SCENARIO: Dinner table – dessert being eaten
Participants – Tomo, Japanese student
Lorena, Taiwan student
Corinne, Swiss student
Walking into the living room – Judi, Host Mother
Judi: Girls, girls, come here quick!
Judi: Faster or you will miss it.
Lorena: What is it?
Judi: Come see. You’ll never see anything like this in Taiwan.
Tomo: What is it?
Judi: The moon – look how full and close it is.
Corinne: Is it time for a full moon? I don’t think so (as she looks at a calendar that is on the refrigerator door.) This calendar does not have the faces of the moon on it.
Tomo: I’ve never seen the moon that big, or that color. Did they bleach it? In Japan we don’t have moons that color.
Judi: I’ll check my computer to see if it is a full moon.
Corinne follows: Checked it out and found that it was a quarter moon. So…what is it?
Judi: Here are the binoculars. Look through them.
Tomo: Sure is a big moon. Is the world coming to an end? Are we safe?
Lorena: It looks like it has stripes on it.
Tomo: The moon in Japan doesn’t have stripes on it. Should we be scared?
Judi to Corinne: Let’s go take a look at it. Do you have room in your car?
Corinne: No, I have my laundry in the back seat.
Judi: Let’s take my car.
Judi: Come on girls. We are going to go see what it is.
Lorena: Do we have time? I am starting to pack for my trip to LA tomorrow.
Judi: You have plenty of time.
Lorena: I don’t want to miss the bus tomorrow.
Judi: I’m taking you to the bus. You won’t miss it.
Corinne and Judi – walk out to the garage.
Judi: Where are the girls?
Corinne: Here comes Lorena.
Judi: Where is Toma.
Lorena: She went to get her jacket.
Judi: We had better go fast or it won’t be there any more.
Toma: Full jacket – I’m ready.
Corinne, after adjusting the seat, she backs out of the garage and heads north east. The light is getting brighter and bigger.
Judi: Go up one more street and turn right.
Corinne: Can’t turn. Too many police cars blocking the way.
Toma: Are you sure we are safe? Is it a UFO that has landed? I heard that the US has lots of “aliens” here. Is that what it is?
Lorena: Have you ever seen this before?
Corinne: Oh, it looks like they are filming a movie. Look at all the trucks there.
Judi: Let’s go up one more street.
Toma: Are you sure it is safe.
Judi: I think it is safe. It is a movie being filmed.
Lorena and Toma: Where are the actresses and actors? Is it anyone we know. Is it a sci-fi movie? Is it the newspaper and television filming the aliens?
Lorena and Toma: (After seeing the movie trucks) I feel like I was “had”. I really thought it was the moon. I was tricked. I thought it was the end of the world, and there is so much I wanted to do before I died.
Lorena: Yea, I was supposed to go to LA tomorrow and I thought I might not get able to go. I am so relieved.
Moral: Don’t judge by the light of the silvery moon. What appears to be in the window of your mind may only be in the living room.
As long as it wasn’t the neighbor’s “moon”!