kite.day

wednesday was kite day (golden week is from april 29-may 5, which is a big japanese holiday week. may 5th is children's day, and since yamauchi campus did their kite day on may 5th, my campus did it on may 6th). i loved this celebration because all the parents came to eat lunch with their kids and watch them fly their kites.
after forcing the kids to eat lunch when we got there (the playground was just screaming their name!! haha), they played until it was time for the kite flying contest.
the crazy slide!!
ayanajed and leoleo's cute little brother!for the kite flying contest, each grade had five minutes or so to fly their kites around so the teacher could pick a winner. then each winner would fly against each other and all the teachers would get together to pick the kite flying champion.
getting ready for the contest...flying their kites around to try and impress me :)moe won for first grade, but sadly her kite broke during the final round. there is always next year! :)
ayana and noa flying their kites on the sideline

best beach weekend EVER.

saturday was a glorious day. noa's dad owns a marine sports area at araha beach, and after i found that out, i asked her mom if laura and i could have a reservation to do some of the activities. so on saturday we met up with noa and her mom so they could show us where the booth was to fill out the paperwork for the "discount".. it ended up being free!! they are such a nice family.. it was fun to spend the day with them :) noa did all the activities with us.. she is too funny haha. she first wanted to do the banana boat. words can't describe how fun it was. laura and i screamed the whole time while noa just laughed and laughed.. probably at us haha. one of noa's dad's co-workers drove the jet ski and the finale was amazing.. i seriously flew two feet off the seat!!!
noa then wanted to go kayaking, so the three of us went around araha beach.. so pretty!! noa relaxed while laura and i paddled.. very relaxing!
after lunch we got in the glass bottom boat to go off shore to go snorkeling!! it was my first time and i LOVED it!!
before we started...you can see the banana boat behind uswe went with noa's dad, another worker, and two tourists from mainland. it was really weird at first to get used to breathing underwater but luckily i got used to it fairly fast. we were given suasages to feed the fish and i DEFINITELY did not throw the sausage far enough away from me.. the fish swarmed me and started biting me.. i FREAKED out!!! hahaha.. imagine me floating in the middle of the ocean screaming my head off hahahaha. it was quite the experience. it was amazing to see all the coral and fish.. saw some fish from finding nemo (gil being one of them), gorgeous rainbow fish, and brightly colored fish.
after we were done snorkeling, we laid out on the beach for a while.. noa took an hour nap under her umbrella.. so cute! when i was on the dock telling noa's dad and the rest of the workers thank you, i saw a puffer fish swimming in the water!!! i didn't know they were so close to the shore!!
laura and i had reservations for transit cafe, so we had just enough time to run home and shower. transit of course was amazing.. and we made it in time for the sunset. reshinda, one of laura's friends, met up with us and we had a fun dinner. we became friends with the bartender and he had fun teaching us japanese phrases :)
being spontaneous, we then went to a local bar called oh yeah (yes.. that's the name haha). it's a japanese bar, so we were the only americans.. it was also golden week (a big japanese holiday), so there were a lot of japanese men celebrating there. it was quite the entertainment haha! here they are trying to impress us with their drinking skills :)they were hilarious.. so were the workers there.. definitely a fun evening!!!
i spent the night at laura's and on sunday, since the weather was sunny again, we decided to go to the beach again! laura loves this beach that is a little island off of okinawa (you have to go on a bridge).. gorgeous!! it usually isn't packed but because of golden week, it was very crowded. we luckily found a parking spot, and had a lot of fun talking and relaxing on the beach. there were tents set up all along the beach.. we were tempted to skip school and camp too :)
great weekend.. but very exhausting.. the sun wears me out!! but definitley worth it!! :)

spirit week!

