk my dad wanted us to go on, here are the lovely trees and snow out near the Simcoe Board of Education building. Very nice sunny day, despite the wind.

So, at long last, here I am. Wired, or wireless rather, on my iBook. All it took was one router and a bit of poking about on my parents' PC, and voila. Internet in my bed.

I have been home in Canada for one week now, and I can't say I am any more at home than I was when I landed, exhausted and hungry, in Toronto last Tuesday night. I have eaten my fill, and then some, of Canadian foods. (or food that's common here, anyway.) Lasagna, perogies, pizza, soup and crusty bread, chocolate cake, lemon merengue pie, apple pie.... It's been delicious, but it actually makes me miss nabe, udon and shabu shabu a lot. Not sushi. Sushi is okay, but I never really understood why people love it. Sashimi I definitely don't get. I digress.

I have been writing down lots of words and such so I don't forget them. So far the list looks something like this:
hai - yes
sumimasen - excuse me/please/hello/welcome/etc.
domo - thanks
domo arigato - thanks a lot
atsui - hot
samui - cold
des - is
tsugi wa - next
shika - deer
kuma - bear/undereye circles
maiko - geisha in training
sakura - cherry blossom
hidare - left
migi - right
masugu - forward/straight ahead
kitsune udon - udon with fried tofu on top
omochi - with rice goo in it
mizu - water
seto - combo (like for fast food)
potato (po-tay-toe) - french fries
anco - red bean paste
nabe - food cooked in a big-ass pot, generally delicious

The list goes on, of course, but I'm not going to type out everything that comes to mind at the moment. That might be a bit much. Lily, the last samurai, is just not in the mood for too much reminiscing. (This shot taken at Padios media studios when I visited with Keiko. It is in Kyoto, and we had a great time, just fooling around in the edo period area!)

Now that I am wireless, I will likely post a bit more often, and maybe soon I will even post some photographs. I have some great ones care of my students and Candi chan. I miss everyone in Japan a lot, but especially Keiko and Candice. It's weird to go from living alone and depending on friends, to living with family and trying to retain your independence. Very odd, indeed.

I hung out with a friend from highschool on Sunday afternoon for a little while. Was SUPPOSED to do that on Friday night, but the wires got crossed and I was still rather jet lagged, so I fell asleep at the late hour of 8:00ish and that was the end of that. We met up at Tim Horton's, which is now my new favourite place, and talked for an hour or so. It was nice to catch up, because I hadn't seen him in ages. Not much has changed. Or maybe everything has. Funny, when you can't tell which it is.

I came home to Canada at the end of February, which means I will miss the beautiful 'sakura' or cherry blossoms in Japan. This is one of the regrets I have,s o I think I will return to Japan someday to see it. I took some photos of faux sakura while I was at Padios with Keiko. Nothing like the real thing, I imagine, but as close as I'll come to them.

Speaking of things I will miss in Japan.... Acceptable attire! Wow, I cannot believe this man wore this outfit. With THIS bag. And it's a le Sac, so the damn thing was probably quite expensive. I had to get a picture of it, so of course, I pretended to be taking one of Candichan, but voila. Wow, buddy, you need to tone it down a bit. Lose the beret, or the bag, or the jacket. Why does it say hate on it? WHY?! To the good men of Japan... please stop the madness.

At any rate, it is a bit late for me *WOOHOO I am still awake!* so I'm going to retire. My last photo for the post is also from my Kyoto trip to Padios. Myself and some black sworded man. Gotta love Japanese cinema. Sayonara, WWW.