Some favorite student quotes recorded in my school journal...

On an English assignment, when asked to write something he's good at, Hiroki (who I absolutely love!) (9th grade), wrote, "I'm a strong gambler."

"As old as!!" shouted Yuusuke (9th grade graduate) as he left jr. high for the last time, proud to spout out the English he remembered.

"Peenatto!? いいなあぁぁ!" exclaimed Kyoutarou (7th grade) when he found half of an old peanut (or potentially an almond) under Ishida San's desk while we were doing end-of-the-year deep cleaning at school. These kids are always hungry! Because.....during the 5 hours between their breakfast and lunch, most of them have morning sports practice for an hour...and sometimes P.E. for another hour...and they're not allowed to eat anything. Anything! Not an apple, not an granola bar, not a peanut. Hence, Kyoutarou's thrilled response and obvious envy of whichever teacher it was who at one time or another during the school year consumed peanuts as a snack.

"Well, がんばって下さい!!" (Keep trying!!) Kensuke (8th grade) emphatically encouraged me when I replied with a definitive and shocked, "No!", to his question about whether I had gone to a love hotel with Yamazaki Sensei.

Ibuki (my 2nd grade sweetheart) whispered in his serious, husky tone:
マイア先生、気をつけてね。　(Mya Sensei, be careful, okay?)
Me: 何を気をつけて？ (What should I be careful of?)
Ibuki: ぶたインフルエンザ。 (Swine flu.)

On the English midterm, when asked to respond to the announcement that their class will get a new girl from Australia--
Nao (9th grade): "Let's go look (at) her."
Yuuhei (9th grade): "Oh! That's right. I like woman."

shingata influenza

I've got it. Shingata Influenza. H1N1. Type A. The pig flu. I can't believe it!

It's probably because I couldn't read the Japanese on the approximately 113 pages-- to date-- of cautionary notices, hand washing procedures, gargling instructions, and temperature-taking schedules that have been put on my desk at school. These have come from my principal, my school nurse, my supervisor, the board of education in my city, the prefectural board of education, the national board of education, local and national health agencies. Repeat again and again and again. I really wish I had realized at the beginning that this was gonna turn into national mayhem, then I would have saved and bound these documents as evidence. Even though American, Australian, and Canadian summer home stay programs for jr. high school students were canceled city (nation??) wide...even though 9th graders' trips to Kyoto (where there were three (THREE!) confirmed cases of the flu) were postponed-- some just 12 hours before departure, after the luggage had already been sent...despite everyone gargling more than usual (well maybe that's just me...everyone else already seems to gargle on a regular basis)...even though there's antibacterial gel in every classroom and at the entrance of every grocery store now...despite the 5-day-long quarantines of Assistant Language Teachers who've gone home to Canada and Singapore (which at the time didn't even have a single case of Swine Flu!), LOTS of people are still getting sick. Honestly, I think the hundreds of thousands of yen that have been spent creating, printing, copying, and distributing all those Shingata Influenza notices could have been spent much more effectively. There's still no decent soap in the school bathrooms. I mean, it's great that antibacterial gel is now being supplied, but why can't we just get some soap? It's so backwards. That stuff is supposed to be used as the "next best thing" when soap and water are not available. The manufacturers who make that 60% alcohol hand sanitizer have just hit the jackpot in Japan. Move over hanging-nets-of-slimy-soap-bars! You've got competition! Although, it would be most advantageous to create a partnership, because the antibacterial gel is probably needed most immediately after touching the soap nets.

I felt very loved today when my assistant principal took the initiative to find a doctor near my apartment for me and then had the school nurse make me an appointment and then sent a teacher to my house to pick me up and take me to the appointment. :) It was so nice to feel cared-for. Apparently she also told the teacher who came to get me, "Mya is dying." Whaaaat?! Unbelievable!