Old entries again, sorry they take so long to type out. Please pay attention to the dates I put in there :)
11/2/09 Brandon asked me to be his girlfriend 6 years ago!!! It's sure been nice having a best friend always by my side since then. Every day I notice things that we just happen to agree on, that I know not everyone would. (For instance, we both like to be at work 20 minutes early, and when we're trying to save money, it's a question of whether or not the buy that 100¥ candy).
We've been spending WAY to much time watching TV shows, however there was a month where we had nothing to watch. We watch How I met your mother, Big Bang Theory, Castle, Heroes, Peach girl and Marmalade boy. The last two are manga series I loved but never saw the anime they made from it. Ah Peach Girl - the show is about sociopaths. It's a little too familiar, but that's probably what makes it fun.
So, last Friday, at school, I showed up for the second to last class of the day, and the kids all giggled. Schedule changes happen a lot, so this is common. (No one tells me...). Ms. M, the teacher, said "Ah, Katie. Sorry, no class today." She nudged one of the boys forward, trying to get him to explain. He said "we are sightseeing! Eh? No...." He couldn't remember the word. "sightseeing?" I asked, thinking maybe it was a field trip. "Sing! Sing! Watch sing!" He remembered the word. I told him "okay! I understand!" So apparently more singing was going to happen. Ms. M clarified, "We watch opera in the gym. Please go!" Hmmmm....singing, musical, opera? I don't know, but I planned to go to the gym. I went back to my desk in the teachers room. The math teacher asked "Ah, Katie, will you watch opera?" "Yes!" "Maybe in 15 minutes, start. We will go together?" She is so sweet. Her English is quite good. She said she went to an eikaiwa (English conversation school) when she was younger.
So, we got to the gym, and everyone was sitting on the floor. (This time I wore my gym shoes.) It was mostly just students & teachers, but a few family members had come to watch. With the flu going around, one of the teachers handed me a mask to wear.
The match teacher asked "Have you been to opera?" Thinking about church musicals and school plays, I responded, "Yes, but, small opera." She said "Ah, I saw...Lion...King of Lion! Very big!" So apparently Lion King falls under the translation of opera...I still wasn't sure what we were about to watch though. Maybe a school play?
When we sat down, someone gave a speech, talking about "warm applause" and "cold applause," and had the audience practice. (Most of what I understood was in Japanese, although occasionally the match teacher would translate for me.)
The Performers walked in. In beautiful, elaborate evening wear - they looked very European, but they were Japanese. They really were opera singers! The Tochigi Italian Opera troupe, or however that's translated. It was a 2 hour show - the first hour they taught the kids "Aruto" (alto), "basu" (Bass), etc, as each person sang a piece and showed off their vocal range.
During 10 minute intermission, some ostudents noticed me sitting next to the match teacher, and asked her if she spoke English. I said "Jouzu jouzu" gesturing towards her. ("skilled, skilled") They asked her "Ah, sensei! Shaberu! Shaberu!" (Speak! Speak!) So we continued our conversation, as they marveled at the fact that their math teacher can speak English.
The second half of the opera was a performance of an actual opera - I can understand Japanese better than french or Italian, so I got some of it. Kudos to Jacqui for figuring out the name of it so quickly ("The magic flute") from the clues that "it's by Mozart, it started with a snake/dragon attacking a guy, and had either a prince and princess or god and goddess. Wasn't sure which."
It was very cute, with talented singing. The woman narrating was dressed as Mozart, wig and all. The other costumes were also quite elaborate. I fell very very lucky to be able to experiences things like this while I am here. The school has been nothing but wonderful to me.
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