KONNICHIWHAT!?: For the first time

My post title is referring to the fact that yesterday, for the first time, I actually realized that there are some students of mine that I'll really miss seeing when this adventure comes to an end. I hadn't really had that moment yet; that thought, but there I was, laying in bed, thinking about the students that I enjoy seeing, teaching and interacting with. Obviously, this is a good thing but it's not without a negative side. Maybe not so much negative as it is bittersweet. It's great that I'm finally at that moment where I can enjoy certain students, having now had enough time to learn about them, their interests and personalities. However, when it all comes to an end, it's going to make it all the more difficult to say goodbye to them. How's that gonna' go down? I've thought about that scenario for sure and I'm thinking that the Japanese teachers for the schools that I teach at will give the students a heads-up about my departure date so that it's not so sudden an jarring for them when suddenly I'm gone. I suppose it's an inevitability in this line of work and I also know that the students have seen it all before, the coming and going of native teachers, but I'm almost certain I'll be feeling guilty saying goodbye. Why? Because I've been spending this time trying to form relationships and trust with these students so that the hour we spend with each other every month is a comfortable, fun experience. Then I feel like I'm going to be that jerk native that suddenly tosses it all out the window and lets these kids down by going home. "He came into our lives and then he was gone". I'm already having these thoughts at the near-halfway point, so I can only imagine these feelings will be stronger come this September.

In other news, in one of my classes yesterday I was teaching the students (2 girls and 1 boy) about Valentines day and White day. White day, for those that don't know, is on March 14th and it's when boys give girls chocolates. See, on Valentines day here, still February 14th, girls give chocolates to the boys. The point of all this was that I was giving them a hard time about whether or not they had boyfriends and girlfriends and I caught the girls passing love messages back and forth...about me! Ah, I've never been the focus of a crush before...at least not that I was aware of. My classes, so far this week, have been pretty awesome and the kids have all been well behaved. Today, in Yellow class (4 year olds), I had a new student who my Japanese teacher informed me is a total crybaby. This little dude cries about EVERYTHING! His mom sat in on the class to supervise his behavior so he wouldn't have a complete meltdown but he still came close to it. He cried for almost the entire hour and I only hope this behavior changes. I can't imagine another 7 months of that. Two more days at this school for the week and then I have a nice two-day weekend. Next week will kill me...wish me luck.