I had a tough class today – the chaos class. There is a ringleader involved here – one student that gets everyone else riled up. The boys that sit near him get caught up in the excitement, and the girls in the class are quiet and just hope that it will end soon. It’s a bad vibe all around, and Mr. Kimura has a hard time keeping everyone focused.
I went through my lesson, but it was difficult with all the boys talking and sometimes even getting up and walking around the classroom. I’m not allowed to discipline the students of course, but I tried to show my disapproval. The tough part is that the girls all sit and listen carefully – they are completely quiet but they know the answers when you press them. So in the end I really just focus on working with them, and the boys could care less.
It’s the only class that I have that is disruptive or a problem – every other class is kept in line pretty well, or they are genuinely interested in listening to me. All I can do is use the class as a test of my patience and hope for the best.
Mr. Hayashi was exuding garlic today – he smelled like garlic as soon as he walked in the door. Over the weekend he bought some deep fried dried garlic cloves, and he’s been munching on them like popcorn. He bought me a bag, but after I smelled the garlic on him the DAY AFTER he ate them, I’m a little scared to open up the bag and start munching. I figure I’ll do it over beer one night when I’m not talking to anyone for the next few days.
We snuck out of work an hour early. I’m the universal excuse for Mr. Hayashi to get out early… he can always say that we had to go to the tax office or the immigration office or the doctor. I’m happy to go early – there’s nothing really to do after classes end, and I usually just study Japanese until five and then hit the road.
On the way home I stopped in and picked up some pork, green onions, milk, and some interesting looking mushrooms that looked good. They were tiny little things, so I sauteed them in a little bit of garlic and oil. As soon as they came out of their package, I noticed that the liquid surrounding them was behaving in a very non-liquid manner. That’s right – it was SLIME! The package looked good, the date was OK, and the mushrooms themselves were firm and smelled good. I figured I might as well finish cooking them, so I took some pictures of the final product for you.
I added a little soy sauce and a splash of tabasco, and took a bite – hmm, not bad. Not good, not bad, not anything really. The slime thing was still there, though – and so I had two more bites and then dumped the rest in the garbage. Chalk it up to experimentation.
