Friday, March 18, 2005

The waiting game



And only the equivalent of a football match to go before the restaurant opens. When it does, this vicious boredom will be broken, temporarily. Actually I just had a class with one of the elders, and while we were walking back to the staff room she asked me how I thought the lesson material went down with the kids. I tried to be Japanese and said the following:

"Well, you know, you've got a lot of food in the world, and it's like, there's this big variety to choose from, yeah, and what we just did in that class room, right, if you think of it as a kind of food, right, was very English."

"Oh yes, English class is ok?"

"It was ok, but I think the kids wanted Chinese food instead"

"For lunch?"

She got the analogy in the end though, and she greatly appreciated my whit, I might add. I explained that in England we often fall asleep while eating our meals because they are so boring. And she took me seriously, of course, so I told her I was just joking. But I was honest with her, and told her that she should add some more spice to the material, while at the same time I thought I was thoroughly Japanese in what I said.

When the teacher starts falling asleep during class you know the lesson plan needs reviewing.

The above photo of Iwaki yama is one of my favourites, chosen for it's magnificent representation of our spangly new school restaurant in the foreground. Two of my favourite local landmarks.



Marc going all out for Paddy's day yesterday.

There is something I'd like to know: are Irish people offended by the word Paddy? Angela, if you read this please let me know. While we're on the subject, does it piss the Scottish off if you call them skirt-wearing baboons? I'm so out of touch with all this fangle PC language.