Noise

I'm sitting here watching TV with my grandparent's, and I noticed that my grandmother has her hand in an awkward position against the side of her head, as if she was cupping something...

I realized, as she turned up the TV to a nice, loud, can-hear-through-the-whole-house volume, that she can't hear the TV very well. This almost had the ability to shock me, yet it didn't, I simply wondered how shocked she would be coming to my moms house and hearing how low we keep our volume in comparison.

Both my grandparents are hard of hearing, yet my grandfather is the only one with a hearing aid. He hates it. My grandmother declares she will not get one. How does one go about forcing someone to do something they really are set against? I don't know.

I wish I could explain what it's like living with old people, it can be awesome because they are so kind and understanding, but awful because they just don't get it, they don't get me. I sometimes feel like we're different species, well we are at least from a different era. That sounds so terribly emo, but it's so very true in my case, both them and me are to polite and cautious to behave in our usual manner, you could even say to mild I suppose.

I feel bad complaining, because as I sit here, watching my grandmother with her hand cupped around her ear, I'm watching coverage from Japan, the misery, destruction, pain, hope, and humanity of it all. I realize everyone is blogging about this, but I feel like it's not something I can ignore. I'm scared for those people and amazed by their strength, I'm angry at their government for withholding information, but I see the point, I don't understand and I don't want to be there, but I feel bad about it.

I want to know what happened to Arisa Suzuki, an exchange student who stayed with my family in the spring of 2009. I don't know what happened to her, she lived in Natori, I know that many other people with exchange students don't know what happened to their students either and there are many exchange students who don't know what happened to their families. I just, I want to know!