Watashino kurasu

My class. I’ve never taken a picture of my classmates or my school. I take for granted that I will see it everyday. Perhaps I will not continue after Level Three (I’m at Level Two) and this is a much livelier bunch of peeps than the afternoon session I was in.

I've a bit of time before I head off for salsa night with my friends Miki and Kosuke in Roppongi's Bar Sheesha. For only 2,000yen, you get a free beginners' class and one drink. Later on, there's a free-for-all salsa night in another bar, Copacabana. Sooooo, i'm going to touch on my class today — the peeps whom I spend the most time with everyday.

Yesterday, our sensei took some time out from the curriculum so that we could make posters and other stuff to cheer Chris, our class representative, in the speech contest on Friday. He’s an art teacher from Michigan who resides in Hong Kong. Qutie a hippie at heart, he took a whole year out to learn Japanese and to travel.



Here’s Chris looking a little contemplative. He’s a bit nervous but he’ll ace the contest. His speech is about: “All those who wander are not lost”.



Aishiteru Kurisu! (We love you, Chris!)

I suggested atsui to abunai (hot and dangerous) but the sensei said it was hen (weird).



The boys, Isato, Nihato and Ebuzeru were put in charge of colouring Chris’ name in katana and pasting flowers.



I was in the origami team and we churned out hundreds of paper flowers so we could paste it on the posters. That is Swedish Chris’ hands — she’s a bit camera shy.



So purty!



Crepe paper pom poms made by Kim.



Rice bottle shaker with paper flowers. We’re going to make some noise: “GAMBATTE!”



The Koreans, Kim, Pak and Surugi are the warmest bunch of girls I know in school. They always bring food to share and turn on the brightest smiles when you share your snacks with them. We speak broken Japanese together.

In all, this was probably the funnest day ever. I think everyone needed a break from the relentless new grammar structures and endless kanji. The exam is starting next week with three parts — oral, kanji and grammar/listening. Isn’t this a long pictorial ramble…?