Today I went to 'Nisho', or 'Elementary School #2', to give four self-introductions and sit in on two other classes. The day began with the usual confusion. (Actually, the day began when I opened the refridgerator door and out plopped seven eggs. The egg holder had collapsed, and every one of those eggs broke right on the floor. That wasn't the break I was talking about, though.)
I was informed that first period is the sports festival practice in the gym. I was told, "So, you can change into your gym clothes and practice with the kids."
Gym clothes? Mass confusion spread when I told them I didn't bring any gym clothes. The teachers stood around and decided what to do--forever! This meeting of minds could've continued well into tomorrow, if I hadn't volunteered to practice in the clothes I was already wearing. And there was harmony on earth once again...
Sports festival practice was fun. I enjoyed being active and helpful when I was able, and spent the rest of the time taking pictures. (I'm working on attaching photos to my blogs.) The kids are learning really challenging, complicated athletic poses, like pyramids and two-person hand stands. It amazing: every kid participates, even if they can't do every move. I was quite impressed.
After practice, it was on to teaching. By this time, I've really lost all sense of how to conduct a self-intro class. I'm no longer interested in talking about myself in a sort of 'My name is...' fashion. So I gave up trying to keep some sort of order. I thought, "If there is complete chaos in class today, I don't care. I don't care if they don't like me, or don't find me interesting. Today I'm going to roll with it and relax." I spoke Japanese in class. I swatted at students if they were rude. We built paper models in one class. One class, I let them ask me questions in Japanese the whole time and had the teacher translate for me. We played hide-and-go-seek at recess. We sang B-I-N-G-O on a whim. And I broke down and brought my violin to school for the first time, which was the best thing I'd done since I started teaching at all. I didn't realize that many of the kids had never seen, nonetheless heard a real violin. They were utterly captivated by my renditions of Let it Be and Life Goes On. They freaked out laughing when I played Beethoven's 5th. They all got out their recorders and helped me finish 'Edelweiss', and the teacher even joined in on guitar. The kids just adored me today, and several of them asked for my autograph!! Talk about total platonic reversal!! (That's a 'Ghostbuster's' quote, but is it 'platonic', or 'plutonic'? First person to tell me wins 5 points and a sticker ;) ) Today was the best day. I've been on the edge of breaking down for some time now, so this was just what I needed.
P.S. Aikido in Kumamoto rocked tonight and there were no hard feelings about missing the seminar on Sunday. There will be others, they told me.
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