Goodbye Mizusawa

I just got out of my farewell ceremony at Mizusawa Junior High. After April, they are changing my schedule around a bit to take the load off of me and Nate and distribute it evenly amongst the new ALTs in Tokamachi who have fewer schools than we do. The positive is that I will have 2 junior highs instead of 3, and Mizusawa was the most difficult in that my class scheduling was through the roof with at least 5 classes a day there, so this will even out my workload. The negative is that the younger kids at this school were some of my best friends, and I will miss their cheering me up and their energy in the classroom.

The farewell ceremony was outstanding. The kids are really the best part of my job and I feel such love for them even if they drive me nuts sometimes. They made a massive banner above the gym stage for me in English. The ceremony started with the principal doing some blah blah blah speech, and then me giving my long difficult speech in English which no student understood. Then, 10 students came up on stage and faced me and bowed and smiled. The first one was Sai (Yuko's cousin, human version of a cute little anime character) who, after fumbling with the microphone, gave me an elaborate goodbye with English she learned from Yuko. Then the mic was handed down the row as each kid gave a heartfelt goodbye in broken English like 'Thank you for Erik' and 'I much enjoy Erik class' and 'We very love Erik!' with the occasional glance to notes written on the hand. I was handed flowers and an envelope which contains cash money donated by all the teachers in the office. I bowed a million times and as I was leaving the gym, they yelled 'stoppu!' and I stopped and turned around. All the kids started running around and getting into formation and they brought out a conductor's stand. The group leaders ran out front and started screaming chants and waving their arms as the entire school joined in unison in a school cheer and dance just for me. The boys pumped their fists in the air and their girls swayed side-to-side with their hands on their hips, and they belted the most off-tune yet rambuxtious fight song all staring at me and smiling. It was followed by a rhythm cheer with clapping that went something like "oi oi Erikku! eh eh Eriiiiiiikkkkuuuuu!' and I was led out of the gym with all the students jumping and clapping in a frenzy.

I love that school!

And sometimes this country makes you feel like a rock star.