Kita welcome party

After talking to Mom and Dad this morning, I got ready for tennis. Nobody was there by 2, though, so I gave up. I called Naomi, the new English teacher who's fresh off the boat from Canada. We drove out to Green Park in Kechi and threw the baseball, softball, and frisbee at the beach.

That evening, Kita Sho had its welcome party for the new teachers. I was shocked as the teachers began arriving: almost half of the faculty was new. The principal and the tea lady had retired, which I'd known about, but the first-, second-, and third-grade teachers had all transferred. Tanaka, the vice principal, was still there, thank goodness.

Dinner was nice. I learned that the new tea lady, who can't be any older than me, is the daughter of Tsushima High's endearingly surly math teacher, who is likely the oldest teacher at the school. She couldn't be more different from him: she spent the evening bouncing around and talking to everyone, though she spent decidedly more time flirting with the principal and vice principal.

After the meal, Umeno and Araki gave a "test" to the new teachers, as part of their initiation to Tsushima. After a few Tsushima- and Kita Sho-related questions, they gave a few in English. For this, they asked me to ask one question. They wanted me to make something up, but to be sure to ask it at native speed. Araki warned everyone to listen carefully, and imitated how I would sound by trilling his tongue. Seizing the moment, I gave the question by trilling my tongue. This went over pretty well, and my real question was easily handled: who is the president?

We headed to Pleasure for karaoke afterwards, and fifteen of us crammed into one room. I spoke at length with Tanaka, and found out that his son is 21, which explains even further why we get along so well. He told Umeno and others about when he picked me up for my first day at Kita Sho. I spoke very little Japanese at the time, and he spoke very little English, so we mostly grunted, laughed, and played charades to communicate.

The new P.E. teacher, an older guy from Kuta Sho, shocked me by busting out some very impressive English. He sang a Ray Charles song before asking me to sing LINK Georgia.