Truly ShIT (Shakespeare In Training)

So as you know, I have been rehearsing English plays with my kids non-stop for about one week straight. Well, I will have you know that despite the complications, they did great. I seemed to be the only person to really screw up. I will begin by telling you that I had to be at work on a Sunday at 9:00 AM. I felt like if I had been run over by a truck for some reason. I am guessing it is because I did not sleep that well. When we arrived, I was welcomed by very nervous Japanese men informing me that 4 of the Kishira Elementary school students were deathly ill with the Influenza (this is what they call even the slightest of colds). One of these students just happened to be the student that was set to do the “self-introduction” a large feat by any means for Japanese speakers of their age. Luckily, one of the boys (who had learned lots of English from the time that he lived in Okinawa) was still coming so I coached him upon arrival. He did great. I am excited that he will be in Junior High next year. However, at the time of the performance, I got really nervous because they kept on telling me to speed it up and “do overaction”. So, I began to speak a bit quickly and do obscenely big gestures. This resulted in me going on with my part and speaking over two tiny speeches by two 3rd grade girls. I felt really bad and could not stop apologizing. As for “Let’s Go To Florida” performed by the Junior High students and myself, it was a success until I messed up a Japanese word during my monologue at the end. The students kept on telling me “Come on, don’t feel bad” – a line from their English textbooks – which made me think that the word that I said instead meant something bad. So, I panicked a bit but they reassured me that it wasn’t anything bad.

Some other highlights of the weekend include going to Kaz’s house for some dining and drinking on Friday evening. It was lots of fun and we stayed up till about 5 AM. Kaz actually missed the ping pong tournament she had to go to at one of her schools the following day. Who schedules Ping Pong tournaments to begin on a Saturday at 8:30 AM anyway? On Saturday, I recuperated for a bit before going to my eikawa’s welcome party for me. It was hosted by my Kacho’s brother. His Uchinoura house is amazing. He had it built 10 year ago and it is a full-fledged Western 2-story house with a huge 3rd floor attic. The dinner was really nice and I tried some sushi that I had not tried before like sea urchin and some salmon eggs. It was a bit difficult for me to do the salmon eggs because they are actually orange, see-through, little sacks of unborn fish that pop in your mouth as you eat it.