The Results

blog,
we did not win the speech contest. we are not going to tokyo. we did get "a very good result" which means a big certificate and a big box with a big trophy in it, which mayuko deserved, and now we do not have to practice anymore. this is kind of ok because the tokyo contest is 3 days long. we went out to eat with mayuko's family at what i feel like is the japanese equivalent of denny's without actually being denny's, because they have denny's here, it just wasn't called that and had japanese food. we all had variations on a little piece of hamburger meat which they call "hambaagoo" - mayuko and her dad got the one filled with cheese. i really don't want to get into the content of the speeches, but mayuko had the best pronounciation out of just about everyone!
how do you celebrate having the best banana of your entire life? i think i just had this banana. it was the perfect ripeness, perfect number of honey spots, best firmness, no rotty parts at all.
but to balance out this good thing, a bad thing has happened. do you know the rubber inside slippers i have been bringing around from school to school; well the right one has apparently shrunken substantially in my car. a yahoo! answers search provides the idea that rubber shrinks when COOLED, which would mean that it got very cold last night in my car and that wearing it on my warm foot should help it to EXAPND again, but it is very tight and uncomfortable right now.
i got invited to play badminton at school here tonight at 8 with some teachers from various schools. i do not have my own racket, and i dont think i have played badminton in several years, but it can't be too difficult to hit a little "shuttlecock" over the net with one of those things.
anyway, i am going to the elementary school up in the mountains in the afternoon today, and i heard that rachel, the company provided teaching assistant/lesson planner is also going to be there, so i probably won't have to do much work myself, which is ok. although i was told to make a powerpoint (i have the word "ski" written next to this) and "bring cards of acitvities" of which i have none. let's hope rachel has good ideas.
gotta help teach a class or two before lunch. at this point teaching means slowly and clearly reading something and then having it repeated back to me upwards of five times in a row, with the hope that the kids either memorize it or get an idea for how it sounds.
there are a few photos on my camera that didn't get uploaded for some reason. they happen to be the best ones that i took. look for them some time in the near future, between now and when i come back to america.