Wednesday 22 May 2013

The source of all my power

Look, some people are perfectly happy to go to class with just a board marker in their pocket, not me.
I go prepared. I have a weapons kit stocked with grenades and bribes.

Truth, I 'inherited' the basket from someone who was here before and I didn't bother buying a newer, shinier one, simply restocking the stationary and adding stickers.

The children give me gifts of stickers too and I just slap them on the surface.




Angry Birds, smiley faces, Pokemon, glow in the dark animals, Power Rangers, cars etc.


I have Reshiram and Zekrom, hah! (I had to take them away from any kid after a fight broke out.)


Yes, the handles are broken.
Yes, they were broken long before I got it.
No, the plastic rings are not a replacement handle - just an effort of boredom and surplus one day.

The cat is from Halloween decorations.


You can see princess stickers poking out of the basket.


You can't really get Ninjago - it would have made a lot of classes much easier if it was the case - but some children have their moms buy them the expensive bumper book from the bookstore.
They then proceed to give them to me.

It's admittedly grubby now but I will admit this much, the kids love this pink monstrosity.
(It'll probably hit the bin once I leave the school - hahahaha.)

ROBOTS, SEAN, ROBOTS!!

We went on a field trip to Otokki Space centre.
It was...odd. (The most memorable part was my nausea on the bus and the way several kids threw up...and worse.)

The one good thing, for me at any rate, was this statuary garden of robots. It was all very Ghibli and I loved it. (Naturally we walked right through it towards the slides which we proceeded not to take the children on. =.=)









Photocopying by hand

 

 
 
Sometimes science is ridiculously complex for little kids, other times it's just drawing on a bit of paper.
 
The confusing part is the mysterious rotating of the image above. 




Letters from kiddies

Sometimes my students write me letters.



I like the pink hair. I think it suits me. C: In case you're wondering, I'm giving her stickers. (Yes, I do outright bribe my students.)


I also appreciate that she wants to get me a prince.




Gah! Why so adorable?!
This is more distracting than a box of kittens!!


Happening

Stephanie and I went to a concert last month. This concert, to be precise.

To be brief, it was awesome. My knees and eardrums may never be the same again.


 Getting to our seats was a pain and a half though. I understand we were there to ritualistically worship the man but draping his iconography over the signs telling you what section you are in does make things difficult.



I heard once, that in Asia the success of a celebrity is measured by how many products they shill. Judging by this PSY must be the second coming of the merchant god.

On another note, all the ushers were dressed to a T in very nice suits and ties. Swank. You can see one standing on a barrier shouting instructions above.



As you can see, our seats were pretty great. It's a shame they weren't built with insane bouncing and crazy dancing in mind. I whalloped my knees off the seats in front so many times that I may have permanently damaged myself. (Worth it)


The screens were great, particularly as they made brilliant use of them. They were covered in vibrant animations, different for each song. It was a real spectacle performance.



This was the first livestream concert I'd ever attended. This meant that the concert started fairly close to on time and there was no warm-up act.
Instead PSY started immediately and took breaks where special guests came out to perform. He performed a duet with Lee Hi.

His 'warm-up acts' appeared while he was taking a breather.
There was the hilariously dressed girl group 2NE1  (I believe they're on the same label) who we're pretty sure had their music turned up a hell of a lot louder than the headliner.  They weren't bad and we could boogie away to it but the band themselves was trying a bit too hard.
It was a little funny though, one of the girls stripped out of her jacket and from the look she was wearing I think it was she was jealous that another girl was dressed sexier than her.
Later on G-Dragon came on and we sort of flipped out. (Not for the first or last time that night) I should feel ashamed but I honestly can't.
I do feel sorry for the poor koreans next to us - trapped beside crazy waygooks.

Once you were in, the staff were pretty lax about people moving about. Some people left their seats and stood at the barrier of their seating section instead. A granny came and sat on the steps beside us.
We ended up leaving during the first encore. We had been dancing for at least three hours straight and were basically exhausted. Plus he was gone deep into his rave music at that stage.

Anyway, the entire concert was to celebrate the international release of his new song. First, they premiered the video on the screens, then he performed it, as below.


It was a great show, and pretty funny too. He displayed a sign telling about his next performance involving magic tricks, pigeons and world peace but he claims Peta vetoed it so he had to make do with giant inflatable wings instead.


The energy of the entire concert was incrdible and the party never stopped. Psy also flew over the crowd and came pretty close to us peons in the crowd which was pretty cool. (and hilarious.)

Worth every penny.

The best part, in my vastly amused opinion, was when he dedicated his performance to all sorts individuals worth respecting..........and Beyonce. (At this point, Stephanie and I were going "Please, tell me he is" He was.)


Funnily enough, unlike everyone around us, we did know every word  to this song.
Brilliant concert.  C:

The Birkin bag lady



Helen invited me along to see Miss Birkin sing french songs.
It was really enjoyable actually.

The only problem was that I understood a fraction of the songs so I kept getting distracted by trying to work out the rest of the song. I enjoyed it a lot more when I stopped doing that and simply listened to the singing.

It was a pretty nice concert. What really made it fantastically brilliant  was the music. Jane Birkin is not a bad singer and she is singing songs here that are very suitable for her but the musicians were really incredible.
There was a violinist, a drummer and a pianist who turned out to be a top-notch composer and one of the leading producers of the show.


Also, the venue was quite pimp.

Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is delicious.
People like to sell beer at the same time, it's kind of a thing here.


By that I mean there's a place like this on every corner.
But I cannot fault this delicious, tasty logic.

 
 
We did think we were getting chips/french fries though not fresh cooked crisps.
Not that I'm complaining in any way.



We also seriously underestimated the portion sizes. (and we only ordered one serving of boneless chicken.) It was huge.

Nevertheless I soldiered on. Afterall, it was a rare opportunity.