March 11 is coming.

Me and my boss have been getting along great lately (Jonathan says it's cause I've quit) and when I know she's in a good mood, I like to ask her about the tsunami. She was in it last year and I had asked her when she first came to Aomori why she came here, so the story was somewhat told. But not a lot. Because I didn't want to make her cry. Today I asked her more... and here's what I found out.
She lived with her parents in a city that was kind of wiped out. She was at work and the earthquake hit so she and the others evacuated to higher ground. But before her parents headed for higher ground they went home to save their dog, Waffle. (Yes, that is her dog's name.) After the tsunami she said the water was 2 meters high in her house, so the they lost everything on the first floor, but the second floor was okay. For a month and a half they had no running water and for like, 3 months they had no electricity. She said some people came and stole stuff, but not from her house, from others who didn't live at their house. Her car was destroyed in the tsunami. And she has a pretty big PSTD when it comes to earthquakes - which I like to make fun of her for. But, she doesn't get angry at me :)
I asked her today if she ever got sad about what happened and she said she did, only earlier on. Now, not so much. I wanted to ask her if she knew anyone who was killed but that's like, utterly classless and I assume she knew a few ... at least. She said next Sunday (which is the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY) she's going home.
What's really cute was a few months ago, I was teaching a private lesson on Friday the 13th. I talked to my student about unlucky numbers and days, and that superstition (Japan's superstitious about the number 4) and I asked her if there were any days or numbers that she believed were unlucky.
She said 11. And I asked why.
Because of 9/11 and 3/11 (the Japanese disaster). I think 11 is a very bad day.
I have to agree!