I felt much better today. At school, everybody kept asking if I was okay and whatnot. I was a little surprised at the level of concern. They must have thought I was dying yesterday. Or maybe that's typical Japanese politeness to ask about someone's health after they've taken ill. Then again, it could've been a combination of both?
As soon as I got to school, before I could even make it into the staffroom to get my jacket off, the vice-principal grabbed and told me there was a visiting teacher from England that he wanted me to meet. I was like "O Kay," thinking "Who the heck is here from England?" Right after, the principal came and escorted me into his office. Sitting on the couch was a tall, young lanky white "bloke" whom I'd never seen before. We introduced ourselves. "How d'ya do? I'm Nick."
Nick Benwell. It turned out he was the vice-principal's nephew-in-law. What a surprise that was. How 'bout that--the vice-principal was kin to a real live foreigner. Nick was also an elementary school assistant English teacher who'd been teaching 3 years in Kariya, a city a bit farther south from where I worked. He worked for another staffing company in Nagoya that was in the assistant language instruction business. He gave me his business card. Man. My company didn't give us business cards. I need to look into that. Nick told me that he was one of only 2 elementary school teachers in his town to service the 15 area schools. So, he taught at 8 of them. Dang. He said he did a rotation where he taught at each school about an average of once a month. His spring break had already started, and since he had nothing to do, the vice-principal asked him to come to our school to meet and greet some students. He said that was a family request, so he couldn't say no.
Today was also my last day of classes of the school year with the 2nd-graders. 2nd period, I had class 2-1, my favorite class. We had a fun class--the homeroom teacher asked me to play Simon Says with the kids. They love that game, and couldn't get enough of it. At the end of class, the kids thanked me for teaching them this school year. They lined up and came to me one by one, delivering their short thank-you speeches. I was surprised at the sincerity and heartfeltness the kids expressed. A few of the girls broke down when saying goodbye; one girl, Misato, started tearing up in the middle of her speech, then ran out of the room so I wouldn't see her tears. Mami, broke down about 5 seconds into speaking, and just kept rubbing her eyes and sniffing until she finished her words. Pretty heart-warming stuff. I just patted them on the back and told them thank you. I'd told them beforehand that I would be back in April, but I guess the finality of the last class of the school year was a little overwhelming for them. We'd had such a good time all year.
After lunch, the 3rd-graders of class 3-1 invited me to their classroom to give me their "presents." I arrived, and like the 2nd-graders, they were all lined up and ready to say their thank yous. I stood at the head of class and each one came to me and presented me their handmade thank-you cards. Each one had personalized drawings and decorations, most of them had a nicely misspelled "Thak You" written on them. I was pleased by the show of love.
One of the teachers invited me to the end of the year teacher's party in two weeks. Food and drink at some restaurant in Nagoya. I said I'd definitely be there.
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