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Well, they’re gone. March 9, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Julie Gets Philosophical, Student Moments.
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After months of anticipation and weeks of volatile emotions all around, today thirty-one students received their diplomas at my middle school. The weather was perhaps fitting for the occasion, although in my opinion it was too heavy-handed to be artistically ironic. It poured the entire day. Cold, wet, windy rain that made sitting in the unheated gym for two hours rather miserable. Still, it was what it was and we made the best of it.

Middle school graduations in small Japanese towns are perhaps more of an occasion than they are in larger towns (in Japan or elsewhere). These students have been together for a long time – many of them for nine years, and the class size is small enough so that they certainly know each other well. They’ve studied the same subjects, had the same teachers, gone on the same trips, and participated in the same clubs. This ceremony isn’t just an end to compulsory education, but it’s also a significant break with childhood. From here, everyone will scatter to different high schools, some in completely different towns or even (as with one of my students) different prefectures.

It’s not suprising that everyone – boys and girls, teachers, parents, and students – cry at these ceremonies.

Still, my third years are happy and positive by nature and they weathered through the emotional roller coaster rather well. After the ceremony, we spent a great deal of time reminiscing and taking pictures. Once everyone left, I enjoyed a lovely lunch with the other female teachers. Tomorrow we’ll find out which teachers will stay at the school for another year and which ones will be transferred, and so that was the Hot Topic of conversation.

For my part, I seem to be doing well enough. This is my fourth graduation and I think that I am starting to become used to the process. This class was particularly dear to me; I’ve known them since they were in sixth grade and, as you all know, we were close.

I can’t possibly pick only one moment from the day to focus on, so let’s make use of ICE CREAM.

~ Toshiki’s Sister gave me a lovely letter thanking me for teaching her English and asking me to help her if she ever visits the States. This was unexpected, and a very sweet gesture. She is someone that I’m sure will eventually make several international trips – that lifestyle will suit her – and I would welcome the opportunity to assist her.

~ Mary Sunshine took me aside with her father, told him I was one of her best friends and reiterated that we would train together this summer. She’s going to be the most difficult student for me to let go of – we really did spend a lot of time together and she was the one that I felt the most comfortable around.

~ The Boss finally forgave me for every wrong I’ve ever done him. Granted, I’m still not sure what these wrongs were, but at least I know that I won’t have to suffer some sort of Boss-inspired Purgatory at some point.

~ The Savant told me that he would “always remember [me], even when [he is] thirty years old”. Since this figure is roughly double his current age, I feel that this is indeed a profound declaration.

~ Macho Man took several pictures with me where we flexed our muscles. I so badly want to make a T-shirt out of one of them saying something to the effect of: YES. WE ARE MACHO.

~ Even though I mixed up some parent-child relationships, the parents were very forgiving. (Sometimes children really don’t look like their parents. -_-; )

~ Last, but certainly not least, I really appreciated The Awesome Vice Principal letting me go home a little early today. It was obvious that I was under the weather, and sitting in a cold and dreary staff room was not Where I Wanted To Be. He told me that I could take tomorrow off too, if I wished, but I plan to go in anyway. Thursday is going to be a busy day at the elementary school and I have a lot of things to prepare for my sixth years on Friday.

Now that this graduation is over with, we’re in the home stretch. I really don’t have more than a couple of handfuls of classes before the winter term ends and the spring one beings.

Just now, I was reflecting a little on that last sentence, about beginnings and endings, and I recalled something from the principal’s graduation speech. In his speech, he talked about how in English, we often call graduation ceremonies “commencement ceremonies,” because the idea is that the school is sending the graduates off into the world. I particularly like the way that he phrased this part of the speech; the image was very clear and powerful. It made me think about the places that I’ve gone to after my various commencement ceremonies, and the ways in which different parts of my life prepared me for those journeys.

I suppose this concept of learning and then being “sent off” to do something is rather timeless. However, it also strikes me as somewhat a product of our global age. There does seem to be a growing need for people to leave their homes to go and see new things. Sometimes we return, sometimes we keep traveling, sometimes we settle someplace completely new and unexpected. It’s the responsibility that we gave to our students this morning, and it’s a responsibility that I’ve been trying to fulfill for the last four years.

When I think about today’s events from this perspective, I don’t feel quite as sad as I did before. My former-third years and I – we’re both out in the world now, seizing new opportunities and experiences away from where we started. It’s undoubtedly the way that things are supposed to be. Our separation is not something to mourn about – it’s an opportunity to rejoice. Given the option, I choose to do the latter and to wish them all well on their journeys.

I’m gonna live my life like there’s no one to blame
Wasting time is a crying shame

Soup and Sentiment March 8, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre.
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So… first things first. I present to you this week’s soup, as made by the International Father-Daughter Team. I have a lot of dried beans that I’m trying to use up, so I suggested that we make something with red lentils. This was what we found:

Turkish Red Lentil Soup (courtesy of this site)

  1. Bring 12 cups of water to a boil and add red lentils and 2 tsp salt. Simmer for 30 minutes.
  2. While lentils are cooking, put the olive oil, onions, and potatoes in a large saute pan and saute for 4 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Add the bulgur, paprika, cumin, cayenne, and stir until browned about 2-3 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, and stir for 2-3 more minutes.
  3. Add the contents of this pot to the lentils along with the additional 4 cups of water. Simmer for another 40 minutes or until the lentils and bulgur are soft.
  4. Some recipes recommend that you put the soup in a blender when finished and puree it. Normally, when I have it in restaurants it is pureed. The family recipes do not add this step, and I served it without pureeing. Either way it is equally delicious. If you want to impress guests, you might try pureeing. Otherwise, just serve as is.
  5. When ready to serve, add the lemon juice. You may want to serve with sliced lemon, fresh mint, plain yogurt, or sumac to add after serving, or you can add to each bowl for a beautiful and tasty finish!

My dad and I both left out the bulgur, and I used a can of tomatoes instead of fresh ones (since they’re still not really in season here). We also cut the recipe in half, since 16 cups of soup is a lot of soup and freezer space is limited.

I very much liked this soup. The texture makes it great for pairing with bread (in particular this bread, which I also made yesterday) and a glass of wine. The taste is very earthy and has a lot of layers to it. I definitely recommend adding something sour at the end (lemon juice, yogurt, sour cream…) ~ I think that the balance is strange if it’s left out.

Culinary-wise, I’m particularly pleased right now, because thanks to The Meat Guy I finally found veal bones and lamb bones so that I can make something besides chicken or vegetable stock. I’ve asked my dad that we make this week’s soup beef-stock oriented and he promised to find something interesting.

So… besides cooking, what’s been going on? What kinds of memories have I been making?

To tell you the truth, whatever force it was that awoke in February and decided to Mix Things Up in my life, it has decided to stay for the month of March as well. Given the way things are looking at present, I have a feeling that it’s going to make itself at home for the duration of 2010.

