Hello dear blog-readers! I believe the last that I wrote about was Halloween. Wednesday, like every Wednesday, was my elementary day. I say it every time, but I love those kids. I feel like the environment at the elementary school is so much more lax. I could be wrong, but the teachers don’t seem as stressed, and the kids actually like English and attempting to speak it.
I made Halloween candy bags for ALL of my co-workers. On Monday, I was actually at the JHS, so I gave them out there. Tuesday, I went to the BOE for my ten minutes that I go every week and gave them out then, and on Wednesday, I was at the ES, so I gave them out then. I was really happy about the way it happened, too. When I walked into the teacher’s room on Wednesday morning, no one was in there, so I was able to lay a little candy bag on each person’s desk. Then, I went to the office ladies and school nurse to give them a bag. The office ladies gave me a snack cookie in return. How sweet! One by one, as teachers came back to the teacher’s room during the day and saw the candy on their desk, I explained that last Monday was Halloween and wished them “Happy Halloween!” Everyone seemed genuinely thankful for it, which made me very happy in turn. 
Another big hit for the day was my little plastic bat and spider rings. I had about a million of them leftover, so I’ve been pawning them out to students. They. Loved. Them. I gave each person in my first class (5th grade) a ring, and the rest of them I gave out at recess. More about that later.
I sat in on the 1st graders PE class. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do (as usual), so I probably looked like a big, dumb idiot. I’m never completely certain of when it’s okay to laugh and goof around with the kids and when they need to be serious, so I have to be careful. If it was up to me, I’d love to laugh and make faces at them all the time. It’s a very fine line to ride because there are times, ie walking to the gym, when I think it would be okay to have a less formal attitude, but the teachers are very strict about making sure the kids are in straight lines, no talking, etc. Sometimes the perfectionist attitude in Japan kills me. For example, I was helping the kids drag out mats to place on the gym floor. They were heavy mats for 1st graders to be moving. I was lining them up and asked the students if they were okay. They shook their heads. I tucked in the handles and scooted the mats as close as possible and again asked if they were okay. The students shook their heads. The reason they didn’t like the way I placed the mats was because the mats weren’t lined up EXACTLY on the gym floor line. I’m not even kidding.
I ate lunch with the 5th graders on Wednesday. The last time I ate lunch with them, it was my big epic failure day at the elementary school in which I didn’t realize I had to bring my lunch, so the teachers had to piece together a meal for me while the entire 5th grade waited on me. I felt horrible and was afraid that they would hate me for forever. However, on Wednesday when I ate lunch with them, it was absolutely not true! There were about four kids at any given moment trying to get my attention and ask me a question in a very loud voice. “Melissa sensei, do you like….?” “Melissa sensei, do you have….?” “Melissa sensei, do you know…?” It was like playing twenty questions….but more like one hundred. :S
At recess, I made sure to take the leftover rings I had to give away. The kids basically attacked me trying to get them, lol. Some kids had three or four on their hands and kept rearranging them on their fingers and then showing me. For some reason, it was “gross Melissa sensei out” day on the playground. I’ve mentioned before that there is a small creek that runs through the playground, and the kids like to play in it. Two girls had found frog eggs, picked them up WITH THEIR BARE HANDS and tried to give them to me. When I accidentally squealed in fear, it made them want to give them to me even more. Another boy snuck up behind me, tapped me on the back, and shoved a fresh water crab in my face when I turned around. I REALLY screamed at that, which the kids all thought was hysterical. The first two girls returned with pond scum/algae from the creek dangling off of sticks. I kicked it off their sticks and ground it into the dirt. Disgusting!
After recess, I had a class of 3rd graders. Since I’m just the assistant teacher, I never feel right taking charge of a class. It’s not my responsibility, and I don’t want to step on any toes. The actual 3rd grade teacher is the one who speaks most of the time, and I’m there to pronounce words and make it fun. Those 3rd graders were ridiculously hyper! I kept saying “SHHHH,” but it would only work for a brief time before they were back to talking loudly and moving around. I spoke to the teacher after class about how hyper the kids were. She said that they get very excited about English. It’s a class that they only have every once in a while, it takes them out of their routine, and they get to play games, they like it, so they always get very excited for it.
Thursday was a national holiday, so I had the day off. It was national culture day. Ian and I had plans to go hiking, but then the weather called for rain, so we canceled. Instead, we did nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was wonderful. I made pancakes for breakfast, and we had breakfast in bed. After that, we never got out of bed. We turned on hulu and watched it ALL DAY LONG. We didn’t change out of our pajamas or pick up the futon. Our brains might have turned to mush, but it was worth it. We’re definitely caught up on all of our TV shows! 
In order to keep up with my promise to myself to do thirty minutes of exercise a day, I walked to the super last night for groceries. I found the app “I heart radio” and downloaded it. It allows me to access major radio stations in the USA. I can’t get Paducah’s radio stations, but there are some out of Nashville, Louisville, and Lexington. It’s nice for two reasons: 1) It allows me to put a little pep in my step while walking. 2) I get to listen to American music (yay!) and hear news stories.
That’s all for tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll write about the weekend.
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