justin timberlake

it turns out "exhibition day" is actually a huge, school-wide carnival. the students have their own booths with delicious food, drinks, jewelery, clothes, blah blah blah. some of them have booths with games, there's a big aquarium touch-tank type deal in the gym, there's a haunted house upstairs (and actually, maybe a second haunted house in another building, but i'm not sure), music's blasting everywhere (so much katy perry)...it's stupendous. exhibition was not used right here. the word our teachers were searching for is "carnival." and maybe the adjectives "freaking awesome" in front of it.

so we decided to ditch pictionary early on because it would've been too hard. instead, we got a map of the US and some star stickers, and gave the students a chance to put the sticker where they want to visit in the US. new york seemed to be the most popular, but there were some surprising answers. like denver swooped in from outta nowhere. one kid came up and asked me about norfolk (which i made him point out because i had NO CLUE where it was. it's virginia, by the way). another student came up to the board very confidently and stuck her star right on las vegas. some students spent forever looking at alllllllllll their choices, like they were actually planning a trip.

but my favorite conversation...ohhh boy. here, i'll dialogue it for you:

"teacher, where is tennessee?"
(bizarre state to choose, but okay. let's hear why.)
"oh, it's right here. why do you want to go to tennessee?"
"oh umm...justin timberlake."
(personal nicki freak out)
"i LOVE justin timberlake! do you like *nsync?"

this girl and i talked for a few minutes about *nsync and justin, and then she told me she liked justin cuz her older sister liked justin. she made a "wait one second" motion with her hand and came back a few minutes later with her older sister (the two were 13 and 15 years old). i talked with the older sister for five entire minutes--in english!--about justin. about how i'd seen him four times in concert, how he and jessica biel were getting married ("i heard that was just gossip," she said), how some of jc's songs are good, sometimes even better than justin's because sometimes justin's voice is too high-pitched ("but i still love him!" she squealed). she also likes ashley tisdale, high school musical in general, taylor swift, and some carrie underwood ("she is soooo beautiful"). she feels so-so about miley cyrus.

easily the best thai child-nicki interaction to date. justin unites people around the world.