Audrey and I had a nice week last week. On Wednesday my students at the University that we teach at had a welcome party for me. It was so sweet, they totally brought snacks and home made goodies that we munched on while singing songs they picked out. They even made a CD of the songs and printed up all the words so we could all sing along. I was then informed that I was supposed to lead them in the singing. Well this was a bad idea for tow reasons... First of all my singing is much like dogs howling and if that wasnt bad enough I only knew one of the songs they had prepared... the classic "Ive been working on the railroad" YIKES! I was informed that two of the other songs were by the Carpenters. They seemed a bit turned off that I didnt know the songs. It was as if they thought that if the song was in English and by an American band, I should know it. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I had never heard of the Carpenters so I just struggled my way through the song. Oh to have a tape recording of that chior... we had our own "distinct" sound. After the sing along we played games like charades and "guess what Im describing with one word". They loved laughing and breaking into full Japanese leaving me wondering what in the world was going on. After our games one lady went to the piano and started playing Japanese folk songs that everyone knew... except for me of course. She had printed up the words in Japanese for everyone but that didnt help me much so I had an excuse for not singing:) A little old man next to me tried to translate what was going on in the song but he left many gaps as he wasn't sure of how to say it in English. We ended up chatting for the last 10 minutes of class and not getting any work done, but thats okay... It was a wonderful experience! Well, our weekend was pretty quite. On Saturday a couple of our new Australian friends invited us to go play some "footie" (Australian rules football) and toss the frisbee around. We had so much fun kicking the "footie" around and chasing the frisbee as none of us had really good aim. Sunday I had to teach so Audrey came down and had lunch with me. We ate in the cafeteria with the students and Audrey was definitely on show. All of my students are obsessed with her and could not wait to meet her. The girls would come running up to us giggling and saying "wife" and "so beautiful" or "cutie". I think Audrey blushed every time but I was happy to show off my wonderful wife:) After lunch I gave her a little tour and showed her the teachers offices and then she headed home. Later that night we went to a moon viewing festival. It was great as we sprawled out on blankets in front of the castle, stared at the full moon and listened to live music. Our favorite part had to be the Taiko drummers. The drums sound amazing and their rhythm and power is unbelievable! Monday was a holiday... I believe it was respect for the aged day so there was no school. Unless you go to Himeji High because then you have sports day. The students take so much pride in their sports day and all of their hard work paid off as it was quite a sight to see. Unfortunately, we were not sure how much we would get in because there was a typhoon brewing and rain was in the forcast. Thankfully it was cool and cloudy in the morning but the rains came at about 2:00 so the field day was cut a little short... but not without plenty of excitement in the rain. Their games were so much fun to watch so I taped them and added them below. I think the most incredible part had to be the decorations the students created and the cheers they came up with. The last two videos are some of the decorations and cheers so check them out!
This game is like a chicken fight... without a pool and with colored hats on!
Four legged race... It just sounds painful
Whole class jump rope competition... Its pretty amazing watching 40 students jump in unison
Every class in the school made decorations, got costumes and came up with their own dance routine... check it they are great
The students came up with all of the designs and created all of the decorations on their own!
No comments:
Post a Comment