The more that I think about it, this force, whatever it may be, isn’t exactly malignant. It’s not something as simple as Bad Luck. The things that are happening, I can see why they’re happening so there’s method to this madness. In many cases, what starts out as difficult and frustrating ultimately resolves into something positive. The process by which we get from the frustrating to the positive, however, is what’s taking a lot of energy out of me.

In addition, there is no middle ground as far as my experiences (and memories) go. I am not having “okay” days. I’m having days where my activities and interactions are EXTREMELY GOOD or EXTREMELY UNFORTUNATE. The highs are high, the lows are low, and there is most definitely not any “in between” to speak of. Moderation has all but left the building.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Let’s examine what happened to me on Saturday.

~ Got up, had breakfast, enjoyed a lengthy conversation with my father = Very Good!

~ Drove to the gas station and had a lovely conversation with the attendants (an older couple) who are very interested in me and asked a lot of polite, well-meaning questions = Very Good!

~ Went to an Italian Restaurant and was not given certain menus because they didn’t think I could understand Japanese. Was forced to order a more expensive meal than I’d wanted to = Somewhat Unfortunate

~ During the meal at this restaurant, the pizza crust chipped one of my tooth implants = Extremely Unfortunate

~ Went to see Mozart’s Don Giovanni = Very Good!

~ Got Starbucks and great cooking supplies on the way home = Very Good!

~ Woke up several times throughout the evening sick because of aforementioned overly expensive Italian meal = Unfortunate

So, in the end, I can’t say that Saturday was a bad day, per say. But the Goods were good, the Unfortunates were unfortunate, and I am trying to keep things in perspective as best as I can. My situation could most certainly be worse (knock on wood), and to mope about the Unfortunates would take away from the Goods, which I refuse to let happen.

Still, Saturday is more or less the paradigm that I’ve lived through almost every day since the start of February. This is one of the reasons it’s been difficult to write about my memories; I’m not really sure what to say since each day is such a marbled mixture of both Positive and Negative. By the time that the end of the day rolls around, I’m really only good for making dinner and listening to heavy metal on repeat. It’s as if… and forgive me the slight hyperbole in this statement… it’s as if my experiences are a little too vivid. I feel overwhelmed by the sharpness of my experiences right now, and it’s been difficult to write about them.

Thinking about this, it occurs to me that (as I more or less said before) trying to keep a grounded perspective is the best thing I can do right now. I suspect that such a perspective, more than anything else, will help me to navigate through the bizarre waters that I seem to have drifted into.

So, skipping over the second part of last week because, well, I can’t remember that much of it ^_^;; … let’s try to focus on Monday.

Today was, not surprisingly, somewhat bittersweet. It was the last full day of school for the third years; their graduation ceremony is tomorrow. On one hand, everyone at the school is proud of the them and we want them to move forward. On the other hand, they’ve been a really great class and the school will feel empty without them. The students themselves have similar feelings, and so everyone’s emotions are wildly fluctuating between merriment and, well, misery.

I spent as much of my day around them as was humanly possible. I went to see them in between classes, ate with them at lunch, cleaned with them, and signed dozens of yearbooks. Mary Sunshine, Macho Man, and, yes, The Savant stayed close to me, too, I noticed. Mary Sunshine made me promise that we would go running on weekends and during the summer, and that she would always be welcome to do a home stay in the States. We also took moments here and there to sing Jay Sean songs and to dance together. Macho Man and I spent most of the day flexing our muscles and proclaiming to any-and-everybody that “We ARE Macho!” The Savant took several opportunities to tell me that he respected me very much and that he still maintains that He Is Perfect.

I did manage to catch some time with the first and second year students as well. I spoke with Penelope, Aphrodite, Snow White, Avril, Clemente, and The Child at some length while we were cleaning the gym in preparation for tomorrow’s ceremony. I think it’s good for me to spend time with them, because although they’re sad about the third years leaving, they’re also looking forward to becoming third year students themselves. It will be their year to shine, and this is a bunch that notoriously covets the spotlight.

My first years were functioning on a completely separate plane of existence today; although they’re interested in the graduation, they’re more focused on what teachers will be staying at the school for the next school year. The teachers themselves won’t know their assignments until Wednesday, and the students won’t be told until the 24th. I suspect that we won’t see a lot of teachers reassigned to other schools for this next year, but that’s just a theory. The first years were particularly concerned with my assignment, apparently unaware that I don’t get moved around from school to school like regular Japanese teachers. They were happy to know that I’d be staying for another year, and violently adamant that I was not allowed to leave after that.

I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So, I suppose what I’m trying to communicate via this long, winding post is that things are busy. Not wretched, confusing, or disheartening. Just …  overwhelming and taxing on all levels. I’m certainly not bored, and I suppose I should be grateful for that. Every day is challenging and I’m having to think fast and move even faster. I suppose these conditions are what makes it difficult for me to stop, reflect, and select one ripened, meaningful moment from the day.

But, I’ll muddle through somehow – that I have no doubt of. I’m not sure where we’ll be at the end of tomorrow, this week, this month, or goodness knows this year. But, that’s more or less the way that life goes, now isn’t it?

Even if you don’t wanna speak tonight
That’s all right, all right with me.

Now we, too, shall start preparing for the new year. February 2, 2010

Posted by Earthdragonette in Background, Student Moments.
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First and foremost, I’d like to apologize for the rampant grammatical errors that wrecked havoc with my last post. I think I’ve managed to catch and neutralize most of them, but I suspect that it damaged my well-educated and scholarly image. I wasn’t joking about the necesity of using the ICE CREAM format; I only had about twenty minutes to write yesterday’s post and so there wasn’t nearly enough time to edit.

Okay, so now that that’s out of the way, on to Tuesday’s post. Thankfully (for all of us), I’m writing this in the evening and I have time to devote to all the joys of writing. The brainstorming, the webbing, the flow charts, the … awkward moments when I can’t think of the phrase I want to use to convey the actual process of writing without using the phrase “actual process of writing” because it sounds wordy, and the editing to make sure that my tenses are consistent!

Today was interesting because although my third years were back, they were so busy with preparing for their high school entrance examinations and interviews that I didn’t have many opportunities to interact with them. We’ll have a class tomorrow (the first time in a while), so I’m looking forward to that. In the meantime though (and as I tried to indicate indicated in yesterday’s post), I’ve been spending more time with my second and first year students.

I had a particularly entertaining conversation with Aphrodite today, because Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and it’s the Japanese custom for women to give men hand baked chocolate goods on February 14th. (The boys are supposed to return the gesture with [store-bought] white chocolate products on March 14th.) The problem here is that Aphrodite hates (and I do mean HATES) cooking, and so she suffers through this holiday year after year. I think her problem is hilarious and find great satisfaction in teasing her about it.

