Today marks my last day of work for the year 2004. Feels good. I enjoyed an easy-breezy week at Elementary school and had a good time. Today I had a special class with one of the first grade classes. Class 1-2 held a little Christmas party, and when I arrived they adroened me with a handmade paper necklace and crown, and started calling me king. No, seriously. I got a stack full of handmade Xmas cards with thank-you messages and pictures attached. Without trying to be mushy about things, I'd have to say they were in fact adorable.
After that, we took a few group pictures and then we headed off to the freezing-cold school gym to play an earnest match of Dodgeball. Dodgeball is a serious sport in Japan, and I respect that. I was drafted to the white team, and was elected to play the tip-off to my slight height advantage over the 5-6 year-old field. Surprisingly, I did meet their expectations and managed to tip the super-malleable turqoise dodgeball to my teammates. The game ensued, in which I got popped and sent to the supporting sidelines twice, but was able to redeem my draft value by taking out countless opposing players, including Ms. Yoshida, the young homeroom teacher who played for the red team. In the vein of a Terrell Owens, and to the dismay of the whites at least, I tauntingly moonwalked across the mid-court line unscathed.
We won.
