AEON Farewell Party

Last month, in an emotional goodbye, I said goodbye to Aeon Hikarigaoka. The best time for a teacher is when you see your students' improvement, and to have been teaching some of my students for more than 18 months, I was proud of them all for studying so hard. It's sad to part when I won't be able to see them reach their goals, so I wish them every luck studying and improving!!!
Here are some pictures of students:

And here's my nerve-wracking speech (with subtitles!):

Happy Hallow-Aeon!

Happy Hallowe'en! In celebration at Aeon, we've been wearing our Hallowe'en costumes for the past 6 working days (as you can imagine.. our costumes weren't particularly fresh by the end)! Jen and I worked hard to make our costumes (we bought fabric and used the magic that is superglue), and although she felt strange wearing a costume, I on the other hand may have discovered a new cosplaying hobby.. *ahem*

Heart Catch Pre Cure  is an extremely popular animation series by the same studios as Sailor Moon. In fact many students thought that I was Sailor Moon, which made me very happy, but I was in fact Cure Blossom!

 

Disclaimer: As this is a public blog, I have not uploaded any pictures showing young students' faces.

Xor is leaving Japan tomorrow (November 2nd 2010) to move back to Seattle and live happily ever after! I've been working with her for 14 months, and earning 'teacher of the month' at Aeon goes a long way to say that she was an amazing, hard-working, always genki teacher, and she will be sorely missed :'(

As always, a Farewell party of 63 people was held at Watami, followed by the biggest karaoke group ever- a little under 30 people turned up to sing Xor off in style!

The new teacher and Xor making their speeches and traditional kampai toasts

 

 

 

 

 

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner, time is really flying, and the surprise birth of a new baby girl cousin really showed me how cut-off I am from home! 

I'm thinking about you all, so please don't forget me in a hurry!

Sayonara Simon-Sensei

AEON Student Party Saturday 19th June
This week has seen the leaving of my very good friend, Simon, from AEON Hikarigaoka. I'm really sad he's left the crew, we've had some great laughs together, and I have a lot of happy memories :) Although Simon is staying in Tokyo, his future remains uncertain until he successfully finds a new job.

 Drawn by one of Simon's kids classes

Simon's replacement is Richard Sensei,  a 30-something French-born Californian. He seems mature, but amicable, and I look forward to working with him.

This leaves me the only British-speaking teacher at the school; my accent is sure to degrade!!! :(

The boys: Richard Sensei (left) Simon Sensei (right)

Last night was the long-anticipated Farewell Part held again at Watami, the local large-capacity Japanese-style restaurant.




Kampai!!!!

The party is a fantastic and rare chance to mingle with so many students of other classes, drink as much as I want for free(!!), get some great travel ideas and importantly to practice my Japanese ^^

I had a fantastic time!

 

I also managed to sneakily watch the Japan vs Netherlands first-round World Cup match via a student's cell phone, which was sadly a loss for the Japan side.

Later on, we hit the Karaoke in Nerima (a 10 minute walk from home-lucky me!)

Simon and I singing a farewell song in Japanese

Our Area Manager joined us- a rare and at first unnerving privilege-and he turned out to be an absolute party animal!!

Next on my itinerary is Cara and Laura's visit- which is only 7 days away!