Jump Rope, Tug-of-War, and Yakiniku?! Oh My!!

Aug. 23 Sunday

Ahahaha, so today is sunday, yes it is. And I was hoping to get a bit of shut-eye to make up for the lack of sleep I keep having these past few weeks. But bright and early in the morning Su calls me and tells me that there is the Kenbuchi Summer festival at the B&G gym across from the high school and I am supposed to participate in the festivities...Don't you just love last minute calls like this? Well, I suppose everything is actually pretty last minute here all the time. The activities that I'm supposed to participate in are the friendly neighborhood competitions that include the long jump rope, where there's a whole bunch of people lined up to jump at the same time when the rope comes around, and the tug-of-war. I was apparently signed up for both and I didn't even know. But immediately upon arriving there with Su on my bike there were alot of stares from everyone around the area. Apparently they all already knew who I was...lol I heard alot of kids saying "Theresa-sensei da!" I love hearing that because it's the voices of my beautiful adorable children. None of the older kids were there, just the preschool and elementary kids which was totally fine by me. They were already quite the handful to deal with. =P

Then when I walked into the gym 3 of the exchange student girls were there to greet me like old girly friends where you run up to each other and squeal and clasp hands..lol I kinda missed doing that. haha. Call me sappy. Anyways, they said they weren't participating so they would come around and take pictures of me losing the competitions...heh. And also when I walked in I saw a shit load of people staring at me as well as a bunch of "AH! Theresa-sensei da!" and kids running up to me and suddenly chatting with me. It's as if they've known me for a long time! I was soooo happy and exhilirated to see these children do that! So the teams were separated into which neighborhood you lived in. I lived in 仲町 (nakamachi) neighborhood which means the friendly neighborhood. haha. But this is Kenbuchi town exclusive so all the adults from Kenbuchi were there.

I sat down to wait my team's turn to go jump roping and a bunch of the little kids would come or run over to me and sit next to me and start talking to me..lol I loved it. I felt so popular. Haha. =P They would then tell their parents about me and the parents would give me a nod of acknowledgment. Now the whole town knows who I am. >D None of the kids knew i was participating. Actually no one knew I was except for my team. And so when I got up there with my team for a practice run I heard alot of people or mainly the kids go ”あれ？あれはテレサー先生だろう？あ！そうだ！テレサー先生だ！テレサー先生, 頑張れ！” Translation: "Eh? Isn't that Ms. Theresa? Yes it is! Go Ms. Theresa!" I felt full of pride then and felt that I must do my best. But everyone kept trying to get my attention from the side to say good luck to me and some of the town hall guys also called to me to say hi and good luck and that totally distracted me so that I didn't even notice the rope coming around and was side swiped by the rope stopping it's loop around. eheheh. ^^; Needless to say, the whole gym was laughing at me. Well, I suppose that broke the ice with alot of people. Our team lost because we suck at this kind of stuff apparently. haha. No cool Theresa-sensei now.

Btw, as I was sitting there waiting for my team's turn I watched the other teams go and some of them had some pretty decent looking boys on their team. They must either be in college or in their mid to late 20's. Or they could be older and just look that good. Anyways, so next up was tug-of-war which was a complete failure. I ended up cheering for my children's parent's team since they would announce it to me proudly whenever the parents would be up there. Afterwards, I went outside with Su and Mago-chan to get my little prize for participating in the thing which was two beautiful towels, a tumbler, and a pack of hand soap from Shiseido. That was actually pretty amazing! And then I went to grab my bag of yakiniku and veggies to take with me to the town hall to cook up. It had a tray of fat sliced beefsteak, a bag of genghis khan, and a bag of assorted veggies. The yakiniku was held at the townhall garage with the 5 exchange girls and their host families. I came to love these girls dearly and definitely want to hang out with them more often. Ike has got to be my fave girl because she's so out there and touchy feely and open. There's always got to be one of them in the group right? XD And then Sho is the more mature calm one. And the other girls fall in between.

The yakiniku was amazing and bountiful! There was so much leftover in the end. I was able to take some home with me to cook up! yay free dinner! But after the girls and I finished eating we decided to go play with 3 of the four little kids that were there. the 3 kids had two boys and the youngest was the little girl. The boys were the most lively and mischievous. We played tag, hide and go seek, and searched for giant cockroaches which was horrifying for me. lol The kids were so small and so cute! They were between 3-5 years old. I melted immediately when they grabbed my hand to play with them. And I played with them like I was a little kid. That energy that I had when I was in Tomo Modern is still goin as I was the only one left standing of all the other girls. haha. Woo! The kids caught on that i like to play and would constantly try to pull me to play with them. Heheh. >D And then they would shake their butts which was the CUTEST thing in the world!!!!!! At the end of it all, when we were about to go home the little boys ran over to me and said what car am I taking. I told them i'm going home in Satomi's red car and they pulled me down to their eye level and said "Do you know what would be better? Coming into grandpa's car to come with us to grandpa's house!" and smiled and hugged me. I MELTED COMPLETELY!!!!!!! WAAAAAA!!!! >>>>.<<<<<<<

I definitely would've loved to go with them and play with them some more, but honestly I was dead tired from all the festivities that day and then running around with the kids...I just couldn't do anymore. So I told them that I couldn't today but would definitely do so next time. I picked them up and threw them up and down for a little bit for the last time before their parents scolded them for tiring me out. heh. And when I said bye to one of the boys he just came over to hug me and I picked him up and hugged him tightly before leaving. The parents found out that I would be working at the nursery tomorrow with the kids so all of them said yoroshiku onegaishimasu to me before leaving.

After that I just helped Satomi and Eda clean up stuff and went back home happy and full with my bag of raw meat to cook for tonight. Yes, more HYD Korean version! Otsukare-sama for reading! Pictures are posted!