a day without classes

Wednesday was spent at the elementary school.  It was my last day of classes there for the semester.  The day went like normal.  What I will miss the most during the break is recess.    The kids tried to play a new game with me.  It was funny because they are so animate when trying to explain something, but the dumb foreigner just doesn’t understand.  My way of learning a new game is to jump right in and start playing.    Apparently, I didn’t understand the rules of the game well enough.  We always janken (rock, paper, scissors) to see who’s going to be “it,” and I stuck my hand in the janken circle like normal, but they were like “Um, sensei, why don’t you sit this one out?  One of us will be it until you……get the hang of the game, okay?”  Ha, ha, ha.  Way to boost my ego, kids! 

Wednesday was a pretty nice day, so after work Ian and I walked to the grocery.  I’m so ready for all of the winter cold to finally be gone!  It’s not quite short sleeve weather yet, but it’s rapidly approaching.  I’m jealous of all of you at home who are having balmy eighty degree days!    I’m really looking forward to the cherry blossoms, which should be happening by the beginning of next month. 

Thursday morning, there was a sweet little treat at my desk whenever I got to work.  Last week the second section of third graders, 3-2, made me a thank you card booklet, and 3-1 had left one on my desk.  Some of the messages are written in Japanese, and I’m unsure of them, but the ones written in English are cute.  Here’s a couple of them:

1) You are very cute!! I like your smile.   I’m not bad girl.  I’m good girl.    Thank you very much.

2) Thank you for one year.  A teacher’s lesson was very very pleasant.  I was always looking forward to it.  I’m glad to see you.  Thank you for teaching a lot.  Thank you very much.

3) Thank you Melissa teacher until now.  Melissa was interesting.  So I was happy.    Thank you very much.    You are very cute.

4)  I enjoyed studying in your class.  I am interested in foreign history.  But, it’s difficult for me to learn English…..

5) Thank you Melissa teacher until now.  Everyone loved that teacher.    The future, please do it best!!!  Thank you very much.  Cute smile. 

6) Your English class very fun. I learned a lot from your English class.    I like English very much!!  You are great teacher.   See you again.   Thank you very much!

Sweet, sweet kids!

During break time I caught up with some of my second grade girls.  I showed them a few fun apps on my phone.  They especially like Talking Tom, which takes whatever you say up a few octaves and repeats it.  They liked the high pitch cat, but they didn’t want to say anything.  I would say something, Talking Tom would repeat it, and then they’d laugh.  They liked my apps, but they never really were willing to physically touch my phone despite me encouraging them to.  I don’t really understand that.  I used my I Heart Radio app to let them listen to American music as I danced to it.  They all enjoyed laughing at the silly foreigner making a fool of herself.

Julius Caesar might have had to watch out for the Ides of March, but for me, it was a really, really good day for one reason: IT WAS THE LAST EIKAIWA CLASS I HAVE…..until April 19th.  Then I will have all new students, and hopefully they won’t be nearly as out-of-control crazy as this class is.  We had two things to do last night: make birthday cards and break piñatas.  Sounds simple, right?  We started off making birthday cards for my grandmother’s 90th birthday (below).  I have seen what drawings these kids are capable of, and I was hoping for that, but instead I got penises.  That’s right.  The boys just drew penises all over the cards.  My gosh!  Grrrrrrrrrr……  There is one girl in my class who I absolutely love.  She is very good at English, wants to study it, and she always tries to help me when the kids are completely out of control.  She is my hero!  If the class was just kids like her, it would totally be a pleasure, but alas…

 

Since it was our last class, some of the kids brought in special treats.  One girl made cupcakes, another doughnuts, and another ice cream and bread.  I wish that we would have thought to make some homemade goodies, but I brought coconut crackers for snack time.  We all sat down and had a little feast (below left)!  After break time, we decorated the piñatas.  I thought this would have been a fun thing to do, but nope.  The boys just drew penises on them.    After all of the sugar at break time, they were wilder than bucks.  It wasn’t long before they were running around, beating each other, and for some reason taking off their pants.  Ian was trying to chase them down, and he told me that his arm was actually sore from beating kids.  lol.  Probably the last thing in the world that they needed to do was have a stick and beat something.  When each of the piñatas broke, they descended on the candy like a pack of wolves on a three-legged deer.  After the piñatas broke, there was no going back.  They were ridiculously hyper.  I didn’t care AS MUCH because it was the last class, and I kept reciting that over to myself to keep myself from pulling out my hair!

 

There….I did it!  I’m all caught up!  I’ve had zero classes today, and I spent my entire day writing three blogs.  I definitely feel like my time was spent wisely at work today.