Presents!

I have to say, last week got started on the wrong foot. It really did. You can read in my previous post that Monday was a bad day… those lovely pink flowers and a surprise special guest visitor to my humble abode (!!!) made things a lot better! Then, I was ill on Tuesday, thanks to my 花粉症 (pollen allergies), and after taking my temperature, my school nurse sent me home. Then there was the weather, it couldn’t decide whether or not it wanted to be spring or winter… and on Wednesday morning, I opened up my door and found a big slushy, snowy mess outside my door that I had the pleasure of biking to school in….

  

Then! Thursday, things started to look good! The sun finally came out and decided to let us start spring! I also had my last classes with my 3rd and 6th grade at one of my schools. My 3-1 class made a really sweet book of thank-you messages for me. Here are a few of them, and my poor attempts at translation:

To Bridget Sensei: Bridget sensei, you taught us English on Thursdays!! Thanks to you I understood English!! Thank you!!
(I really liked the big red exclamation marks in this one)

Bridget Sensei, thank you for teaching us lots of English every week. The games were fun. I won’t forget what you taught me.

To Bridget Sensei: Than you very much for teaching us English. I couldn’t do English every day, but (I can’t read the rest…this kid doesn’t have the best handwriting.. and it seems like they had a lot to say and not enough space to write it. Can someone help me out?)

Then, I got this beautiful card from one of my 6th graders who studies English outside of her once a week lessons at school with me. This is far far far beyond the level of her peers and I am so proud to post this up on my blog:

So… besides these lovely letters, my favorite groundskeeper/personal mechanic gave me some sweet roasted chestnuts (complete with directions on how to crack them open with your thumbnails) and a couple of pots of gorgeous violas (I just hope I don’t kill them… I’m quite skilled at killing plants).

 

All in all, despite crappy days at work, 花粉症, and slushy wet weather, I think I had a pretty stand-up week, don’t you? I even had a really sweet weekend hanging out in Tokyo, photos of which I’ll save for my next post! So, until then!