And now for something completely different. Random Musings:

Sometimes grading papers just breaks my heart. I know some students are doing their best, but sometimes they make one mistake over and over throughout the test and it wrecks their grades. I try to be merciful in these instances, and give the student the benefit of the doubt, but I also have to be just... maybe I should threaten to cut the test in half. Didn't that always work for Salomon?

Speaking of the biblical: Today I heard a blessed message from the heavens, heralded by the electric harbinger of my school, the PA system. From on high the command was given: "Please close the doors as the coolers will be turned on." And the were. And I saw it and it was good.

This must be a magic day or something, because when I went to a restaurant later, it's AC was on as well, which was also a first... any other reports of random acts of air conditioning from out there?

Today I taught one of my English classes how to make an origami "pyon-pyon* kaeru" (jumping frog) so that they may teach same to the American students who will visit next week. I gave instructions in English using words like "over" and "fold" and students followed along. At the end of class we all were silently making (or re-making) our frogs. Nobody said a word as we folded and finished our new paper playthings and finishing, made them jump about. "This is an English conversation class", Okamoto-sensei mused. We laughed together.

*this is one of many of the class of Japanese double words of which Erin and I are both fond. It means "jump-jump". See also: "shabu-shabu", "betsu-betsu", "pera-pera", "peco-peco", "ma-ma", "zha-zha" (really), and my favorite, "iro-iro". "Iro-iro" more-or-less literally means "many colors", but is used to mean "various". There are many others...