Music

At one point this last week I looked at up Cindy and said in satisfaction and a little disbelief, "Ok, I have my music for choir, for caroling, for nursing homes, and for evening worship...and I'm an English teacher?!" Sometimes it feels like I spend much more time leading or learning music than I do teaching, which shows that I'm spoiled rotten, in some respects. :) Anyway, here are some pics of the last couple weeks' musical endeavors...

Last weekend we held a random Christmas caroling time...a couple of students and church members had offered to "host" our group of carolers, so we wound a path through the neighborhoods near the church, carrying umbrellas (that was a first for me--caroling with umbrellas!) and stopping every once in awhile to enter a house, sing some songs and be treated with ridiculous amounts of wonderful food. :)

It was a little awkward for our Japanese students to be invited into stranger's homes and accept their hospitality...but it was also quite fun to watch new relationships being formed.

My selfish highlight of the evening was getting some good dog-bonding time...yay! :) It was nice to know that I haven't lost my dog-scratching abilities...

A lot of different music is also sung at nursing homes every month. Looking back, I'm a little confused as to how this whole idea started...at first it was simply like, "Hey, I've done some singing at nursing homes, and I enjoy it...I have a not-so-full day on Wednesdays...any chance there may be a place to do some volunteer singing?" Then there was one place...then two...and now, in December, we have one nursing home scheduled every week! And what originally was simply me going and singing some songs has ended up involving multiple people, a lot of Japanese music to learn, and interesting things in general...

This is from the most recent nursing home visit...Kazama-san, one of my students, writes his own music and plays guitar very well. Usually, the music is just the two of us, with him playing and me singing, but we also try to do a few songs that everyone can sing along with. These are always new songs for me...but Japanese folk songs that are useful to know! For example, a few months ago I learned the song that my garbage truck plays every morning... :)

These people are so darn cute...one lady after we sang tried to get Kazama-san to teach her guitar...another man ran me down for my autograph...mostly, it's a very humbling experiene to see their joy.