Second Day....

We had another ceremony today, I think to welcome the new students.  When I first arrived, the vice principal advised me of the ceremony and asked me to be in the big gym fifteen to twenty minutes beforehand.  When I looked up at nine twenty-five and realized that all the teachers were gone, I started feeling like maybe I had misinterpreted what he had said and that I was suppose to be in the gym by nine-twenty.  Luckily, another teacher came into the room and I asked her.  She told me that I needed to be there by nine forty-five but "let's go now."  So I walked over the the gym and as I entered some of the students waved hello.


Everyone wore suits this time, no exceptions.  That might be because we had guests from the Board of Education.  There were speeches given by the Principal and two of the guests, and all of the first years were announced, as well as all of the guests and all of the teachers.  As our names were called, we teachers stepped forward, said "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" before bowing deeply.  Again, I did not understand a lot of what was going on but I tried to remain focused and interested.

One of the teachers afterward asked me how I liked the ceremony.  I told her that I liked it, but I wished I understood Japanese.  Afterwards we walked back to the teacher's room and I sat back down to do some more preparing.  One of the teachers brought me a cup of tea with a flower in it... I think it may have been a cherry blossom.  It was a little bitter, but not bad.

At lunch I sat down with the Principal, Vice Principal, and a few other teachers.  The Vice Principal talked the entire time.  I feel bad because everyone wants to know where my great grandparents lived here in Japan, and I do not know the answer.  I told them I would e-mail Grandpa to ask.  The Vice Principal and I were the last to finish our meals, and then we rushed off to go have a staff photo taken in the gym.

I stayed around a little after three because I wanted to see some of the clubs.  The vice principal explained that tomorrow is another ceremony, and so most of the students are focused on that rather than concentrating on club activities.  I still ended up leaving before four.  As I was getting ready to go, the head English teacher told me that tomorrow he wants to go over next week with me, Yay =D  That will be nice.

I just hope I am doing okay.  I am friendly with everyone and keep smiling, but I also sit at my desk a lot because I know they are all busy and I do not want to interrupt their work.  It was nice to be able to talk to the vice principal at lunch, and I tried to strike up a few other conversations as well.  It is just a little difficult with the language barrier.  

For most of the students, I feel like I celebrity.  They start shouting "hello" and waving a lot when I am walking by and then when I respond they wave harder before turning to each other and laughing.

Oh, and another thing of note: while I was waiting for the afternoon clubs to start I was working on my hiragana writing when one of the teachers walked by me.  She paused long enough to look over my shoulder to see what I was doing, then suddenly said "good" and walked away.  It felt nice =)  During my "break" times (the ones on my schedule actually marked for breaks) I try to practice Japanese.

I felt tired all day long though, so I hope I am able to get some better sleep tonight.  To my dismay, one of the teachers asked me if I was tired, and I felt really self-conscious after that.

Well, time to go make dinner and then relax for a bit.  Have a wonderful day, evening, or night, depending on when it is that you read this =)