From the lakes of Hokkaido....

These are the two new additions to my class. They are called marimos in Japanese. Basically, they are balls of green algae that grow only in the lakes of Hokkaido. But they are cute, low maintenence and who could resist something with a name as cute as "marimo"? :) In total I have 4 marimos. The first two I got a year ago from some of my students.

They are twins and their names are Nori and Bobo. I have come to believe that marimos make the best class pets!I keep these two upstairs in my classroom. My students love them! Every class, students will come in and before they even have a chance to say hello to me they ask, "Marimo wa?" translation-"Where are the marimos?" It really seems like they are living animals. But alas, only green balls of algae. These two new ones don't have names yet, but that will come soon.

Me and some of my students doing "hen gao" (strange face)

Too cute

Yesterday the 9th graders from the English Club were in our office. One girl hit her elbow on the desk and afterwards, rubbing it with her hand she exclaimed, "my meatball hurts!" Apparently, she doesn't know the word "elbow" or "funny bone" but thinks it is called "meatball".

Ode to my Umbrella

It was just two days ago when my beautiful blue umbrella went missing from the umbrella rack at school. I had just finished work for the day. I changed my shoes, punched out my button and stepped outside. Of course, it was pouring down. It looked bleak. I went to the spot where I had put my umbrella in the morning. It wasn't there. That's okay, I thought, sometimes they get moved to a different spot in the rack. So, I began to search through all the other umbrellas for my blue one with the silver handle. Again, not there. No, way. I couldn't believe it. Nobody would steal my baby. I searched again and finally the truth set in; it was gone. I looked out at the rain. There was no way I could make it home without getting totally soaked and perhaps drowning in a puddle. I must have had a worried look on my face because one of the teachers who was just coming in from the rain asked me what happened. I told him my dreadful situation. And then, a ray of sunlight shone as he offered to let me borrow his umbrella because he had come by car. "Really?" I said. And moments later I was walking home happily under a borrowed umbrella.
.....days later, there is no sign of my little blue umbrella. "Little blue" this post is for you.

ScHoOl LiFe

There are some days that I go to school and I think, "what is going on?" Today was one of those days. I collected and corrected English journals from my 10th graders. In one of the journals a girl wrote, "I went to the shopping after a long interval for the first time in sometime. So, I just can't tell you how glad happy I was." If you read this sentence out loud it is even funnier. Then, in my 8th grade class I made my students into 6 teams and each team was supposed to make a conversation using vocabulary they had learned in class about weather, clothing, animals and time. Well, one group got up there and it went something like this:
"What's the weather like today?"
"It's sunny"
"Me too."
What are you going to wear to the zoo?"
"A school uniform."
"Me too."
"What time is it."
"It's 3:00."
"Me too, me too."
And finally, it seemed like every time I went to the staff room the same girl would run up behind me and grab my arm, walking along with me. (She does this everytime she sees me) Another habit of hers is trying to bite my arm! I know! If you are shocked right now, imagine how I feel. She never does it hard. But can you imagine a 9th grader running up to you and trying to bite your arm while you are going to the teacher's room?
So, as I said in the beginning, "What is going on here?"

Something recently learned

Today I realized something about my students. Today in my class of 8th grade girls we watched the movie "Princess Diaries". I don't know if you have seen this movie, but it is really cute and is basically about a girl who finds out she is a princess (your average cinderella story). I watched this movie with my 9th graders and they loved it. It is a pretty clean movie with only a couple of kissing scenes. Well, let me tell you, the difference between 8th and 9th grade girls is HUGE when it comes to these kinds of scenes. When I watched the movie with my 9th graders, they kept saying words like "kawaii" (cute) or "kokoii" (cool). They loved it. But, with my 8th graders, while they liked most of the movie, during any intimate scene like kissing or even dancing I would hear them scream and then hear an occasional "kimoii" (that makes me sick). It's funny that just watching a movie can be such an educational time for me, the teacher.

Goodbye Yui

On Wednesday, one of the girls who recently gradutated from my high school is leaving for America to study for 4 years. So, in honor of her leaving we had a goodbye party at my house. I made dinner, which by the grace of God, turned out ok. And we had THREE different kinds of dessert. Yabai! But it was fun to hang out with her and some of the students from my English Club and Liz, our intern from Australia who has been a blessing to me in the office. We laughed a lot last night, mostly at mistakes we made in English and Japanese. It was a lot of fun and though we will all miss Yui, I know she will do great in America. Ganbatte!

DDR-Taiko style!

Okay, so Saturday was my birthday (yes, I am now 24 for all those wondering)...it sounds so old, "24". Anyways, Katie through me a great party and what a better way to party than play the funnest game ever-Taiko revolution (or, at least that's what I call it). It is the Japanese drumming version of DDR and it ROCKS! Here is a video of Katie and I playing so you too can experience the fun...via movie :)

the BEST trip EVER

Being June, it means that it is the time when all schools in Japan take their annual school trips. It was only 4 days ago that I set out for Omihachiman with 381 Japanese teenage girls. What an adventure! In the bus the students mostly slept, or sang and to my surprise I heard sounds of sheep coming from the back of the bus. When we got there it was beautiful! Our hotel was on lake Biwako. This is one of three of the oldest lakes in the world. The other two are in Russia and Saudi Arabia. The scenery was gorgeous! Much different than Osaka or Kobe.

On our way up there we stopped at and hiked up this mountain. It was pretty, and great exercise. Our guide was an 81 year old man who was in better shape than all of us and who, every 5 minutes, stopped to tell us the history of the place. Too bad I couldn't understand what he was saying. I don't think the students particularly enjoyed it, except maybe for the way down. Beautiful view though.

When we arrived, the students had bath time. Of course, like last year, I was on bath duty. This was a very interesting venture, trying to get 381 girls to shower in 2 hours. We were exhausted by the end. Fortunately the food was great and I went back into my room only to discover snacks in my hotel room and tea in the fridge. What a surprise! Japanese "service" is great!
The next day we had "sports time" where they did relays and we played dodgeball. The students beat the teachers in like 3 minutes! Sad day. That night we had a big campfire by the beach and each class (there are 10 in all) performed a dance they had created. Some of the classes told a scary story instead (of course, I couldn't understand) but we had some kids crying in the end. I sometimes forget they are only 13 and 14 years old and they're girls so...
The teachers performed a skit at the end too. I was the "strong woman". Oh yeah, it was cool. I felt strong, the kids clapped, it was fun.
The last day we did our morning exercise by the lake and then packed up to leave. On our way back home we stopped by two museums. They were pretty interesting and the scenery was nice. One also had an aquarium.



What a trip. We came back exhausted but it was worth it. I love my students! They are great.