The feeling of camaraderie that I felt with her and the other second years during this exchange was tangible. I wouldn’t say that it’s on part with the comfort I have with, say, Mary Sunshine, but I could feel the potential for a more substantial “older sister” kind of relationship. I do know everything about her love life, after all.

So, in the spirit of the season, I think that it’s time for us to get ready for the next school year as well. We can do this by reminding ourselves of our key first and second year students and including some new names. Tomorrow, assuming that nothing absolutely extraordinary happens, we can do the same with the sixth year elementary students.

So, what do we have?

2nd Years:

The Familiar:

The Child
This student is one of my favorites. Ever. But he has been my greatest challenge since I first conceived of striving against adversity in any form. He is temperamental, extremely intelligent, unapologetically sarcastic (which is kind of amazing because Japan doesn’t do sarcasm), easily bored, easily frustrated, easily discontent with losing, easily discontent with winning. Some days he loves me and no one else is allowed to talk to me, and some days he requests that I go somewhere and die. His English is the best in the school as far as pronunciation goes. He likes to collect English translations of Japanese comics.

Clemente
Like Roberto Clemente, this student is the epitome of charity and work ethic. He is also one of the most genuine individuals that I’ve ever met and is honest beyond question. He often helps me work with The Child and he’s just a fun kid to be around. Clemente is in the baseball club and he is both a fantastic first baseman and an amazing catcher. Recently, I’ve been talking with him more often and he’s quite hilarious.

Penelope
Just as Penelope is the literary icon of faithfulness, ingenuity, work ethic, sincerity, this girl plays this role at the middle school.  She’s the kind of person to go to a presentation that nobody else cares about. She will not only go to it, but she will sit up straight the entire time, take notes, and then ask questions afterwards and it’s all completely authentic. She cares that much. This is one student that has made me a better person for having known her. She is the current Student Council President.

Aphrodite
She is one half of the school’s Super Couple – we spend a lot of time talking about our love lives (both the good parts and the bad parts). She’s quite lively and sweet; I really enjoy interacting with her and I get most of my romance gossip from her. She’s also one of my best letter writers, so I’ve learned a lot of great Japanese from her. I suppose it would probably be okay to mention here that she’s been dating Macho Man for the last year.


The Newcomers:

Snow White
There is just something about this student that tugs at my heartstrings. She is incredibly sweet, and she has this unusual combination of insight and innocence that makes her remarkably genuine and empathetic. I think that I feel the most like a teacher when I’m around her. Perhaps she is one of the few that looks at me as an authority figure, and she takes what I say to heart.

Avril
Smart, sassy, and more than a little rock and roll, Avril will say the things that other people are thinking. This isn’t to suggest that she’s rude or mouthy, she’s just very clever and does not suffer fools. I like her because she’s very direct and clear about her opinions, and this makes interacting with her both entertaining and enlightening.

1st Years:

The Familiar:

The Whistler
My favorite first year student. He’s genuinely interested in English and always goes the extra mile to make sure that he understands what’s going on. I call him The Whistler because we have a thing (dating back to his elementary school days) where we whistle when we’re around each other. It’s quite fun – we copy each others’ responses, try out various songs that we both know, and comment on what happens around us.

Hannah Montana
This girl knows more about current American pop culture than I do, thus the name. High School Musical is, I believe, her favorite. She’s Penelope’s younger sister and she has that same honest spirit. I like to eat lunch with her and her friends because she always does her best to use the recent classroom grammar to communicate her feelings. She’s on the kendo team and I respect her a lot for trying such a difficult club. Recently, she’s started to write me letters about once a week and so we’re starting to get to know each other better.

Sailor Moon
Kind of a Japanese culture reference here, but let’s just say that this girl has two unbelievably long pigtails, an overwhelming addiction to junk food, and an equally overwhelming addiction to the spoken word. Still, she is hilarious, and she says the most ridiculous, sensational things. Her mom and I are buddies and we always spend a lot of time together at festivals (usually with her mom repeating the only five English words she knows while I try to keep up).

Newcomers:

Hermione
Just like her namesake (from Harry Potter), Hermione is extremely studious (at least about English) and very energetic. She takes great pride in overcoming the challenges that I throw at the students in class, and is extremely vocal when I do things she doesn’t like (say, for example, not showing Michael Jackson videos). She thinks that my Japanese is funny and takes it upon herself to quiz me whenever she can. I haven’t been doing so well recently and she’s starting to declare me a lost cause. I told her that we could trade and SHE could teach English, but she was pretty vocal about not liking that idea.

Britney
Brittney is interesting. Normally, it would be easy to categorize her as one of the non-studious popular girls that only cares about boys and makeup… but she’s very intelligent. Extremely intelligent, really, and she likes English so she does well in my class. I’m not exactly sure what it is about English that she likes and I can’t say anything about how she performs in math or science class, but she always knows what’s going on in my lessons and I like the kinds of things that she says. And, outside of class – you guessed it. We talk about boys and makeup … in English.

Lewis
Lewis was particularly taken with The Jabberwocky, and even to this day greets me by saying: “Julie! One, two! One, two! And through and through!” Lewis is entertaining because if he doesn’t talk, I think he forgets to breathe and loses consciousness. So, he pretty much talks all. the. time. Still, what he says tends to contribute to the conversation/lesson/positive nature of the environment, and so it’s pleasant to hear – once you’ve gotten used to it.

Carroll
Lewis’s partner in crime. Also a fan of The Jabberwocky, although not exactly a fan of English. He’s a very nice boy, though, so I forgive him for more or less spending my entire class praying for the clock hands to move faster. My entire plan for the rest of the third term revolves around getting him caught up so that the second year of English doesn’t destroy him.

And, there you have it. The big names that will be playing more prominent roles over the next few months. I’m sure that there will be others that we’ll have to add in the future, but this should do for now.

I believe in miracles
They happen every day

The Zone December 16, 2009

Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre, Student Moments.
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It’s a shame that the first time I discuss The Zone it has to be under extremely brief and unforgiving circumstances. I thought about waiting until later on today to update but because of The Zone’s importance, it really needs its own post – however brief that post may be.

The Zone is a magical place that my brain sometimes goes. The circumstances under which I am given access to The Zone are mysterious and variable; I have never been able to make myself go to The Zone. I have noticed that it often appears after I have been under a tremendous amount of stress, but this is not something I can count on. It just simply happens from time to time. Visits to The Zone can last anywhere from ten minutes to ten hours, and the only person who has travelled with me to The Zone is my best friend from college (whose grasp on reality is probably about as tenuous as my own at times).

So, you are perhaps asking: what exactly is The Zone?

