Autumn
Gloomy Friday
The moment I burst out of the door to shout “TGIF!!” it rained.
Well it was just a drizzle, but still enough to make you wear a raincoat. Darn it. I was so looking forward to riding my bike under a bright blue sky, singing happy songs, and scaring bystanders on my way to the station. And my raincoat is moldy too, ugh.
So I dropped by the local convenience store to pick up some pick-me-up to perk meself up.
Then I found this milk coffee with maple! Woah, a new flavor!
I plugged my ears with a medley of great nostalgic 80’s and 90’s rock ballads, drank my creamy caffeine, and enjoyed the light drizzle on my way to school.
Oh to Hear Them Sing
I witnessed something special today. At first I was surprised when right after the usual morning meeting, all the teachers suddenly suited up and swiftly poured out of the faculty room. Okay, what’s happening now?
I cleared my desk of all the newsletters, messages and notice sheets accumulated while I was away and tried to catch up with the fleeting wave of black suits briskly rushing down the hall. They were going to the gym.
Ah, a morning assembly then… on a Thursday? I wonder what this is all about? Then I saw a pile of students coming out onto the stage.
Sad piano music wafted through the gymnasium and two students came up to the front and gave a speech. Wait, is that a student playing the piano? Wow, she’s good. Then the next pair came up and gave another speech while a different piece of music was played by another student. This went on until the whole group has finished their piece.
I asked the teacher beside me what this is all about, and I was told that the students are presenting to the whole school the music piece their class have been practicing to sing for the Chorus Contest. Each class has chosen a song and practiced it, and today there will be a meeting to decide which one they’ll do for the citywide contest as one whole choral group.
One of the surprising things was the fact that each class actually has a designated piano player. Wow. Back when I was still in school, it’s rare to see a piano player in our whole year level, let alone in our class. But to think that in Japan, it’s fairly common to have one or two (maybe more!) students who plays an instrument per classroom! Very well, too at that. Just wow.
The teacher then told me that our school has a reputation of being one of the top contenders in the chorus contest. Well, I’m not surprised. I’ve heard them sing their school anthem before, and they actually had the boys and the girls sing in different parts with their tenor, sopranos, and all that.
I remember as a kid we’d be told to just “sing out as loud as possible“, but here it’s “as beautiful and harmonic as possible.” Now I’ve been a judge at the English Speech Contest, and all of us ALTs had a rough time. They were all good! I can’t imagine just how much better this city’s students will be with music.
I thought it was really nice when the principal spoke to the whole assembly afterwards, telling the students that even though they have their eyes on that trophy and being the champion for this year’s Chorus Contest, it should not be their goal. That winning is not the only thing to strive for. That being able to sing together as an embodiment and representative of the school, blending their voices to become one, and expressing the emotion of the song from their hearts to the audience, is the most important thing this contest.
I agree.
Man, I can’t wait to hear them sing.
Them Shy Japanese Kids
Japanese students. Ahh, to know what makes them tick. I’m ashamed to say, I too was a bit of an introvert in my “Growing Up” days. I can’t seem remember the reason as to why I was like that, and why I kept on being one till college, but I’m proud to say that I have grown out of my shell and am now a functioning normal human being of society.
But I digress. Now, let’s get back to them shy Japanese kids.
I work at an elementary and junior high school this year, so I get to experience and observe a wide range of different behaviors in the classrooms. And one of the big problems that the homeroom teachers and I have are the children who seem to poop out their energetic genkiness everytime they go to the toilet.
For example, in one of my schools I started out this year with a very fun and lively class full of bright-eyed 5th and 6th graders, their hands always raised so high it’s like staving off a horde of gaikokujin-eating zombies. Wow, I thought, I’m gonna have fun this year! Yeah!
NOT.
Puberty has hit them sometime between June and September, and now almost half the class seem to have decided to make Sadako their role-model. I’m not talking about the hair (although there’s this girl… nevermind), their personality now sucks. Wait, no. Their personality got sucked. By what? I’m guessing their growing body parts.
Darn it. And here I thought having a full room of ghosts in my junior high school is bad enough.
