The week at gakko: Kimono retardation, apple pie, and international understanding

What a week! I still haven't had a chance to recover from the sleepless weekend, and unfortunately I went right into another hectic week at school.

Honjo Elementary School & Italian Food

Monday was a regular school day at Honjo Junior High School, however, on Monday I drove to Yasaka to wish Jer a bon voyage, and to eat Italian-style food! Leigh, Liz, Jer and I were all extremely tired from the weekend, but we managed to eat more food than a pack of hungry wolves. It was all topped off with a shou-cream, which is... a cream puff, I think. Liz is fond of them (not to mention extremely generous), and she bought four of them for the lot of us! I had mine for breakfast the next morning.

The following day at Ine junior high school was uneventful. Afterwards I sped down to Mineyama (about a 75 minute drive from my house) to attend kimono class. I am getting better, as I am able to put on all but the obi by myself. However, the teacher tends to rush over and do things for me as I watch her, attempting to help me with my apparent "slow learning" in that class. Unfortunately for the both of us, not to mention Liz and Kumi, I learn by doing. And if I am not given the chance to do things, I don't learn. I can watch something a hundred thousand times and I will probably never be able to perform it myself. Such is my undoing. Aside from inherent frustrations and lack of hardcore interest in kimonos, I do enjoy the class a great deal! It is always fun to see the many types of kimonos and to converse with the Japanese ladies in attendance.

Let's Enjoying Golf

I honestly don't remember Wednesday at school. I'm sure it was great, or horrible, but a blur otherwise. After school I met up with teachers from all the schools in the area (about 45 people total) and we played GRANDO GORUFU! Or, "Ground Golf", as I understand it. It's a bastardized form of puttputt golf/croquet. You take a mallet/club sort of stick and whack a ball across the bumpy dirt of the Ine Jr. High school baseball field. Then you try to get the ball into some sort of small gate topped with a flag (the flags are numbered). I was part of the BOE team, so not to make one school jealous of another. Although the BOE probably didn't realize they were worse off for it! They might of skyved me off on some other team had they known my "skill level" at unknown, obscure, made up, non sensical Japanese sports. The first round I was fantastic! I scored one of the top 10 places. However, it was a long way to fall. The second round was abysmal. I think I was second to last place in the end of that round. It left me somewhere near the bottom of the middle, where I was perfectly content to be.
Two of my teammates (my BIG boss, Hamano-san, and some guy at the BOE, Maeno-san), did very well! They made first and second place out of the whole group! They received prizes (a bathrobe and some tea towels, the manliest of prizes). Amano-san was SO happy with the results (aka: him doing well) that he treated the whole team to dinner at the sushi restaurant across the street from the school. The sushi restaurant I, until now, had not known existed. It was really delicious, however I had already eaten before grand golf, so my appetite was not at its normal level (ie: ravenous hippo). It was an interesting evening, to say the least. And, I forgot to mention, grand golf was extremely fun. I would play any night of the week.

Fan of the Aimi-Sensei

Thursday was a good day at school. I feel like I am really starting to develop some sort of teammanship with Aimi-sensei, thank GOODNESS. Her quiet demeanor has started to change around me, and I think she feels more comfortable speaking English in front of me. Thank goodness too, as the team teaching conference we're going to is just around the corner!

Shuji, Ouch.

Shuji was good too. My seiza position pains are lessening (well at least in my feet... the knees are still unhappy about it) and the teacher FINALLY knows I am left handed, even though I have tried to tell her countless times! She just laughed and says you can't write Japanese with your left hand. And the sad thing is it's TRUE. Oh well, hanging out with the little third graders while doing kanji was really fun! And I had the entire rest of the evening all to myself!!!

Ine Elementary, Not the Unhappiest Place on Earth

Today I went to Ine elementary school! The kids have been great, although I often feel like I really don't know how to teach elementary schoolers and I am just stalling for time. But they all seem to like me and want to talk to me, so I guess I came off for the better despite inadequate teaching abilities. Maybe that's WHY they like me so much. I don't make them learn! Hooray! Highlights of the day include making apple pies with the mentally handicapped children (although mentally handicapped 8 year old plus knives = TEARS.), getting hit in the back of the head with a volleyball during recess, and playing taiko for 6 entire minutes!!! I also had the extremely pleasure of eating lunch with the third years, and they asked me questions that I am sure helped develop their sense of America a little bit better. Such as, did you know you can buy carrots in America? And that they have coins too???? Also, Rachel-sensei eats all her food, can you imagine???? Such craziness had never been imagined!!! I am glad to be such an important international ambassador to this small fishing village. Next time I am going to tell them that we ride bears to school and eat tree bark. And we run around wearing ballroom gowns and shooting each other in the feet.

Epilogue

Now I am looking forward to the weekend. Rest, relaxation, and a lunch spread with Liz and company. I am happy. Happy happy happy. Although the weather is only getting colder, and my car seems to be in a bad mood. It is taking awhile to run properly in the mornings, which doesn't do well with my constant leaving the house late routine. You can't leave the house late properly and hop into a car that won't go over 25 mph!!!! You just can't.

Bummer.