I Just Wanna Squeeze 'em!! =P

Before I begin, I just need to tell you all that if you haven't read the other ones before this post, and if you want to, please read them as well. Those other ones I really didn't tag people, so no one was informed of them. I'm not going to tag everyone after each post cuz it takes too much time; only on some posts I will tag just to inform you that I've updated in case you are still keeping up with my boring life. This is only if you are still interested in reading my blog. If not, then you don't have read it at all, you can just ignore this. ^^ I'll try to post every night or every other night in case you want to know when to check. Thank you!

Aug. 24 Monday

Day of madness! I came out of my house to get my bike to ride to work to then realize that my bike was not in my garage... I freaked out and was like "oh shit! Did someone steal it?" And then I realized I had left it at the B&G gym yesterday and took a car with Satomi. =P eheh. So I just walked to work. It only takes me 10minutes without running. I made it just in time before the morning bell rang. But usually when the bell rings the chairman comes out of his office to say hello to us, but today he wasn't there. So everyone in the office just awkwardly stood for a little bit and then turned around to each other to say ohayou gozaimasu and sit back down. It was kinda funny looking. So I did some errands this morning with Su before heading off to the nursery at 10am. And that included buying my car, which turned out to be 190,000yen instead of 150,000yen like I thought. But the extra 40,000yen is for the recycle fee, the owner change fee, and taxes. So it's still a pretty good price I think for a 4wd, automatic, including shakken and winter tires.

So at 10am Su dropped me off via car at the nursery and was wonderful enough to go and get my bike and ride it to the nursery so that I would have it later. So amazing! I love my supervisor! Anyways, so at the nursery I set my stuff down and walked into the large playroom where everyone sat waiting for morning announcements. Such good well disciplined children! I couldn't believe my eyes seeing that. All the kids were from 1-6 years old yet they all sat two by two in 2 little columns that represented each class. They didn't scream or run around or get out of line or anything. Just sat in their little areas and mildly talked with each other. It was amazing! I've never seen kids being able to do that in the states! And then when the teacher was doing her morning announcements and telling everyone to make sure they take care of their bodies and stay clean and do the cleaning and stuff all the children would all answer in unison with a loud "hai!" I was sooo impressed. Anyways, the little kiddies saw me walk in and looked really happy and smily and would keep smiling and waving at me. It was the cutest thing ever!!! And then I noticed little Ikuma who is in the Sakura class. Oh, on a side note, the classes are all seperated by flower names and their age. Sakura is 5-6 year olds, Sumire is 3-4 year olds, Tulip is 2 year olds, and then there is the 1 year old class which I don't really know their flower name. It's really cute. The kids would refer to themselves as that class too. lol

Anyways, little Ikuma was the one of the little boys I played with yesterday and who said the line "it would be better if you came to my granpa's house to play with us" or something like that. I love the boy. He's adorable! But he didn't know I was the teahcer yesterday. So when he saw me and I introduced myself to the whole nursery he was like "...wha!? You're the teacher?! I played with you yesterday right?" To which I nodded and said I remembered him. I taught his class today which is the Sakura class. ADORABLE!!!!! I JUST WANNA SQUEEZE THEM ALL!!! SOOOOOO CUUUUUTTTTEEEE!!! The minute I got in there all the kids pulled me over to play connecting blocky things with them. Their hands are so small and their little bodies are the best to hug cuz it's so small and cute and like a doll's. I tried to hug them every chance I got! Best feeling ever being hugged by little babies like that. And they would vie for me attention so it was very difficult trying to pay attention to one kid while the other one was talking to me as well. We just did little introductions and I was impressed with how much English these kids knew. The knew how to say "Hello! My name is..." And so they did that. But I had to speak in Japanese with these kids majority of the time because they don't really understand English at all except for those impressive few words.

And for the record, I can't understand kid Japanese whatsoever. Everything they told me I would just nod or say "sugoi!" or "Wow!" or "oooo" and pretend that I knew what they were talking about. But I think I'm learning alot of Japanese from these little kids actually. They're surprisingly very patient with me and are willing to teach me Japanese words. At lunch after all the tables were set up the kids waited for me to decide where I was sitting and then would fight over who sat next to me. hehhe. So adorable their little chairs and backpacks. They all brought their own utensil set and cooked rice. We talked about the most random things, and half the time I don't even understand them. They're just cute to look at and poke. After they were done they automatically helped to clean up the tables and then go to the bathroom. I stayed with some of the kids and read a little story/picture book in Japanese. Man, my Japanese has been sucking lately because as I read the book I had to pause several times to make sure what I read was one word and not two or a run on sentence..lol =P And then all the kids helped to grab their futons to lay out in a clean row on the floor. I said goodbye to all of them and then left to go to the elementary.