The Zone is a place that my mind goes to and while it’s there, I say and do hilarious things. This is a cold, hard fact. I don’t take credit for The Zone, so I certainly don’t take credit for being funny while I’m *in* The Zone. As far as I’m concerned, it’s The Zone that’s the comedian, not me. Somewhere, slightly tangential to this universe and only accessible to me through its own unfathomable and unexpected disposition, is a world that is made of Pure Hilarity.

And yesterday, I went there. For ten hours.

It started at school, right after lunch. I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden, as I was walking to my fifth period class with my second years … there it was. The Zone. The world suddenly shifted and in its place were Opportunities. Opportunities to instigate the most ridiculous situations.

And did I ever.

In both my fifth and sixth period classes, my students were charged with making Christmas cards. I fully inserted myself into this project and as a result, some of my students wrote some of the most outlandish cards that I’ve ever seen. There are going to be some very confused card recipients on Christmas day. Among my most  bizarre successful shenanigans suggestions:

* Tatsuki’s sister wanted to write a card to her boyfriend and asked me for suggestions. I took her pen and wrote the most absurd love note that came to mind (going so far as to compare his eyes to cupcakes and his arms to strong tree limbs that caught the wayward kite that is her heart). I forgot, however, that Tatsuki’s sister is kind of hyper and gets easily worked up. She loved the card and plans to give it to her Sweet Baboo on Christmas day. Here’s to hoping that it doesn’t break them up.

* The Savant and Macho Man couldn’t decide who to write their cards to, and so I suggested that they write cards to each other. They ran with this idea and I have never before witnessed such Bromance. There were hearts. There were oaths. There were an unusual number of Michael Jackson references.

*The Boss chose to write a love letter to Santa. I’m going to steal the letter and have my Dad write a response. The Boss’s shock should be worth the three week wait.

*I started a Conga Line sixth period to Jose Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad. The JTE had briefly left the room and we were all seated again before she got back.

And so forth.

My sojourn to the The Zone lasted an unusually long time. It saw me through the rest of the work day and then all the way through a dinner with friends in the evening. I’ve never been in The Zone while speaking Japanese before, and that’s a special memory for me. Being funny in Japanese isn’t something I’ve really been able to do before, but on Wednesday, I had that chance.

Like I’ve said before – new days and new experiences. I have to be thankful for that.

No one should take themselves so seriously
With many years ahead to fall in line

What’s up? December 9, 2009

Posted by Earthdragonette in Julie Gets Philosophical, Student Moments.
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“Nothing much.”

You know, in the future, no matter where I go or what I do, I’m going to think of Macho Man whenever this phrase is used. He’s the only person that I use this with on a frequent basis, and I have never met anybody who enjoyed it quite as much as he does.

Macho Man is the catalyst by which today’s memory was possible. It took me awhile to settle on today’s memory – there were several that I was considering. Still, through them all, this image of Macho Man kept coming back to me. He came looking for me after school today to show me two completed puzzles from this month’s English Newsletter (my students can redeem them for stickers). It was a brief exchange, probably lasting no more than forty-five seconds.

I’m drawn to this memory for two reasons. The first one is that I’m so happy that I finally got caught up on some of my work at the middle school.  -_-;; Last year and the year before, I was able to publish a newsletter every month in addition to putting up a poster highlighting some element of western culture. This year, though, I’ve had a lot of trouble keeping up with that schedule. Last week I updated the poster and today I finally distributed the newsletter (after a two month hiatus). I know that I’m doing the best I can given the nature of my workload for my elementary schools, but I hate the feeling that I’m neglecting my middle school. So, I am currently relishing the sweet feeling of accomplishment.

A second reason that I really liked this exchange with Macho Man is that, quite frankly, children are mysterious, alien-like creatures and I savor any of the moments when we successfully interact with each other.

I’m quite serious about this. Incidentally, I believe that babies are the most mysterious creatures of all. To me, infants never seem confused, nervous, or humble. They’re loud, they’re bold, and I would swear that their perusal of the world around them is rather, well, critical. It’s always seemed to me that they’re judging us, and finding this version of reality to be not quite as nice as wherever they recently left. This means that as they grow up, it’s not so much that we’re teaching them how to leave behind a lesser, incomplete existence, but rather how to adapt to a new existence that they have been brought into.

Maybe this is one of the reasons that we’re so happy when we are able to make babies laugh – it’s a bridge between their world and ours. We know how to make them respond in a way that makes sense to us and shows that something meaningful and pleasurable has happened inside of them. As a bonus, this pleasurable something is because of something that we did. It’s as if we’ve communicated with another kind of creature. Or, like I said, an alien.

Middle school students are certainly not babies (at least not in the technical sense), but there are still many ways that their world and my world are very different. There are subjects that they fixate on, topics that, once brought up, are nearly impossible to pry out of the steel traps of their minds. Subjects that I do not understand at all. Middle school students are also fanatically temperamental and inconsistent. What’s interesting one day is completely boring the next, the “cool” expressions oh-so-quickly become “trite,” and acceptable clothing fashions always tread the fine line between “what everyone else is wearing” and “hey, I thought of this myself.”

There are times that one almost needs a Lonely Planet guidebook just to navigate through the standard greetings and inquiries of teenage interactions. If, however, one does not have a young-adult oriented version of said treatise, then I think being a rather young and fairly intelligent teacher will also get you through the minefield. (I don’t say this to flatter myself; I just know that Young People respond best when The Adult is smarter than they are). If one uses it correctly, the Teacher Card is almost like a “Get Out of Adolescent Purgatory For Free Card.” (Although some student-teacher hazing rights still apply.)

Seriously, though. Because I’m a teacher, I have the ability to transcend the different social groups and cliques in the school. I can talk to The Gamers, and then wander over and chat with the baseball club. If I’m feeling kind of girly and gossipy? All I need to do is saddle up next to Aphrodite and her friends and I will get my fill (and then some) of Teenage Angst and Intrigue. If I tire of that? Hannah Montana and Co. are never more than a room or two away.

So, when Macho Man came looking for me yesterday, just because I’d given him the option of doing puzzles and getting stickers, it made me really happy. The interaction was small, and perhaps in the general scope of his day it was rather insignificant. But it means a lot to me that I can give my students something that they will be so interested in, that they will forgo other activities to pay attention to it. He could’ve opted to play basketball, or hang out with his friends, or talk to his girlfriend. Instead, he wanted to do an English puzzle.

For somebody like me, who spent her middle school years surrounded by the protective cocoon of homework-laden advanced classes, orchestra practices, a cult-like devotion to Star Wars, and a significant dedication to DragonRealms, getting one of the most popular kids in school interested in English puzzles is kind of special.  It shows that I’ve figured out something about the way that children think – something about what they like. It shows that even though I’m only a visitor to their world (and perhaps was only visiting when I myself was a child), we can still find ways to connect with each other.

