Saturday, December 09, 2006

Let The Christmas Shopping Commence

Tomorrow is my only day off until next Saturday so I think I am going to have to do my Christmas shopping. I really do not want to leave my house tomorrow because after this week and knowing what this next week is going to be like, I just want to be alone in the peace and quiet of my apartment. But with Christmas looming over me, I think I am going to make a trip into either Osaka or Kyoto tomorrow and see if I can't finish my Yuletide shopping. This could be the first time in a while that I don't want to go to either of those places. Oh well, I will end up having a good time and it will probably go pretty quickly.

Tonight yielded a kind of funny moment. I have this one kid in my class that is weird. When I say weird, I mean too smart for his own good and he can't stop moving and yapping all the time. I like the fact that he is eager to learn but this kid eats at me, especially when he is in the fifth class of kids for the day. Anywho, I am pretty much done with teaching for the day and we have about half an hour left so I figured I would take advantage of Christmas and put them all to work making Christmas cards. Hallmark should take note of this, instead of giving all of the work to poor machines to do, they should just buy some construction paper and crayons and come to Japan. All of my kids love to color and would do so the whole hour if I let them, I know this because I have let them. Anywho, my little card makers are busily drawing and coloring and Mr. Smartypants starts singing "White Christmas". I have never heard other kids sing that song before and after listening to him for a couple of seconds, I realize that he isn't singing Japanese lyrics, but English ones. He had no clue what any of the words meant and was just kind of letting them run together like an American would do if he was sloshed at a Christmas party. So I decided it was his time to learn the true meaning of Christmas. Or at least a subtext of one of the true meanings of Christmas.

I went to my backpack and grabbed my iPod and radio transmitter and went to work getting the FM dialled in on the stereo and hooking everything up. Once the setup was complete, I turned on my iPod and went into my "Frank Sinatra and Other Badasses" playlist (yes, that is the real name of the playlist) and found Dean Martin's rendition of "White Christmas". The second the kid heard the tune he lit up and started saying, "White Christmas" over and over. It was kind of touching to know that the Rat Pack can still charm people of all ages and nationalities. After the song was over, I selected Dean Martin doing "Jingle Bells" and all of the kids were able to figure out what song it was, though I am not sure they were all Dean Martin fans. Oh well, it was good to know that I was able to give the gift that keeps on giving to so many kids, not a subscription to the Jelly of the Month club but the next best thing, the Rat Pack.

When I came home and jumped online, I found a really funny story that had me laughing outloud. This guy is a man after my own heart.

1 Comments:

At 11:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You should teach that kid Fairytale of New York by the Pogues. Now THAT'S a Christmas song!

 

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