God For An Hour

This morning was CRAZY!!! Maya, Ayako, and I showed up at the school around 11am and so help me, you would have thought that it was 1960 and the Beatles had just walked out on stage. The kids went nuts. I walked into the building and all action stopped dead. It went from kids cheerfully going about their day to, "Holy crap, it's a white guy. Here. Now." After a second of awe, the "Hellos" started in; have you ever had a roomful of kids all greet you in unison, it is an ego trip.

After the initial barrage of salutations, we walked upstairs to the classroom that I would be in and I met my class of kids for the first time. Immediately, kids began to chatter and squirrel about in amazement that they were being visited by a big white guy with huge feet. My feet were a big attraction and there was much talk of my shoe size. It was so funny and cute, I would be teaching class and kids from other classes were wandering in to get their look at the elusive Americanus Caucasionous and then say "Hello."

After the classroom portion of the day, we moved downstairs to play a game. This was somewhat difficult and I feared for my safety and that of the children. Having five kids want to hold your hand as you are walking down stairs is kind of creepy, especially when others are orbiting like small moons around you as you make your way down the wooden steps. After game time and ABC time, there was a brief Q&A session in which the kids got to ask me pressing and controversial questions such as, "What is your favorite type of sushi," and "What is your favorite animal?" Some of the kids raised their hands to ask me questions, only to come forward and just stare at me just like the kids on the "Christmas Story" staring at Santa Claus. They would just come up and have these big goofy grins on their face and after a minute or two Maya would ask them if they wanted to ask me about something and they would just nod at her suggestion, never breaking their stares. The best question was "What are you most afraid of," to which I replied, spiders. Not a fan of spiders.

After class, I was given tea by the head of the school and then she took me to the classroom for kids between one and three years old. They were so friggin' cute! It was lunch time so they were all eating but I still got plenty of stares. After being shown around it was time to go and after being said "goodbye" to about 500 times we left. It was a blast. I may see if the can find me an outfit and then I would be Santa for the school this year. Just seeing their response to me in jeans and a T-Shirt, I can't imagine what they would do in an actual Santa sized Santa showed up speaking English and everything. It may be fun. Anywho, that was my day and I have met my ego boost quota for the year.