Tuesday, August 9th: Three. San. Drei. Tres.

It's been a good day :) 

Making origami and doing Lin Sensei's
hair again

Water games got me SOAKED!  Yesterday I did the routine of "don't react when you get sprayed and the kids will leave you alone".  And it worked! But the kids don't have as much fun.  So today, I let the reactions come out of the bag and squealed and laughed as I was doused with ice cold water!  It was fun for both the kids and me :)

The adorable little Toshiya kun!
Yes, that is his big, pink, Hello
Kitty water bottle :)

Kaede kun. We've had some struggles
this past few weeks but now we're good
friends...which you couldn't tell by his
face in this picture.  He really does like me!

Oh, the joys of children photographers!

 Nap time was interesting...the three Japanese teachers went to sleep before most of the kids did.  So I spent 45 minutes patting and rubbing backs to get 4 of the little kiddos asleep before break.  Break was interrupted by 3 of the teachers we went bowling with last week.  Tamaki Sensei had brought her video camera bowling and they had made a DVD for us of the footage :)  SO CUTE!

We love this little guy!

He's not photogenic.  So imagine
the cuteness he his now and
multiply it by 45,000 and that's
almost how cute he is :)

Playing with Lin Sensei

Since we're spending more time with a few toddlers, I've started picking up kids and WOW I'm so glad I didn't start this before!  Six year olds can be HEAVY!  It's really not that bad...I just get a nice work out and the kids have fun :)  Kaede kun absolutely loves to climb on me and since I can never seem to pronounce his name correctly, I have started calling him "Saru kun" which is like saying Mr. Monkey or Monkey Boy.  It made us both laugh and I think he likes it cuz he keeps climbing and laughing!
Today was really good :)  At the end of our work day, Oshida Sensei (I think that's her name) but we nicknamed her "Mean Lady" cuz she used to be really mean to the kids and to us...now she's one of my favorite teachers here! Anyways...at the end of our work day, Oshida Sensei asked me to write down the lyics to the King of the Jungle song we've been teaching the kids.  (Yes, she speaks fairly good broken English)  She has a daughter in the kindergarten who LOVES the song and they wanted to be able to sing it at home together :)  After I gave them to her, she thanked Madelyn and I as the lyrics were a special present and she looked like they really were important to her.  Then she told us that this summer has been so special to her and thanked us for all of the wonderful memories and for making this summer so meaningful :) :) :) I was gonna tear up!  Most people say "thank you, see you!".  That's all I was expecting.  But to have impacted her that much?  Wow :)  Thanks, God!  I wondered why I came....o touch the heart of this one woman and her daughter.  Yeah, that's enough of a reason for me.
The day couldn't get much better....although dinner was pretty good.  And huge!  We had been given potatos again.  So we ate those.  Madelyn bought edamame on Sunday.  So we ate that.  The lettuce isn't gonna last much longer.  So we ate that.  We have tons of chicken.  So we ate that.  Throw in a little cucumber and apple and you'll have our dinner!  HUGE!

Don't worry...we didn't eat all
of them!  Some will be for
tomorrow's lunch and dinner :)

Me posing with dinner...yes,
there is an edamame hanging
out of my mouth.  I needed a
hand free to do the Japanese
peace!  (I know I don't look very
classy, but when did I say I
was a class lady?)

The night was finished off by a sweaty jam session in the non-air conditioned room that has the piano.  Totally worth all the sweat, though!  Very good day :)  And guess what?

ONLY 3 MORE!