I have to admit, I wondered about the wisdom of bringing it along, especially when I was overweight with my luggage. But I have to say, the Canadian umbrella hat was a good idea. Yes I have worn it. I wore it during all my opening ceremonies. It made the kids laugh.
Now initially I wasn’t going to wear it. I was going to wear the red and white maple lead top hat. But as we were walking to the gym, I was wearing the top hat at the time, the other teachers said the umbrella hat was better. So I wore that instead.
As I’m sure you can imagine, I was quite the impressive figure.
The Opening Ceremonies themselves are pretty boring. The principal gives a speech. Then the new teachers are introduced. Then the kids sing the school song. They’re really good at it! After that the students give speeches.
It wouldn’t have been so bad but as a teacher you’re required to stand and I hate standing. Mostly because I’m lazy. Oh well. It was neat to see all my students for the first time. The elementary school was the best. A bunch of kids noticed my hat first and then pointed it out to their friends and eventually I had half the students staring at me.
And during my introduction to the elementary kids I made the mistake of asking how old they thought I was. I forgot little kids believe anyone who doesn’t look like a student must therefore be their parents’ age. The guesses ranged from 27-45. They, like everyone else who finds out how old I am, went “Eeeeeh! Young!” Every time someone says this I feel that they’re refraining from patting me on the head.
Lately the students have been preparing for their Sports Festivals. My first day at Miya Elementary and I found out there were no classes. So instead, I spent the day watching the kids practice. The grade ones and twos do this adorable little cheer/dance with pompoms. I nearly had a cuteness overload watching them do it. Especially since some of them take this super seriously. The grade threes and fours do my favourite cheer. It’s like have gymnastics. They do various stackings of children on top of other children, kids kneeling in pyramids and lifting each other right off the ground. They do this in a specific order and I have no idea how they remember it all. I couldn’t. The last group is the grade fives and sixes. They have a whole dance routine, which has some gymnastics of its own, to do to a song. I’m sure there are militaries who can’t pull of drills like these kids can.
Speaking of elementary schools, I had my first day of elementary teaching at Kuguno. The kids there were super enthusiastic. They, like the junior high kids, love the hot potato game I make them play. And the fact they have to wear one of three ridiculous hats when they ask me a question/introduce themselves (which depends on what grade they’re in).
Another crowd pleaser is my altered version of Stella Ella Ola. The kids got super into it. It only takes about 5 minutes for even the youngest kids to get how to play it and it’s easily prepared as all it requires is them to sit in a circle.
And this Tuesday I get a day off because of Kuguno JHS’s Sports Festival. I’m using that day to finally send money home. The bloody bank closes at 4pm and that’s when I get off work. It has been unbelievably frustrating.
On a happier note, for those of you who’re related to me AKA everyone who reads this, from everything everyone’s said so far on the matter I’ll likely be home for Christmas. They normally only say no when you’re missing a lot of Elementary school because you’re the only real English teacher there but only one of the days I want to take off is an Elementary day. And it’s Kuguno Elementary. The principal there loves me. I still have to talk to all of my principals and teachers and to my supervisor but given that Christmas time is review time for exams, there’s not much for me to do anyway and I should be allowed to come back. Fingers crossed.
So that’s about all for now. I’ll write another post next time I have time to kill at work. Bye!
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