It finally happened. I was told by a child, "Riana sensei daisuki". Namely by a fourth grade girl in Marreppu. Today after the normal lessons, which went about the same as always, I had the fourth graders again. This time we talked about age, I told them about how my prounciation was bad in Japanese at first (purposefully letting "Konnichiwa" and "arigato" twang with full American English pronunciation, then gracefully speeding through "domo arigato gozaimasu", "konnichiwa" and "oseiwa ni narimasu"- the kids all seemed very impressed). I had drawn an Elk, a Moose, a Bald Eagle, a bear, and a Grizzly Bear. Once again it was very much about how freakin big America is. They sat and listened all the way to the very end without any activities or games of any kind. They listened well.
At lunch Makoto told me, "I love you. When we first met, I thought, 'who's that?', but... it was really fun when you came." She is studying English and is very serious about it. To the point that I think she bullies the other kids a bit. But her words made me very happy. The whole class was deeply interested in me. They drew me a bunch of pictures on the pictures I drew. I may see them next school year as fifth graders.
One of the girls made me a small origami box decorated with yarn and stickers, and a nicely tied ribbon in a bow. Inside were tiny origami, including a deep red heart. It has joined the herd of origami hearts under the clear plastic on my desktop.
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