pumpkins

so since next week is halloween, my english teachers want me to have a special halloween themed class. they asked me to dress up in a costume (i found a witches hat in my apt), play some games with them, and tell them the 'story' of halloween. that is all easy enough. but then someone threw out the idea of a jack o lantern. i would love to make one for the kids i said, but have no idea where to find an orange pumpkin. (the pumpkins that they have here are small and green). but i would try to look for one.

i was then told that they have had them at school before. "about three years ago we had one!" and then they broke out a ton of pictures of them.

news spread like a wild fire among all of the teachers that i was looking for an orange pumpkin. the principle came up and told me good luck on several occasions that day (tuesday). then a few teachers tried to do research online, thinking maybe we could order one online. no luck. i soon realized that i was probably on a useless hunt for an orange pumpkin. but i wasn't giving up!

i got a list of all of the farmers market type places in my area and even an agricultural school that has a little stand. checked out these over the past few days. but still no luck. and when i would ask the shop owners where i might be able to find one, i was looked at like i was a crazy person with three heads.

so last night i conceded and bought a small plastic pumpkin i had seen a few days prior. :(

but then this morning i walk into school, and sitting on my desk was an orange pupkin! not too large, ad not exactly the same as what we have in america, but it will work! yay!

but in true japanese fashion, no one took credit for finding this pumpkin, but they all just sat there at their desks quietly as i celebrated having an orange pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern with. eventually i found out that the home economics teacher had brought it in. her neighbor evidently grew it! so sunday will be my pumpin carving adventure. should be interesting!

following this pumpkin ordeal before classes had even started i went off to my first class where i taught a class how to say "you mustn't fart during meals". they had to come up with things about japanese culture that you must or must not do. this is what they came up with, even though the books example was you mustn't wear your shoes in the house. oh middle schoolers. but what made this even funnier was that they had first used a dictionary and written "you mustn't poo during dinner"! i was slightly confused at first and then figured out what they were actually trying to say. but then that led to a questions about why "winnie the pooh" has that name. oh middle school!

and then my next class i had to attempt to explain 'scatterbrained' because some student had seen it in some book. talk about difficult, because not even the other english teacher understood that concept, so she was no help.

and for the rest of the day i heard kids through out the school talking about farting, pooing and being scatterbrained. haha, it was quite amuzing, and even more amuzing because i am the only one that really understands what these kids are saying, if the other teachers knew they would all be scolded. the joys of being a middle school teacher in japan!