Thursdays with Sara

On Thursday I went to the third of the elementary schools I rotate between. Last month, this school gave me a sheet a paper with lesson plans for each grade for the rest of the semester. This week I was with their sixth graders, and on that lesson plan, among other things, was something called “A very giant elephant. Have you ever seen the very giant elephant of life?” I was perplexed by what they might mean by this, what sort of lesson might be expected of me, and how I might gently tell them their lesson is nonsense. I was desperately afraid it might be some sort of children’s book I was to read to them! How would I keep a straight face reading it?
I arrived at the school at 8:30 and was met by my contact teacher in the shoe changing area. After I switched into my somewhat cleaner “indoor” shoes, I noticed a glass case with a very ragged looking taxidermy animal in it. The poor thing was made to stand on two legs and wear doll shoes. I wished I had my camera along! I asked the teacher what animal that was, and she said a sort of bear. Mind you, this animal is about the size of a large cat, so I gave her my usual look of confusion, and she said it was a tanuki (raccoon dog). Those of you who saw “Pompoko” should now be very interested! I discretely looked for the anatomically distinctive feature of tanukis, but saw only a very swollen belly. The teacher went on to explain how they believe tanukis can change shape by holding a leaf over their head. I was so glad I had the background of “Pompoko” so I could understand her explanation. I did refrain from asking her about the children’s nursery rhyme about tanukis! (If you haven’t seen Pompoko yet, rent it! It’s a sort of depressing animated movie, but if you do a little research on wikipedia first, and then watch it with the English subtitles, it’s very entertaining!)
On to the staff room, where I was left in the principals lounge (in this way, I’m reminded of Kenya. Kenyans loved to sit their visitors in an empty room and leave them alone for hours to stare at the dirt walls. At least the walls aren’t dirt here, but really concrete walls aren’t much more interesting). They brought me tea, which I discretely poured down the vanity sink when they were out of the room. There is a weird flavor to Japanese tea; I think it’s toasted rice or something, but to me it tastes burned. And considering I don’t like tea to begin with, I really don’t like burned tea! I have begun bringing a bottle of water to the elementary schools so that when they offer tea, I can flash my bottled water with a smile. But sometimes they don’t ask, they just bring it, again much like Kenya…
Then a brief meeting with the 6th grade teachers, where I was very relieved to hear that they didn’t want to follow that lesson plan, and instead I should just teach greetings, colors, numbers and fruits. OK, I can do that; it seems to be the standard lesson at elementary schools. Since these were the 6th graders, I took it up a notch and taught them shapes as well.
As usual, I had lunch in the classroom with the students. We were served some plain spaghetti and what I thought was a creamy soup, as well as some sort of soggy patty, a bread roll, and a 1/5 of an apple. Those who know me well, know that I am perfectly content with plain spaghetti, and I was quite happy considering the past school lunches I’ve been served (bread with walnuts, deep fried tiny whole minnows, etc.) I dug into my plain spaghetti and immediately realized by the looks on the students’ faces that I wasn’t supposed to eat it this way. That’s what I was afraid of. Apparently I was supposed to put the spaghetti in the creamy soup which was loaded with onions, shrimp, and some unidentifiable things (I think they were fishcake) and eat it from there. To humor them, I put a small amount of spaghetti in the soup and ate it, and then communicated through charades that I preferred it plain. Luckily, this teacher let the students trade food, so I knew I could get away with not eating the soup. (Other teachers have sent kids back to finish their food, so I feel compelled to finish mine as well).
A side note – Japanese kids are NOT picky eaters! How could they be?? Whenever I teach food vocabulary and ask the students what they like and don’t like, no one claims not to like any food! Onions, tomatoes, fish – they all like it! They do, however, like the expressions on my face when I tell them I don’t like octopus. But there may be one thing even the Japanese don’t like. The science teacher at my junior high school “challenged” me to try pickled sea cucumber!! (He obviously doesn’t know me very well!) He showed me a photo and I asked him if he liked it. He waved his hand in front of his nose (Japanese body language for “no”). I asked if most Japanese people liked it, and he said about 50%. Finally, something at least some people won’t eat!!
But back to the events of yesterday. I skipped Japanese class that night considering I wasn’t feeling well, and so far it’s been all review from the summer class I took. Apparently I am not the only one not feeling well. Our whole building is sniffling, coughing, and sneezing. Julian tells us that this time of year, the wind changes and we get the air pollution from China.
This weekend should be another busy weekend. Tonight (Friday night) is another dinner with the teachers at my school. Tomorrow night is a birthday party for Lauren, one of the Aussies in our building. And on Sunday I am going to two festivals! The first festival is the famous Nada festival and we will be in box seats with the mayor! The second festival is a lion fighting festival. I bought a new camera last weekend, so expect some great photos!