Hey guys. Still not much going on around here. The school year is winding down (Japanese school and fiscal years run April - March), so I`m teaching my last few classes this week and next week, and then I have pretty much zero work to do in March. I`m going to go out of my mind. I predict another "What`s Happening in Mel`s Head" post in your future.
I was talking with one of my first year teachers today as we were walking back from class, and she said that she was surprised that one of the boys in the class was participating. Apparently he was bullied at the beginning of the year by the older boys on the soccer team, so he is always really reserved (even for a Japanese kid). I am choosing to take some credit for his new confidence. My English classes are just so awesome and engaging that he can`t help wanting to participate! And he`s quite good at English, too. At least, his reading aloud is, which is what he usually volunteers for.
Oh, and I can also tell you about the school marathon, because that happened right after my last post. So every year at the end of January, my school has a race that all the students are required to participate in (first and second years - by this point, third years are pretty much exempt from everything). I use the term "marathon" here because that`s what the Japanese say, but it`s not a legit marathon. The Japanese use the term "marathon" as a title for any distance footrace, regardless of whether or not it`s 26 miles. In the case of my school, there are separate races for males and females. Normally, the girls` race is 6K and the boys run 8K; there was construction along the usual route for the boys though, so they ran 6.5K instead. I knew about the race in advance, and had even considered joining the students. Then I got the plague, and there was no way I was putting my lungs through that, so instead I joined my supervisor at her assigned post near the finish to cheer the students on. It was while I was chatting with her that I learned that not only are the students required (unless there`s a legit reason for them not to) to run this thing, they have to do it in a certain amount of time. If they don`t manage to complete it in time, they have to do it again. I don`t think they have to do it again the same day, but I didn`t really get clarification because my mind was too busy freaking out about this. What the heck, sports school?!?!? The girls have 50 minutes to complete the 6K. That`s a pace of 8:20 per kilometer. I can do that on a good day. With a lot of warm up. And if I`ve been keeping up with my training. It seems less insane now that I`m doing the math, but at the time, I thought it was cruel and unusual punishment (I still kinda think that anyway, but that`s because I`m normally about as athletic as a stick of butter).
But yeah, really not much going on. I have another trip to Tokyo planned for mid-March. There are events happening at Disneyland that I must experience! Extra characters! Limited merchandise! Decorations! Also, we`re going to the Kawaii Monster Cafe, because it looks like most of my dreams come true. Seriously. It`s ridiculously flashy, with bright colours and cute things... My childhood dreams met with Lisa Frank and then plastered themselves all over every inch of a restaurant.
I think I`m also going to make some cards for my graduating students. Not all of the third years, obviously, because I don`t know most of them. But my class of 20, plus Mayu (the English Club VP that Haruna and I confused with our excitability over anime with strange premises) and Tetsuro (the boy I had conversation lessons with on Friday). That should occupy me for a while, especially if I make them at school! ...Except our graduation is on March 1st, so really I have to have them done by next week... Rats! There goes my plan to keep myself busy during my dead month.
Heh. My supervisor is talking with the Japanese teacher who sits across from me about Disney. It`s funny. There are so many times I`ve caught conversations about Disney around the room, even on the opposite side. Like I`m conditioned to automatically start paying attention when that name is said in the same room as me.
I`ve also decided that Friday is Tea Day. When I had the plague, and Morita-sensei came back from her flu leave (seriously, it`s policy that you are not allowed to work if you have the flu, and you`re given five paid days to recuperate), I brought in some Organic Detox from David`s Tea. I`d talked about tea before, when I got here, and when I got care packages/gifts from home. But she never really understood the scope of Western tea-drinking. So when I brought that stuff in, she went on the website to check it out. I have never seen a woman so excited over everything before. Like, I think I was less crazy when Ros and I discovered the original David`s store in university. Everything was "so creative" or "so cute" (because she looked at the mugs and stuff as well)! And the idea of chocolate tea pretty much blew her mind. Last week I brought in Forever Nuts for her to try, since it`s my favourite and I now have a metric tonne of it thanks to Christmas. She was so startled by the colour! It took a bit to explain, though, that "herbal tea" to us means "hot flavoured drink made of dried things that are not tea leaves," and doesn`t always have healing properties or a purpose.
Morita: So this is herbal tea. What is it for?
Me: ...To...taste good?
Today was Yogi Berry. Less exciting than Forever Nuts, but still pretty good. And oolong is a flavour the Japanese are much more familiar with.
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