 Dansa med oss
Klappa era hander
Gor som vi gor
Ta nagra steg at vanster

Hey Juuuuuuuuulie! November 18, 2009

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So, this week (well, the first half of it at any rate), has turned out to be Dedicated to My Third Years. Wednesday’s memory reflects this theme, and so I get to feature all of our usual suspects. Additionally, we can probably add a few more to our growing Character List.

~So, let’s get started.~

* New Character: Tatsuki’s Sister
Tatsuski (not his real name) was a student that I taught for about two years. He was a second year when I arrived in Japan, and one of the more memorable ones to have come and gone. His English was one of the best in the school, and he had the most incorrigible, mischievous personalities I’ve ever come across. He was fond of putting together strange sentences using the day’s grammar point. For example, when we studied ~isn’t it? (It’s really hot today, isn’t it?), he came up with: I’m dead, aren’t I?

Anyway, his sister is two years younger than him, and although there are differences in their personalities, they resemble each other to a remarkable degree. Both are really hardcore kendo athletes, both enjoy English, both can’t stop talking or vital organs start to shut down… She’s on my list of Students I Especially Like right now because she gave a speech at the Culture Festival about how she wants to be an English teacher because I make the language look so cool. Did I also mention that she’s a natural politician? Anyway, she came up and talked to me about this before class today and it was a really cute conversation.

* The Boss wants to be a girl
Or, at least, that’s what he said when we split up into girls vs. boys teams to play Jeopardy. I have no idea why he felt this way, but then he proceeded to make a joke out of it for the entire class period. All I had to do was call him Ms. Boss, and he’d start to flutter his eyelashes and speak in a really high-pitched voice. In the States, no respectable adolescent dude would be caught dead pretending to be a girl. That’s just asking for grief. In Japan, though, they have some very different ideas about gender roles and behaviors, and so it was all just fun. I am easily amused; his antics made ME laugh and thus derailed class several times.

* Macho Man is Super Macho
He challenged me to an arm wrestling match after class today and I lost. -_-;; I think he’s been training for an upcoming track competition, whereas I have been dancing to Chris Brown and Jay Sean. I’m kind of happy that he won, though, because I think he can savor the victory more than I can. Macho Man is also hilarious. Purely, simply, and unabashedly hilarious. I recently taught him the extremely natural and youthful greeting of: “What’s up?” “Nothing much.” and we use it ALL THE TIME. He must’ve said it to me five times today.

* New Character: The Policeman
Also a third year! He is one of The Savant‘s best friends (although The Savant has recently made the claim that, “I don’t have any friends. I am mysterious. I make people happy. I am alone.” The Savant lies a lot.), and is probably one of the better kendo athletes in the prefecture. He wants to be a police officer when he grows up, hence the nickname.

The Policeman often makes me laugh because when he’s surprised in class, he will often blurt out random and hilarious English. Once, the students were given the task of memorizing the sentence, “I saw a lady at a restaurant who was touching her earlobe.” The JTE called on him to recite it, and he was so shocked at being picked that he instead gave us the sentence, “I saw a lady at a restaurant who was touching her people.” That made me happier than almost anything else ever.

Today, the sentence they had to recite was, “It’s important to give others both our time and skills.” He managed to say it without any problems, but when they were practicing, I taught him the phrase, “I have skills.” Or, perhaps, more appropriately, “I have skillz.” He liked it. A lot. For the rest of English class (and according to other teachers, for the rest of the day) he kept repeating it whenever he did something. Completed math test: “I have skillz.” Won a basketball game: “I have skillz.” Tracked the path of the sun: “I have skillz.”

The Policeman. Skillz. He has them.

*Mary Sunshine
In addition to almost falling asleep on me before class started (and stealing my scarf because she was cold), she’s asked me to teach her a dance like the one that I did at the Culture Festival. So, that’s what we started to do during lunch recess. The other students are curious – I can tell that some of the others want to learn, but they’re really hesitant and shy about it. I dream big, and so I kind of have hopes of starting a lunchtime dance group. I have no idea if this could actually happen, but I won’t know unless I try. At any rate, right now it’s me and Mary Sunshine, and I can say honestly that she has promise. I think we’ll be able to get a routine down by the end of December.

*The Student Government President
Chose yesterday to reiterate, in front of The Awesome (and Terrified) Vice Principal why I am an M in the S and M division of relationships as determined by the Japanese. I must remember to thank her for the sudden drop in dignity that I experienced. -_-

And last but certainly not least … The Savant
The Savant really is one of a kind. The degree to which we have been interacting this year has been rewarding, and although I don’t understand why this year I have earned his attention, I’m glad that he’s deciding to give it. We got into a really interesting conversation during cleaning time yesterday about Christmas traditions, where Christmas came from, and how it’s celebrated differently in Japan and the States. Then we got into a debate about why he’s not perfect. That really is the golden thread that runs through every conversation we have and gives substance to the tapestry of our interactions.

Aaaaand…. all of these varied and intense interactions with my third years came to a stunning conclusion during music class. My Japanese Sister’s computer has been acting strange, and so she asked if I could come by during the class and show the students a music video for The Beatles’s Hey Jude.

When I walked into the classroom? You guessed it. Everyone turned to the door and said, HEY JUUUUUUUUULIE!

Can’t you feel the love?

 

A beautiful and blinding morning
The world outside begins to breathe

Rocko Was Right – I *am* a dork. September 11, 2009

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But not because I can make BEAUTIFUL and INTERNATIONAL menus. But because I forgot when I posted the last time that Fridays are my Nights to Talk to My Father (which equals a two to four hour phone conversation), and they’re also the Night After My ADD Elementary School.

Father/Daughter Bonding + Exhaustion + Saturday Sports Festival = BLOG? WHAT BLOG? HAHAHA. MORPHEUS.

