Entries this day: Last_day_of_Nova my_real_byebye_party

Last day of Nova

6:05pm JST Monday 8 March 2004

Wow. Finished.

happysad moneybad mostlyglad for all the funIhad.

Ooh, that was bad.

Crap first: Voice was shit today; I had The English Teacher and some elderly gentleman, both of whom hate America and seemed happy to bash America in front of (at) me where I pretty much can't do anything about it. I kept thinking I wanted Frank's balls and knowledge of history and politics; I figured with that I could easily shred them to bits.

Good second:

Switched two lessons with Guy because I was scheduled to have full seats and he was scheduled with man to man. I completely enjoyed both of my man to mans. The first one I played Mindtrap with The English Teacher (this was before he was in voice). He mostly gave up on the questions (and then said they were too easy), but hey whatever.

The second money lesson was the second to last of the day (my Nova career), with a woman named Naoko, who had written a cool book with double-images that look like one thing and then they look like another when viewed with a cylindrical mirror. She asked me to look at her advertising deal and I was able to correct some mispellings and such with no problem, and then I nearly redesigned the thing, moving around and rewriting portions of text, relabeled the image on the page... all directed toward simplifying and grabbing the readers' attentions.

I was so into helping her that I kept helping her after the bell rang for the end of class and suddenly (ten minutes later), the next bell rang for the start of the next class. Whoah!

I was like, "oops bye!" and zipped to the teachers room, grabbed several level 5 files that I thought were likely to be the ones I needed, and went to my next and final class at Nova.

Koji and Yuki, two of my fav students were in there. Two other students I don't know were there too. I was like, "HI" and "I'm sorry" and "It's my last lesson at Nova," (which Yuki knew already and seemed to be well aware of it before I said anything) and found that I had three of their files. Close.

I remembered that I had planned to do number 52 (level 5) about the UFO so I asked if any of them had seen a UFO. Yuki had seen one (so I gave her high five), and she told her story. The target language being the responses, "could it have been a plane?" "no it couldn't."

Per Dan's request, I said, "please listen, and repeat," starting witih Yuki, and the hilarious thing is she answered the question instead of repeating it. I gave her five again.

After her story and the subsequent 'debate,' I was like, "what about you guys?"

And they were like, "[naw man I ain't seen] nothing,"

"Nothing? Nothing?? No ghosts, UFOs, Godzilla? Nothing?"

And then Yuki goes, "what about you, Rob?"

"Good question." I smiled at hearing my name. I answered "Umm.."

"No," chimed in one of the other students, and I was caught as a hypocrite.

I gave her five.

Koji and the other guy didn't speak up too much, so I didn't give Koji five when he answered when he should have repeated; I didn't want to embarass him.

At the end of the lesson, I wanted to ask Koji and Yuki if they were going to my byebye party. I'm pretty sure I told Yuki about it a couple weeks ago. We'll see what happens.

- - - -

Back in the teachers' room. "Wow."

"See you" from Morag.

"I made you this" from Benny as he handed me a little kids card thing You are a woman named Mary. You have a husband named John. You have two kids and live in an apartment in the city. that he didn't make, much less make for me.

Handshakes with Phil and Phong.

"See you" from Steve.

Peace sign thrown to Benny while he was in class and I walked out.

- - - -

what would it be like if there were people waiting for me as I left? If I went down there and some students were like, "thanks for being great" and stuff.. What if there's a whole crowd of students??

Mate. Forget it; it will be just like every other day. This is Japan, not YRUU.

My second thought was right. I went to Starbucks, called Yuuko, drank hot cocoa and wrote this entry.

6:45pm JST Monday 8 March 2004

Now Yuuko and I are going to Warawara to get a table. I'm a bit worried cause Yuuko seems surprised that I hadn't reserved a table yet and I don't have really any idea how many people will be there, nor even how many I invited.

my real byebye party

12:46am JST Tuesday 9 March 2004

The party was basically perfect. I got a hanko from Morita, tons of Japanese conversation poured into my ears, got to yammer with everyone there, ate tons of food and OJ; had a great time.

Kathy was the only other teacher there. Dan and Phong texted me that they couldn't come. So did Mamiko.