The students are getting ready for Arts day. Remember sports day? (I hope so, that was a fun post) Well, in November, they have arts day. (You can see last year's if you go in my archives) Last year was visual arts, so you had students who painted, sculpted, used band saws, etc. So this year is performance arts!
No, they're not dancing.
They're singing! And performing instrumentals.
They've been working on it for a while now, and the teachers are tearing out their hair with worry, of course. I still don't speak Japanese, but when the teacher in charge starts clapping along exaggeratedly and yelling, you know darn well they're saying something like "WHY ARE YOU SLOWING DOWN THERE?! WE'VE PRACTICED THAT AT SPEED A HUNDRED TIMES ALREADY!"
The thing that continues to amaze me is the fact that the students are going to be performing the singing pieces and the instrumental pieces (all very complex with harmonies and parts and stuff) without music! I'll try to get some recordings next week.
I think most my schools are doing their performances this weekend, so I'll be going to school on Saturday, but it will be a full day concert, so I'm not too chuffed. The school district is getting on the schools' backs to use us language teachers to their full ability, so my school tried to think of how I could teach that day, but the kids are going to be either performing or helping with other performances! And I said "I don't think they'll fuss about that one." (and if they did, it would be too late.)
Monday, I went to the Chiropractor.
I've been meaning to show this to you guys for a while. A monument to the cutie cosmonaut. :shrug:
Tuesday it was cold and rainy, so when it was time to go to help at English class, I called up the missionaries and said "nope".
As mentioned, not much else has happened this week. Because (as mentioned) the schools are trying to get the most use out of us, I'm not bored at work, though I am a little drained at night. (I still think it beats being bored)
As an example of how boring this week was, here's a picture of a culinary adventure I had.
spiced orange sauce! (with oranges) over ice cream! They actually tasted better over yogurt. I also had them with oatmeal the next day, and that was very tasty as well. for some reason, as I've been eating my oranges, I kept thinking "these would be so good warm. With cinnamon. and nutmeg. So I looked it up to see if it was a thing, found a bunch of recipes and smooshed them together. Very proud of my accomplishment. :)
Saturday, there were no festivals on! AAAAAAA! I went through withdrawal. I also cleaned my room. And completely switched my summer stuff for winter. I kept thinking I would get out and go for a walk, maybe a short hike, but then I'd get distracted. I finally went out in the evening. The missionaries were showing a video of a play one of the members had been in.
It was really cute! Very Japanese. One of the sister missionaries sat next to me and translated bits where she could, and I repaid her by making snarky commentary about the parts she couldn't. She said she enjoyed it, so I think it was a symbiotic experience. :) They had dancing at the end (for some reason) and when I looked in the back of the room....
Why yes, that's the Elders dancing. :) (no, they're not possessed, the light just hit their eyes right)
In all, it was a good week, just not something much to write about. (though I obviously have)
I actually DID do a comic this week. I have several! I'm not behind! I just...haven't scanned them. :sigh:
This evening was a bunch of culinary adventures as well. I made Zuppa Toscana! And apple cake in the rice cooker! And I'm trying to blow myself up! Well, ok, actually, I'm trying NOT to blow myself up. I'm making caramel with the sweetened condensed milk I got at the store.
Well, ok, here's the story. I THINK it's sweetened condensed milk. It says condensed cream, but I've tried it before and it SEEMED sweetened. So, I figured one way to check is to make caramel out of it. And to do that, you boil the can, unopened, for three hours. The trick is to make sure the water never uncovers the can. So I'm stuck downstairs for three hours until it finishes. Because I'm not gonna risk forgetting about it and only finding out that the darn thing DID explode the next day when I'm trying to pretend I know nothing about what's going on.
Edit: good news, I did NOT blow anything up. The can is now cooling on my balcony. (I don't want to keep it inside in case it does decide to go)
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