Worst Vacation Ever!

One of my students went on vacation to a fabled surfing spot during the Japanese year-end holidays.

At Narita he was told he needed a VISA!!!-- something that his travel agent had -- ooops!-- not informed him of. Somehow, he got an "emergency" visa at the airport and went on to his merry way to his Australian destination.

On check in at the hotel, he goes dragging up to his room only to find that the folk next door have the music up full blast! "No problem. We'll change your room in the morning," was the very helpful front desk solution. O.K. ... But then! Not long after, at 1 a.m. or thereabouts, fire alarms go off throughout the hotel!!!! WTF!!! False alarm. Hotel management apologizes. All forgiven. Right.

So let's forget all that bad history, right? Hit the beach and surf, right? Hang on! What's this? Paradise? Rain? No way! Much cooler than anticipated and very rough surf. Out of the 3 blissful holy-days there, he was able to surf only one of them.

Should have stayed at home, sez he. Ya, sez I. Whatelse to say? Right?

Careless Mistakes

Kyoko F: My mailman sometimes puts my next door neighbor's mail in my mailbox by mistake. I just recently figured out why: we share the same Chinese character 藤 in our last names, so when he glances at our mail in his usual hurry, that same character confuses him and he puts the wrong mail in our boxes. Is this a dyslexia problem? I'd guess so. Or just maybe stress.

This a blog featuring things that English students of mine say.