ii nioi!

I have a student who likes to smell me. It started a few weeks ago; at first I thought it would just be an isolated incident, but I now see that it has become a regular part of my classes with her. Let me explain...the student is an 1st grader (I guess that would be 6th grade back home) and she's a bit crazy and over-zealous when it comes to English class. Don't get me wrong, it's a refreshing change from the days when I would ask a question like "how are you today?" and the only response would be a few yawns and dead-eyed stares. Anyway, this student looooooves English class. When she sees me walk in to the classroom, she starts squirming and jumping in her seat and waving at me before the class even begins.

Anyway, so a few weeks ago during class, as I was passing out papers for an activity, I handed her a paper and as I was turning to walk away, she grabbed my arm and very forcefully pulled me back. She then pulled me down towards her and screamed excitedly to her friend "ii nioi!!" (nice smell!) I was able to pry her hands away and moved on to the other side of the room. I am not quite sure what exactly she was smelling...was it my Secret deodorant with the new, refreshing "lavender splash" scent? Or maybe my fabric softner? My hypothesis is that she thinks I have a particular "foreigner" scent which she really enjoys. Well, whatever the reason, she thinks I smell good and now makes a point of smelling me every time we have class. Sometimes she doesn't remember to do it right away, and just when I think "good, she's finally grown out of that phase!" I see the lightbulb go on in her head as she thinks to herself "I need to smell the English teacher today!"...when that happens, there's nothing I can do but walk over to her desk and let her nose have its way with me...

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the student who smells me, but I've included some from our school's annual sports festival. These things are amazing! Every September, every school in Japan has an all day festival in which the students are divided into teams and made to participate in a number of ridiculous, arbitrary, and slightly dangerous games. Inevitably the sports festival is held on an extremely hot day (so hot that by 9:00 a.m. my shirt and my pants were completely soaked through with sweat) The day wouldn't be complete without at least 2 or 3 students passing out from the heat and exhaustion. Hooray for sports day!

Leg-tie game: Tie four students together at the feet. Make them run across the field. Let the fun begin!

Stipper pole race: (OK, so it's not really a stripper pole) Four students hold the pole. Race down the field and around a cone. Race back to starting position.

3rd grade boys on the blue team. I made myself an honorary member of the blue team, altough I was told to remain impartial as to avoid upsetting members of the opposing teams...but what can I say, the blue team was closer to the shade...

All the students wanted to try on my cool sunglasses...

Crazy girls from the badminton club:

Team cheer