Last Wednesday despite my illness (apparently cause by the Chinese smog…..or so all of the teachers claimed) I went to school. I had ES that day, and by the end of that day, the kids had WIPED my energy, and I was running on fumes. Since I was congested and had mucus coming out of every hole on my face, I didn’t wear my contacts that day. It was as if the kids had never seen someone wear glasses before (they have—several of the kids wear glasses). All of them kept saying “Melissa-sensei, megane! Megane!” (Glasses! Glasses!) Yes, kids. I’m wearing glasses. Woo-hoo. One kid wanted to try them on, so I made the mistake of giving them to him. Suddenly ALL of the kids wanted to try on Melissa-sensei’s glasses. It made me giggle because I have ridiculously poor vision. The reaction I got from 90% of the kids trying on my glasses was priceless. As soon as they looked through the lens, they pulled the glasses from their faces, rubbed their eyes, and said what I imagined to be something about how strong the prescription was/how much it hurt their eyes. Ha! Ha!
I ate lunch with my third graders that day, and those kids LOVE me! As soon as I walked into the classroom, I was escorted to a seat and prompted to play janken (rock, paper, scissors) or thumb wrestle with them until lunch was ready. I talked about the bully girl in a previous blog, and she’s in that class. Just to refresh…..I like this girl, but she has a VERY assertive personality (rare for the Japanese) and is just kind of like YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND. WE WILL PLAY TOGETHER, AND YOU WILL LIKE IT. ………yes, ma’am! Anyway, I wore a skirt that day, and she kept trying to lift it up and look under. I have no idea what her goal was or why she wanted to do that, but she was very adamant!!
My last class that day was my fourth grade. I LOVE my fourth grade class! Those kids are so precious and love English class! That day I planned a lesson about clothes. (T-shirt, skirt, cap, sweatshirt, etc.) After going over and learning the key words, we started playing the first game. I had brought examples of my clothing from home and put them in a garbage bag. One by one I pulled out a garment and asked what it was. Then I asked for a volunteer. The kid had to roll dice. Whatever number the dice landed on, that was the number of garments he/she had to blindly pull out of the bag and dress in. Once the kid was dressed, I asked the class what each garment was. THE. KIDS. LOVED. THIS. GAME. I cannot tell you how much fun they had dressing in Melissa-sensei’s clothes. They especially loved it when someone would roll a six and be forced to put on six different garments at the same time. They also loved it when a boy would pull the sequin skirt or pink fuzzy socks out of the bag. That was probably one of the best classes I’ve ever had, and I’ll definitely repeat that lesson with some of my other classes!!
On Thursday and Friday I stayed home from school. I wasn’t feeling the best, and I guess I’ll blame the Chinese smog. Ha! Ha! While I’m not exactly sure what I had, I feel like it might have been allergies or something. It COULD have been the smog because I read articles stating that hospitals and clinics had seen a rise in patients with respiratory illnesses, but I’m just not sure. Anyway…..since I stayed home, I was required to go to the hospital for medicine. Anytime I go there in the morning, it never fails. Usually a bus shows up and out walks at least half a dozen old people ready for their check-ups. I don’t go to the doctor that often, but every single time I’ve been there, this has happened. I guess they’re there for daily check-ups or something, but I always find it funny to see the bus pull up and out walk all of the old people.
Since I stayed home on Thursday and Friday, not a lot happened. Ian and I had lazy days. I watched a lot of TV, cleaned the house, and researched for various irons that I have in the fire. :) Saturday was an extremely busy day for us. Ian had planned a big party at Brian’s house on Saturday night. In addition, it was Melissa’s birthday, so we all agreed that the party would be half get together/half Melissa’s surprise birthday party. Ian and I left our house around noon to go to Brian’s to get things organized. Once we were finished there, we went to Melissa’s house. We knew that she wasn’t home, which allowed Ian, Mollee, and I to cut her grass. *sigh* Oh, Melissa’s grass! She has an irrational fear of grasshoppers, which live in the grass, so she never cuts it. As a result, the grass was waist deep in places and resembled a jungle more than a back yard. We thought that we would surprise her and trim it up for her birthday. What would have taken less than ten minutes with an American lawnmower took us about four hours with three sickles and fire. Ian, Mollee, and I began the backbreaking work of cutting the grass by hand. When we were FINALLY finished with that, Ian decided that we should burn the yard to prevent future growth (don’t judge us—we live on a tropical island, and it’s darn near IMPOSSIBLE to stop things from growing) and to kill any remaining grasshoppers.
