She won't tell us her age, but she hinted that she's in her mid-thirties. We only found out it was her birthday yesterday by accident, when Ash mentioned she had made no-bake cookies and Ichikawa-sensei suggested bringing them in today to celebrate.
Obviously, on such short notice, she didn't expect us to actually bring the cookies in.
Obviously, we decided to surprise her anyway.
Operation: お誕生日おめでとう！ began at 6 p.m. yesterday with Ash and I rummaging through her apartment for ingredients for the no-bake cookies. If you aren't familiar, no-bake cookies are just a combination of oatmeal, peanut butter, cocoa, vanilla and any other mixable flavors you choose to add. Mix it together, scoop out in handfuls, place them on a wax sheet, wait about 30 minutes and you're good to go.
I had started mixing the oatmeal, cocoa and vanilla together in one of Ash's hand-me-down bowls when she looked at the recipe, slapped her palm to her forehead and sighed. "We forgot the peanut butter."
So we braced the feet-numbing cold - really, Mother Nature? It's only early October - to trek to MaxValu, grab two clear jars of peanut butter with Snoopy cartoons on the label, pay almost $7 for less peanut butter than the typical jar of Jiffy in America contains and returned home again.
Attempt #2 was much more successful now we had the most important ingredient. While I fixed two batches of cookies and Sensei's no-bake cookie cake, Ash put her art degree to use and created a makeshift cookie cake box from cardboard. With a detailed drawing of Doraemon for the lid and a sewed-on button closure, our present was complete!
Sensei's surprise was obvious when we arrived to class late after our ten-minute break with cookies, box and birthday card in hand.
Doraemon says "YATTAA!!" and thinks "It's sweet!"
For some reason, no matter how many times I upload this photo, it won't turn right side up. In some ways, I think it's appropriate, so I'll leave it like this for now. For Japanese language learners, you can click on this photo and read our three birthday messages to Ichikawa-sensei.So, I would like to dedicate this post to an amazing woman,
the woman who shows me over and over again the value of taking risks in language learning,
who emphasizes that mistakes are only natural,
who truly cares about our well-being as both her students and as friends,
who laughs more than any other teacher I've known in my 21 years.
Happy birthday!
Sincerely,
The students who wish you could be our sister or mother or best friend in America and New Zealand,
Sarah, Jordan, Ashley and Emma
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