Tuesday, March 17, 2009

- 4 Days

I'm getting fat and loaded with free stuff this week. Some favorites so far:

Giant bouquet from my students.

White Day chocolates.

This adorable drawing of me. (Can you spot my new slogan?)


Junior high graduation is a big deal in Japan. I remember JHS in America being 3 years of bullshit where no one could wait to get to high school. Here, high school is where the hard work begins. In their last year of JHS, Japanese students study their brains out for high school entrance exams. I was really surprised by how hard junior high school kids work in Japan, and they'll only work harder from here on out.

One of my favorite students showed up late to graduation and missed getting handed his diploma. Shocking! He's a sullen little thing, too cool for everything but video games and J-Rock. A few days ago he broke dress codes by slightly lightening and spiking his hair, and he got a lot of shit in the teacher's room. I wouldn't be surprised if his obviously calculated tardiness at graduation was an act of revenge. You know what I say? You go on, little J-Rock. Stick it to 'em while you still can. I will never be a real teacher, haha.

1 comment:

Jerylyn said...

Poor little guy. The man always keepin' him down. He'll be a top jrocker one day and make a song about the American teacher who nurtured his rebellious tendencies.

It must be a great feeling to know that those kids will never forget you. Years from now, you can go back to teach in Yamagata and it will be all like, Welcome back Roeser n' shit.

KEEP IT REAL.