It's a very stressful couple of days leading up to going home... but it has its rewards. Yesterday my dear friend Dustin dressed up as Santa Claus at my request and came to visit my Nishi Elementary school English Club. The kids sang and danced (choreography courtesy of moi) to Jingle Bells, shook hands with Santa, wrote a letter to Santa with pictures they drew of what they want for Christmas. And at the end, we handed out little koala toys to the kids as a reward for reading their letter to Santa. Afterwards, we did Jingle Bells one more time... watching the kids enthusiastically dance to the lame moves I made up was really cool and kind of embarrassing too - I mean they made it look much better than I ever thought it could be, but I was still thinking "If only they knew.....".
Oh and and aside... special ode to Dustin really, cos he did this for me after sleeping one hour the night before, and then had to contend with one particular crazy little kid who kept looking up his shirt and pants, and then latched on to his trouser cuff and it took a whole 5 minutes to unlatch this kid, even with the help of Mr. Hagiwara, the very calm and cool English teacher. And this was all before English club even started! He was occassionally accosted by some kids wanting to look under his beard and up his shirt, or poke his cushion stomach. On the whole though, these kids were much better behaved than any kids back home... on boy even ran a short cut after we left to see us again as we were riding our bikes back to the Junior High school.. he popped up twice to breathelessy wheeze 'hello' as we rode past. Funny!
Thanks Dustin, you are my hero xoxo and you are these kids' hero too! Look carefully at the tiny little girl in front of Santa, holding up a tiny koala toy in her hand. She was so overjoyed at this little gift, that she actually cried, and then named it 'Momo' after her little sister... cuuuute. Her name is Yui and she has become my favourite. She reminds me of me at primary school - mainly because she tries hard at the games but rarely wins... however, when she does do well at something she is always so happy! She really struggled with English in the beginning but yesterday she asked Santa for a "Remote controlled car" in perfect English - you rock Yui!
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