Because of various holidays, exams, and other delays, we’re still doing my lesson on complimenting. I’ll finish it up at the end of this week, but for now we’re still forcing our students to give us compliments. Today Tsutsumi sensei and I had one class full of compliments – she loves it when they compliment her. The students are good, too. “You look so young,” they say. “You have a wonderful smile,” they exclaim.
During the second class with Mr. Yamamoto, one girl complimented him on his eyebrows. We looked at each other and tried to figure out what the heck she meant by it, but maybe it was one of those backhanded compliments.
Both classes were full of energy, and right after that we had ESS, which is another group of students full of energy. Today we spent a lot of time on their articles for the culture festival project. I helped with some translation and editing, and the students joked around a lot. They put on a CD to listen to while they worked, and we spent the time well. They are getting close to the deadline, though, so we’ll see if they can finish the articles off on time.
I had a class with Tsuji-san after school, and we talked about her job, how her voice is disappearing from speaking so much, singing so much, and practicing English so much. We spent about an hour flipping between English and Japanese, and then I went on home.
The other day I bought a little rice ball mold – you pack it full of rice, squeeze it together, and when you are finished you have a perfectly shaped rice ball. Of course, they are triangular rice balls, called “onigiri” in Japanese. So I guess the term rice ball is a little misleading. Anyway, I packed half of it with rice, put in some filling (in this case some smoked and salted salmon, and then two drops of mayo. Then I put on a top layer of rice, and squeezed them together, and it came out perfectly. It’s a great way to get rid of leftover rice after dinner – make some onigiri and eat them for breakfast or take them for lunch the next day.
Tomorrow is Friday, and then the weekend is rolling around again. I’m hoping that Kuniko and I will be able to meet up with Nel and his with Kiyomi on Saturday night in Akashi. It’s long time no see – it’d be great if we can catch up with them.