this week was spirit week at school. the kids had fun being creative.. and i had fun seeing all their ideas!! the first day was crazy day.. and boy did we look crazy!lisa, me, laura, and mekeioi think the best part about what i was wearing is that some of the students AND parents said i looked cute and normal!!! hahaha.. ONLY in japan! :)the second day was heritage day. less dramatic, which was good because the classes went over to ashibina to practice for the spring concert. most of us just dressed up with the colors of our flag.. so it was a lot of red and white... with some blue for the americans. some however, were more creative and wore special outfits from their country. very cute!
noa and karen wore their yukatas (a casual kimono)wednesday was twin day.. well more like dress alike day (there were more triplets and quadruplets than twins haha). some kids wore EXACTLY the same outfit.. i was impressed!the jackson five! aka.. kouichi, keishu, and susumu. susumu carried around a cassette player playing jackson five music as they walked down the hall together. priceless. and laura said that she had to teach them how to flip the cassette over to continue playing the music.. don't we sound old?!some of the teachersleo and jed being... leo and jed.kai, ryota, and william walked into my room wanting a picture of their matching uni-brows. kind of creepy! hahaha.. and it kind of looks real!thursday was character day! definitely the day with the most creativity!

ayana and i were minnie mouse togethernoa was a ghost from a japanese cartoon called ben10i can't remember who kai said he was, but i love his beard and gnarly hairhannah montanacinderella and her mopthe lovely princessesdaphne and minniekaren also brought a 101 dalmations outfit.. had to try it on!!the lovely jasminesand friday was sportswear day.. and a very eventful day. my first graders was in charge of chapel, so they performed their skit on the good samaritan and then sang the cute veggie tales song, love your neighbor. for lunch, we went to the park with fourth grade for a picnic. it was a beautiful day! and some goats across the street haha!the rivals.karin and karen representing ballet and gymnasticskaren.. this picture is priceless.playing some baseball...right before fourth grade was going to head back, noa got stuck on the climbing contraption. her foot slipped and she couldn't get it back up.. so miss rachel and some fourth graders came to the rescue!! and some of my first graders climbed up for moral support. :)and i thought this would have been the craziest part of my day. think again. we went back to school for the kids to finish up their writing and get ready for moe's birthday party (she brought cheese cake.. japanese style.. fyi COMPLETELY different, but still really really good!). moe's mom also brought cute little miniture cans of drinks.. favorite part of the school year by far.. we all got our mini cans and got in a circle and yelled kampai (cheers in japanese) and clinked our cans together. cutest moment ever. then the not so cute moment. i'm sitting at my desk eating cake singing avril lavigne to the kids (they know the girlfriend song so they always get a kick out of it when i sing it to them) and i look up at karin (she wasn't feeling well that day) and puke is just flying out of her mouth all over the floor. to not be too descriptive... the rest of the day consisted of me cleaning up the vomit all over the desks, chairs, and floors. i was *this close* to having my wish come true that nobody puked in my class during the year. oh well. i just hope she feels better!! and mom would have been proud of me (you too dad!!)... i didn't gag once, and i cleaned it up like a pro. :) but i'll leave it on a different note instead of puke... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOE!

slumber party and hip hop competition

saturday laura invited her 4th grade class to sleep over at her house. i was an honorary helper since i get to spend a lot of time with her class (my goodness, my first graders are in love with the fourth graders.. and they are great role models for them!). after they walked barkley, we started setting up the tents. some of those tents were hi-tech.. i took some notes for you dad! :) the girls had one tent, while the boys had two. the girl tent was so cute.. one girl brought a lantern to hang in their tent.. just watching them set up their sleeping bags made me miss camping so much!laura and eric had a fire pit, so we had hot dogs and smores for dinner and dessert. susumu never had a smore before, so i was excited to introduce him to this amazing treat. he gave it a thumbs up and some ooo's and aaah's. the kids also had fun breaking all the wood for the fire.. ninja style!
after dinner, the girls wanted to take a bath.. they brought their swimsuits, goggles, and water guns. so cute!

