kaitou | Ann-sensei no longer

I just finished my last class with the third year students at the Junior High, and that's it. There will be a goodbye party on Tuesday, but for all intents and purposes, I'm finished. Not a teacher anymore. It's very strange.

It's been really hard to say goodbye to my elementary schools, they've been too fantastic to be believed. Yesterday I got a box of paper cranes from the 6th graders, (the message said that they were all 'handsome and cute') a pillow from the 4th graders embroidered with 'Arigatou Ann-sensei' and everyone's name, and even a boquet of fake flowers made out of tissue paper.

The hardest school to say goodbye to was the first one. My favorite one. Futakawa elementary has only 23 students, from first to third grade, and their goodbye was so personal. When I came in they were singing the school song, we played games together, did one last review of fruit and vegetable names, they sang another song with beautiful little-kid voices. And then they all gave me a letter. Each student read their letter out loud in front of everyone else, and you could tell they put a lot of thought into it. Some students mentioned their favorite game, sometimes even a game we played two years ago. They said wonderful things like "I love Ann-sensei's smiling face" and "Don't forget about us,", "Good luck in America." I was crying, and they were crying. I really wasn't sure I could take it. Then it was my turn to speak and I told them how the most important words in any language were "I Love You." and that I did, so very much.