interesting experiences

First, my JHS’s cultural festival is on November 20^th, so every afternoon, classes are canceled. Instead, the kids work on cultural festival projects. On Monday, I was the only teacher in the teacher’s room all afternoon. Generally, when something like that happens, it’s because I’m not where I’m supposed to be. I asked my English teacher about it, and she said I could roam around the school and see what the kids are doing. For two hours each afternoon, I walk around the school in and out of different classrooms and watch students make posters, cut out pictures, create murals, and write poems. I think they’re going to have this cultural festival practice every day until the festival.

Yesterday at one of my nursery schools I had a very interesting experience. One of the boys grabbed my boob. Twice. I’ve heard from other ALTs that it happens. The kids are amazed at the size of foreigners’….areas, so they want to touch them. I was in shock that he actually did it, and before I could say anything, he did it again and ran off giggling. I’m sure he knew exactly what he had done and that it was wrong.

We had a salesman come to our door last night. I didn’t exactly realize that he was a salesman until later on in the conversation or else I never would have answered it. I’m not sure why, but Ian and I bought agree that when people come to our door, it’s going to go one of two ways: 1) easy or 2) hard. Easy is when they realize we don’t speak Japanese, so they back off and leave. Hard is when they realize we don’t speak Japanese but continue to speak more and faster as if it’s going to magically change things. Ian was making dinner, so I was the lucky one to answer the door. He started saying things like “earring”, “necklace”, and “ring”. I didn’t know what he wanted, so I pointed at my ring and earrings, and he nodded. He whipped out a piece of paper that had different kinds of jewelry on it. Whenever I saw the prices beside them, I realized what was going on. I said no a couple of different times, but I don’t know if he wasn’t understanding me or I wasn’t saying the right thing. Regardless, he finally gave up and left.

I have made monsters out of my elementary kids. Ever since Halloween, they think that every time they see me, I will give them candy or a treat. Today, I didn’t know what some of the kids were saying to me until they stuck out their hands in full begging mode. I showed them on the calendar Halloween, October 31^st. I told them that trick-or-treating and asking for candy is okay on that day but anytime else no. I’m not sure they understood. I suppose I’ll see if they still ask next week when I’m at the elementary school.

Ian and I have to go to Hitoyoshi tonight for our singing practice. This is the last practice since the festival is on Sunday. It’s very repetitive to sing the song over and over and over, but working with the old people has been fun. Plus, it means that we get to see our friends and hang out with them for a bit as well, so despite having to physically go to Hitoyoshi, it’s been a fun experience.

This is probably the shortest blog I’ve ever written. It can be done! I don’t ramble all the time! I’m going to stop here. Ja mata!