*slight tangent : It's something I realized about living in Los Angeles, I didn't get rain enough. Most people get depressed when it rains a lot. I get depressed when it doesn't rain. 80 days of sunshine in a row? I was ready to throw myself off a bridge. *
When first I arrived I was greeted by the awesomely awesome Nakani sensei (who is much older than he looks and seems). His daughter is my age, but I swear he doesn't look a day over 35. Asians. Everyone likes to comment on how young I am... I think I'm probably the only 22 year old in the tri-state area, otherwise they wouldn't seem so amazed by my age. Soon I'll be 23 though, and then maybe they'll stop thinking I'm special.
I introduced myself around the room and immediately liked everyone. Nobody is too quiet or shy or too polite. Everyone seems cool, relaxed, and just enough to make me not dread introducing myself in front of the entire school. Elementary schools are so much easier to do that sort of thing in, b/c those children are made of rubber and they really don't care if you go up and say "My name is Rachel. I are to teach the English to student. Nice it is to meet you student." But I think they understood my gibberish and then they sang me a song!!! I would say that hearing 42 kids (that's the entire school) sing at the top of their lungs to me, sitting alone in a chair, almost beat out the Ine elementary poster that said
"RECHEL, WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL." and had a squid drawn on it. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of it.
So then it was time for some class! First, the 3rd and 4th graders. 20 in all, my biggest class! We learned about family members and I met everyone and gave them bug stickers. Then we played "telephone" only we called it the whisper game. It was interesting how the kids really messed up very simple words. My favorite was when "Family" became "GOOD MORNING!" with group one, and "family restaurant" with group 2. Maybe those kids were carrying sake in their hello kitty thermoses... Anyway the kids were totally awesome, and the hour went by too quickly.
Afterwards it was time for my FAVORITE group, the 1st and 2nd graders, 10 in all. As usual, the girls were INSANE. I think girls are insane until the age of 10 or 11, and that's about the time that boys become insane, so it evens out I suppose. We sang the ABC song and most of the kids knew it better than I did... since when is it "Happy happy all are we, now we know our abc's?" Who changed the song? It's supposed to be "Now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me?" Everybody knows that. So then I made the kids sort out the alphabet with the magnets, which they did very well! V in Japanese is pronounced "Vui" hehehe. Then I taught the kids about BUGS and made them find bugs in the bug books (which were a HUGE hit, B&Z should know). And I learned the names of bugs too! In return for them finding letters in the alphabet, they got BUG STICKERS which really emphasized the new English words they would soon soon forget. Yay! The little first grade girls were in love with me, and I think I held their hands 90% of the day. So cute. Nanami-chan, Mui-chan, whatsherface-chan, little crazy girl-chan, and the other one.
The fifth and sixth graders unfortunately were very quiet. This seems to happen as kids get older in Japan, they stop thinking as individuals and start being terrified of speaking individually (the bane of my existence in jr. high English classes). We learned the months and they told me when their birthdays were. Of course them doing this was more of a process of them telling the teacher when their birthday is in Japanese, the teacher puts it in English and then the student stares at me blankly until I say "GOOD JOB" and give them stickers. Ugh.
Anyway it was playtime! I climbed all over the jungle gym, swung on the swings, played on the trolley thingy (zip glider?) and carried around tiny Japanese first graders on my arms and legs, against my will. The kids there have UNICYCLES and stilt type contraptions that they call "pony", don't ask me why... I've never seen anything look less like a horse. Then the first graders showed me the school pets. Three chickens, a rooster, and a group of turtles. Apparently they had a bunny but it died, they said with a gleeful smile. I got to hold a chicken! Never in my life have I held a chicken! It was glorious!!! And they were very soft and fluffy! Then one of the boys (who had a bug sticker on his forehead all day) showed me the turtles, kame-chan. As soon as the boy went over, all the turtles swam to him and tried to climb out of the pond. It was amazing. I didn't know turtles could be fond of things.
After playtime we had lunch. They are the only school with an actual lunchroom, which organizes their tables by their birthday. So January and February students are at one table, March and April at one, and so on. But it was a lovely day so we picnicked instead! We all received bentos and took our bentos and milks out to the Urashima shrine to picnic. I even ate my tomatoes, and my umeboshi, which is a pickled plum that's delicious and sour! I hung out with a quiet third grader, Nakani-sensei and the Principal, who was cool and asked me about baseball. I think you have to like American baseball to be a principal.
After lunch I hung around the teacher's room pretending to be awake. Then it started to rain and I decided to walk around the school to wake myself up. The head teacher (whatever that means) took me on a tour. He showed me the music room, science room, art room, and then the elementary school FARM. They grow buckwheat, peanuts, rice, strawberries, and radishes... what a crazy town I live in. I can't wait to eat everything that grows at the school. I bet it tastes better when you learn next to it.
Anyway, after the day's classes ended I was kidnapped by the first grader girls and taken on a whirlwind tour around the school, and its chalkboards. We drew lots of smileys, random english letters, and lots and lots of spirals. And then randomly, one girl would scream "IKOU IKOU IKOU!" let's go let's go let's go! And all the girls would scream and grab my h ands and we'd run off to find more chalkboards. I mean, I get it though. Chalkboards are awesome. We ended up in the gym playing dodge ball, jump rope and general 'run around and climb on everything while shrieking and giggling' games. I don't think people should elect to be parents until t hey hang out with first graders for a day. I think by the end of that day, they'll know if they want kids.
Around 4:15, Nakani-sensei came in and said "is Rachel here?" and I popped out of some curtains on the stage, on top of a balance beam and said, "um... I'm here!" I probably looked professional.
And then it was time to go home. I was going to write about more things from the week, such as going to the Yoshida's house over and over (they are like my host family here, and feed me every week!) or.. the 5 huge spiders that live outside my house on the balcony (Mona-sized), or how i finally got a coffee machine. But those aren't nearly as interesting. At least in comparison.
I forgot to mention! Here is an awesome conversation from the teacher's lounge:
Teacher #1 - So, have you seen the monkeys here yet?I mean we have Presidents anyway.
Rachel - yes! I have they are so cute!
Teacher #2 - Japanese monkeys have kind faces.
Teacher #1 - What kind of monkeys to they have in America?
Rachel - uh, they don't have monkeys.
Teacher #2 - really?????
Teacher #1 - But what about King Kong?
Rachel - King Kong's not real!
Teacher #2 - No no, King Kong was an ape, not a monkey!
Teacher #1 - ohhhh, so you have apes in America?
Rachel - ...sure.
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