Don’t get me wrong, teaching at both schools is still very fun. Not everyone has mutated… yet. There are still a lot of solid beacons of hope who are enthusiastic to learn English, and those are the kids that I use to anchor my lessons in each class. I do my best for them, and they do try their best to pull their classmates along with them. Mostly unsuccessfully. But anyway, its those earnest kids that makes it all worthwhile.
It goes on both sides of extreme: I have this ultra-wild and crazy class that you have to shout the whole time and still not accomplish anything. Then I also have this silent and dead fish kind of class that won’t budge even if you fart in their bags.
I guess they all have their own reasons on being the way they are. The rambunctious class I understand, they’re young and they have all the energy in the world to spend talking with one another or just fidgeting in their chair and yelling loudly. It’s the silent ones that trouble the teachers much worse. It’s not just one or a handful of quiet students, it seems to be infectious and affects the whole classroom. You can’t make them to do anything.
I just hope this is just a stage and they’ll grow out of it (like me, hee hee). But I pray they do it fast. Their teachers are going to go crazy pretty soon.
Oh Happy Monday!
(Written yesterday)
I get to go home early today. Not just an hour early mind you, I’m talking about before we even had lunch! Isn’t it great? On this wonderfully sunny Monday too.
Wow, didn’t think wonderful and Monday would be in the same sentence haha
Apparently, the school can’t pay for the overtime work I did training the speech contestants. Last month alone I’ve worked almost 15 hours beyond my work schedule! The solution? They plan to let me go home early maybe an hour or so every week until I’ve balanced out the hours.
Today’s special though, the junior high kids have some kind of sports competition, and all these other schools have come to play some games with them outside. So all the classrooms were empty. Well there were maybe ten or so left in the classes I’ve taught, but that’s about it.
The baseball, soccer, and tennis club members are all out there in the muddy school ground playing under a slightly ominous drizzling cloudy sky. And the remaining students (mostly girls) are dry and cozily sitting inside the classrooms having their regular classes.
I guess if it was me, I’d rather be outside and playing even if it meant getting dirty, rather than stay and try to study despite all the shouts and racket outside the window heh.
Because of the special schedule, there’s no school lunch today. And since I can’t find any reason to stay after my 3rd class, I asked the principal if I could just go home. He said yes. And so I ate lunch outside…
Sizzling pork yakiniku in an iron griddle with crunchy fried chicken, corn salad, miso soup, white rice, and a glass of lukewarm water!! Yey!
The Tower of Shrimp Patties
Last night, while I was unlocking my bike on our way home, this HUGE poster was just screaming for attention in front of me. So I gave it a glance… or two… or three… until it escalated into a full-blown stare.
“Hey umm, what IS that? ” I asked my girl who was busy rummaging around her bag for her bike’s keys. “It looks like a very tall burger. Is that croquette? Hey it’s just 500 Yen, wanna get one?”
And we did. The amazing thing is, it looked exactly how it did on the poster. WOAH. Is this a joke? How the heck could anyone even eat this thing? I looked around and apparently, a lot of people were also mesmerized with the promise of owning a tower of crunchiness. They were dismantling it.
After a minute of unabashed admiration *Instagram that joint!* I tried one patty, bit into it, and discovered it was made of shrimp. Nice! Something I’m allergic to! Well no matter, I have some meds with me anyway. My girl and I took one bread slice and a shrimp patty each and munched away. I dunno if it’s because we were hungry, but it was just so delicious. The moist bun topped with a steaming hot shrimp filet and the creamy mayo with the lettuce…
*smacks lips* That was good. Now what to do with the remaining three patties? I think I’ve reached my shrimp-eating limit for tonight. I am allergic to it you know. So we wrapped them up and went home.
Good thing too! Because this morning, when we opened the fridge, three lone sausages and eggs welcomed us. We took the shrimp patties, toasted them in the oven till they were hot and crispy again, softly boiled the eggs, and popped some juicy sausages, and Saturday morning breakfast has never been more special!
Ohayou gozaimasu Japan! Thank you for making extremely weird food promotions haha
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