Saturday Night Fever

I see over 1,000 students in a month's time here in Tahara. It's impossible to learn all but a few of their names and I only remember the very good and the very bad. (Very bad being very relative. This is very bad by Japanese standards which means slightly annoying by American ones.)

My two absolute favorite students though are unforgettable. They are Miyu and Ikki. They always have a smile for me, usually michievious in nature, and I can usually count on them to shout "Oh, hello, Ms. Jennifer!" whenever they see me. I met them both last year as first graders (7th grade) and now have them as second graders (8th). The very first thing they said to me when I met them was "Saturday Night Fever!"

I looked at them confused. "What?"

"Saturday Night Fever!" they repeated. I wasn't sure what they were trying to communicate, but they seemed so earnest that I did a little disco dance for them. They almost fell out of their chairs laughing at me. Ikki I think actually did.

And so began our little joke. Now when I see them in the hall or after class one of us points and says "Saturday Night Fever" and the other person has to dance. At one point I had half of Ikki's class dancing during lucnh after I taught him to say "Let's dance" and "It's easy."

The rest of the students just laugh at us and the teachers were really confused the first time they saw me dancing in the hallway, but we have fun regardless. Miyu and I have even expanded our repetoire recently. When I say "Hawaii" she has to do a hula dance. :-)