Monday morning I woke up, and my body IMMEDIATELY reminded me of the previous day’s event. 3,333 steps DEFINITELY killed my legs. They didn’t hurt so much when I walked in a straight line, but if I had to go upstairs (for example, going to class) or when I stood up or sat down, it huuuuuuurt. It wasn’t the sorest I’d been after a hike, but it definitely wasn’t comfortable! The soreness hung around darn near all week, too. Even as I write this today, Friday, my calves and quads STILL remind me of 3,333 steps when I flex them.
I love spring time flowers. After a long and hard winter, it is refreshing to see something so colorful and scented. The only downside to seeing all of these flowers is that none of them are at my house. Sad day! Our neighbor behind us has some type of rose bush that borders our back yard and blooms in fall, but that’s the only flowers that we have. Soooooo…I decided to take matters into my own hands. Monday night on the way to Kirishima with Ian, I noticed a large patch of jonquils growing along the side of the road and told him that I wanted to stop there and get some on the way back. At 9:30 PM that night as we were driving through the rural darkness on our way home, I kept to my word and pulled the car over. I picked the largest handful that I could without getting caught by any passing cars. When I handed them to Ian through the window, he said, “AHHHHH! They’re leaking!” All of the flower juices were flowing out of the stems! I’ve never seen so much goop come out of flowers like that! Luckily we had an old McDonald’s cup to put them in.
Tuesday mornings I always have nursery schools. Like normal, I went to Jikou followed by Yunomae nursery school. However, I realized that something was wrong when I first arrived at Yunomae. Not ONE teacher was in the teacher’s room. That was very strange. I walked back to my classroom and could tell that something was up. I heard clapping, music, and noticed a few of my kids lined up outside the very last classroom (which also doubles as a tiny auditorium). As I slowly walked back there, the head honcho of Yunomae nursery school saw me, seemed shocked, and said something to the fact of “We’re having graduation today. I’m so sorry! You don’t have to teach today, but please stay and watch.” (Immediately I realized my mistake. I knew that one of my days at Yunomae was canceled in April, and I thought it was the last one. Turns out it was THAT one.) I’m so glad I made that mistake, though because it allowed me to watch a nursery school graduation.
Nursery school graduations are by far the CUTEST graduations. The kids are tiny and squirmy, and while the ceremony still has the structure of JHS and ES graduations, it lacks the formality or discipline. The kids just aren’t quite old enough to grasp it yet. Throughout the entire thing, teachers were running back and forth organizing last minute details, fixing the projector that wasn’t working, or making sure that the kids were on their best behaviors. If the graduates didn’t bow low enough when coming onto the stage, the teachers would make them do it again. If they wringed their fingers or didn’t step properly, one of the teachers would smack them to get their attention. If they didn’t step on the piece of red tape marking where they should stand, a teacher would point to the EXACT spot where they were supposed to stand when receiving their “degree.” Each student had to stand up, walk to the stage, stand while a recorded message from their parents was read, and then receive their “degree,” which was actually just a story book. I’m not really sure why it was a story book. Maybe it was their favorite story…? Maybe it represented the change from happy-play-time in nursery school to let’s-start-real-school? Not sure. Anyway, it was precious, and nursery school graduation is by far my favorite type of graduation!
Tuesday afternoon my first graders at the JHS were wilder than bucks. Since it’s the last week of school, we played games, but one group of boys in particular was just too much! They weren’t playing the game AT ALL and were taking their pencil pouches, which were in the shape of a sheep and bear, and putting them together in a VERY SUGGESTIVE way. They continued to ram the animals’ downstairs parts together and laugh hysterically. They then took a rubber band and tied the animals together around the waist. My JTE was doing NOTHING about it, so I walked over to the group and took the animals away. This only caused them to laugh harder because the foreigner was holding the animals having sex in her hands. UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH JHS boys are perverts!!!
I’ve still got plenty to tell, but to prevent this from getting too long, I’ll stop here.
No comments:
Post a Comment