International friends
...written on 02.22.04, @ 7:33 p.m.
Sat February 21, 2004
Well, my teaching life isn't all goodness and light, as the first class of the day was a testament to rousing within me a very strong urge to throttle half of my younguns, all of which were boys, but with the parents looking on through the mirrored glass, I had to maintain my cool. And I did. I know they're kids and they like to push the limits and they will be rough with the materials, etc., but they got blood on my TWISTER game! Ewww! And why do they have to make kids with endless runny orafices? I handed this one boy four, FOUR tissues, one after another, and he still wasn't done cleaning out his two little breathing holes! And as I was going around the room practicing the dialogue, the kids were supposed to say, "I had a good time! Thank you." and I said "You're welcome", one boy awaited me with his hands down his pants. I was not going to be shaking HIS hand!
Anyway, it was a doozy of a day, but I survived with enough energy to attend a going away party for the brother of Matsumoto's Brazilian friend. It was held downstairs in the landlords' party room. Sorry I have no pictures, but I discovered too late that I had left all of my memory discs elsewhere. Matsumoto and Dakimaru are on my People page, however.
Matsumoto used to be in the ranks of the yakuza, but got out somehow. I don't know the story, but I do know that he can never go to an onsen (public bath) or wear short sleeve shirts in the summer, due to the tattoos on his arms.
Matsumoto also was a chef at one point and had the duty of cooking up the yakisoba (grilled noodles) to go along with our Kentucky Fried Chicken.
We ate, drank non-alcoholic beverages, sang a few songs and talked alot. Most of the Brazilians at the party were parents who have left their children in Brazil while they come to Japan to make money to send home. It has been three years since Dakimaru's brother has been back. We were all impressed by their initiative and the loneliness that it had brought to their lives.