So, friends in France send me a drawing of a terrified rat riding on the back of a kinda crow like bird wearing a pith helmet. Turns out that this is part of a school project that their daughter is engaged in whereby the terrified rat and kidnapping crow have to be photographed in outlandish places.
Where more outlandish than Okinawa? Indeed.
I take the rat and crow to the bank and explain the idea to the teller in mime. She immediately calls a staff meeting, including the manager, and squealing with pleasure they line up for the photo.
Put your money in the Bank of Okinawa. They love children.
“Little girl be very happy. We love her from Okinawa.”
They really said that.
What a strange combination of creatures to send around the world. Why not a cuddly labbit or a snuggly puppy or a cute Celiocanth? A terrified rat and a malicious crow ? I take this to be another illustration of the decadence of contemporary French society.
Meanwhile, back in Okinawa
Rat and Crow go shopping.
Anyway, this has been a lot of fun and a pleasant distraction from er work.
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
Ah, good to know teacher’s are still using that challenge! We used to have a class teddy bear that was taken to all sort of outlandish places by the children. Couple of years back it was Flat Eric that was popping up all over the place – I remember a blog I was following by a person at Scott Base, Antartica, where a paper Flat Eric had been sent out by schoolkids in America and was shown making friends with penguins.
Maybe the French kids had been reading ‘Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH’?
http://storybird.com/bluedogrose/artwork/crow-riding/
Those bank staff are behaving like the counter staff of the Tarbert branch of the Bank of Scotland when I passed one of their new pictorial cheques across the counter. Cries of ‘Look at this! One of the pretty ones! Hey, Julie, get over here and see this fancy stuff!’. Apparently nobody in Kintyre had used one some months after their introduction, being careful with the bawbees presumably.
Some Australian friends asked me to take a thong that he was going to send me on a European tour. I was somewhat relieved when a flipflop turned up ready to be shown the Old Country. Will see if I kept any of the photos.