A bunch of teachers were lined up, and even a few students, and they waved me goodbye forever as I left my technical high school yesterday. That frickin’ sucked. I gave a farewell speech on Monday to the student body, and then a smaller one to the teachers yesterday, and it seemed that once they realized I was leaving, they realized that they really liked me. Or something. It took the fact that I was leaving to realize how great some of the staff and students were. Classic cases of not appreciating something until its gone.

Satsunan was a difficult school at times. Some classes were very talkative and engaged me readily, other classes were tomb-silent and completely uninterested. So I always headed to that school apprehensive, wondering if the day would be good or not. But of course, it was sad as heck to leave.

The school girls were especially friendly, taking pictures and doing their best to converse with me. Lots of pretty, sincere smiles. I joked with my teacher that it will be difficult returning to America because young teenage girls won’t think i’m special anymore. I cracked up as I read one classes’ farewell letters to me. “Thank you for being with me!” they uniformly said. The teacher, an elderly lady, obviously suggested it. What subtle implications the phrase has!

For the rest of my stay, I’ll be at my main high school, doing final classes. This Friday is the culture festival for the school, so I’m really looking forward to that, seeing the kids perform and play in their bands and stuff. There’s even gonna be a punk band! Hooray!

I’m only gonna have a few more posts about Japan, I reckon. I will have to finish the Kyoto one when I get home, I think the photos were salvaged.