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closing ceremony today!! watched the kids hand over the christmas cards they made in my class to kimoto-sensei.. which they wrote in english.. which she doesn’t understand… how sweet in spite of that… they couldn’t even finish getting the words out before crying and these weren’t even kids from her homeroom omfg. they kept looking at her and being like ah abunai… ahhh yadaa…..

when i started last year, one of the cultural differences that threw me in for a loop was not being auto-friendly with all my co-workers. everyone was cordial! but kimoto-sensei was one of the few teachers other than the english department that tried talking to me beyond just the office greetings. we were in the same desk grouping and whenever she’d pass my desk she’d make point to ask me questions… being able to chat with her more was honestly a huge source of motivation for learning japanese (as i told her drunkenly and sickenly when she drove me home from the christmas party) since i couldn’t resort to english at all (even though she did try to speak it with me plenty) so it was soooooo heartbreaking when the new school year started and she moved farther away to sit with the second year teachers. but despite the distance, she’d still make sure to greet me in the morning and when i was studying for the jlpt, she’d come by and ask me what i was learning that day and then help explain things i was confused about or even just give me examples. whether i understood her explanations never really mattered, but it really just meant a lot to be checked in on and believed in by someone who didn’t really have to. and i always tell the story about how she gifted me a weight scale in jest but she did it because i was always talking about working out and she thought it would help me in my fitness journey which is honestly just so sweet dawg. the office is losing a big wonderful presence and i am grateful to have been on the receiving end of her kindness…

anyways after that two students were walking by and made a pit stop at my desk to ask for fish stickers. they spread everything in the sticker jar all over my desk to find them but there was only one so i said id buy more. gave them 3 each and they were on their merry way