School lunch

The kids in my grade 3 class today were so noisy they exceeded the volume of the CD player. I cranked it right up and we still couldn't hear anything so I had to beat the tamborine until they shut up a bit. There are about 30 of them and they are genki as all hell. The boys were all trying to kill each other and the girls were standing around gossiping and occasionally looking marginally interested in learning something. During game time I dragged two boys off of another one they had pinned to the floor in "fun". They kinda listened to me because I can have a big Foreigner Voice when I want to. The teacher really took over the class and I had to basically interrupt her monologue to get some of my own in. Apparently I am just to press play on the CD player. Yeah right. I will set about changing this role of the gaijin (westerner) so that whenI pass this school on to Mario next semester he won't be bored like I am currently! The girl who was here before couldn't speak Jap very well so I think the homeroom teachers got a little too used to being in charge.

At lunch I eat with grade 4 this week. The girls jumped on me immediately and asked me every question they could think of. When they found out I wasn't married yet they almost died in astonishment and one of them took my hand in hers and said "Please look for a boyfriend so you can get married. Otherwise it will be a waste (of me, or of time I don't know), so do your best to find a man by next year." She was so earnest about it I didn't feel like I should laugh so I took it seriously and now it is a yakusoko (promise).

The kids all eat the school lunch which the monitors go and pick up and bring back to the classroom and then serve totheir classmates who get a tray each. It seems to be a bowl of rice or udon and miso soup with some random vegies. It seems very yummy. They get a glass bottle of milk which is just so quaint. After they have eaten they all brush their teeth when the Teethbrushing Music comes on over the PA. Then they go and play. It is constantly noisy and slightly overwhelming, a little bit of organised chaos really. It never seems like anything is happening, or that the kids are doing anything, but things just appear, tables are moved aside, dishes are cleared up and before you know it the class is over. Kind of creepy really.