nothing to prove

grande finale

The past week has been a roller coaster. I went to all my schools for the last time and every school was a completely different experience. First was Ojima and I just about cried the whole day. The third years had a cooking class at a nearby community center in Sanjo so I joined them for the morning. They all cooked various desserts and, for better or worse, I got to try them all. It was just fun to be with them outside of English class, since I find my student act a little different when we aren't in class.

When we returned to Ojima I got to eat lunch with the first years and then have class with them. I almost cried during their class because each one read a goodbye letter that they wrote to me. However, I held it together and had my last class with the second years. At which point we made tacos in a bag. It was a fun way to end my classes there. Finally I had my farewell ceremony that involved lots of speeches: the principle, two volleyball players, the class president, the new volleyball captain, and me. They gave me flowers, a jinbei (Japanese traditional clothes), and made a slideshow. During my speech I almost cried again. It was a really sad day for me and I am going to miss Ojima a lot. They made teaching in Japan amazing.



Next was Yonchu, which oddly enough,didn't even have a ceremony for me. In fact, I only went to two classes and went home 4 hours early. My farewell speech was delivered over the intercom at the end of the day and I think some of had even left at that point. To be honest, I was not too sad about leaving Yonchu that day.

On Thursday I went to Sanchu. I only had a few classes but I got to see the students that I had connected with over the past year. One of the third year classes was my favorite so I ate lunch with them. Also, I had to say goodbye to a set of girls that want to marry me someday, too bad they never found out they didn't stand a chance. Oh well, it was just a junior high school crush... I think. Later on in the day I got to say goodbye to the smartest kid in the school, Taiki. Maybe someday he will come to America someday and I will show him around but I wish that about all my students.


My base school, Nichu, was on Friday and Monday mornings. Friday I taught my last two classes which were pretty uneventful but Monday was full of goodbyes and ceremonies. First I had a meeting with my principle about everything from the price of gas back home to how tall Mount Fuji is. He is one of the nicest principals so I was happy to have the opportunity to talk to him one last time. Then they had the closing ceremony for the trimester and after was my ceremony. They made me walk through the center of the students while they clapped, which was slightly embarrassing but thoughtful. After words they gave a couple speeches before I gave mine and we got to end it. Finally, I got to take pictures with all the third year students. I was happy to see them all one last time because they were always crazy and fun with me. Especially Yoshinobu, my next door neighbor, who pulled my pants down in the middle of class but it was hilarious. He ran up and hugged me and said he'll miss me, in Japanese of course. It was a sad morning but a good way to end my time in Japan. I will never forget this place.

posted by Aaron @ 1:20 AM