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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Friday 20 July 2007

Last day of school

I just delivered my farewell speech to the school at the closing ceremony. It was completely in Japanese, and there were a couple of parts that evoked chuckles from the students. I was sure it was due to grammatical error since it wasn't humourous (not intentionally anyway), so I later asked Kami sensei and she told me I had a couple of small grammatical errors, and said it was her fault for not detecting them when she checked it. Oh well, it gave for a lighter mood and Kami sensei said it meant that the students were listening to me :) Plus I'm sure the students know they make more mistakes in English than I did in my Japanese ;P

For my farewell gift, I received a bunch of gorgeous flowers and a beautiful lacquerware case covered with kinpaku (gold foil) - a very furusato (regional) gift since lacquerware is Wajima's specialty, and Kanazawa produces 99% of Japan's kinpaku. A group of my 3rd year girls also gave me a friendship band. Strangely today wasn't emotional or sad for me. I guess it could perhaps be because I don't really feel like it's goodbye since I'm staying on in Japan. Besides, we do intend to come back again to the Noto to visit.



These next few days I will be very busy with farewell dinners, packing and cleaning. The dinners will be fun, but not looking forward to the packing and cleaning...

2 comments:

  1. What will you be doing in Japan now?

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  2. Well, I'll be heading to Tokyo to join Rob next Friday, and the following week we're heading to New York for a couple of months for his job training. I was thinking of studying Japanese at a college in Tokyo (since I'd need some grasp of Japanese if I want to work in a field related to my degree in Japan), but now I'm thinking that I'll probably find a job as an English teacher similar to what I have done for the past year. I'll be able to figure out what my next step will be during our stay in NY since I'll be on my own for a LOT of the time when Rob's working..

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