Today the temperature in the morning finally hit the big zero, sitting there at the freezing point right when I had to leave the house to go to work. Actually, it wasn’t so bad once you got out and got moving. I took advantage of a couple of hand warmers that I had sitting around the house – they kept my extremities nice and warm for the walk to work.
Definitely the highlight today was the ESS club activity. We had a big turnout today – I was drumming up support by telling students in the hallways how exciting our club meeting was going to be. Everyone showed up, and I told them about a treasure hunt.
Earlier in the day I spent time hiding little clues all over the school, always making sure that one clue led to the next. It was fun to hide things around the school – there’s lots of great places to stash stuff.
At first my students were complaining. We have to run all over the school looking for this stuff? What’s the point? It’s cold! I managed to get them motivated though, and they ran off in search of the first clue. I followed them around to make sure they didn’t get into any trouble. Remarkably, they finished the whole thing in about twenty minutes. The prize was a small box full of candy, and it was great to see them take it carefully back to my classroom to divide it up between them. There was a definite pecking order, too. I’m not sure how it all worked out but everyone felt it was fair.
Some of the students went home to study, and a couple stuck around to hang out and chat. I spent almost an hour chatting with Iku-chan. She told me about some of the history behind the kanji I’ve been learning, and I gave her some advice on her homework. With the help of the chalkboard, some illustrations, and some Japanese, we were able to communicate just fine.
I came home tonight and Yasu came over to help me out with my leftover situation. We ate tacos and talked about everything from music to girlfriends. I ended up burning him a CD of The Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots”. He gave me some good information on Japanese bands to watch out for. It was really fun.
Yasu had a new phone that he showed me – a tiny little Sony Ericsson that was cool. I don’t think I’d like to send text messages with it – it seemed a little too small for comfort. But it was nice to just clip on your keys and go.
He brought lots of beer, and his mom sent over some snacks. I retaliated by sending some of the lemons and apples that were given to me yesterday, and also some taco leftovers. Sometimes it seems like the huge pile of food at my house isn’t getting smaller at all.
