Today has been a pretty funny day, so far...

I had a first grade class this morning and we spent the entire class practicing English numbers by playing a crazy version of Concentration. You know.. clap, clap, then you say your number followed by someone else's number? That's how it starts then if someone messes up, that person loses their place and goes to the last number's spot (for our circles-we'd split the class- it was 20) Then everyone else moves up one number. Its a nice twist on the game because each time, everyone's numbers change. The kids were pretty quick at it though they really struggle with anything in the teens. They also insisted I play with instead of just referee-ing... and I was probably the worst player. The kids called my number so rarely that by the time they did I had forgotten my number or was just too thrown off to answer before breaking the rhythem.

The next class was with the second graders. It was Mr. Matsuo's class and it was his turn to plan. The current spot in the text has a dialogue where a boy asks the foreign teacher if she can read a letter he received from the U.S. for him. They are supposed to practice the phrases "May I ask you a favor?" and "Could you please ________?". Mr. Matsuo asked me (last minute as usual) if I had any English letters we could use for class.. and if not, could I write some? I panicked for a second before remembering the stack of postcards from home I have in my bottom drawer. Jack pot! Mr. Matsuo was thrilled, he picked out two that were both hard to read (because of the handwriting) and had phrases and vocabulary that the students could understand. Then we used one of them in a skit to start class. For some odd reason, his charater just couldn't figure out what little Kent was trying to say to his Grandpa & "Grama". At the end of the skit he asked me to write the postcard message on the board in my own beautiful handwriting. Then I stood back and giggled as he translated young Kent's message to Grandma & Grandpa. He also asked me how old Kent is. I had to think about that one... I guessed from the writing that he'd written it when he was about 8 or 9... and laughed because if I gave his real age the kids would have been appalled! Anyway.. Kent, an entire classroom of Japanese junior high school students just read and re-read and translated your postcard from when you visited Mount Saint Hellens!! He copied both of them onto a worksheet and had the kids try to figure out what they said. Then they had to use the phrases to ask me about the parts they couldn't decipher. It was a really interesting lesson and the kids were pretty psyched about the actual postcards (the other was to G & G from Earl & Ruth). Thanks for the postcards, Grandma!!

Then later in the day, I got talked into joining the other teachers in a free health check. One big difference in trips to the doctor here versus there is a simple lack of things like walls and privacy. Let me tell you... it is a very funky moment when you are walking across a room with your colleagues and each of you has a cup of pee in hand. We all walked from one station to the next nodding and giving joking encouragement... got my eyes and ears checked, my blood drawn, my chest listened to, my pee examined, a chest x-ray taken, my height, weight, and blood pressure recorded, even had a picture of my eyeball taken and then some weird grand finale in an air conditioned van where they stuck electrodes to my chest and put clips like battery starters to my ankles and wrists! That one a bit nerve racking! But I survived and I guess one day I might find out whether I passed or not.

Final note: yesterday after school I had my first cherry tomato right off the plant and it was positively, absolutely one of the most delicious things I've eaten. Even though my plants are all too close together, my sunflowers have almost all died, my watermelon plant is yellow, my eggplants are stunted, and my yard looks like a disaster zone, I think being able to make and take care of my own gardens may end up one of the most rewarding things I'll do this summer!!