Art Nouveau Friday

Happy Friday! We have only one more week left before Easter. I am slowly getting excited about Easter egg hunt. I have to stock up on chocolate eggs. I just have to talk to the Easter bunny to strike a good deal on them!

In general, I don't draw myself but this is a portret of me heavily influenced by Art Nouveau style of Hercule Poirot period. When we lived in Tokushima, we watched the Agatha Christie's series almost everyday. And when there were only a few left we would save and watch it only Friday nights. 

In Tokushima, we had been very separated from any other English speakers. We worker afternoons and evenings for a private language school called Sharon Language School. We are talking a very small rural place with only a few stores and millions of frogs and snakes living next door to us in the rice paddies and daikon radish fields of Aizumi. And yes, one of our cats names is the same, Aizumi for the place behind our school where we found her.

So going back to the Neoclassical style and Monsieur Poirot. Every week my husband's student would bring a few video cassettes with the series for us to watch. We were ecstatic every time. It was something in English and something we could understand. At that time, we had known very little of Japanese. It was just a beginning of our love affair with that wonderful country. 

This story of a Belgian immigrant to England in the between wars period warmed our hearts. It is a funny, almost comical plot of a private detective who gets his name distorted and miscalled every day of his life. He gets angry and pride, and is not afraid to correct people in their mistake. We could identify with his character at times. And who wouldn't enjoy David Suchet's acting. If you ever come across the series, please give it a chance.

I even remember the first time I used Japanese at the store! I looked up in a dictionary how to ask for a price. I wanted to buy some sticky note pads at a local stationary store. So after my occasional morning class, I went to the store and with a very shaky and hesitant voice I said: "Kore-wa ikura desu-ka?" I was terrified that the clerk would not understand me but after a split second he replied. Understanding it was easier since I had had some knowledge of numbers. As they say you either memorise numbers or swear words first. I knew numbers. 

I remember how I hurried home to tell my husband about my little success! I was so proud of myself! Wow! How little I had known that we would stay in the country for another 11 years all together and I would get a chance to go a little beyond " Kore wa ikura desu-ka?" 

I feel so lucky and privileged to have gotten such an opportunity to live in Japan. And through that I got a rare possibility of meeting a lot of amazing people whom I would probably have never gotten a chance to know otherwise! You know who you are. I want you to know that you bring inspiration and light to my past, present and future! I am drinking my Friday toast to your health! Have a wonderful weekend!