Out with the Old, In with the New

It seems that my time in Japan is all about learning lessons in life, and boy did I learn some important lessons this past week! I learned that you should always make sure that you have your house keys before leaving work (because negotiating a hotel room in limited Japanese/English at 11:00 pm and wearing the same suit for 36+ hours isn't fun). Also, I learned that people remember the strangest things (the nurse at the hospital remembered exactly who I was from my last trip there in February). Lastly, I am slowly learning not to answer my door between the hours of 9:00 and 11:00 am. These knocks can only be coming from my monthly Jehovah's Witness visits, where I end up feeling guilty when I tell the nice Japanese grandmother that "Sorry, I not Bible reader".

Also, as the title of this entry reads, Kurt finished his teaching contract this past week, and we got a new foreign teacher, Nick. Here are some pictures from the Farewell/Welcome party that we had this past Saturday. These poor guys were forced to speak English for most of the night, as they trapped me at their table. It was fun though, as three of them are my regular students.

Here is a picture of us outside of the restaurant at the end of the night. I guess Kurt must have been a popular teacher, since we had about 45 or so people at the party. :) Can you pick the three Americans out?

One final picture of me with the troublesome boys (Kurt and Shu). Now that they have both left the school, I've got my work cut out for me. We did have some great times together, and I will never forget them looking up the Kanji for transvestite one night after work (to see if that was what the hostess bar was advertising).