This last week has been full of change. On Wednesday we moved into our brand new school building and yesterday was the last day of school at 観音寺第一高校。(In Japan they finish school in March and start the new year in April.) I've spent the last seven months in the fantastic class 2-3 with some of the kindest people I have ever met. I knew that it wasn't really the end, I'd still see them around school, but not having them in the same is really hard because just in the last couple of months have I actually gotten to know them. My teacher was definitely the hardest to say a last "thank you" though. In Japan, high schools trade teachers ever year and no one knows who is leaving or staying until the day of change. As a foreigner, this seems a little extreme, but it's just how they do things. Anyways, because our teacher is fantastic and we all wanted to give her a big thank you and possible farewell, we decided to surprise her with a blast from the past. To understand this, I have to go back a little.
In September, during my first week of school, our class participated in the school festival. We put on a small show, sang a song called "Kanade" that's been very popular in Japan this year, and wore our awesome class tshirts. It was such a great memory that we decided to surprise our teacher with the same performance. During cleaning time after school we all put on our class shirts underneath our uniforms and quickly returned to class. After a tearful speech from our teacher, she wasn't the only one crying though (we all were), one student gave the signal and we all took off our uniform shirts, revealing our yellow and blue 2-3組 tshirts. With that everyone lost it. When we started to sing you could hardly hear us because more than half of us were crying. That song will forever be special to me. I have been so fortunate to be included in 2-3組, I can never thank my teachers enough. I learned so much from everyone and now have so many connections because of them, I am incredibly grateful.
Now I'm sitting on a Shinkansen with my second host parents, headed for Tokyo to meet my mom. In the next three weeks I will join cheer club, show my mom around Japan, start a new year of school, travel to Kyoto with the other exchange students, and celebrate my seven month-iversary in Japan. A lot of memories behind and a lot of changes ahead of me. I'm terrified, exhilarated, and so very grateful. I have no idea where the time went but I will try to hold onto each second! Until next time, this is Summer of 観音寺。