Konnichiwa
HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY "tanjoobi" to my Dad Bernie Slick!!!! Hope your having some sweet "amai" spice cake "keki" to celebrate your special day today 9/30/08. Sending warm thoughts and good wishes your way.
It has been a very rainy last "seng" 2 days day here in Japan. A steady drizzle is falling and my red "akai" bucket out on the back deck is filling once again. It filled to almost 5 "go" inches when the 13th "juu-san" typhoon "taifu" of the season "shizun" rolled through a couple weeks ago..and now the 15th "juu-go" one is here and I wonder how much will fall this time? I guess I missed the 14th"juu-yon" one..must have went a different direction, as I heard nothing about it, nor do I remember alot of rain "ame" ?? anyhoo..
Yesterday "kinoo" I spent time in the house and actually had to put the heater on. It is very cool "Suszushii" and damp "shimeppoi" here. In the morning I did Honduras stuff and Emails and then I was off to my Japanese class above the grocery store. After class I stopped in the bakery and bought myself a fresh loaf of sesame bread "pan" and a really good cranberry and cream cheese pastry YUM!! Then I stopped at the other grocery store for a few more items and went back home to get out of the rain and to try and make some sense of my class notes with a dictionary at my side. It seems the teachers "sensei's" talk mostly and don't often times write things down, and for me the visual learner, that is sometimes quite confusing. I like to see "miru" and hear "kiku" the new information at the same time.
I am starting to get more japanese words "kotobas" and phrases "ku" in my memory bank,and now I just need to have more daily opportunities to start using them. I was hoping that would start today "kyoo", but looks as if I am still playing the waiting game a few more weeks? Darn! :-(
I went back to the school today and did get to visit "hoomon" Sharon-sensei's classes with 2 "ni" other lady volunteers Chiaki-san and Tomoku-san. She taught English "eigo" to the 1st graders and then to the 4th graders. It was alot of fun and I really enjoyed 1st grade where we made farm, zoo and pet shop animal sounds and, colored "irozuku", sang "utau" songs "uta", moved like the different creatures... Yes I was in HOG heaven!
Then we moved up to the 4th grade classroom and talked "hanashi" about the calendar "karenda" and the months "getsu" of the year "nen" and what happens in Japan each of those months, birthdays ", ordinal and cardinal numbers...They were less excited about it, that is for sure. I made a few suggestions after that I thought might help her. I think she like my japanese teachers, may need to write "kaku" the words on the board as well. I shared how some kids might be more visual then auditory and you need to give them both and let them decide what works best. I said too, there maybe some kids that really want to know more and so give them all the info you can and let them use what they want and/or need. She appreciated my ideas and help.
Of course I got alot of quick glances my way..remember they do NOT stare and the other two ladies said the kids were asking who is the tall lady? I felt like most kids were quite receptive to me and especially when I of course, almost jumped in their laps to help them.:-)
I am thinking it was probably a good thing I went to the sports day on Saturday "do-yoobi" and suppose some might have seen me there as well and so maybe I was a bit familiar to a few ?
When we were leaving, it was lunch time and so I took a few pictures as we walked through the halls. They bring carts up to each of the rooms and the kids as you can see serve their own lunches. Today they were having bonito Fish pieces with sauce and sesame seeds, soup, rice and some pickled veggies I think. Tomoku said we can eat lunch "chuushoku" with them for 300yen if we like sometimes. Cool I would love that!!! Plus I then get to try real japanese cuisine and I don't have to cook it myself.
So we went back down to the meeting room and had a little bit of a discussion over some hot green "midori" tea "ryoku-cha". I was hoping they would tell me to come back tomorrow, but I guess they are having another meeting without me on Oct 24th so they can figure out how best to put my native speaking skills to use?
Tomoku said the Pres and Vice Pres, want it to be a long term relationship, and so I guess I will just have to be patient and wait and see what comes of it. I wish I knew more what they expected of me, but I guess they don't even know yet themselves? This is a new thing for all, is what I understood when I left this time. I just hope it doesn't take too much longer for it all start to fall in place, when I have such limited time here. :-(
I guess I will just stay focused now on my japanese for the next few weeks and then CJ's mom will be here too, so I will have stuff to keep me occupied. I also took and presenrted them with a CD of the pics I took at Sports Day on Saturday and they were very grateful for them and even showed me how they are going to put some of them in the school newsletter. Cool! They had been busy working on a rough draft while I was in the classrooms. I guess they didn't understand that I gave them the CD as a gift to keep, as they tried to give it back to me.
So I am back here at home and now listening to the kids walking home from school at the bottom of the hill and hoping this really does happen and soon. I feel kind of like I have a straightjacket on. Why does it have to be so formal, I just want to hang out and help. Heck I will wash dishes in the kitchen,something,please...just let me start interacting?
Hopefully, I wasn't too aggressive and scared them away? I also felt it was important to let them know I was leaving Jan 9-April 1st for MN and Honduras, so who knows if that now, will affect my helping them out or not? I hope not, I just wanted them to know up front, that I have limited time here and to hopefully get the ball rolling...SOON!
Oh well, we shall see. Thanks for letting me vent..now back to my studies.
"Karra"
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