So, we’re going to start slow. Here is what I wrote for Monday’s post. Consider it a substantial appetizer. A bruschetta/salad combination, if you will.

~~~~~~
Okay, so, here we are. Finally! The problem that we’re running into here is that I have this tendency to give 150% to my schools. Jyona33 calls me a workaholic, but I maintain that I love my job and enjoy existing in such a way that my presence is helpful. When my kids are happy, I’m happy. Still, I am not just a happy, sticker giving foreign plaything teacher. I also have my own interests, my own life.

Yeah, that sounds kind of hollow to me, too. What can I say? I love my kids. 

Although today, I did not like my kids. Those are two very different things – loving and liking.

Today was interesting. I had two classes with my third years in the morning, one of which was hilarious because The Savant was in rare form. He borrowed my English textbook last week and forgot to return it to me afterwards and so he started off class today by trying to sell it back to me. The book has “ALT” written on the back of it, instead of my name, and so he kept saying that he couldn’t just GIVE it to me, because I was “Julie” and what if “ALT” came looking for his book? It took me the better part of five minutes to get him to give it back to me. He kept up this theme throughout most of the day, going so far as to steal my sunglasses when we were on our excursion to see some of the 2009 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship. It took me fifteen minutes to get those back. Mary Sunshine was likewise in a feisty mood; every time I walked by her desk in class she would sway to the side and drape herself on top of me. If I ever had physical space boundaries, I think that working with Japanese students (especially the elementary school ones) has killed it. In Japan, my body is not a temple of God, it’s a jungle gym. And, now, we’re moving away from that topic before everybody gets uncomfortable.

As to the World Gymnastics competition, that was interesting. We had the chance to see a portion of the hoop and rope floor routines – two events that I’d never known about before. The countries that performed during our time slot were Italy, Israel, Japan (a crowd favorite if there ever was one – the audience clapped from the moment the athlete came out until she left the room at the end of her routine) (no really, the audience clapped if the athlete turned her head, not to speak of the times when she caught her hoop or rope), the U.K., South Africa, Brazil, Romania, and Azerbaijan.

My kids were, generally speaking, fairly well behaved. Whoever assigned us our seats made the mistake of putting us RIGHT BEHIND the announcers, so whenever they were shown on camera those watching at home also got to see about a hundred and four Japanese middle schoolers screaming and frantically waving little “World Championship” flags. This kept the students entertained for the better part of an hour. I’d like to say that the teachers were more well behaved, but both of the Two Terrific Teachers were right up front with the students, screaming their hearts out. Which just goes to show that everybody fancies him or herself to be a movie star. Even the people who claim that they don’t want the attention secretly covet it, and believe that they harbor vast amounts of untapped talent that will at some point be discovered and dragged out into the light of day – much like the 23,472 bottles of wine in my uncle’s basement.  

Once the opening comments were done, though, the students split off into one of three groups. One group fell asleep, the other group watched intently, and the third group became obsessed with clapping. They clapped to the rhythm of the music, to the syllables in the name of the competitor, and in counter-rhythm to the beat that the current athlete’s team was clapping. Not surprisingly, we can credit The Savant and Macho Man for starting that third group.

The ride back to the school was slightly on the exhausting side, and it’s where my students demonstrated (quite stunningly) that they are immature, ridiculous little things. I was sitting on a bus with some of my first years and on the way to the arena, I had to listen to this one girl ask everybody on the bus who they currently had a crush on. This was the only thing that she would talk about for the entire 45 minute trip, and she was particularly persistent with this one gentleman that was sitting in front of us. She even quizzed ME about my love life, but it was frustrating for me because her Japanese is incredibly informal (perhaps rudely so). There were a lot of things that she was asking me that I couldn’t understand, and she wouldn’t actually help me figure out what she was saying. On the way back to the school at the end of the day, she was STILL stuck on this theme and nothing I did would shift her to other, more welcome topics (anything, even an intense discussion of back acne, would have been preferable). So, I had another 45 minutes of her asking the same question and making fun of people’s responses. Just as I thought that I was going to make it back to the school with my sanity relatively intact, one of my other first years decided it was time to speak in English.

“Hey, Julie! DO YOU HAVE PENNIS?”

Yes, it’s back. The mispronounced, volatile, and endlessly entertaining to children around the world weed that systematically destroys my Garden of Speakin’.

Pennis.

Rhymes with tennis.

No relation.

This time, though, I was so sick of talking about crushes, romance, and anything having to do with two people spending time together under the pretense of mutual admiration, that I willingly took up the topic with all of the enthusiasm of a chocoholic at Hershey Park. Unfortunately for me, although I could play with fire, I could not contain it and the use of the word soon got out of control. By the time that we got back to the school, half of the bus was (to my horror and to add insult to injury, still with the wrong pronunciation) chanting: We eat pennis! We eat pennis!

Yes. It’s days like this that make me consider working with animals.

Animals that don’t talk. 

” I hear you laughing from the loge above
[At my expense for your entertainment]”

We are the ones to make a brighter day September 2, 2009

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Today, I am feeling grateful.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m fanatical about fond of my students. The reason for this is quite simple: they are amazing. They’re not always well behaved, not always practical, not always kind, not always intelligent, not always entertaining, and heaven so help me not always pleasant to be around (further proof that body odor must be some evolutionary defense to keep us from being eaten by lions).

Still, I am convinced that in many ways my students are better human beings than I will ever be, and I sincerely enjoy watching and participating in their dramatic, darkly comedic lives. I like seeing how they react to new situations; I like hearing what they think of new ideas. I will often laugh (more than is required) at the things they do when they are being-at-work-staying-themselves. I once went into a fifteen minute giggle-fest because some of my students played a game during lunch where they picked an offensive word and then challenged each other to say it louder than the last person who said it.

I suspect one of the reasons that I like my students so much is that I am, in fact, just a big kid myself.

It wasn’t always this way, though. I didn’t always feel comfortable around them, didn’t always rejoice at the sight of them. When I first came here, fairly ignorant in the ways of Japanese customs and the Japanese language, I was shocked at my reception. I expected stares or giggles in the hallways. I expected a few letters of welcome from the more advanced students. At the very least, I expected attempts to say hello to me.

What I got was … silence.

Perpetual, complete, and frigid silence. Silence in the classroom, silence in the hallways, silence during breaks. I might as well have not been present at all given the way that they dismissed me. They even fell asleep during my self introduction, completely uninterested in my country or why I came to Japan. Granted, this was on the middle school side of things. The elementary school students have always been enthusiastic and interested in talking. But my teenagers, oh, my teenagers. For the first month of school, I felt like I was back in middle school myself, and I was definitely NOT welcome at the lunch table.

What helped me to get started down the road that I’ve been on ever since was that year’s third grade class. My first batch of third graders was what one of the Two Terrific Teachers referred to as “The Animal Class.” They were overwhelmingly awful. Loud, rude, completely uninterested in studying, not fond of English, not fond of teachers, and quite possibly full of more hormones than one will find in a major metropolitan fertility clinic. They were constantly Up to Tricks and class was always insane.

