Easter: First-year decorating

We gave each student their eggs, I showed them the big bag of markers and crayons I'd brought, and we cut them loose. Included in the pile was a Crayola 64-pack I'd bought in December with just this activity in mind. Something I hadn't thought about was the printed names of the colors, and the impromptu English practice this provided. Also, at some point in the past fifteen years, Crayola started printing the names in Spanish and French as well as English, which made for some fun pronunciation practice.

I'd worried that a few students would be too cool to decorate eggs, but every single one of them worked diligently on it. The girls' eggs tended to be much more ornate and, naturally, cuter. We learned too late that some of the markers would bleed in the solution, and so we cautioned them to use those markers only if they weren't going to use the dye.

I got pictures of all of this, taking the opportunity to get group photos of each of my classes. At Toyotama, when I went to get a picture of Mami's egg, she refused. I asked her why not, and she replied that she, like nearly every Japanese schoolgirl, is shy. I prodded at her, to no avail. I changed up my tactics: knowing her junior high ALT had been Mike, and knowing that he remembers her just as clearly as she does him, I said I wanted to show Mike. She made me promise not to show anyone but him, and agreed.

The teachers also made eggs. Not surprisingly, Kamito-sensei drew Snoopy on both of hers, and gave them to Yagi- and Yoshihara-sensei, her two best friends. Masuda- and Satomi-sensei decorated eggs for me, with Satomi writing 'thank you for everything!' on hers.

The lesson was a big hit. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed decorating the eggs. When it came time to leave, though, and I told them they could bring them home and eat them, almost everyone balked. Roughly half of each class politely declined, instead giving their eggs to me. I found out why from some students' questions: they were convinced the egg itself would taste like vinegar. Even after picking up on this and trying to explain away their concerns, most of them declined to bring them home. I ate what I could, but there's only so much cholesterol one guy can take.