Let it never be said that I'm a 'glass half-empty' kind of girl but there are times... It is still snowing and life is still chaotic and I'm still trying to get everything accomplished that needs to be done.
Next Wednesday we have the closing ceremonies for the end of the school year and then there will be an almost two week break for the kids. I will be working at the school or at the office still but it's getting better. I will probably focus most of the time on making plans and resources for the next school year and I'm optimistic (there I go again!) that I will get lots accomplished and be a way better teacher because of it!
Last weekend Joisan had her long anticipated birthday party. All five girls in her class were invited but only four were able to come. The girls slept over and did some fun games (picking up tiny candy with chopsticks, eating jello with chopsticks, a snowball fight, a snow maze) and they also decorated cupcakes and broke a pinata. I made an amazing pinata for the party (photos to be posted I promise) and Ian and Joisan both helped to decorate it. It's of Kitti-chan (aka Hello Kitty) and it really was heartbreaking to have it get beaten up! There was more than 25 hours of labour that went into making and decorating it. Luckily they didn't do the pinata until Sunday when I was not there so I didn't have to weep over it!
On Sunday Taran had arranged a lunch and movie trip with his class. Unfortunately Kenta was sick so it was just Taran and the three girls. (He hated that - NOT!) We all met at our place and Hiro took her car with one of the other 3rd grade teachers and I took the boy and girls in our car. We met Naoko at the restaurant in Muroran. The kids were pretty fun in the car - Taran was forever trying to take pictures of the girls (one in particular) and the girls were always hiding behind their hands! I managed to get them on to trying to teach me some Japanese phrases which I promptly forgot! I am discovering that the language centre in my brain has atrophied and it's really hard to get it moving again! I can still come out with the phrases I want in French but the Japanese just won't stick.
Anyway, we had lunch at a western-themed chain called Donki where we ended up in the smoking section because that was all that was available. I really miss those BC smoking laws! After lunch we went to the movie theatre and bought our tickets for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and found that we had some time to kill. They gave us free bowling coupons when we bought our tickets so we went to bowl. Unfortunately there was too long a wait so we played in the arcade instead. The arcades here have some of the games we're used to but they also have a lot of those claw-type games where you try to win a prize by picking it up and dropping it down the chute. Taran won a little stuffed animal and gave it to one of the girls (Saya) and then he won another and gave it to Miyu. That of course meant that he had to win one for Ayano too. He had managed to get the first two on one try each but the last one took many many tries and much money to get! We went back to the theatre and when we went in I was surprised by how small the theatre and the screen was. I would be surprised if the theatre sat more than 100 people and the screen looked like about six or eight of the biggest tv's you see in Future Shop put together. It was great though - intimate but big enough to be impressive still. We all enjoyed the movie.
Taran has been in mourning since last Thursday because his 3rd grade class is finished but he still has to go to school and be with the next 3rd grade class (currently grade 2's). He is really missing his pals. He seems to be a bit more focused on schoolwork this week - I'm hoping it will stick! Joisan has begun her grade 8 courses and could reasonably be finished BC grade 8 by the end of the summer and start grade 9 work in September. We'll see. She's still dancing three classes a week and there's a possiblity of a fourth class too. Again, we'll see.
Both the grade 1's and the grade 2's performed this week for the Warashibe. They did two Robert Munsch plays - Pigs and Mortimer. I was a bit worried when we started the rehearsals but they all worked really hard and did a fantastic job! I was very proud!
We have next Monday off for some national holiday so it's a long weekend. We'll be doing our "Sunday dinner" on Monday night because Ian and I have been given tickets to a brass and woodwind concert in Muroran on Sunday. We're looking forward to it. I have to run off now to the elementary school graduation ceremony and then to the Chugakko. I will try and get some photos posted tonight!
Love to all...
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