Benni-sensei's birthday is this week, and Sunday, she had a little taco party to celebrate. She invited three of us over to her apartment for the afternoon (another GEOS teacher, her best friend, and me). As always with Benni-sensei, I had only a vague notion of what was planned, but that's okay. All I had to do was show up, and that was simple enough.
Kozue-sensei (from the Maebashi school) picked me up at the train station in Maebashi and told me that we needed to stop by the nearby mall to get some chicken from KFC. Apparently, Benni-sensei was afraid the tacos wouldn't be enough. So, off we went to Keyaki Walk, where we ordered a box of chicken and wandered around the mall for a while. There's a really nice bookstore in the mall, and it even has a small English section, so we browsed there for a bit. I finally bought a book to help me practice reading and writing both kana and kanji. I'm pretty solid on the hiragana, and the workbook I use in my lessons with Benni-sensei is helpful with conversation, but I want to work on my kanji recognition. Doubt I'll ever really be able to write kanji correctly, but I'd at least like to recognize some of it.
After picking up our chicken (note: Japanese KFC is merely "okay" in terms of fried chicken; I was not overly impressed), we drove over to Benni-sensei's apartment and immediately dug into the food. There were only four of us, so we had more food than we knew what to do with. We decided to wait on the tacos, instead focusing on the KFC and a couple bags of Doritos for lunch. We also decided that we needed a diversion between lunch and dinner, and because it was Benni-sensei's birthday after all, we asked what she wanted to do. She suggested karaoke, and off we went.
It was an amusing birthday party - Benni-sensei had asked us not to bring gifts (we did anyway), and she gave gifts to us. Granted, they were souveniers from her trip to Thailand, but it was still kinda funny. She also treated us for the karaoke, which we protested vehemently, to no avail. She insisted. I've never attended a reverse birthday party, and it was interesting switch. Reverse birthdays and un-birthdays deserve more attention.
Continuing with the party . . . Japanese karaoke is highly amusing, even without alcohol. We stayed for three hours, singing both Japanese and English songs (they tried to teach me one Japanese song - something about a bear, pretty simple, like a kids' song - but it didn't go all that great). Benni-sensei studied music in college in Los Angeles, and she has a beautiful, trained voice, so it's nice to listen to her sing, even if I don't understand exactly what's being said. Also, it was incredible fun singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" with her. Benni-sensei has seen "Wayne's World" and agrees that head-banging is necessary when singing this song. We startled Kozue-sensei and Shinobu-san with our exuberant head-banging.
We'd worked up an appetite with the karaoke, so we went back to the apartment and absolutely gorged ourselves on tacos. Benni-sensei had asked me to make guacamole, and we also had refried beans, Pace Picante salsa, and jalapenos to top off our tacos. The taco shells were small, and I have no idea how many I ate. They were absolutely delicious and messy and fun. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.
The awesomest thing about Benni-sensei's apartment? It's right next to a train bridge, so you can watch the trains go by. Every time one passed by, we all stopped what we were doing and waved at it. Benni-sensei says she does it all the time.
Definitely a very fantastic birthday party. Benni-sensei's presents from Thailand were matching purse bags for us - orange for Kozue-sensei, purple for Shinobu-san, and chocolate-brown for me. I'll have to take a picture of it, it's really pretty. It has flowers and an elephant stitched on it. I like it.
I've been having very entertaining weekends this month, and next weekend should also be entertaining: we're finally having our New Year's party at the school. Going to an izakaya with my students should be incredibly entertaining. Add in that I don't have any kids' classes this week (hurray for William's perfect attendance! there's no need for me to do any make-up classes), and January looks to be ending on a high note.
Thus far, 2009 hasn't given me too much to complain about.
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