Off I go Well, tomorrow starts school again. I'm actually excited about this, believe it or not. I've been teaching during the last week or so, helping students prepare for speech contest next week, but it's been more one-on-one, and I still have had too much time to think. I'm ready for my schedule back, please (something to get my mind off of culture and adjustment, and other way-too-deep-for-everyday issues). And I'm just plain excited to see my students again. They're just great. Especially Hiroaki. I've told you about him before--recall the bug-eyed reaction to the Easter eggs? Yeah, that was him. Well, he and several other students are doing a non-judged presentation for speech contest next week. They're not ready at all, but that's beside the point. Their presentation is a big "game show" of American trivia (written by yours truly). One of the questions involves the song "Yankee Doodle," and since my head teacher was worried the audience wouldn't know quite what the heck was going on with the words, we decided to have one of the students act it out. Enter Hiroaki's role. Yep. He rides a pony (paper cut-out of a horse's head stuck on the back of a chair), and sticks a feather (which I will "create" tomorrow) in his hat. The hat is my favorite part. It's made out of a stiff cardstock-like material, and the "barrel" is only about, oh, 5 or so inches in diameter. The brim comes out about an inch from that. The best part of this paper hat is that it's about a foot tall. Does does this home-made creation fit on his Yankee Doodle head? By no means. But that doesn't stop him from wearing it everywhere he goes. And sticking the paper horse in, ears up, to the front of it, so it looks like he's actually the "pony" rather than the fellow riding the said animal. I really can't do the whole scene justice. I'll have to just get pictures. Next week. Well then. On that note, goodnight world. May visions of wonderful paper-pony-riding junior high students glitter your dreams with delight.