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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Exploding ice cream attack!


September 7th
It’s my birthday yo!  I woke up and forgot I was supposed to be at my school 30 mins early for a whole school introduction.  It’s okay, I made it 10 mins before it was my turn.  The students were super genki (high spiritied) today and smiled/giggled throughout my introduction.  I only had 2 classes and after introducing myself in each class, the teacher sent me back to my office desk.  What are they paying me for? 
The entire school is excited for this weekend, which is their sports festival.  All day the kids were practicing running, jump-rope, and walking across a ‘bridge’ of their classmates’ backs.  They kept asking me to do stuff, so I showed them how to do handstand pushups and a breakdancing six-step.  I now have a following of little Japanese boys and girls that want to do handstands and breakdance. 
I made friends with another group of kids, after explaining that I liked the Japanese anime (animation) called Neon Genesis Evangelion.  They literally FREAKED out and started shaking my hand while naming characters from the show.  When I said I liked the character Shinji, they started yelling to their friends “Shinji!!! Shinji!!! EVANGELION!!!!!” 
This is Shinji.  EVA in background.

Hahaha, oh my goodness, this is just getting better and better.  One of the boys had wonderful English and introduced himself as Akira.  He came up to me at least 20 times throughout the day to say hello and shake my hand. 
I got to watch the kids practice folk dancing, to music that I remember from the 2nd grade.  My kocho made me wear a hat, since everyone else had a hat, but mine was yellow with some Japanese on it that I didn’t understand.  It probably said something like, ‘Look, I’m a foreigner wearing a yellow hat.’  Anyway, I was the only one wearing a colored hat.
"Look, I'm a foreigner wearing a yellow hat!"

My kocho then invited me to lunch in his office, on the day of the sports festival, and then to his home afterward to eat food his wife is preparing.  He was also very clear on explaining that there would be a lot of drinking.  Mind you, this event is taking place on a Sunday and we have school the next morning.  What the heck is going on here!?
Throughout the day, I had kids stopping me to say ‘Happy Birthday!’ and then run off in giggles before I could even thank them.  The volleyball girls have accepted me as a good friend already, having met them on numerous occasions at my BOE and when first seeing the schools.  They asked if I would sit with them at lunch, but my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) had already set me up with another classroom full of kids. 
After school, I went to the BOE and found I had 3 packages delivered to my desk.  Went to the AU store because my phone wouldn’t send or receive e-mails anymore, and got it all fixed.  Finally got to Skype with Kalika and John while opening presents and kept them up for way too long.  While I was taking them on a home tour, my good friend Tomomi came over with her kids.  They made me paper flowers, drew pictures in a birthday card, and bought me two slices of some delicious cake.  That family, my family, is too good to me.  I got some great new shoes, shirts, tons of candy, and shortbread cookies from my sister, John, and my grandparents.  It’s not even Christmas, and I have a full tin of shortbread cookies.  If you haven’t ever had one, beware, they will be everything you look forward to at Christmas (minus family and friends of course).  Thanks grandma!
Kyle and Mary Margaret picked me up, we picked up Becca, and partied at Kyle’s for the night.  Cassie and Topher even joined, bringing me cookies and some more Pino!  I’m going to OD on sugar.  They even made me two posters for my birthday, which I’m going to have to take pictures of to show.  These friends of mine…they’re truly great.  What a great birthday!
Engrish at its best
So many inside stories, I wouldn't have time to write about them



September 8th
I had some awesome classes today.  In the morning, I was introduced to the entire school and a student who had won an English contest a year ago, gave a short speech in Japanese and English to me.  These kids are so professional, it scares me.  My first class, while giving my introduction, we found out a student and I share the same birthday, and he’s exactly half my age.  We’re buddies already.  More Evangelion fans, more handshakes and screaming, my eardrums are blown…blah blah blah.  My second and last class at this school only had 3 students.  While talking about my work on the ranch, one of the students became particularly interested and finally explained that his family owns a farm with cows.  He helps out in the morning, before school, and after he gets back from sports practice.  This kid is amazing, won’t stop working all day.  My JTE at this school knows a lot of English and can translate nearly everything I say.  It came in handy when pronouncing my last name and sister’s name.  We also told them what the names translate to from Greek.  There is now a class of 15 students that has my sister’s name written in their journals.  That, is unique.
I am now called ‘The Sportsman’ by one of the assistant teachers because of all the water activities I taught in Mission Bay.  It’s slowly spreading to the other teachers, and I can only pray that the Johnny Depp and Sportsman nicknames merge someday.  At lunch, we had eel over a bed of rice, miso soup, and cucumber salad with those little fish again.  The students took so long to prepare all the dishes, that they only had 8 minutes to finish everything.  I haven’t eaten that fast EVER.  My stomach was hurting, but I still managed to eat a half bag of orange slices my grandma and grandpa sent me.  Really, I’m going to gain 10 pounds this month. 
I headed to Mochidome Elementary after lunch and had to wait 2 hours until my one and only class at this school.  Sleep…was…all…..I………wanted.  When driving into the school, kids were practicing riding their unicycles.  Two of them fell while trying to stare and me and cycle at the same time.  I helped sweep the school floors with the kids when it was cleaning time, and made friends with a tiny little 1st grade girl.  The broom stick was nearly double her height.  But we laughed and had a fun time sweeping down the hallways.  My one and only class was so cool.  The teacher barely spoke English, so I had the chance to do tons of animal imitations and overly expressive gestures.  The kids loved it, but couldn’t get enough of the pictures from back home.  They love the bear, motorcycles, and cowboy stuff.  I got home with the intention of updating this blog with pictures, but I relaxed and watched Ocean’s Thirteen during dinner.  I’m going to post this, but add pictures later.  Sorry!  I’m beat and have a pretty full day tomorrow.  Thanks again to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and made my day so great yesterday.  I couldn’t have asked for more!

2 comments:

  1. はじめまして。私のなまえは名保子(なほこ)といいます。しゅっしんは大阪で今、カリフォルニア州モンロヴィア市に住んでいます。そう、ニックさんのお母さんとご近所さんです。この前、ばったりダナさんとサキちゃんにファーマーズマーケットで会ってブログのことを教えてもらい読ませていただきました!写真や(子供達との給食しゃしんがとってもキュート!!)ニックさんの感想をよんでるといっそう日本が恋しくなりました。私とディーンは鹿児島にいったことがあって、指宿市(いぶすきし)のホットサンドスパがとっても気に入ってます。一度、ためしてみてください。これからもブログ楽しみにしています(^^)Have fun!! Nahoko&Dean

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  2. Thank you Nahoko! I'm glad you are enjoying the blog. I am definitely interested in the hot sand baths in Ibusuki, hopefully I will have time to try it out. I hope you and Dean are great.

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