Snapshots

(Pictures later.)
The days have been going by so fast, I'm starting to forget the order of when things happened.  So here's some little literary "snapshots" of sorts of different memorable things that happened to me this week.

Yumie and I watched three of the younger children (all two to three years old) during a longer staff meeting, as the younger kids didn't have preschool that day.  We started out inside and I finally showed the kids the bubbles I brought from the States.  Then they ate tons of snacks and asked my poor work partner to refill their cup of tea like five times.  Afterwards we went outside in the heat and played.  The most hilarious moment was when one of the boy's at my house started screaming and extending his hand toward us.  He sounded like he was going to die, so Yumie and I looked over and all it was was just a little ant on his hand, which Yumie promptly whacked off his hand.  This is hilarious (and cute) because most Japanese kids love insects.  Another boy in my house catches grasshoppers every day, and another girl in the house tries to eat beetles.  The same little one that was screaming about the ant also spent one morning before the kindergarten bus came alternating between crying and being okay.  He had fallen at first, and I was surprised that he started crying because he never cries when he falls.  Then he was okay when he was washing his hands, but he saw some dirt on the scratch (I think?) and started crying again.  At the same time the little girl in the same house fell and I was like "please don't cry" and she didn't.  My little boy is so adorable sad and cute.

I finally got a Japanese cell phone!  It really cost me an arm and leg, but I hope it works out.  If you'd like my mobile e-mail please let me know.

When one of my house moms and I were washing the dishes, we heard a loud crash.  We waited for crying, thinking maybe it was a child that had fallen or something, but nothing happened.  A few minutes later a kid from another house comes in and asks if the head mom is there, but then talks to the house mom that's there.  Apparently he had kicked a soccer ball through one of the windows and shattered it.  Note, this is a soccer ball and not a baseball, and something like that would require a lot more force to break a window since it's softer and not as compact.  I sneaked a look at the window and there was this comical soccer ball-sized hole.  It's really unfortunate though.  One of the boys in the house asked during dinner if they were going to be able to fix the window.  They're going to be able to, but they said it's just bad timing.  It makes me wonder what the exact budget at the home is.  I'm glad no one got hurt though, as the window that got broken is right next to where the little kids and other people go use the bathroom and that could have been bad.

Another day I was washing dishes with one of the girls and she broke into Backstreet Boys.  We sang for a while and it was great.  The same girl also listens to some English worship songs, and is one of the ones that tries to use English the most with me, with hilarious effects.

My work partner and I also started playing Ragnarok in our free time.  This could be a bad thing...

The kids here also have a handbell club!  It's run by one of the workers who composes his own music, and is adorable because sometimes at night he'll practice worship songs with his fiance in one of the rooms in the office.  (Which one of the workers told me about with amusement and "How cute!"s from me.)  The little kids have their session first and work with inexpensive music bells.  One of the boys is super adorable and kept on looking at me and Yumie while practicing, all with a big grin on his face.  Afterwards, the older kids came.  They're amazing.  I forget how nice doing music in a group is.  It also really makes you be super careful of your timing, something that is super lax with the flowy contemporary and New Age pieces I normally play.  The teacher in my house was super nice and let us play some of the bells that he's normally assigned too, and it's hard to get that whole vibrato thing down.  Yumie mentioned a handbell club being on this popular t.v. show, but couldn't remember the title.  I actually saw the episode of New Girl she was talking about!  I told her we should start a handbell club in Davis but I don't know if that's going to work out...

Also, there's this children's book all about Obama in the large hall.  Too funny.