Happy Happy Day!

Today was a great day! I thought I would be way tired this morning since I stayed up too late watching a movie, but I wasn't tired at all. As usual, I met my friend Michiyo at Takaishi eki on the train ride to class. We talked as we walked to class, and she told me how she has been amazed that my personality seems very Japanese, as well as my way of speaking. Yay! My goal of acting in culturally appropriate ways seems to be working for the most part!

Class was a lot of fun. For the first hour we reviewed everything in the course so far. We basically played Jeopardy with questions I made this morning. I was having fun, and the students were too, so I made an executive decision and had the 101 class be 2 hours long. It usually is about an hour and a half, thanks to the extra time from Watabe sensei's 30 minute planned devotion (which takes 5 minutes). It was great, the students remembered a lot of things, and we got some good competition in there between the "King's team" and the "Superman team." The Kings team actually came from the day where we picked a king for the day, and I let the king decided the order that we did my planned activities. Therefore, the King's team was the one that had the king of the class on it. The second half of class was just as fun. We learned about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We read the story, discussed it, did a few other activities, and then drew a giant picture all over the whiteboard.

Oh, I forgot to mention, but there was a great slip-up today. Japanese speakers have a hard time telling the difference between l and r sounds. Today one of my students confidently told me that he eats a big bowl of lice every day. I couldn't help laughing. A lot. Then I had to explain to everyone why I was laughing and have them practice the correct pronunciation.

After class, I went out to eat with Michiyo and Naoto - the one teenager in the class. We had originally planned to eat okonomiyaki, but mysteriously, all of the okonomiyaki shops we went to were closed. We ended up getting udon instead. It was so much fun eating and talking with friends - I think those two are the only two in my class that I feel comfortable using casual language with. I will admit that by the end of the conversation I was completely lost. Naoto helped explain various things about the church to Michiyo. Church language still goes way over my head.

Afterward, we all walked together to the train station. We heard the signal, and everyone thought it was my train, so they urged me to run for it so I could make it. Well, I started running, then realized that it was not a local train, it was an express. When I looked back, both of them were laughing. I couldn't help but laugh too as I waved and called out "Mata ashita" (See you tomorrow!). Those two make me laugh. I will miss those two probably the most.

Speaking of which, I haven't written about it yet, but started next Monday I will be teaching evening classes instead of morning classes. There are three interns in Osaka, so we rotate every month so everyone gets a chance to teach the morning class (The other two teach together in the evening). In some ways it will be nice since it is a lot harder to prepare all of the work by myself rather than splitting it, but it is also hard to say goodbye to them. Tomorrow is my last day with the morning class. I will really miss them. I have already promised to come back and visit on the 4th of July - Hiroshi's birthday, but they are such a great group. It is hard to believe that I have only been with them for a month.

I really want to think of something special to do for them for the last day, but I can't think what.

On a completely different topic, I have decided to do some more fun things today. Sometimes I feel like I spend too much time doing homework and other things. I know I will have more time after the change next week, so hopefully I can start doing more fun things throughout the week.

Maybe to start with I will go wander around Kishiwada Castle. I have been there a couple times before, but it is the perfect distance for a walk, and I love staring into the moat. (Moat! It's a moat!) Anyway, that's it for now.