Ultimately, this worked to my advantage because, well, I liked them. Generally speaking I tend to be fond of bad students. In this case, though, I was happy because it was the one time during the day when the students weren’t ignoring me. It didn’t matter that they weren’t being nice. I couldn’t understand what they were saying to me anyway, and surprisingly enough, threats and insults lose a lot of their weight if your target can’t understand that you’ve just schooled them. In addition, I was more stubborn than they were, so after waiting out their insults, I’d snap back at them in English (which just confused them because they were expecting anger or hysteria). With the time that this bought me, I could usually diffuse whatever situation had been building prior to our exchange.

Anyway, I did this for a few months and eventually figured out how that class hierarchy worked. Once I was able to understand that, I just did my best to court the leaders, and then the rest of the mob fell in line. I guess it took me about four months to get to a point where the students no longer tried to torture me on a daily basis. I’ve found that it’s difficult to dislike somebody who is obviously intent on liking you. You may exploit this person to your own ends, you may use them the same way that a German shepherd puppy uses a chew toy, but if that person continues to surround you with genuine good will and interest, you will eventually yield on some level.

That was my first step in this long, student-focused journey. By the time that that class left, I felt that we were on pretty good terms with each other. I was asked to sign a few yearbooks, and so that must have been a good sign. Things have slowly, but fairly steadily, improved since then. Of course, there are still times when the students are more interested in discussing their lives amongst themselves than in talking to me. This is right and proper and I wouldn’t have it any other way – there are certainly times when I don’t really feel like talking to them.

But, I would be lying if I said that they weren’t the central reason for my being here.

So, given where we all started from, I’m grateful for today, and for the first honest-to-goodness-we-even-had-school-lunch day of the second term. I’m grateful for how far things have come in three years – I remember too well how things used to be. I’m grateful for us having become a part of each other’s worlds.

More specifically, I’m grateful for the following moments:

~ The Savant coming up to me before class and telling me that he broke his leg over summer vacation. He was lying, and I knew he was lying because I was at school all during summer vacation and I would’ve heard about it. Oh, yes, and a broken leg requires a cast.  Still, it was funny listening to his sophistry.  Also, today in class we studied the song We Are the World and he managed to memorize the whole thing in fifteen minutes and sing it to me. Quite impressive indeed, young Jedi. The recitation actually turned into a duet much like the following:

Me: There comes a time
TS: When we heed a certain call
Both: When the world must come together as one
Me: There are people dying
TS: And it’s time to lend a hand
Me: To life
Both: The greatest gift of all…

And so forth. I would feel proud of it, but I am only too aware of how dorky that was. 

~ Mary Sunshine singing the WaTW chorus with me as we walked to lunch.

~ Sitting down to eat lunch with my first year students including Sailor Moon and Hannah Montana. They were excited to eat with me and talked my ears off all through lunch. (I am *especially* grateful for this moment because I have had so many awkward lunches in my time here that I once swore never to take a midday meal again.)

~ Exchanging the appropriate greetings with The Boss (who does not like WaTW) and Macho Man. We have the sports festival coming up soon and Macho Man is feeling perhaps more macho than usual.

~ Explaining a complicated grammar point to one of my first years today and actually seeing her take notes while I was talking. Hooray for correct Japanese. Hooray for students that trust me. Hooray for understanding why she was confused.

And so, today made me happy. Whoever or whatever put the events in motion that led up to what was possible today (be it myself, the collective student body, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster), I’m grateful to it. I know that I’m very lucky to be where I am and that it’s giving me a chance to see a side of Japan (and life) that I could have easily missed.

 

“We are the power inside, we bring you fantasy.”

Branching out … September 1, 2009

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And… OK! We made it!

To be honest, I had some anxiety about whether or not I would still be able to write these posts once the term started. Today was looking somewhat iffy for awhile; things were really busy at school and I had a lot of work that I had to bring home with me. Still, it looks as though the Muses were on our side tonight, because the work is done and I can now turn my attention to My Little Piece of Cyberspace.

Putting aside the whole “being overburdened with work at the last moment” situation that happened, I thoroughly enjoyed the first day back. From the minute that I got to school and saw The Boss stumble off of the bus and glare at my overly chipper greeting, to the moment that I left to visit my Board of Education, I was just excited to see the hallways full of life again. 

I do have something specific that I feel the need to highlight – something that I will never, ever forget – but here are a few other tidbits from the day that are worth recalling:

~ SWINE FLU – my town has it. More specifically, one of my elementary school students has it. The entire school system is in a panic and I spent a significant part of the day listening to the school nurse talk about proper hand washing and the benefits of wearing face masks. In addition to hoping for the student’s swift recovery, I’m just happy I wasn’t the one to bring it into the area.

~ Like most middle schools, ours is having a problem with making the students follow the dress code. One issue is that they all refuse to tuck in their shirts. Another problem is that we keep having to talk to the girls about not rolling up their skirts. (They like short skirts, we like longer ones, and you wouldn’t believe the differences between student and teacher opinion on what qualifies as “short.”) I saw Macho Man today with his pants sagging and his shirt not tucked in. When I called him on it, however, his response was to give me a salute and say, “No, Julie. I AM shirt.”  Then he ran away.

~ I had long, interesting conversations with the following individuals: Mary Sunshine (of course), Sailor Moon, The JTE, The Awesome Vice Principal, and the Two Terrific Teachers.  I also spent a few minutes around with The Whistler before cleaning time. (For some reason, we felt the need to follow each other around and mimic the other’s actions. It was quite cute.)  

Oh, yes, and about cleaning time.

That’s where today’s main attraction comes from. It isn’t deep, it isn’t meaningful. It was just … well, you’ll see.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not (I don’t think that I have), but in Japan, the students clean their schools. I suppose if one attends an expensive, private institution then they may be excused from this task. As far as the public education system goes, however, janitors do not exist. Instead, everybody is assigned a specific area of the school and at some point in the day everyone takes about 15 to 20 minutes to clean it. This even happens in my elementary schools, with groups of students from each grade level rotating to different locations every day.

I like cleaning time, because it gives me a chance to get up and move around a little. I also like talking to the kids. I think that cleaning time is when I’ve had some of my best conversations with The Savant, seeing as how he HATES cleaning and thus is easily distracted from it.

We have a monthly rotation at the middle school, and since today was the first day of the month the students were all given new areas to clean. I spent a lot of time walking around and trying to find a place where I could be helpful.*

I eventually wandered into my school’s courtyard, which is really nothing more than a block of concrete with Astroturf in the middle. The task of the students in this area was to sweep up the leaves that had accumulated over the summer. Here, let me give you a visual:

I am an artist!   

 (Okay, so working with computer paint programs is not my forte. Humor me.)

So, the green is the Evil Astroturf, the grey is the concrete, and the red are the leaves. They were scattered all over the courtyard – many in small, shattered pieces. 

I could see that the kids had a job on their hands and so I decided to try to help them out. So, no problem, right? All I had to do was get a broom and go to it.

Well, perhaps normally this would not have been a problem. However, for some reason unknown to me, my school has chosen to use these brooms for cleaning the courtyard:

I don't have the faintest idea WHY. I don’t have the faintest idea WHY.

