Halloween

It's Halloween today and so we carved pumpkins at Sasagawa Sho. Nothing more heart-stopping than watching a grade one awkwardly plunge a knife into a pumpkin. But everyone had all their digits accounted for at the end of the day. It was an odd experience because I became the default jack-o-lantern expert; something I really have no claim to. I sometimes forget how foreign these activities are for both teachers and students. I was called upon to inspect every pumpkin and peppered with questions along the way. Students respond well to creative and tactile (and dangerous) experiences.

Monday's post

Readers will have to make do with a much scaled-down version of my birthday post. I had a large chunk of it typed out last night when blogspot.com decided to eat the post. I lost the connection to the server when trying to save and with it the post. It feels like too much to type out again plus there is now a whole Monday worth of activities between me and the weekend. Instead I curse the very name of blogspot and offer some nice pictures instead.

The weekend end went smoothly. I had lovely weather in Sapporo, great for walking or shopping; warm and sunny. To go along with all the birthday wishes I received, I bought myself a North Face winter coat (a Japanese original, the cute salesgirl added). My parents phoned me at the Suginome's Sunday morning which was still my birthday Saturday night their time, this was to make sure they were not having any fun without me.

My big surprise for the day - and taste - was a delicious homemade chocolate birthday cake brought into the office by Vivian-sensei. Myabe a bit too sweet for my Japanese co-workers, but she knew exactly what I wanted! Thanks!

As my schools get busier for their respective school festivals, I am less and less needed. This will probably continue until the middle of November when things get back to normal. I will keep readers updated on events here.

Another Day

Another day and more tech troubles from Blogspot. I did arrive safely home from Sapporo.

Tomorrow's trip

I spent today - the day before my birthday - at Urimaku Elementary school. I had lunch with the grade one's. It was a very pleasant day that became a day of firsts, two of which are both illustrated in the image above. The grade two teacher made carrot jello, a combination that had until now escaped me. It can be seen above as the blurry orange thing. The second first in the image is the challenge of eating jello with chopsticks. I think the faces of the two girls on the left are priceless; they looked so shocked. Tomorrow I will be leaving early in the morning for Sapporo and will return Sunday.

Asking questions in Class

With today comes another round of blogspot.com outages; this time a complete crash of their networking system. Everything is sort of going to pot over there this week. Hopefully this will not cause this post to be unduly delayed.

There have been two recent experiences about how classes answer questions that I would like to share. In an elementary class, the mix of high energy and boundless creativity is volatile. When all students in a class know the answer – and everyone yelling - the result can be hard to ignore. A cacophony is a good way to describe it. This is the more common result. One class in particular, this year’s grade two’s, has the extremely odd habit of putting their hands up to answer even when no question has been posed. My face often scrunches up in a look of odd bewilderment; this is also accompanied by the impulse to smile. I would really like to understand what is going on in their heads.

Fitting in on the fly.

As I was calmly writing a post a co-worker hurriedly came in and asked me if I could help with something. I had a rough idea of what it was about because I knew some of my students were practicing Shikaoi's famous White Snake Dance in the hall. Tired from sitting at my desk and anxious to learn something new - even if it included dancing - I jumped up to help.

Now that it's evening I can reflect on the experience and I thought it would make a good post. Details about the White Snake Festival can be read here. Previously, I have had the opportunity to hold one of the supports and the snakes are far heavier then they appear. Running around again and again while holding them in a practice only served to reinforced this belief. In addition, I should also mention we were using a duplicated shorter pair made for the children's version. The practices really can't run if someone is missing which is why they needed someone. My height made the maneuvers awkward because I was so much taller than everyone else. There was a particular move toward the end, where the troop dips under the snake, where I got my head hit several times. I think this will exclude me from participating in any performances with the group in the future.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how normal things feel; how routine things have become. This practice was a good example of this. Sometimes, regardless of effort, foreigners just stick out in Japan. But today among my students and teachers I felt helpful and included. This is oddly illustrated with the fact it sometimes means my students ignore my presence (but in the end every child wants attention). Also, because I understood my students' temperaments involved, I could be of great service helping keep the kids focused and motivated (I was commented on this later). I was tired from the practice but the kids were exhausted (pleading not to have to run with the things anymore) and I don't blame. They worked very hard.

A Day in the Life of Blair

Really sorry about the recent Blogspot.com trouble. It seems to be all in the past now.

I was the recipient of a box of maple syrup cookies from one of the teachers that went to Stony Plain this month. I happily accepted the gift but in all honestly would have preferred something of my own choosing. Still, it was given in kindness and put to good use. At the moment - fresh from a returning group – my house is full of Canadian sweets. This makes me feel guilty. I decided I should share my cookies. Share is perhaps not the optimal word because one could also suggest bribe.

I try to attend English classes for kindergarteners very prepared. This includes sometimes bringing (positive) reinforcements with me, like stickers. I was a bit leery to bring maple syrup cookies into a kindergarten because they are very sweet and foreign looking. Comedically, I knew once I got all the kids hopped up on sugar, I could leave. I was worried the kids would reject the strange looking cookies on sight. However, my worries were unfounded. After practicing English introductions – which the did very well, all things considered – they deserved a small treat. Starting with the older kids (age 5) I handed them out. Everything got eaten because as the younger kids watched, they didn’t want to feel left out.

This leaves me to explain how I spent my afternoon: crashing. I far exceeded my normal daily sugar intake by eating three cookies this morning. I couldn’t help finishing the last two after I ate one as an example to show they were edible. It has left me speaking quickly with sore teeth. I should have remembered to bring my camera to capture some of the odd reactions. But in a sign of how normal everything feels, I didn’t think to bring it.

Technical troubles

The updating side of Blogspot.com has been extremely patchy over the weekend (North American time). I tried several times to update, but I couldn't even get through all the pages needed to post without lagging out, so, I gave up in fustration and didn't even touch the site yesterday. Everything seems to be running smoothly now and I will be putting up a full post later today.

Weekend Update

I really wanted to get out today and take some photos to post but during the prime times (in early morning and at sun set) the lighting conditions were sub-optimal, offereing only poor flat light. This post is so sparce because I put a lot of effort this weekend in finishing some small writing projects I had on hand. Back to normal tomorrow. I should also add there have been problems with blogspot.com this weekend.