Had my last day at the Tokyo Swedish School, where I've been working as a TA, yesterday. This final ceremony took place at the Swedish Embassy in Roppongi (fancy-schmancy ne?!) and basically consisted of speeches, gifts to the students, singing (of various quality), hot dogs, and coffee.
If you know me, you might already know this fact about me, but if you don't, here you go - a slice of my lesser known personality - I absolutely hate goodbyes. I'm rubbish with them, and even the slightest least insignificant farewell will cause me to crumble like a little girl who's lost her favourite teddy bear down a hole in the rocks (happened to me once with hedgehod Pigge, but enough about that) and submerge into melancholy. Ok, not quite that bad, but I goodbyes are not my cup of tea (almost wrote 'piece of cake' - sugar craving much?).
Because I'm soon leaving Japan, they are sort of lined up whether I like it or not.
Even as I stood there in the lounge, handing out hot dogs, I thought to myself: "Here's about 80 people I'll probably never ever see again." Not that I was that close to my students (2 months away and they forgot my name..pfft!) or that I recognised more than a handful parents even after a year - but still! Sometimes even the briefest encounters can have a great effect.
I know I'm happy I've been working at the Swedish school this year, for many reasons. It has been a great experience, I've met some rather wonderful people, and above all else it has taught me a valuable lesson: never ever ever become a teacher!
They gave me flowers as a 'thank you' for this year, and as the poor student I am, and still quite living a temporarily furnished life in Hiyoshi, the grande Starbucks coffee mug had to step in and save the day. Staying classy, as always.
Jo x
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