Bye bye Yanai High School!

Today is my final school day. In less than an hour, I will collect all my stuff, check through my desk drawers and shoe-box, and leave Yanai High School....never to return! Well, actually I have to come back in on Monday to pick up my final salary, and sort out admin-type stuff with my supervisor...but as far as a normal working day is concerned, I'm done! This morning I gave a short speech to the teachers, which seemed to go down quite well, and luckily I didn't make any mistakes. I then sat at my desk for 2 hours getting more and more nervous about the prospect of making my longer speech to the entire school at around 10.30. The time came, I walked on to the stage...listened to the principal make a speech about me...listened to the Mr Sagawa (3rd year student who is the student council president) make a speech about me in Japanese and English..and then it was my turn. First, I read my speech in English, with a microphone that was working sporadically! I was then given a new microphone and I made my 3 minute Japanese speech. I actually really enjoyed it, and am extremely happy to report that I made no mistakes or stumbles! Whooo! After my speech, everyone clapped, as I walked past all the students, and left the gym. It was a really emotional morning, and as I walked off the stage, and caught glimpses of different students who had been real characters in my classes, I did start to well up a little. But, I didn't cry! Go me! Tomorrow is my English-club farewell extravaganza...bowling, karaoke, purikura, and yakiniku. Let's see if I can get through that without blubbing...hope so!