graaaaaaaaaaaaaaar.
It's been a pretty emotional week of goodbyes. I have been trying to be better at going to bed at more reasonable times, in preparation for the big end of school celebration on Thursday. It has sort of worked..though my coffee consumption has increased too.
So Tuesday....was my second to last day at my favourite school. I didn't have any teaching but I still got busy doing all sorts of things! The school was real sweet and organised a sort of goodbye ceremony for me at 8 am...which also meant I had to get up extremely early to get there in time. It was very touching though. They had everyone lined up and then the teachers gave a short speech. I had to then make a lil speech too...damn that was scary! I got a beautiful book though which has messages from all the kids and teachers in it, as well as tissues that spell my name in hiragana! I am gonna miss those people so much! The main thing going on though, was the buffet lunch that had been organised for the school. It was all conducted with military precision. Some of the teachers including me got kitted out with gloves and face masks looking like anti-contamination staff in some radioactive site. Then the truck arrived with the food. It made me laugh...looking inside the huge truck there was a silver big rollable cupboard which was transported out...we then arranged everything. The buffet was really fun and everyone had name tags and things on the table. I also watched the graduation rehearsal. It's very formal...so much bowing, standing up, sitting down...all very specific. What impressed me the most was the patience of the audience (the 3rd up to 5th graders). they all sat straight and still. I somehow doubt this would be possible back in sunny england..kids would just chat and constantly be reminded to shut up. I admire the discipline of the kids here. I know some would argue..it's too strict..like army like...but I still think it's an amazing skill to be so quiet and disciplined and respectful..for 2 hours or something.
Wednesday...was my last day at my not so favourite school. Again I got roped in to a lot of activities, cleaning the school, decorating for 6th grades graduation the next day. I worked up a neat little partnership with one of my first graders. We had a little discussion about what we could draw (on the poster for the 6th grade)...and I even tried to explain to him the origin of a rainbow..he asked me why it was called a rainbow...as he knew the term rain...ghosh...language barriers! He became my little tape man when we were sticking up paper flowers along the hallways. It was a shortlived cute partnership. The goodbye thing was short and sweet. before all the kids left for home, they all assembled outside and di their whole "arigato gozaimasu" thing and I got some pretty sweet gifts too. Though the whole thing didn't feel as genuine as my fave school. So I didn't feel too sad. I will though, miss the teachers and staff. Because I can't fault them. They were great, really lovely people. The most amazing thing that day was that I found out in the morning that Rina had her baby!!!!!!! It was pretty exciting really, I immeadiatley went off to the maternity hospital after school, armed with magazines and chocolate to show some support. It was my first visit to someone who had just ejected a parasite! Really interesting! I found out things which I hadn't even properly considered in my ignorance of the process....like that you are in agony for several days or more afterwards.....argh. Sitting becomes an issue. Scary stuff. Yuria (Rina's little 5 year old sprog) was in extreme hyper mode and went to go and see the baby every 5 minutes or so. So daddy had to make a lot of trips downstairs with her. She was pretty high on the sugar that she had ingested previously. The family came at some point too, so I got to meet the grandparents and parents of Rina and her husband...it was kind of emotional really. We all went down to look at the baby. It's very small..and wrinkled...but cute! Dad's main worries were that it didn't cry enough....I was like "if that is your biggest worry..then dude!!!". The baby then got passed about while terrified Rina watched on. I tried to reassure her by drowning her in my geekiness...something along the lines of "babies have soft bones and are so relaxed that they don't get hurt or break that easily if they are dropped"...it helped a bit..but I guess the whole maternal evolutionary instinct kicked in full blast...understandable really.
It's been a pretty emotional week of goodbyes. I have been trying to be better at going to bed at more reasonable times, in preparation for the big end of school celebration on Thursday. It has sort of worked..though my coffee consumption has increased too.
