COLD THAN A MUG

Though fall got off to a slow start this year, it's been getting rather nippy here recently.
I'm at junior high this week, and it's cold as a penguin's buttcheek in this piece. This is because we have no heat. Yes, Japanese schools have NO HEAT! Why? I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with conserving energy or something. But this school is cold.

It's COLD. I mean, it's like I can see my breath in the hallways-type cold. No joke. Today, I was literally blowing warm air in my hands and rubbing them together during class. The kids were all buttoned up in their school sweaters, pulling their sleeves over their hands. Ridiculous. And it's not even really winter yet. I guess I'll be teaching class in a skullie come February. I think these kids are getting a raw deal. They have to sit in the freezing classrooms all day. They even have to have P.E. class outside in their skimpy little gym shorts and t-shirts, because they're currently re-building our school gym. I feel sorry for the girls, especially, cuz they have to wear skirts with no leggings everyday as part of their school uniforms. Brrrrrr. Poor thangs.

Yes sir, no heat...

..Hold up..actually, come to think of it, there is ONE room with heat--the staffroom (but of course!).
That's right, let those poor kids freeze their tushes off while us teachers lamp in a heated room.
Hmm,..I guess this no heat thing goes back to the whole hierarchy of Japanese culture-type thing, like everyone has to suffer through unnecessary madness like this when they're kids. I guess its supposed to toughen the kids up (snicker* yeah right). All I know is, I'm glad to be on the teacher's side of this no heat deal!

So, today I had a class with the 1st year students (7th graders). We usually play a game of Hangman at the end of class and today was no different. The theme was "Fruits" and I decided to pick "tomato," just to see if the kids would be thrown off. And they were.

As simple a word as "tomato" is, they just couldn't get it, and the Hangman died. When I revealed the word afterward, everyone was surprised, so I had to explain that a tomato is a fruit, as it has seeds in it. I asked the homeroom teacher to confirm this, and he said he didn't know because he wasn't a science teacher. Fair enough. So then the kids asked me if a pumpkin was a fruit. I said "yes." They asked me if a bell pepper was a fruit, and I said the same.

So, then why did the homeroom teacher come out the side of his mouth in Japanese and say to the kids, "In America, a tomato is a fruit, but in Japan it's a vegetable." He must've thought I couldn't understand, but I caught exactly what he said, and responded back in Japanese so the whole class could hear, "Not only in America. Anywhere." He just laughed it off.

See, stuff like that irks me. Don't try to play me like I'm talking out of my butt, when you JUST SAID you weren't a science teacher. Pick up a botany book and educate yourself, homie. The thing that killed me though was how he tried to make a nationality/cultural issue out of a simple scientific fact that he didn't know--that's lame, and Japanese people tend to do that when there's any kind of misunderstanding between them and foreigners.

On another note, I just finished reading my roommate's copy of Michael Moore's new book Dude, Where's My Country? All I have to say about this book is that every American needs to read it before next year's elections. I don't see how any person with morals and a conscience can read the facts presented and NOT vote against Bush. It's a simple decision. Bush and Co. are the filthiest of the filthy, and I knew that before I read the book. The book just reveals more in-depth facts about how he's actually in allegiance with the so-called terrorists. You should pick this book up sometime soon, and get "Stupid White Men" too if you haven't already read it. PEACE.