Sho mo nai!

I feel like I could dye.

Bento Lunch, originally uploaded by irodoramatic burnorama.

This here is a typical bento (box lunch), or at least typical for us Kamikatsu teachers when we are provided it on a non kyushoku (school lunch) day. The students bring their own lunch on days when there is no kyushoku. But what days would there be no school lunch on, you ask. Saturdays, like yesterday.

I was dead tired yesterday, having been out late at the open mic event the night before, so I learned the word "karoujite" which means barely. That way when the students asked me "How are you?" in my morning classes and I responded "barely alive," I could say it a couple times and then tell them in japanese that barely alive means karoujite ikiteiru.


It was our second PTA visit day this year, the more relaxed of the two. This time there was no English class while the parents were at the school, which meant I could sit in on a class too, if I so desired. And I so desired to sit in on the kokugo class (national language class = Japanese class). It was the grade 8 class, and the stuff they were learning seemed really obvious to me, but we use spaces in English and they don't in Japanese. They were learning how to separate clauses and words. I think I learned only two little new things.
1. each clause can be separated with the word ne. which means that "Mashuu wa egao de harii pottaa wo yonde imasu." could be said "Mashuu wa ne, egao de ne, harii pottaa wo ne, yondeimasu ne."
2. the way of marking clause and word separations in japanese.

After that all the teachers and parents and students participated in activities. We could choose between a simple woodworking activity, basket making, and hankerchief dying.
My hanky turned out okay, I guess, but I really don't know what I'm going to do with it now. Anyone want a pink white and yellow tye-dye hanky?

posted by Fletcher @ 9:17 p.m.