Week 81: It's almost done!

Wow, I have one more day of school left.

And it's on Tuesday.

That's right, after 9 weeks of no days off, we get one JUST before the last day of school.

That means this last week I said goodbye to two of my schools and to a lot of my classes.  Of course now I'm almost sad I'm leaving.  I had some good classes!  The teachers, of course, ask why I'm leaving, and the answers vary on how well I know them.  "I want my own classroom", "I miss my family", "It's time", "I can't afford to live on this salary anymore", and "if I have to teach the 'hello' song ONE MORE TIME..."

This was a busy week as well!  I just seem to have them a lot.  Monday I didn't get back until late because I had a few doctors to see (it always comes around at the same time...)  Tuesday I had class at Church.  Thursday I taught the relief society how to make cookies!  American cookies!

oatmeal raisin cookies to be specific.

See, Japan baking is all based off French baking.  Which is good.  But their cookies are all close variations of crisp butter cookies.  And there're just not the same as a good oatmeal cookie.  They were very surprised at how soft the cookies are, and I'm like "Americans like soft cookies, and they like flavor to them, not just butter and sugar."  Though, again, I do love a good butter cookie.

The English speaking missionary/sister had to translate for me, and the look on her face when she realized what that entailed was priceless.

"This is cake flour and bread flour and we mix them, because Japan doesn't have all purpose flour."

"We put in some vinegar because when you bake, you want to use sour milk."

"There are three kinds of cookies, drop, shaped and bar.  Here are the differences between them."

"Do you know how they make brown sugar?"

Yes! When I get in teacher mode, I tend to spout all kinds of "interesting facts" that the person then has to translate.  I feel no shame.

We had extra time (and ingredients) so we made snickerdoodles!

this was fun because I just did a demo cookie and let them take over.

oatmeal cookies again.

And then, when it was over, I got to introduce to them the joy of dipping your cookies in milk.

it was a winner.

Specifically snickerdoodles.  If you have never dipped warm snickerdoodles, you really must some day.

I'm not sure which cookie they liked more, they were both well received.  We ran out of snickerdoodles first, but then that was only a half batch.  The best part was them trying to SAY "snickerdoodle" ;)

The big to-do this week was graduation.  Hopefully you remember me talking about the set up last week.  The 2 hour long rehearsals.  How everything is very choreographed and set.  Well!  It's all done now!  And WHAT a kerfluffle.

FIRST you gotta set up the chairs

's a lot of chairs.

Then you gotta decorate.

art flowers

the students drew the pictures AND carved the frames

live flowers.

And you gotta make sure EVERYTHING is perfect.

why yes, that is the vice principal and principal ironing the flag.

And this is all done up to the day before.

Then the day OF...I went to another school. So you get to see a different graduation!

still very pretty.

the 5th graders played music for the 6th graders when they came in!

Because this was a smaller school, I thought the ceremony would be a little shorter.  Well, apparently 2 hours is how long it's supposed to last, because in order to stretch it out,

they had each student give a tiny speech after accepting their certificate.

I mean, great but...I was really hoping it would just be shorter.

Most students wore the uniforms they'll wear at their new middle school, thought several (as shown) wore traditional clothes instead.

including the boys.

After that, they sang

THIS IS PROOF THESE GUYS CAN SING. couldn't get them to do it in class.

And then they went back to their classrooms for a last "goodbye" from their teachers.

Then they ran the gauntlet

the hall of well-wishers.

And when everyone was finally gone, the teachers got to eat lunch.

the 5th grade teachers.

lunch! (can you spot the tentacle?)

They asked me what I thought of the ceremony and I said "it was beautiful! and so organized!"..."and long. and cold. and all in Japanese."

(I read unobtrusively most of the ceremony)

They were all fairly surprised to find out that we don't have a 6th grade graduation ceremony.  One teacher asked me and I said "nah, usually when they change schools, they just...change."  And she looked around the teacher's room at all the things for the ceremony, the flowers and the ribbons, the certificates and the boutonnieres, the cloths and the decorations and then looked at me.

"That sounds nice."



So Saturday, I went into Osaka.

it's where you go to see odd things.

And there was an Irish festival!  I wore orange and green.

don't ask why I have a green tutu.

It was very small.

There were THREE booths.

Two sold alcohol and one sold potatoes and seafood chowder.

This was a little disappointing because there are, I swear, about 12 different Irish pubs in the area and not one had a booth!

They had a "parade" which was small really more a "presentation" thing, where people got on a little stage and presented.

Guess what started off the show!

The look on the lady's face says "Yes, I realize I'm playing Scotland the Brave at an Irish Festival."

They had other stuff!

Everything green by the local DonQuixote

Finally some actual Irish music!

and dancing!

and Irish Setters! They're so PRETTY

And it was tiny, but fun.

We did other stuff!  We went shopping and ate too much

pancake on a stick!

CURRY!

And we saw a cute one!

animal donuts!

We were so full, so we didn't get an animal donuts. :)

And then we went to see Moana!  I loved it! :D

The weather is looking up, but it's still a struggle for each degree it seems.  There are signs that the sakura are going to start though, so I remain hopeful! :)

Hope you're all doing well!