You see that? An honest-to-God WITCH’S BROOM. Witch’s Broom. As in, I can see why all of the old stories and legends started up about these things being used for flying; there is no way on earth that they could POSSIBLY clean anything. Not only are the bristles scratchy and prone to snagging on delicate artifacts (like air), but they also BREAK. One spends almost as much time sweeping up broken bristle as one does sweeping up trying to sweep up dead leaves.

Now, if this isn’t bad enough, add in the aforementioned Evil Astroturf. Think of Velcro With Teeth. One doesn’t sweep leaves off of this material. No, one arranges for a diplomatic party to approach it bearing gifts and promises of plastic flowers in the spring time. If one proceeds through lengthy negotiations, four marriages between warring Astroturf mats in neighboring territories and a highly successful Cultural Exhibition where previous anti-Astroturf propaganda is burned upon a ceremonial pyre, then I think the Turf Authorities might be willing to free the leaf hostages. Maybe. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my diplomatic team with me today. I just had the broom. Rolling up my sleeves, I went to it.

I believe this picture accurately captures my progress after fifteen minutes of sweeping:

Talent. I have it.

 
Yes! I’d managed to break up even more leaves and scatter those parts around the Turf. The small pile in the corner was collected by scooping leaves off of some benches.

With five minutes left to go, I let my temper get the best of me and really put some muscle into it. I was not about to be beaten by dead foliage. This was the result of those efforts:

EARTHQUAKE DRILL. 

Yessir. Me, lying prostrate on the ground as the school decided to run an earthquake drill.

Julie: 0  Mother Nature: 2

Tomorrow, I do believe that I will be offering my cleaning services to the library. 


*And that had students that I actually wanted to talk to. 

“Call me insane, and I am proud to be.”

Rainy days, Mondays… August 10, 2009

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Did you know that Japan has a fascination with The Carpenters? I’m not exactly sure why, but they’re so popular, and so ingrained in the culture, that most of my middle school students can name at least one Carpenters song. Also, whenever I go to karaoke with my Japanese colleagues, they will usually request that I sing something from this group’s vast repertoire. I tell them that they need to thank my mother for gifting me with a (rudimentary) knowledge of Karen and Richard’s skillz.

So, today was back to business. Even though we’re on summer break, in Japan, the students still come to school for about three hours in the morning so that they can go to their clubs (typically some kind of sport, although art and music clubs are also popular). If they need it, students can also go through a couple of weeks of summer school during the last part of July. About halfway through the summer, the sports teams have their major tournaments.

As soon as the tournaments are over with, the third years stop attending club and they start studying for their high school entrance exams, which are held every January and February. (At least, that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. I have it on very good authority that that is the least of what’s happening right now.) Education in Japan is compulsory only through the end of middle school. If an individual wants to go on to high school, then he or she has to successfully navigate through a staggering number of exams and paperwork. It’s a super stressful time where everyone is on edge and frantic. Last year, it was so bad for Everyone’s Favorite, that he and his homeroom teacher (one of the Two Terrific Teachers) got into shouting matches every hour.

I kind of miss listening to those fights. ^o^

Anyway, although we’re still a few weeks away from the next term, I can see the beginnings of the transition into it. For one thing, my third years came in today so that they could do some work for the school’s Sports Festival, which will take place near the beginning of September. This week is also Obon, which is the Japanese festival of the dead and the climax of the summer vacation period. As of next week, people will really start to come back to work and life here will speed up.

So, in light of all of this culture and transition, what memory can I take away from today? I do have a few interesting ones to choose from – ranging from student interactions to the typhoon that should hit south of here sometime this evening.

Hmm. When in doubt, I do believe I should favor the students; there will be plenty of time to contemplate hurricanes when I get back to the States.

I spent most of my morning in the staff room, but around 11:00, I decided to take a break and wander around the school to see what the kids were up to. As I passed by the home economics room (more like the sewing room, as we have a separate room for cooking lessons), I saw my third years engaged in Sports Festival-related activities. I decided to go bother them, especially since Macho Man was with them.

I think one of the reasons that I like Macho Man – besides our camaraderie about strength and all things Macho – is that underneath his athletic bravado is a very genuine and earnest guy. I think that he’s a good leader, and there are a lot of kids that look up to him. He honestly cares about what he does, and I respect him for that. He was actually the impetus behind today’s memory.

After I walked into the sewing room, I spent some time talking to the students about what they were doing. Three of them were working on the 3rd Grade Class Flag and the others (including Macho Man ) were working on (actually sewing together) the flag that will represent the whole school. (So, there are flags for each class, and then there’s an additional flag for the whole school that has the Sports Festival slogan written on it.)

I can’t remember how it came up, but Macho Man started to talk about Stevie Wonder and the song We Are the World. The third year English textbook actually has a section about Stevie, and the students had just started to study it before we broke for summer vacation. Anyway, I asked the guys if they’d ever seen the music video to We Are the World, and they said that they had not. As somebody who literally drove her family to the edge of insanity with this video when she was a young child (and then pushed them over said edge with her need to watch The Sound of Music at least 3 times a day), this knowledge was unbearably painful for me. It was, if you will, the hangnail on the delicate fingers of my childhood nostalgia. Lucky for us, we have Youtube, and so this problem was easily remedied.

I wasn’t sure if they would be interested in the video – it has a lot of people that aren’t exactly popular in Japan (or arguably, the States) right now. I also didn’t want to take away from the song by exclaiming every three seconds: “Oh, it’s Lionel Richie!” “Oh, Michael Jackson!” “Hey, Diana Ross!” “Dude, check out Bob Dylan!” The guys solved this problem for me, though, by asking who all of these people were, and even hazarding a guess every now or then. (We were able to correctly identify Stevie, Michael and [although I have no idea why] Cyndi Lauper.) (Maybe it was the hair?) (They didn’t know who Bruce Springsteen was.) (That was upsetting.)

It was a nice moment. Well, actually, a nice seven minutes and nine seconds. Bless their snarky, teenage hearts, they actually watched until the very end.

And they liked it.

They actually liked it. They said that it moved them, and I could tell that they meant it. From the very beginning where all of the autographs show up behind the USA for Africa sign, I could see that they were engaged in the video. I think that seeing Stevie Wonder meant a lot to them, because he’s somebody that they know about. I’m sure that it made the experience even more meaningful.

I think what makes this memory so nice for me was that it was a very spontaneous interaction generated by honest curiosity. Before I came to Japan, I’d been around so many overachievers and academics that I think I lost some of my ability to believe that people would follow whimsical intellectual interests when around an authority figure. I grew very suspicious of angles and ulterior motives when I was a high school and college student. As a middle school teacher, I’ve found this suspicion to be helpful because these are the years when the kids are honing the fine craft of sucking up endearing themselves to their teachers for the purposes of personal gain.

But, that’s not what happened today. It was very simple and pure moment, and I was happy to share it with them. I’m not even going to qualify it as an INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF CULTURE, although I guess that’s what it was. I’d rather think of it as me showing them a video that I’d seen as a child and that was (for whatever reason) relevant to their lives here and now. I showed it to them, they enjoyed it, and I think that it had a real effect on them.

Perhaps what I’m trying to say here is that sometimes it’s just nice to be the person who has knowledge and experiences that other people can benefit from.

“When I see you smile,
I dare to believe again.”