So Tuesday....was my second to last day at my favourite school. I didn't have any teaching but I still got busy doing all sorts of things! The school was real sweet and organised a sort of goodbye ceremony for me at 8 am...which also meant I had to get up extremely early to get there in time. It was very touching though. They had everyone lined up and then the teachers gave a short speech. I had to then make a lil speech too...damn that was scary! I got a beautiful book though which has messages from all the kids and teachers in it, as well as tissues that spell my name in hiragana! I am gonna miss those people so much! The main thing going on though, was the buffet lunch that had been organised for the school. It was all conducted with military precision. Some of the teachers including me got kitted out with gloves and face masks looking like anti-contamination staff in some radioactive site. Then the truck arrived with the food. It made me laugh...looking inside the huge truck there was a silver big rollable cupboard which was transported out...we then arranged everything. The buffet was really fun and everyone had name tags and things on the table. I also watched the graduation rehearsal. It's very formal...so much bowing, standing up, sitting down...all very specific. What impressed me the most was the patience of the audience (the 3rd up to 5th graders). they all sat straight and still. I somehow doubt this would be possible back in sunny england..kids would just chat and constantly be reminded to shut up. I admire the discipline of the kids here. I know some would argue..it's too strict..like army like...but I still think it's an amazing skill to be so quiet and disciplined and respectful..for 2 hours or something.
Wednesday...was my last day at my not so favourite school. Again I got roped in to a lot of activities, cleaning the school, decorating for 6th grades graduation the next day. I worked up a neat little partnership with one of my first graders. We had a little discussion about what we could draw (on the poster for the 6th grade)...and I even tried to explain to him the origin of a rainbow..he asked me why it was called a rainbow...as he knew the term rain...ghosh...language barriers! He became my little tape man when we were sticking up paper flowers along the hallways. It was a shortlived cute partnership. The goodbye thing was short and sweet. before all the kids left for home, they all assembled outside and di their whole "arigato gozaimasu" thing and I got some pretty sweet gifts too. Though the whole thing didn't feel as genuine as my fave school. So I didn't feel too sad. I will though, miss the teachers and staff. Because I can't fault them. They were great, really lovely people. The most amazing thing that day was that I found out in the morning that Rina had her baby!!!!!!! It was pretty exciting really, I immeadiatley went off to the maternity hospital after school, armed with magazines and chocolate to show some support. It was my first visit to someone who had just ejected a parasite! Really interesting! I found out things which I hadn't even properly considered in my ignorance of the process....like that you are in agony for several days or more afterwards.....argh. Sitting becomes an issue. Scary stuff. Yuria (Rina's little 5 year old sprog) was in extreme hyper mode and went to go and see the baby every 5 minutes or so. So daddy had to make a lot of trips downstairs with her. She was pretty high on the sugar that she had ingested previously. The family came at some point too, so I got to meet the grandparents and parents of Rina and her husband...it was kind of emotional really. We all went down to look at the baby. It's very small..and wrinkled...but cute! Dad's main worries were that it didn't cry enough....I was like "if that is your biggest worry..then dude!!!". The baby then got passed about while terrified Rina watched on. I tried to reassure her by drowning her in my geekiness...something along the lines of "babies have soft bones and are so relaxed that they don't get hurt or break that easily if they are dropped"...it helped a bit..but I guess the whole maternal evolutionary instinct kicked in full blast...understandable really.
Thursday...the actual final day of school.......sooo emotional! I nearly cried when Nakano sensei said goodbye to me. The graduation ceremony was beautiful, but again really emotional. Some of the kids burst out crying while doing the speeches and stuff...there were a lot of tears, also from the teachers. It was very well organised though, and made the whole thing special. I found it a little strange that the main part of the speech of the headmaster and the writing on the walls was " I have a dream today" and "yes we can".....I am not sure about this whole obama obsession Japan has. It's like one of the most used phrases by little kids here "yes we can"...what on earth does that even mean? I left the school on quite a downer....I was going to miss them so much, the kids AND the staff were terrific. I really hope that they will have good futures. The evening the wednesday crew met up and had some drinks at eightys...which made it a nice ending to the school period.
Friday.....had my hair cut!!! it's super short now!!! But "cute" in the words of the dreamy hairdresser.
2 comments:
Why isn't there a picture of the haircut?! T_T
When you say dreamy hairdresser... was it that cute guy who could speak English when we went back in January?
Looking forward to seeing you again... on my new wheels!
Wx
lol indeed it was! and he is NOT gay! hurraaaah! hahaha he actually cute my hair this time, and so I had time to find out some stuff...best thing bout it..he remebered my name, apparently mikage had told him! he was like "..and you are Thanh Mai chan right?" waaaaaaaaaaaaaku waku! Can't wait to see your hot wheels!
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