Yesterday morning was pretty relaxing. My host family didn't have anything planned, so after breakfast we talked for a bit and I got to chill out in my room for a while. We also made sure to take photos of each other before having to part ways.
Since there were only three of us, I broke out my selfie stick for this shot.
The farewell party was a lot of fun! Everyone's host families were there and we all sat in one huge circle. We then had to go one by one to talk about our time with each other and such. Riley's host family said that on his first day, his host mom said that he looked like Jesus. We call Riley Jesus now.
Everyone's host families were super nice in their talks. My host family basically said that since they only had 3 boys and no grandchildren, it was nice to have a girl in the house.
After our farewell party, our host families dropped us off in the building where we helped in some English conversation tables. Basically all of the English speakers had an assigned table and participants would rotate around every 10 minutes to talk to us. This was to help people practice their English. It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted by the end of it! It was 2 hours of small talk to strangers. All of the people were really nice. The only people I had some trouble speaking to were a shy high school student and an elementary school student, which is understandable. The elementary school student had some content to work with though - he wore a Star Wars shirt and brought a huge Star Wars book with him to show off some of his favorite characters. I tried my best to talk to him with my limited Star Wars knowledge. He also brought some pictures of his cats to talk about.
Thus concluded yesterday. Today we got the opportunity to visit an elementary school! It was so much fun! Riley, Justin, and I were with class 2-1, who had P.E. that day. Of course I wore the wrong kind of clothes and forgot a hair tie today. The class started off with some stretches and then we were instructed to run with the kids. At first I thought it would just be running a lap, but all of a sudden we were balancing on poles, climbing on monkey bars, and jumping over tires. I was winded after just the warm-up. We then did a relay race and afterwards a game of tag. My legs almost began to feel like jelly during the last few minutes of tag. I had two kids running after me and jumped behind Riley without knowing he was "it" also. Luckily that's when the class ended so I didn't have to be "it" a third time.
After P.E. was lunch, which was ate inside the classroom. I managed to get the sweat dried off by the time the student's began serving the lunch.
Yes, the students serve the lunch themselves. No, not in the cafeteria.
I learned from an earlier meeting that there is a nutritionist who works for the school in creating the lunches everyday. This definitely shows in the food. We didn't have the plastic tasting pizza or the burnt burrito for lunch. We had fried rice with some shrimp in it, potato soup, a type of egg dish with ketchup on top, milk, and a slice of orange. It was pretty good, especially for school food.
I had no idea how to work the milk carton. Instead of separating the top side corner like in America, there is a perforated section on the side where you tear the first layer off and poke your straw through the second layer. This girl could see that I didn't know what I was doing, so she grabbed my milk from me to stick the straw in through the side. She was a real friend.
Some of the kids tried talking to me, but of course I didn't really understand anything. I managed to understand questions like "how old are you," "what year are you in school," and "what do your parents do?". Other than that, I would ask me a question and I'd have to respond with "wakarimasen" ("I don't understand") or "amari nihongo o wakarimasen" (I don't understand much Japanese").
I finally broke my camera out to take videos and pictures of the class, and that's when the students started getting really excited. I don't know what it is about cameras, but once one is out then everyone wants their picture taken. I was also taking videos, and when I would focus on one student 3 other students would look at my phone and laugh hysterically. I proceeded to do the natural thing and take selfies with the students.
So Riley started this orange peel teeth trend. He just put an orange peel over his teeth and the whole class started scream-laughing. Here's a kid imitating him.
It got even better once I broke out Snapchat and started using the filters on there. The students really got a laugh out of the filters.
After lunch we headed to recess. I actually didn't know it was recess until Riley told me afterwards - I was so confused as to why we were going outside! The past few days I just kind of learned to roll with whatever is happening.
Justin, Riley and I were following a group of kids outside, and that's when three girls and one boy started calling me over and telling me to follow them. So I started to follow them. Until now I really have no clue what we were doing, all I know is that we would run a bit then hide behind some bushes, and then repeat. I don't know who we were running and hiding from, but it was fun! The sensei saw us and told me to put my bag inside, so I did but 2 minutes later a kid goes back to get my bag so I can put it next to Riley's.
Afterwards we went back to the classroom to clean up. The students have to clean the classroom instead of the janitor. The sensei handed the three of us college students tiny brooms to help sweep up. The kids were moving desks this way and that and us three were just awkwardly sweeping things into a pile for the kids to get later.
Again, when there's a camera present then everyone wants to be part of it. It started out with me and three other girls and quickly escalated to this huge circle around me trying to be in the picture.
The kids said I final thank you and we headed off to a quick after-school English lesson with the upperclassmen. This English lesson consisted of the students singing along to the Beatles' song "Hello Goodbye" and "Let it Be". Thomas and I were the two in the classroom, and when we walked in we just started to sing along. The students knew all the words to "Hello Goodbye," and the teacher had a lyric video playing on the projector to help. But then "Let it Be" started and all the kids knew was the title "Let It Be". I asked the teacher if he wanted Thomas and I to sing it. I'm not sure exactly what he said but it sounded like a yes, so Thomas and I sang to "Let It Be" to a silent classroom.
The teacher played it again, and the students sang along more the second time. I'm starting to think the first go was a test run. Justin, Riley, and Grace then came into the room to sing along. We all stood up and put our arms over each other's shoulders and began to sway side to side to the music, making a great kumbaya moment. The kids found this hilarious and joined in.
This concluded our time at the elementary school. I was exhausted coming back so I chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. I mainly went back out for some CoCo Curry and FamilyMart mochi.
That's all for today!
