Just be Nice to Me

I am sick.

With what you ask?

Everything.

Mostly that nasty winter feeling of near death.

I have been coming home this week and getting right under that kotatsu. Sometimes the kotatsu can be a problem. I cannot leave it. I am hungry or I kind of have to pee ... I just do not want to get out from under that kotatsu. Life is cold and hard when you have to leave the kotatsu.

While under the kotatsu I drift in and out of consciousness, Japanese TV in the background and an occasional internet interaction via one of my favorite networking devicies.

The other day I rolled over on my glasses (while enjoying the lack of consciouness under the kotatsu). After I bent them back into shape the right side is all wobbly.

So I sit at work and wobble my glasses back and forth all day.

Between all these extreme hardships I am faced with here in Japan I am pulling it together to get genki for the 45 minutes I have to teach a class.

And for some unknown reason the classes I have taught the past two days have been off the chain.

Wednesday morning I had no real lesson plan but I did have a bag of stuff.
I combined blindfolds, construction paper and the students working knowledge of monsters to create a successful lesson for my typically least successful class.

Today I am dreading the dinner I will have with a bunch of my adult students. It means I will have limited kotatsu time. And they spent last week making speical arrangements so I could get drunk and not have to drive home.

When Japanese people get drunk they do not mess around. It is similar to a bunch of 8th graders getting a case of Milwaukee's Best. No holds. No thinking. Just drinking.

So this morning I pull it together to teach two classes. After the second class the 3rd grade teacher comes up to me and says, "Caity ... when you ... return to ... home country ... I think maybe you should ... be ... TEACHER."

I blushed, said thank you, and felt real good.

Everyone deserves people to be nice to them. But I am really into it this week.
Send me your address, we can make Valentines Day cards or other gestures of overseas love.

Either way, just be real nice to me until it stops raining and my next vacation is a reality ... not a daydream.