Thursday was my last day at Kamibisei. After my near meltdown on my last day at Minami I was a little more prepared for my emotions. I woke up to rain and it suited my mood but I wasn't going to let it wreck my day. I took Sean to work and then parked just below Obihiro no Mori Park and did some knitting for about 45 minutes while Keenan slept in the car seat. Keenan cried when I left the room at daycare. Poor wee guy. I know he gets over it fast but it’s hard when my parting memory of him is a view of his tonsils. I took my time getting to the school. Took lots of drive by photos of the farms and misty mountains. The potatoes are in full bloom right now and they are a terrific sight. Beautiful bands of pink or white blooms alternating with wheat just on the cusp of turning golden. I’m sure going to miss that drive. I arrived at the school and found the accountant tending the petunias. This is a typical sight at my schools. Everyone tends to the flowers and the best part is they all seem to like it.
My first class was with the grade 3 and 4 kids. There’s a total of 14 of them so they have a combined class. They’re a great bunch of kids and the ones in grade 3 were in grade 1 the first year I started working here. It’s great to have that history with them. And it’s been amazing to watch them grow and change. Since it was my last class ever with these kids I decided to scrap any sort of lesson plan and let the kids play their favorite English games. So we played Line and Row and Battle Janken for 40 minutes. It was a riot and I got a good couple of minutes of video of the later. It’s intense. And it’s a good demonstration of how good kids are at playing Janken (Rock, Paper, Scissors) in this country. Janken is used to solve any dispute and the final result is rarely challenged. It’s quite remarkable actually! I had a great class with those kids. We had fun, laughed a lot and the kids even used lots of English!
My second class was with the Grade 5 and 6 kids. Another small class (there’s about 41 kids in the whole school between grade 1-6) and another full class of games. The kids had lots of questions about what I was going to be doing in Canada (me too!). So we started off with a good chat and then we played games until a few minutes before the end of class. I said a short speech and wished the grade 6 kids luck with going to Junior High next year. I managed to keep it together in the classroom and didn’t cry until they all walked me down to the genkan and then the tears kicked in as they waved me out. Gosh, I hope I can keep it together for my last day at Nishi-sho this Thursday! Anyhow I had a nice slow drive to the daycare and stopped to take lots of photos. The rain let up and I stopped and got out of the car to get into some wheat and potato fields. I just had to see them up close. I’m sooo going to miss that school and that drive. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have had such a great job here.
Originally, this blog was created to chronicle the experience of starting our family in Japan. Now in Canada & expecting our second child...the journey & the adventure continues...
No comments:
Post a Comment