Last Wednesday I was suddenly hit with the information that my Tea Lady was leaving effective Thursday. She is looking for better pay. I can't blame her, really. Being a tea lady at a junior high in the middle of nowhere can't possibly pay spectacularly.
This struck me rather harder than I expected, though.
So, in honor of my tea lady (Whom I have incorrectly called "Yuu-san" for a while now... so I shall continue to call her that as it isn't her name), I shall now share some experiences of her.
The "Softly, Softly softly..." story and the "Ultraman Pose story" I have already shared with you all.
But there were other things that Yuu-san did which were extraordinary;
Because of Yuu-sans duties (Sorta like the custodian in an American Junior High, Yuu-san watered the plants and swept the entry-way and watered the trees outside, stuff like that), she was often found in various places around the first floor of the school. During my particularly slow days, I would go on walks (To keep awake... this was before I had a computer at school that I could use), and I would run into Yuu-san in the hallways. She would always stop and ask me questions (Simple questions, easy for me to understand, Yuu-san spoke no English at all) about Colorado, America, my father, sister, friends. She told me of her aunt who lives in Kansas (I expressed my condolances for that... but only because I know Kansas very well). Yuu-san would always teach me very useful things in Japanese (It only seems appropriate that it was Yuu-san that taught me the word "Benri"... or "Useful") . She seemed genuinely interested in knowing these things. She wanted to know if I liked Natto (Most people want to know that... they seem to be rather aware that Natto is vile... and that foreigners don't like it), what kinds of music I liked, etc. I spent a lot of time cutting my Japanese teeth on these conversations... She never corrected my Japanese, understanding that I'm still in the "Communicating" stage, nowhere near the "Perfecting" stage of Japanese.
As I left for the day, Yuu-san was often in the entryway while I changed shoes. She would always say "See you next year" or sometimes "See you next week" (But never on Fridays). The first time she said that to me, I looked at her with a perplexed look (Not entirely sure I understood her), and said "Yuu-san, will you be absent tomorrow?" To which she replied, "Yuu-san is always absent" while tapping her head... she smiled and then waved goodbye to me as I left.
Yuu-san was also the one who had the freedom to be a little strange (Tea ladies are all, by nature, a little strange, I think...). So she was the one who could communicate with me freely without having to worry about offending the Vice Principal or what not. Yuu-san cackled like a classic witch, something that I think she cultivated... and went completely against her tiny, slender, mid-thirties look.
I was really rather depressed about her leaving the Teachers' Room... it seems like a little bit of the light in the room has left.
As Yuu-san came up to me (During her rounds of tearful goodbye's and bowing), holding a bouquet of flowers, she said that she would see me again in Maia-Town, I don't know what she means by that, but I'll look forward to seeing her again.
As Yuu-san left the teachers' room one last time, last Thursday night, I called out to her, did the Ultraman pose, then told her I'd see her next year.
I hope that means sometime soon to her.
---Me.
