I have had two farewell parties so far, not including the ALT party which rocked socks btw (until 6.30 am in the morning and involving much nudity and bared bums – brilliant!). The first was with my Junior High School teachers in the evening of the day of my leaving ceremony there. I hadn’t actually prepared a speech as I was not sure what to say, I had written some things down but then decided to wing it. I never felt particularly affectionate of my JHS teachers to be perfectly honest (except two both of whom left this May – boohoo!). Yes that is right all the sh*t comes out now that I am leaving! I devoted myself and my time to the pupils but when it came to the teachers I would forgo their parties and meetings and the like or at least leave at the first possible opportunity. I preferred to involve myself in island life, in which my teachers were often not involved. That and my incurable habit of taking days off I perhaps (or definitely) should not have, so I didn’t want to get to close to them incase they started asking questions. Yes, yes, I was far from a model employee but like I said I was there for the pupils not the teachers. Anyway the party rolled around and I was awfully surprised by what the teachers said about me. The English teacher and the teacher I taught the special needs kids with both praised me on always having good lessons plans and innovative ideas for games etc. Other teachers also came to thank me for making English fun for the kids etc. It was all very nice but I was never going to cry because I had done that already and that was for the kids not the teachers. It was however nice to know the kids like the way I taught English, on their thank you cards to me the messages I like best were along the lines of ‘your lessons always interesting, I like English now, I can speak English, Thank you Kureigu Teacha,’ although my favourite was from Kodai, the brother of my favourite student last year who said simply ‘we are friends forever.’ Ok enough of the horrid self congratulatory stuff it is making me queasy. In my speech I ended up just talking about how I had changed in Japan and what Japan has given me. It is true I didn’t like children before coming to Japan, now I do. It is true I wasn’t into endurance sports before Japan (weights only please!), not I do. Also I appreciate healthy food now, I was fond of fry ups back home. Other things which I did not know how to say in Japanese are that I have an appreciation of the importance/benefits of (local) community. Something we are loosing in the West, maybe. Also I have discovered internal motivation (mostly by training for the triathlon and then studying by myself for the grad diploma I am doing), before I think most of my motivation came from external sources; deadlines, the need to pass exams etc. I had the habit of doing just enough to pass or get the grade I wanted in exams and no more. Was I afraid of trying my best and therefore revealing my limitations? Well to be fair in my final year of Uni I went all out. My 21st birthday was only 2 days before an exam (a dam important exam) so I locked myself in my room and studied, not even accepted visitors. Yeah….
Anyway back to the party, I gave my speech and then was presented with a traditional Okinawan piece of clothing the name of which has escaped my mind which bore the kanji for ‘Umin chu’ meaning ‘sea person’. It is a fairly ubiquitous brand of tourist apparel in Okinawa. I was very happy with it though! After the party was karaoke with the younger male teachers and boy did we rock out! It was all high energy stuff; much enthusiastic kampai-ing (cheers-ing), jumping on the chairs and screaming out hearts out. My voice was instantly croak as the previous night has seen a pretty heavy karaoke sesh too. We stopped when a couple of teachers passed out, one of whom we had to carry home. Good times.
At the moment I am working (in the loosest sense of the word) at the Board of Education. The guys here are a bit old and self important but nice chaps. I saved their bacon by finding out that the new ALT is not arriving on the 8th as they though but on the 1st of August. So me agreeing to stay later was rather in vain but that is ok, another week in Okinawa is no bad thing.
That is by the by though. Time to talk about my character flaw(s)! Last night was the primary (elementary) school end of term / goodbye party. Now I should mention that most, or probably all of the ALTs seem to be getting presents from their schools when they leave, maybe, actually maybe I am just assuming that, but a certain person I know is getting HEAPs of presents. So I was (greedily?) expecting something from this party. You see unlike the JHS teachers I have always got on well with the elementary school teachers, they have been nice to me and I have been nice to them. Also unlike the JHS where I don’t think I ever felt I got a lesson down perfectly (except for my English conversation club but the aim of the game there was fun rather than serious English learning) I felt most weeks that I hit the nail on the head. I have a sneaky suspicion you could do almost anything at the elementary school, make faces at the kid for 45 minutes, and they would love it! But I felt my lessons were good.
So.. where was I, ah yes! Well the party (actually a barbeque) was perfect. The perfect Okinawan party, at the beach; lovely weather, beautiful sunset, great food and cold beer (Orion of course). And children playing in the water to complete the scene. Later we had speeches and played some party games which were great fun. It couldn’t have been a better night, kocho sensei said nice things about me in his closing speech and then it was time to pack up and go home. And I react (internally only! I didn’t let it show!) like a horrible spoilt child. To my shame today I was quite upset about not getting a present which is horrible and materialistic and know. My only consolation is that I didn’t let it show. Like I said we (I and the teachers) have always got on great, they would always come to speak to me and give me candy (way to anyones heart). They invited me to their field trips, parties, barbeques and to dinner parties at their houses. The Vice-principle has his endearing habit of giving me fresh laid eggs from the school hens, on my last day they all applauded as I left and the head master gave me a hearty hug. So I had all that, which surely means more than a present, which is just a thing. So why was I such a materialistic wretch and acting like a spoilt child! Meh, well there we go. I suppose we all (I hope it is not just me) have feelings and impulses we know are wrong and we can choose not to act on them. It is something uniquely human to not act purely on the basis of our feelings? Actually I don’t think so but it is probably quite special in the animal kingdom. Here is to higher brain functions! Hip Hip!
Sorry for two such a long post in quick succession! I promise a post of just pictures next but I need to pop back to the JHS to do that. Until next time!
Until next time!