IrishOboe

This week was a sad week because I saw the last of my sanensei and taught my ichinensei for the last time. Graduation was March 1^st and it wasn’t very interesting. It was held in the cold gym, as usual and all the ninensei were there and a number of well wishers as well as about 20 important guests (other principals and such, though I couldn’t figure it out). This time I managed to remember to ask for the words to the school song so I could sing along. We sang three songs. One was Auld Lang Sang (different words, of course), a Japanese fold song, and all three verses to the school song. I read the hiragana, but I have no idea what I said! As a friend said in describing her graduation, “It’s just an hour of bowing.” That pretty much sums it up. They made the parents practice before the ceremony started. By the way, I biked to school in the rain with my suit in my backpack. I really don’t like wearing suits! Anyway, they read all the student names (each homeroom teacher read for his class – and some did it for memory – all 40 kids!), then one person went up and got the diplomas for them all. It sure was faster that way. Each time a kid went up on the stage for something he went up the center stairs and back down backwards! I assume it’s some sort of etiquette, but it’s opposite to US culture where we want to see people’s faces. It’s also dangerous! I said goodbye to sanensei and took pictures with them. Oh, they don’t have silly gowns like we do, but wear a red carnation in their school uniform. They also gave all the teacher obento (boxed lunch) – it was fancy!
While I was talking to some students afterwards a third year student I’d never seen before (which is most since I only had contact with 25 and didn’t visit many sanensei classes) handed me an obento saying “gift for you” then said “I love you” and ran off before I could say I’d already eaten! Maybe I should keep track of all the random hit and run I love yous. Actually, I don’t mind and the kids are quite polite. Only a few times have I gotten “sexy” and I tried to make it clear that that wasn’t acceptable. Still, my favorite is the boys who want to be with me but can’t speak much English so they walk up to me and spurt out gibberish! Everyone gets a kick out of that and I think they like making me laugh.

There was an award ceremony the day before graduation (Feb. 28^th) and it wasn’t much more interesting than graduation. They did have big heaters in the gym, but didn’t use them – it was cold! They used them before graduation, but turned them off during the ceremony since they are loud (think blast furnace). The Japanese are strange . . .

Let’s see, I’m completely out of order, but on Monday one of the teachers gave me a yukata (summer komono) that she had made! It’s beautiful, but I have to buy and obi (belt) for it. I’m excited!

Tuesday (Feb. 28^th) I took Yuko out for Indian for her birthday since she missed the Indian dinner before and she had no plans for her birthday. It was a nice time, and wonderful chicken masala! Yuko liked it, too. We’ll be coming back for the buffet, which by the way, is called a Baiking (Viking) in Japan. Am I crazy, or do we never call buffets Vikings in America?

Thursday was the last day of school. I normally have three classes but Tsuchiya sensei wanted to do an extra grammar lesson with class five, so I only had classes one and three. They’re done with their oral exam so I tried to make a fun lesson that wasn’t too much work. We made cootie catchers (in English, of course). They seemed to have fun with it, and it actually involved a lot of English. I made them make their own fortunes. Apparently I’m going to marry Daisuke, and Taiki loves me. I had to give Tatsuhiko a kiss, but he ran away before I could. Hey, he made the fortune! It caused quite a raucous when one of the other boys got the same fortune from Tatsuhiko!

I really love being with these kids. I’ll have to visit their classes a lot next year so I can still see them.

We finished making the CD for the listening test on Wednesday, and we already made the syllabus for next year (the new school year starts in April), so really, I had nothing technically to do immediately, so I was able to help the other teachers who are still quite busy with all the other stuff they have to do. I wrote a letter of thanks to the school in Australia our students are visiting, and graded papers, etc. I also visited music class again for a concert. It was fun to hear my students play! When I told them I was going home in August I was told by the teacher that the students had said they didn’t want me to go and they liked me. That meant a lot coming from one of my difficult classes. I’ve come to love and appreciate each kid now, but still when you get them in class the dynamic changes and it’s difficult to make stuff happen. So, why don’t we just forget class? Oh yeah, technically it’s my job . . .

Friday it took the whole day to grade all 200 listening exams, tally the scores, enter them in the computer, make sure I didn’t mess it up, etc. Fun, fun. I was pretty happy to get home and have an evening to myself. I studied German and generally enjoyed myself before going to bed early.

That was a great move because Saturday (March 4^th) I woke up naturally at 6am and I had a wonderful day. I had enough time to really spend some unhurried time with God before launching into my daily tasks. I cleaned up and did lots of stuff and it was still only lunchtime! I went for a run, which felt great, which always makes me happy since I know I could easily be unable to run from any number of injuries that could happen.

Church was a very great blessing, as usual. Whatever its problems, God is in that church! Leslie stayed over again, but I was so tired from the day we didn’t spend much time talking.

Sunday I had another good day at home and in the evening I went to the theater with church folks to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I wasn’t sure what I’d think of it, but I really, really loved it! I had no problems with what other people complained about. I thought the special effects were done very well (nothing distracted me from the story – nothing major at least, unlike part of Lord of the Rings), I thought the witch was really excellent, and her castle was great. Of course there were minor things that I didn’t like, but they were within reason. I really loved the song Mr. Tumnus plays to Lucy and how the theme comes back throughout the movie. Of course, the children are a bit like modern kids, but not too horribly considering how most kids are portrayed these days. I loved Lucy’s smile! She was so sweet. Sure, he added and changed the plot in ways that were unnecessary (like the waterfall scene), but not bad compared to other movies. I didn’t find the battle scene too tedious like some people did. My only disappointment, really, was the stone table scene. There was much more jeering and taunting and rope binding and general misery than they showed, but nothing’s ever perfect. I really enjoyed it, so I’m glad I decided to go see it.

Monday (March 6^th) was a bit slow at school because of exams, but I finished grades and helped other teachers and did some make-up exams. Before Bible study I picked up my German Pimsleur “tapes” from the post office. I’m so excited! I got up at 2am last Thursday morning so I could bid on ebay for the Audiofy version of German I, II, III, and IV, and it came in four days! I only have four more lessons of my Japanese Pimsleur left, so I’ll soon get to study German on the way to and from work.

Bible study was back at the Brown’s house, and it was nice to have them with us again. We had a pretty good discussion, which for me pretty much means whether we’ve deviated from the text and into something deep or not.

That’s it for now!