Today Was a Better Day

Today was a good day.
Yesterday, I literally felt like all of the wind had been let out of my sails. Today, though, was a new day.
I had an elementary visit today. Sometimes I dread these visits, because I am unsure of what to expect. This particular school has a teacher in charge who is not very organized, so I tend to worry.
I usually come prepared with a back-up plan, but it's not always age appropriate.
So today I went to the elementary school and found out that there wasn't a plan other than to review the vocab for the days of the week (that's NOT going to take up an entire class!). Then the teacher said that I will be in new classes, so I can do my introduction (that can definitely take up a lot of time!) and then he told me that I will have the 1st and 2nd graders (this means a very SHORT intro).
I had less than 10 minutes to think of a lesson and activities. Somehow, I was able to make a full lesson and two games out of vocab cards, a cd, and two fly swatters (never used, of course). I never thought that I was creative, but I think that God answered my prayer today when I asked Him for help.
Anyway, I usually have a handful of students who like to act up or who are just bad in class, but today was unusual. There were no bad kids. I REALLY enjoyed school today. A few of the boys kissed my hand because they saw that greeting in a movie and assumed that foreigners greeted each other that way.
I was able to have a basic conversation with the 2nd graders who invited me to their class for lunch, too. On the way home from school, they raced to catch up with me. As we passed the rice field, the boys were catching tadpoles and showing them to me. One boy even found a baby shrimp ( I have no idea). We walked and talked together for quite awhile. At one point when the sidewalk narrowed, I had about 20 kids behind me...I wonder what the people in the cars were thinking about the gaijin leading their children.
Little kids are so cute and so accepting ^_^
Since it's Tuesday night, that unofficially means ALT night at Saizeriya (a family restaurant). The four of us who live in this building try to meet once a week for dinner, because we don't always see each other and we do get along. We actually enjoy being around each other. We hadn't had a Tuesday outing in a few weeks, so it was really nice to visit and chat. The restaurant wasn't even crowded (Very Rare). We talked about our schools, but we laughed a lot. It was really nice.
Today was a better day.