Random, or, Cold Dokuros

When I got into bed last night it was 51.8 degrees Fahrenheit. I could see my breath in front of my face with every exhalation. When I woke up this morning I checked the thermometer only to find that it was 49 degrees Fahrenheit!! What the heck?! This morning I felt so crotchety, shuffling my way around the kitchen, sipping down my burning hot miso soup just to feel some warmth, it took my morning class with the kindergartners across town to warm up my heart.

And warm it up they did. We had a fun class that covered Dia de los muertos (extremely hard to convey to little kids without a simultaneous translation; I just aimed to make some kind of impression on them with pictures), Thanksgiving, different kinds of foods followed by FOOD BINGO!! (in which they colored in every picture of the food instead of just circling it, that made it a lot more fun), hiding and finding different food cards (The mushroom is under the chair...go!), and topped off with the wonderful tradition of drawing a turkey from your hand outline. Then we had snack time, during which I got to talk to the two teachers about Dia de los muertos. They were really curious about it and its similarities with the Japanese holidary of Obon. Then we all played hide and seek! That school is becoming one of my favorites. The class is only 5 kids so I get to know them a lot better and better every time I go over there. Oh yeah and I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to this one boy during recess. It was like...the highlight of my life. Or at least my life since one of my elementary schools loaned me the book to read in case my lesson ended early. I have such good memories of having this book read to me when I was a child, I just love it. So that was nice.

It's kind of warm right now and I hope it stays that way. I double-bubble wrapped my bedroom windows two nights ago (bubble to bubble!), which led to a slightly more tolerable, although not overly noticeable, temperature difference that night, but seemed ineffective last night. I am going to have to keep planning my next measure on the front against the cold. Two days ago it was sooo cold at work. I didn't even feel cold in any way I could call familiar. It completely overode my skin and was just...a sharp or numb feeling around my bones.

Yeah.

I used to love winter. I have a feeling I'm going to be in for quite an experience once I find snow on my front step. Oh well! I can only become tougher!

A group of the most "masculine" (i.e. loud and disruptive) 3rd year (9th grade) boys hanging out in front of school today asked me if I had a "love girl." The follow-up question was "Have you ever...love love girl?" They were laughing so I figured it was fine to laugh at them, too. Actually, they apparently meant had I ever had a girlfriend. After school is fun.

For the past couple of classes with the first years, the English teacher has just been going around checking every person's notebook to see if they've completed all the exercises for the past...oh, four months or so, so that we can move onto the next section. So, I've gotten to do the mandatory, "Good morning. How are you? What is the date today? What is the weather like? Is anyone absent? Let's say it together," then I had no job for the remainder of class. Which is actually the situation fairly often only this time the teacher wasn't even trying to give a lesson, so I had free reign to talk to the kids and get to know them a little bit. They are actually quite fun and likeable when they're not in a real class setting. So that was nice today.

The new Dokuros album is awesome.