later that night came ghost stories! haha.. priceless! eric hooked up the computer to the tv, and we watched ghost videos from youtube. one is from a cliff we actually went to the tuesday of spring break (look at an older post).. you can see a ghost jumping off the cliff committing suicide. during WWII, many japanese people jumped off that cliff. here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRB-WONKYT4
the kids screamed and susumu tried to find an answer in every video.. this one.. "he's a diver!"
we watched a video where the security camera on kadena (where we were staying!) picked up a ghost floating over the fence.. creepy! the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S8pAqAWZko
susumu's answer.. "it's just a shadow!"
the last video we watched was a japanese girl brushing her hair.. and the mirror reflection goes crazy. it looks fake, but who knows! the kids freaked out haha. the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ubFh563lo
susumu's answer: "twin!"
tari and her family came to hang out and they told some of their ghost stories (when she told me the stories earlier, i almost peed my pants. she wasn't as descriptive for the kids.. good thing!). then one of her sons told one of those funny ghost stories where you yell at the end.. the boys almost messed themselves. by this time, all the girls were upstairs watching high school musical haha.. two started crying (and laughing at the same time!).. ghosts are not something they like to think about haha.
then susumu said he had a ghost story from the resonex (where laura and i stayed during spring break). it was about how he would look over the balcony and see this lady dressed in white walking into the ocean and disappearing. one night she looked at him and said, i'm going to kill you. everyone started screaming and gasping.. then susumu said he was joking haha.. he was so serious about it.. everyone was fooled!! he is a funny boy!
after watching some movies and eating some more.. some kids started getting tired. we joked with each other during the week that we were going to play pranks on each other. i brought make-up for the girls to put on the boys when they fell asleep. since it looked like most of the boys weren't going to fall asleep soon, when william fell asleep on the couch, they boys and girls teamed up to put the make-up on william when he went to sleep in the tent. susumu and kouichi were so funny trying to get william to fall back asleep. finally he was out like a light, and we went to work haha. he is a heavy sleeper!! we put make-up on him AND took pictures, and he didn't flinch!! susumu would go into the tent by himself and we'd see flashes coming from the tent. then he would show us the pictures and laura and i almost peed our pants laughing so hard. here are only some of the pictures we took during the prank.. i still laugh thinking about it!!!laura and i wanted to get in on the fun with the pictures!this picture is a "you had to be there" moment.. just look at the card placement and if you knew susumu's love for a japanese comedian, it would all make sense haha.that night, laura and i ended up going to bed at 3:30 am.. i heard giggles all night long haha. i guess some of the boys didn't go to bed until 4 and 5.. and then some got up at 5!! crazy! the girls came in and woke me up (i slept in the guest bedroom... no tent for me haha) at 8.. too early!! we had burger king for breakfast and then the girls and i went with eric to look at where he works and see the f-15s while the boys went to the park to play baseball (they saw the planes the day before). it was cool to see eric's building and his locker room!!
by noon, it was time to take the kids back to the school campus to be picked up by their parents. i smelled like campfire smoke, so i had to go home and shower before heading off to elaina's dance competition.
her dance competition was really cool. it was a hip hop battle, so two people would battle each other.. three judges would vote.. and the most votes would take the winner to the next round. there were actually quite a few students competing from school.. i was so excited for them! they were excited to see me (and their parents), and it was fun to interact with them outside of school. junko (elaina's mom) came later and sat with me.. i'm going to miss her so much when i leave! she really wants me to come back in two years.. we'll see!! :)
kiana (a 2nd grader) ended up getting third place and elaina got first place!! she won a case of pepsi, a case of noodles, a tub of popcorn, and a bag of corn sticks.. that's quite the prize!

elaina with the winners and judges after their hip hop battle, random people not in dance crews got to battle off.. very entertaining! they did street dancing.. break dancing, popping, locking, etc. i could watch it all night.. and we almost did haha. we ended the night eating at wendy's.. me, junko, kiana's mom, kiana, and elaina. and of course all the cute little girls from elaina's dance crew who want to talk to an american girl haha. i got home at 8:30pm (i went there at 1!!).. it was a loooong day and i was exhausted. BUT so worth it!!! i'm going to miss all these people so much!!!