I arrived at the elementary during lunchtime so there was some free time for me to walk around and see what the kids were up to. I mainly hung out on the first floor and as I walked along the corridor I hear alot of kids point at me and say "Theresa-sensei!" And some of them would even run up to me and grab my hand. XD I love that quite alot actually. I'm a sucker for children. >D Some of the kids were really surprised to see me and weren't sure how to act around me, but majority were really genki and outgoing. I walked towards the end of the corridor where there was a crowd of kids who were from the 2nd grade class standing around outside the room playing. The moment they saw me they immediately crowded around me and grabbed my hand to play with me. Too bad, I don't teach this class. I would've loved them. Their teacher came out to say hello to me. She's a very cute woman who was pregnant. And absolutely sweet and nice.

When 5th period came along I went to go teach the 5th grade class with Hisakawa-san. I think I really surprised him actually. Normally when I'm with the teachers I'm pretty quiet and reserved because I still don't know exactly how to act around them and am sometimes a little nervous. But when I with students and children I just let loose and go crazy. I basically throw my pride away when I'm teaching kids. And I think that's the only way to do it if you really want the children to love learning and love you. If you keep up an ego or a cool demeanor the children will think you're cold and unwilling to play with them. But if you act stupid and super happy like they are more receptive of you and will play with you. And that's what happened. My self intro was me being silly and doing wierd actions to describe my hobbies. The kids laughed at me and everything. They were all really excited to meet me and talk with me especially the girls. The girls all seem to really be willing to talk to me I think because I'm a female ALT this time. lol =P Yeah, so I played games with them and stuff that used ENglish and at the end of the class since we still had some free time I had them sing me the alphabet song. And then said goodbye and went back to my office area. As I left I heard the Hisakawa-san say "wah, subarashii da yo ne" Haha, yeah I think I really surprised him. I think most of the teachers weren't expecting much from my demeanor when I'm around them, but I think after this, their views of me will change little by little I hope. I just need to work on being fun with the teachers as well...lol

Some of the super nice female teachers invited me to go to the afternoon club activities with the home-ec club. The students were from 5-6th grade and one 2nd grader joined us. So tiny! So they made parfaits! I was excited! Free parfait time! And it was delicious. By that time I was already super tired, so my energy wasn't as high as it could've been. I need to go to sleep earlier. It's taking a toll on my attitude and genkiness with the kiddies. After that I returned back to my office desk to do nothing. Hisakawa-san came back into the office a little while later and his attitude towards me was quite different. haha. He treated me with more respect and normality. He said my way with the children was excellent! I was sooo proud and happy to hear him say that because I want to get to know him better and show him how I really am instead of this weird reserved me that he sees. And then Watanabe-san (the 6th grade teacher) says that he wants me to teach him and some students a 3-4 minute hip hop routine to perform in their little festival in October. I was more than happy to do so, so I told him to choose a song he likes and I'll choreograph something for them. I'm not sure how good I can be, but I will try my best.

In the evening today was the Sayonara party for the 5 exchange students that were here or as I like to call them 'my girls'. We seriuosly became the best of friends in the short one week that they were here. We bonded so well because we all spoke chinese mandarin and cantonese. I love these girls so much and wished they were here longer. But they have to get back to school in Tokyo. I actually arrived 20 minutes late because I thought it started at 6:30, but it started at 6pm. So I sneaked to the back of the room and sat with the Taiko club at their table. The taiko club was there and allowed us to play on the drums and stuff. We also did a little bonodori dance around the room. It was so cute seeing the principals and chairmans dancing the bonodori. Afterwards was a lot of tearful goodbyes and hugging and exchanging of emails and numbers and pictures. I will never forget these wonderful girls and will definitely visit them in Tokyo when I get the chance! XD ^O^

Anyways, off to sleep now. I need it for tomorrow...lol Otsukare-sama for reading!