I'm Bruised, Sore and Hurt... But, It Hurts So Good!

Today was a pretty awesome day at school!

Had fun, awesome classes.

And, when I didn't have a class, I decided to join PE classes. It's so much fun and beats sitting at the Staff Office with nothing to do. Believe me, I had to do that during the last period when there was nothing to do nor a PE class to join... and I was basically fighting passing out... it was really bad.

But, back to the PE classes. I first joined a class that was playing volleyball. I really like volleyball and if I could, I would go back in time and tryout for the volleyball team in high school. The teacher told me to join the girls this time, and I wasn't quite warmed up at first. We lost the first game... but, after that, I was all warmed up and we won the next three games. I'm also getting better at my upperhand serve, seeing that the girls on the other teams would fear and scream when I served... heh heh. It's hard for me to tone down my competitiveness... my bad? The only bad thing was that I ended up trying to save a ball and slid on my knees. I felt myself kind of scrape my knee, and when I looked down, I realized I had ripped a very small hole on my favorite pants... ::sigh::. It was bound to happen since I always play in my dress clothes... but, I wish it wasn't my favorite pants though.

Later on in the day, I then joined another PE class. I thought they were playing baseball, since I noticed them in the back and that's where I had previously joined classes playing baseball. But, as I made it passed the corner, the boys instantly spotted me and screamed out, "Victor! Soccer play-ましょう～!" (adding "-ましょう～" to the end of verbs in Japanese is the equivalent of "Lets (verb)!" So, being me, I have started spreading Japenglish by saying a verb in English and then adding "-ましょう～" to the end.) It was all too late, they were all excited and used Japenglish too... how could I not play with them? Even though I HATE soccer... I just couldn't say no. I joined them... but, made sure to state my intense dislike of soccer and how I'm not good at it at all. I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that most of the boys playing weren't doing much or weren't very good players, but, I ended up accidentally shining and stood out. Damn these inherited Colombian soccer skills that apparently flow in my blood... ::shakes maniacal fist::. Needless to say, the boys were impressed and said I was very good. But, I shattered any possible thoughts of me playing soccer often by restating my intense dislike of soccer and how though I might be a fast short distance runner (since they said I run fast?)... I hate running and suck at long distances. They all laughed and thought it was cool anyway... hey, I'm all up for making myself look cool and making people laugh... heh heh.

Oh, I also have apparently met the two polar opposite students (in today's school) when it comes to how they feel about me. One boy is mad funny and cool. I've been teaching him different types of American greetings... mostly in the form of hand shakes, finger snaps, chest pouding and all that other cool stuff we do in America. He always approaches me and practices different ones. He also got me to arm wrestle him and though I won the first one, I later lost the rematch afterschool (but, in my defense... he kind of cheated... heh heh... whatever, I beat him on the rematch of the rematch...). I then go on to realize that I think he might be a type of role model in the school. I knew he was a cool dude and mad funny... but, I didn't realize that the younger girls appeared to like him while the younger boys appeared to idolize him. So, that got me more cool points when the younger girls and boys would approach me asking about him (which is a good thing I asked for his name beforehand) and talk about him... heh heh.

Then, the polar opposite of this cool dude... is a very frightened and hesitant girl. At first I thought it was all an act to get me to laugh (since other students always tell me I'm scary to get a reaction out of me), but, I think I've come to the conclusion that she really doesn't feel comfortable when I'm around. Every time I see her, she has this very frightened expression on her face and tends to back away. Then, when I taught her class today, she would ignore me and avoided me, even though I was trying to help her out since I noticed she was confused. I tried joking around with her later on in the day by pretending to close the door when she was going through (which I've done to lots of students and they always laugh), but, she kind of put her hand on the door as if I was really going to slam it on her. I later overheard her telling other girls that I slammed the door on her (well, I'm not sure if she said those words exactly... but, I overheard her telling other girls "Vikutaa" and "BAM!" while making gestures... and, well, it didn't sound very nice. I then approached her while trying to be as little intimidating as possible and asked if she thought I was kowaii... which means scary. I usually joke with the students saying daijoubu kowaikunai (it's okay I'm not scary), but, she said she found me a little scary in a pretty serious tone. I asked her why, and she kind of shrugged and just said that I'm a little scary. That's when I realized there's no need trying to get her to like me and just decided to keep away from her to avoid freaking her out. Which, though I didn't make any more interactions with her for the rest of the day, I couldn't help not running into her randomly. I would just walk on by and try to not even acknowledge her, but I still would see her from the corner of my eye tense up or slowly distance herself.

What can I say... you can't win over everybody. It just bothers me though... I want to know exactly why she's so hesitant and afraid. I wonder if maybe another foreigner did something to her or if maybe she just has parents that are so anti-foreigners and slowly passed their negative views upon her. I don't know... I can guess all I want, but will probably never know why and should try to drop it. It'll be hard... especially with my Psychology background wanting to delve deeper into the matter... but, it is what it is.

Anyway, going back to my great day... afterschool I hung out with different students and played that game people who know about the Japanese culture should know about. It's where you stand in front of someone and try to get them to lose their balance by either slapping their hands back, pushing their hands back, or retreating your hands when they try to slap or push your hands to make you lose your balance. Let me just say it pays to be sturdy. I would ground myself and won pretty easily almost every time. But, a few students managed to beat me by getting me to attack, rather than my usual waiting them out. It was pretty fun.

After that I joined the boys volleyball team. I watched them at first, but then when their sponsor came and asked me to join in, I did. They were practicing their spiking, so I asked if I could be on the other side trying to block them. I never attempted that and wanted to give it a try... and apparently I'm not that bad at it. The net looked pretty high and I didn't think I'd be able to block much, but I kept hearing (and feeling) the balls hit my hands and arms. It was a lot of fun... and very tiring to jump repeatedly for like 20-30 minutes trying to block their spikes. My calves and legs are pretty sore... and looking at my arms I see some welts from when I hit the net a bit too hard or from some hard spikes. I have bumps and my arms and my hands are still a bit red and tender... but, apart from all the bruises, soreness and pain... it was all worth it and very fun indeed!

If anything, my slight masochist nature is really enjoying this soreness and pain... heh heh...