My Class

This is my 2nd grade class, it's very loud compared to american classrooms, i think. But they are all really smart, they all have their times tables memorized and can recite them quicker than I can(but thats not very hard.. haha). Everybody calls eachother by their first name and then "san." San means Mr. or Ms., I think. They call me "Sara-san," or "Sara-sensei," which means Sara-teacher. My favorite part of the day is when we all get in a big circle and clap and sing and jump around, even though I can't understand what we are singing about. I don't remember the name of these 2 girls, but they are very sweet and smile at me a lot.

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This is Koshi, the one that likes soccer and walks with me to school. I think he lieves on the 5th floor of our apartment, or "Mansion," as they call it.

This is Kendo, he is the fastest with multiplication in the class, and he is very smart. He sits next to me and I always watch him as he does experiments with glue in the drawer of his desk, where he pour glue in a pile with other objects, and then when it's dry he takes it off and examines it. He reminds me of my cousin, Xander.

This is Kaho, one os the girls that i play with a lot. I think she's trying to avoid the camera in this picture. There is a main group of girls in my class who I play with, and they teach me words everday, like "ostei," which means push, which I learned when we were playing on the swings. Often they will just point at things and say what they are called, and I've learned a lot by that too.





Here is Kaho and Kae, they show me around a lot and teach me. Kae is really cute and shy.

This is Kae and Akiko. Akiko just started to play with me and show me around more, she is really cute.

Every second grade class in elementary school does a print, and we made monsters, or "Oni." We made the different body parts and then put them together, using bubble wrap and yarn to add texture. It was really fun, and the kids were really creative.


Here is Kae again, she loves getting her picture taken.



I don't know the name of this girl, but my teacher told me proudly that she has read the most books in the 2nd grade.

Here is one of the kids showing me their Oni.


My teacher is in this picture, to the left helping the kids with their Onis, but you can't really see her face. She is so nice, she told me that seven years ago, she went to the U.S. for 2 weeks and her host family was so nice and helpful, and so she wanted the same for me. She has really good English, and she is excited that I'm here so she can practice some more. She's a great teacher, and you can really tell how much she loves the kids. A couple times there has been an altercation between 2 students and my teacher will take them aside and help them work it out. You can see my Oni in this picture too, up on the chalkboard.


Here is Kaho showing me her monter.








I can't remember the name of this girl, but she always says hi to me and is really nice. She said she is from Brazil, and Ayako told me that many people in Gifu are from Brazil.

Here are a bunch of kids from the other second grade class, they're getting ready for lunch. For lunch at the elementary school food is left outside our room, and the kids put on masks and aprons and serve it to the class. We all wait for everyone to be seated, then we say "Itadakimas" and we dig in. I think it's a prayer, and we do it at Aya's house as well.



This was the lunch that day, and I actually really like the lunches I've eaten there so far. The milk was weird for me at first, because it's very strong compared to american milk. But I've noticed that nobody leaves anything on their plate, they finish everything, unlike my elementary school, where most of the food was thrown away because it was less than delicious.





Here is my class getting ready to be dismissed. I don't know why, but on Tuesdays we have class only until 2:20, while every other day it goes until 3:00. And every day has a different schedule of what classes there are.

Here are me and the girls I walk with going home.


The girl on the left is Megumi, she's not in my class but I walk home with here everyday, and she has pretty good english and loves to practice on me. Kae also will ask me the same questions every day when we walk home, because they're the only ones she knows in english. haha, it's so cute. Everday she discovers that my favorite fruit is strawberries, and I learn that her favorite color is yellow. :)

I think this is a shrine, but we walk past it every morning.

This dog, or "i-nu," is always tied up next to the road when we walk home, and I always pet it because it's so excited to see us.

This is Megumi, she asked me to take a picture of her in front of her house. :)