how to annoy a japanese child

this month, i plan on teaching my elementary school students directions, and at the end of class, i'm having them play "pin the tail on the horse" (much because they know how to say "horse" and not "donkey"). anyway, before they come to class, i draw 2 horses on the board (one for each class in the grade), without tails, and for the game, i blindfold a kid, and have their classmates give him/her directions as to where and when to pin the tail.

however, little did i know that with japanese children's upbringings, they can't stand imperfection. between only 3 classes, i must have had at least 30 or 40 kids come up to me or yell at me from across the room that my horses were missing tails. my response: "you'll find out later" or "they're NOT missing tails", and proceed to hold up the beautiful tail i drew, laminated, and added magnets to.

so bottom line, if you want to annoy a japanese child, draw a picture of an animal that needs a tail, DON'T draw the tail, and force them to stare at it for 30 minutes before you start the game. muahahahah! ;D

(believe it or not, i dont torture japanese children on a regular basis...)

narcoleptic

after 14 elementary school classes in only 3 day, 2 of which were at my biggest school, i am officially a broken person. friday evening, my friends and i went to the beer garden for some ram's meat (which was awesome as always), but after completely stuffing myself, i have become completely narcoleptic. between all those classes, very little sleep this past week, the cough that refuses to go away, and a ton of recently acquired mosquito bites (6 on friday night alone, 3 of which are on my ankle and all within 1 cm of one another), i've found myself unable to stay awake this weekend.

nothing really exciting has happened, except for finally deciding to entering the sea-kayak marathon in a few weeks. i also realized only last night that it's july now, which means very very soon, i'll finally be going home. it's weird to think that i've been away from home for so long. between my siblings and i, i feel like i'm the most attached to home, and yet i've spent the most time away. funny how things like that turn out.

for all the sleep i've done this weekend, i'm still incredibly drowsy. *sigh*. and can i just say, i *hate* mosquitos (fighting back the urge to scratch).

that's all for now. i'll write more when i'm not so, you know, narcoleptic.