Since it was windy that day, we had to be extremely careful with burning it. We would enclose the small area that we wanted to burn in a water circle and burn small sections until we had a perimeter. Mollee, Ian, and I were all very careful and vigilant with the fire. We stood around and anytime the fire seemed to be getting even the slightest bit out of control, we dumped water on it from the several jugs of water we had ready. It was a slow process, but once we finished the perimeter, we were able to set fire to the middle without too much worry. We all still had our water jugs ready and waiting….just in case, but the yard was burned without incident. Hurray! Little did we know that there was actually dirt beneath the tangle of weeds and overgrowth. None of us had ever seen it! While her yard looked a little bit like Satan’s yard due to the blackness, it was worth it. Melissa was completely surprised when she arrived home.
Burning her yard brings me to another point………in my nearly two years of living in Japan I haven’t seen one well manicured lawn like what we have in the States. First, the Japanese don’t have nearly the space that we have in the States, so most people don’t have a yard. If they do, it’s usually messy. I’ve seen yards that are just gravel, a tangle of weeds, overgrown to the point of being scary, and/or just bushes. No one has nice green grass that is regularly trimmed. In fact the only lawnmower I’ve seen in Japan is the motor-less DIY kind that requires effort (pictured above). No one has beautiful gardens with colorful blooms, stepping stones, small water fountains, and lush black dirt covering the ground. I found out why the other day. Since gardens and manicured lawns require water and machines to maintain them, it’s seen as wasteful. Yep, you read that right. Gardens and manicured lawns are actually ILLEGAL in Japan because waste not, want not. How different is that?
After Saturday’s night’s party, which was a blast, we didn’t get home until 3:30 AM. I had to be up at 7:30 the next morning for graduation at my JHS. Yes, graduation in Japan is in March. The end of the school year is in March, and the new school year begins in April. Let me tell you about really long and boring speeches from the principal, vice principal, mayor, etc and only four hours of sleep. NOT FUN!! Although I experienced graduation last year, it still surprises me with how different it is compared to graduation at home. While at home graduation is a happy time that celebrates accomplishments and looks forward to the next step, graduation in Japan is the opposite. It’s a very sad and somber occasion that reflects upon the good times had and how much everyone is going to miss everyone. Whereas in the States everyone looks forward to graduation, and hardly a tear is shed, in Japan graduation is almost dreaded, and there isn’t a dry eye in the house. EVERYONE cries. The graduating students cry. The parents cry. The teachers cry. The town officials cry. The students not graduating cry because they think of their own upcoming graduation. What’s more is that the graduating students have to give speeches while they’re bawling their eyes out. Some of the girls could barely get through their lines, and some of the guys were trying their best to not show their tears (because they are men and therefore don’t cry).
I only had to work a half day that day, so after work I went back home and took a nap with Ian. Both of us were exhausted after only a few hours of sleep the night before. However, I sat my alarm for late afternoon so that I could be up in time for the writing workshop. Just like last year a couple of friends and I organized a writing workshop in which we submit drafts of stories to one another and share comments. Mollee and Brian planned to come over to my house at 6 PM, and we would Skype Ana (who now lives in Oxford, England). However, Mollee canceled since she was still feeling sick from the party. Ana was right on time and messaged me at 6:01 to say that she was ready whenever we were. Brian still hadn’t arrived by 6:20, so I called him. He had forgotten about it, so I asked Ana if she wouldn’t mind rescheduling. Even though we didn’t get to do writing workshop, we still were able to catch up a bit and have a nice chat via Skype.
Wow….okay. That was a long blog! I’ll let your eyes rest now and finish up in the next blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment