Remember my Sylvia Plath kindergarten student? She's the one that would sit in the back of the room and cry during my English lessons. Well, she's a 1st grader this semester, and I had hoped for an instant maturation during the transition to elementary school. Sadly, not yet. I had my first full class with 1st and 2nd graders today. Some of the 1st graders I did not have in kindergarten, so they have had absolutely no English experience. We were playing a variation of Duck, Duck, Goose changed to Hello, Hello, Goodbye, when she got picked. When she realized she had to get up and chase the other kid, she just put her head down, slumped her shoulders, and cried. I think someone needs to give 110%.
Thankfully, she'll out grow this...one day. I have this other fat kid whom I had in kindergarten and is now in the same class. His problem is simple: he's the fat kid. The kind of fat kid who would unearth a swing set. The kind of fat kid who you can't play see-saw with. After seeing his mother, I would bet money that he will ALWAYS be the fat kid.
Well, last week, I had a 15 minute class with my 1st and 2nd graders, and we just made name cards. Somehow, during this short 15 minute window, he craps his pants. Either he wasn't aware he did it or he was trying to hide that he did it to make a clean getaway later. The teacher immediately knew what happened and took him away to change. How did she know? Let's just say, it was completely OBVIOUS that he was crapping his pants as it happened.
It's always the fat kid, right?
If my goal in Japan was to cause pain to as many children as possible, then I would be succeeding. After my latest incident, I wouldn't doubt if I was flagged for deportation.
During my 3rd/4th grade class, we were doing a kind of running game. My classroom is a slick hardwood floor and they were wearing socks. One of the 4th graders attempts a turn and falls down. I've seen more kids fall down than I can count, so I wasn't alarmed...until the teacher went over to his side and stayed there while I continued my game. I believe I have written enough about how if a kid gets hurt, the teachers and students practically ignore him or her to let them such it up on their own. With the teacher by his side, I could sense that this was serious. He could sit up, but he couldn't move his leg. He wasn't crying, but he would wince at the slightest poke of his knee.
This happened at the beginning of class, so I had to continue teaching a distracted bunch of already rambunctious kids. Through the course of my class, the school nurse came in, then another teacher, and then the vice principal. When class had finally finished, an ambulance showed up. Paramedics came in with the whole stretcher set up and took him away.
I'm sure I would have felt worse had I been the one to fall on him and caused this to happen. But I still feel down-right horrible. Later that afternoon, we got a call from the hospital saying he had sprained his knee. I think my class should come with a warning label.
Me and two other JETs have been planning a China/Tibet trip for August for a couple of months now. And just our luck, it's looking like it may not be the smartest of ideas anymore. It seems protests are extending out of Tibet into western China (which was our back-up plan), and I definitely don't want to be around eastern part during the Olympics. I assume it will be way too expensive.
But in order to prepare for this awesome trip that I'm no longer going on, I went and got my tetanus shot last week. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, America recommends you get shots for tetanus, Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Rabies, and Japanese encephalitis. And don't forget the malaria pills.
When I handed my shot record to the doctor, he stares at it and says, "Why do you need a tetanus shot? You've had six of them." I point out that the first four were when I was under a year old, and the other two were at 5 years old and 13 years old. Therefore, I need another one because I'm suppose to get one every 10 years. I guess Japan doesn't do that, cause he gave me a look and said, "Well, I can give it to you if you want it." Well, of course I didn't want it, I only felt like I needed it. So I told him I'm going to China for hiking and camping, and he says, "Ok, then it's probably a good idea."
I then ask him about the other shots that America recommends, and he, of course, told me I don't need them, but I can get them if I want to. He just said don't eat raw food and avoid the water. In short, play it smart and I'll be fine. I don't know how much the vaccines would cost me here, but if I was in America, and I planned to go to China and get all my vaccines, the bill would run me $480 (if I was a student at UPenn. It was the only list I could find.)
So I think I would choose to just play it smart, but since I'm not going anymore, it doesn't matter. The trip is on hold for next August.
When I was doing some shopping at Jusco, I saw a huge crowd over by the fish section. Naturally, I walk over to see what was going on. Because I'm tall (and in Japan), I could I easily could see what was drawing everyone's attention: a man had just wheeled out a whole tuna. These fish are big! He then proceeded to cut him up right there in front of everybody, starting by removing the head. At this point, kids started crying. But I, like the majority of everyone else there, was fascinated as he took his knife and cut up the belly, splitting the tuna in half. He then went to work cutting the meat into size-able, take-home portions. I wasn't planning on buying any raw tuna, but how often can you buy it as you watch the guy cut it up right in front of you? When I got home, it tasted heavenly.
I took this picture with my cell phone, so forgive the quality.
Also, in other oddities, check out the eyes on this cat from Zamami!
Last Saturday, I was on my way downtown to meet some people for dinner. I wanted to make a right turn at a traffic light, but the turn lane was easily backed up 10-15 cars. I could see fireworks going off in the distance and a musical horn blaring randomly. As the minutes went by, and I slowly inched closer, I could see a huge group of what looked like college students just hanging around...in the street and the neighboring convenience store parking lot. I also saw one guy on a unicycle.
I made up my mind that if they were in my way at my turn signal, I would drive at high speed while yelling out English obscenities. Lucky for them, and unfortunate for my anger outlet, the police showed up and they ran away. I told Yuka about this later, and she said they were probably a gang and it's good I didn't draw their attention to me. To me, a gang is something to fear. I just watched Ghosts of Cite Soleil, about two gang leaders in Haiti. THEY were scary. Not these clowns goofing off and holding up traffic.
Last Thursday, I invited myself to a 'good-bye'/'happy retirement' party. These parties are thrown by all the schools at the end of the year to formally send off transferring or retiring teachers. In reality, it is just one (of many) excuses to go out. Since I only show my face at each school once a week, I am sometimes forgotten. I guess being tall only makes a large impression on the eye, not the mind.
The fact that three teachers were leaving was overshadowed by a 6th grade teacher retiring. This guy is awesome. He's 60 and looks like he's in his late 40's. He enjoys body building, and talking about body building, while flexing his muscles for the lady teachers (especially the single ones). He thinks Home on the Range is the Great American Folk Song. He also told me that when he was younger, he would go on runs and children would run with him. I think someone's been watching a little too much Rocky.
To celebrate his retirement, we all jumped on a bus at 8 am and visited every school he ever taught at. A large banner was made, saying something like, 'Happy Retirement', so when we arrived at a school, everyone would jump out and take a group picture. We visited about 10 schools, with the best one being on Minna Island, which is about a 20 minute ferry ride. The island is small enough to walk around it leisurely in a couple of hours.The only sound to be heard on the island was the wind and birds. The retiring teacher said when he taught here 30 years ago, there were only 17 students. Now there are only 4. He also said that he had no electricity and water, that they used oil lamps and would collect rain. Hardcore.
Our last stop was a resort hotel in Onna. Biggest hotel I've ever stayed in. There were four guys, and we all had one room...and our own bed, with two showers. The day excursion including lunch, dinner, ferry ticket, karaoke, and hotel put me back only $50. I don't know where the rest of the money came from, but someone is being nice.