So, last week was a counseling week, which means just one thing: (dun, duh duh dah duh ddaaaahhhh!) special lessons. I actually got to teach a few this time, and they actually went really well. So, my sonnet lesson and my dinosaur lesson were flops (because nothing is apparently more terrifying than a gigantic biped quoting Shakespeare at you...no wonder most actors are so short), but my Swing, Science, and [insert insanely popular animated movie name here] lessons went really well. For the first one, it was just two of us, so the student got a lot of experience. Thankfully, she was a follow--I'm horrendous at following--so it all went well. The science lesson I did twice. The first time was fantastic, but I'm not too sure how much of it they understood. The second time was decidedly less messy, and I got a few oohs and ahhs. And then the [movie] lesson was with two absolutely adorable pre-schoolers. We sang, we danced, we colored...uh, it was amazing. I might have gotten a little carried away (particularly when I was dancing in the hall while a co-worker was teaching the lesson later on) but it was so much fun.
In terms of the science lesson, it was all about using water to find some magic and mystery in this world. The first experiment was simple: I drew an arrow on the board and, with the magic of a glass of water, I made it appear to change direction (this one got the second group especially excited). Just a simple refraction exercise. The second experiment is one that many people have done a gazillion times: you start with a glass filled to the brim with water. You then add a marble (or a bead), and then another, and another...until the glass overflows. But wait, before it overflows, the water rises above the edge of the glass like a ginormous bubble. How does this work? Surface tension. Water is a really hydrophilic substance (duh). In simple terms, that means that the water molecules really like to hug each other really hard. Dihydrogen-monoxide is just fantastic that way.
The third experiment also has a surprisingly simple setup: fill a pot with water, and then grab two oranges. Peel one. Then ask your friends the following question: which one will float? Will the peeled one float, or the unpeeled one? Most people will point to the peeled orange (that's what both of my classes did) on the belief that because it weighs less it will float. When you put the oranges in the water, the peeled one sinks like a rock. Why? Because the white part of the peel traps in air (so, you must be very careful to peel off as much of the white stuff as possible) making it buoyant beyond all belief. Everyone oohs and ahhs that they were wrong, and then we move on. By the by, I discovered that frozen oranges of all kind float.
The fourth experiment was what we had all been waiting for: making slime. I have done this before, and it can get messy as all get out if one is not careful. The instructions are careful: to a glass of water, add food coloring, cornstarch (or liquid starch detergent), and a solution of water and borax. I eyeballed everything, so no mixes turned out the same way. In the perfect world, it's a more solid version of ooblek. In a less perfect world, it's either extremely watery or sticky like snot. Anyway, it was a huge success on all accounts and a lot of fun.
This weekend was also a ton of fun. Not only has it been dry for a few days--allowing me to check on the development of spider webs (they prefer a particular kind if bush in shady areas near trees, but will take other locations if need be)--but things are getting a bit social again. So, Sunday started out with going to the Japanese lesson per usual. Honestly, I have no idea what any of the volunteers think of me. I know so few words that I don't understand everything, and when I do understand I have a bad tendency to respond in JaSpanese, but when I can utter a purely Japanese sentence, it tends to be grammatically...impressive for my level. I'm understanding the difference between 'wa' and 'ga' and getting some of the other particles as well (the Japanese 'de' is very close to the Spanish 'de' y 'en', so that's an easy change). I honestly just need to practice more...and learn more vocab...and study more. My Japanese really isn't so great, and I still don't understand too much, but I have enough of a base that I should be able to really build on it.
After the lesson, my co-workers [sic] and I went out to lunch. It was fun, we had a great chat. It's so hard to get to know someone when you only work with them, but when you see what they are like outside of that environment it is amazing just what you can pick up. Overall, I would rate the lunch as spectacular. After lunch we went to a bookstore, where I had a minor freakout because of their very large English section. So, many books by so many authors that I really love. Gah, I don't have space for any more books over here. :(
Regrettably, I had to depart early to rush back home because I had dinner plans last night. I got to join a student and her husband for a meal out, and it was spectacularly fun. To be honest, it was definitely one of the highlights of the past few months, and I will cherish it forever.
Today was my cleaning/ shopping/ I am alone in the universe day. I did run into a student outside of my apartment and had a nice little chat with him. When I was a student, I hated running into my teachers outside of class (I have since gotten much better about meeting OES people outside of school), but now that I am a teacher I actually kind of enjoy it. It's nice to see them when there's no real expectation to how we should interact. It's amazing how different people on when they wear different masks. Ah, if only we lived within a world where we didn't need them, but such is our fate within this world.
It's rather odd. I have been over here for nine months now, and all of those things that once seemed so strange to me are just sort of...background now. It's still different than what I grew up with, and it still registers as different from what I have lived since my childhood, but it's all getting sort of...normal now. I know that there will always be things that surprise me, but that's true everywhere. I mean, there are always surprising things to see and learn...and so many things to wonder about. I mean, humans like to go around acting the most important--we study history, for goodness sake--and yet none of it really matters. Flowers grow and open without a care of what we are doing, the heart of a bird or pigeon or rat could care less if we get promoted or not, the moon still revolves around the earth, etc. All of these big things that can seem scary or catastrophic--and many really can be catastrophic to humanity--are tiny on a global scale and completely inconsequential on a universal scale. And yet, even though this idea of our complete and total inconsequential existence is fairly self evident, we still find ways to raise ourselves up, to better ourselves, to make ourselves important. That's amazing, and yet people don't even seem to ever...think about that. Isn't it just wonderful that humans can wonder? It truly is a spectacular faculty that we have, and only a fool would think that all the possible wonderings to wonder have been wondered.
Anyway, this has been another adventure in the austentatious. If you liked it, tell your friends; if you hated it, tell your enemies; and if you didn't care either way, then tell everyone. And now, peace out!
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