January 29, 2014

Another looooooong Wednesday, but I did stumble upon some really great new songs (including the Scooby Doo theme song!!) to teach my preschoolers in the quiet hour after everyone except the manager and I had gone home. I must love what I do because who else gets excited about this stuff?!

January 28, 2014

Whew! Just caught up two weeks worth of blog posts and got a bunch of stuff done at work. Yippee!

January 27, 2014

I am so extremely grateful that presently I possess sufficient resources - energy/joy/compassion - and wherewithal to help loved ones in need while preserving my own sense of at least relative well-being.

It is also my mom's birthday. Love her.

January 26, 2014

I spent my day off today on Skype. First with dad, then mom, and later trying to convince someone I love not to kill themself. I think it helped.

If you too find yourself in the throes of despair, please tell someone. The people who love you won't know what to do or how to help, but together there is strength and hope and a way out of the darkness. Ask for help before you have nothing left to give yourself, breathe, and believe with any small amount of faith you can muster that a better life is possible and you will find it.

January 25, 2014

I always feel like a rock star at my favorite little bar, but tonight took the cake. All of Kobe's finest were out celebrating Ebbe, a wonderful friend who will return to Denmark next week. Very nearly teared up - he gives the best hugs! - but held it together with a smile til the end.

Ray (featured front and center with tape bracelets) wrapped us all up in tape - I opted for handcuffs, brilliant! - inspired by a typo on the event thread for a "tapehodai" instead of "tabehodai" (Japanese for all-you-can-eat). Too funny!! I distinctly remember crawling across the bar to unbutton a friend's shirt and being hoisted into the air like a pop star into the crowd. Grateful for having a place where I can let loose and hang with some stupendously awesome peeps!

January 24, 2014

Today some promising news from the head office and a dozen toddlers toasting a mighty "Campai!" during our class tea party brought smiles to my face. 

Also, two extremely proud teacher moments came later in the day. One with a 3-year-old who more recently showed reluctance to using any English uttering a sentence far beyond his years ("My mommy buyed it"). The other from a 3-year-old who stood up to me after being scolded with another student that the other child hadn't misbehaved, that he himself had acted alone and was sorry, but insisted repeatedly that "Ryousei yattenai" (Ryousei didn't do it). So very proud.

January 23, 2014

Jellyfish kids loved the balloon sensory play I'd prepared and we had a lot of fun playing together. And they're really sharp! In the pre-teaching I talked about what's inside the different balloons, first using a deflated one to show them what air is. They remembered each of a half-dozen varied contents and ran around sharing their balloons with friends and teachers. The ice balloons were the class favorites and some kids got the idea to surprise me with them on the back of my neck, one even going so far as to conspire with her sister in Japanese!

While making some time with one of our quieter kids later in the day, I noticed she had strawberries on her shirt and I mimed eating one. She giggled. 10 seconds later, another one of my curious toddlers comes closer and asks, "Can you share?". Share? "Huh? What could I... You mean a strawberry?" His eyes grow wide at the promise of a new silly game, grins with a big open mouth, and nods like a bobble head toy. So I pluck another strawberry from her shirt and offer it to him, "here you are" because it's like when a child gives you a toy phone. You can't not answer it. 

A great day at work was followed by a lovely dinner and Japanese lesson with my friend, and I even managed to squeeze in a bit of painting before bed.