Rain.

I think I can pretty much expect rain every day for who knows how long. There were showers in the morning on the way to the BOE. I was supposed to have a meeting with the English teacher at the middle school today. At least that is what my supervisor had told me. I was walking in a little before 9AM and the math teacher says hello to me. Before I can explain what I was doing coming over he asks me about going to an enkai in Kochi City on the 29th. An enkai is a dinner of sorts with colleagues to celebrate certain things such as the beginning of the year and other special events. A nomikai I guess is very similar but it implies more of a drinking party. Yet, both involve drinking. Anyway I couldn't understand the problem that resulted from me being able to go on the 29th. It seems that they aren't sure how I would get back home that night if people have been drinking. My question is how they are planning on getting back to their homes, haha.

Soon after I mentioned that I was coming over to meet the English teacher. I was in for a surprise when he told me that she had taken the day off. I think my supervisor just assumed she would be there today and didn't check. After all I'm not really complaining because I got to leave the BOE office which is a good thing. So basically the rest of my day (Wednesday are half days for me) I stayed at the middle school talking to people. The principal is a pretty great guy. The secretary is also really nice to me. I spent a lot of time talking to them. The principal showed me around the school, even though Lachlan already did, and it was good fun. The principal knows a ton of English words and over emphasizes his pronunciation. This results in him laughing at himself and me with him. The principal made several students introduce themselves to me. I bet they think he is out of his mind. Well he kind of is I think and this will probably make our relationship perfect.

I think my favorite part of the day is the students who were working on murals for the school sports day. They weren't really working on the murals though. They were just running around harassing each other up on the second floor. I made sure to keep my eye on the boys because I didn't want to take a hit in my cash and prizes or my butt. I could tell one boy almost tried to do it but I backed up on him and foiled his plans. I think he was surprised to see I knew what was coming. Some of the girls asked me what 'ochinko' was in English or at least that is my best guess for what they were asking. There was even another teacher around who I think was embarrassed to death by what they were asking. Funny thing is that she tried to explain with a grimace on her face. If that's what they were really asking, they were asking me to tell them penis in English. But I wouldn't give into them so easily. I just played dumb and made them writhe in agony over trying to explain to me what it was they wanted to know. In the end they couldn't. As if that wasn't all that happened, one other thing of interest happened. One of the boys came up to me and everyone told him to say his name. In broken English he said, "My name izu Unko." Now the joke would be on me if I didn't know the word and I would be the dumb foreigner being had by the small middle school child. Fortunately, I know that word means poop in Japanese. So I told all the kids around us his name and then said he was strange to have that name. He looked a tad ashamed and confused that I knew his little joke. That's like a Japanese smash right there.

The middle school will be a lot of fun. It's just the BOE that makes these days pretty lame. But they are very welcoming at the school so I will probably sneak over there more in these impending days of boredom at the good ole BOE...