Shut up, I'm the driver you're the passenger.: Attempting to Maintain Positivity

It's Monday and it's hot. The kids don't want to be here, I don't want to be here. But I'm going to resist the urge to bitch and whine about how badly I want to go to Portland now (ahem). Instead I'm going to post highlights/anecdotes from recent encounters with my students, because as annoying and frustrating as they can be, they really are quite sweet and I will miss them...

- While eating lunch with 3rd graders at Minami Sho, I was quizzed by little Kazuki-kun in the seat next to me:
Him: Melissa sensei, which do you like better, milk or apple juice?
Me: Apple juice.
Him: Which do you like better, orange juice or apple juice?
Me: Um, orange juice.
Him: Which do you like better, orange juice or grape juice?
Me: Orange juice.
Him: Which do you like better, orange juice or your mother?
Me: Oh, um, my mom.

Round 2:
Him: Which do you like better sushi or spaghetti?
Me: Sushi.
Him: Sushi or Fruit?
Me: Oh, tough one... fruit.
Him: Fruit or Yuma-kun (the boy sitting across the table from us).

- Last Wednesday was my final visit at Echizen Sho, the tiiiiny little school up in the mountain. I only visit this school once every 6 weeks or so but because the school is so small, I know the kids pretty well. On Wednesday I visited all of the classes where the teacher announced it would be my last visit. I then had to field lots of questions about why I'm leaving. And dealt with lots of kids running up to me, arms open wide and tears squeezing from their big brown eyes. I tried to avoid the issue of my leaving as much as possible, so when the coversation seemed headed in that direction, I would tell them some extraordinary fact to take their minds off it, like this:

Shizuka-chan: Melissa, what's your favorite food in America?
Me: Oh, I love cheeseburgers.
Her: Well, we have cheeseburgers in Japan, you know?!
Me: (Uh oh), Yes, you're right and they are delicious, but in America they are very big.
Her: Really? How big?
Me: (making a hamburger gesture roughly the size of my head) This big!
Her: Wow! Really?! How long does that take to eat? One hour?!
Me: Um, well, maybe 20 minutes...

Crisis averted.

Throughout the day I had children running up to me at random times and handing me vegetables from the school garden. I walked out that afternoon with 3 cucumbers, 4 eggplants and 2 piman. After lunch we had a farewell ceremony where I gave my generic fit-for-all-schools inspirational speech. It was sad to say goodbye to those kids.

- Fumika, my most brilliant and fabulous and funny 3rd year at Higashi-Chu told me in our English letter/comic notebook that she and her boyfriend kissed last week. Oooooh weee! Is it bad to write that on the internet?

- On today's Q/A Evaluation cards:
Have you ever been to Australia? Have you ever eaten sushi? Do you like me?

- Today in my 3rd year class, our target sentence was "It is (adjective) to (do something)." Like: It is boring to study. It is exciting to bird watch. etc etc. Then there was an interview activity. I walked past two boys and their conversation was like this.
Boy 1: Is it dangerous to kiss?
Boy 2: YES IT IS!

- Today I received another letter from Asuka and Miho via Asuka's sister Nozomi. It's really sweet that they want to send me letters and study English, but they are totally using a computer to translate. Here's a couple highlights:
"We go to a Maki High School. Club activities belong to handball club!! A teacher of our ALT says Kate teacher. Do you know her?"
"We gave your address. But Letter is better than e-mail. Because it is studied English by writing it with a letter... Really I'm sorry!"
PC translating software needs to be banned. Oy!

Anyway, I'm totally rambling. Here are a few pictures from recent elementary visits:
Yuta, one half of my favorite pair of 2nd graders at Echizen. The other half, Shun, wasn't there on my last day. Break my heart