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Today was my first visit to a junior high school on one of my islands. Yes, it is the end of January, and I just did a first visit. Just in time, too...I'll be seeing the 3rd year students at the high school before you can blink! So, maybe today was more like a high school preview! :-)

Anyway, I had typical first visit jitters - what will the students be like? what will the teachers be like? what do I wear? and so on. Added to the normal first visit jitters was the will I make it to the ferry on time jitter. If you miss the ferry, there's not exactly another one coming by anytime soon!

Thankfully, I woke up on time this morning! My next challenge was selecting an outfit. My experience with junior high schools so far has been that the staff members tend to dress casually. I put on a pair of nice black pants, a grey sweater, and to make it slightly more casual, a grey hooded cardigan. As a whim, I tossed my black blazer into my backpack. It's always nice to cover one's bases!

Well, I made it to the ferry with plenty of time to spare. That would be the last good thing to happen until I arrived at the island. Let's just say that I'm not cut out to be a sea captain!

My driver took me to school once we escaped the Ferry of Doom. Imagine my surprise when all the teachers were wearing...yup, suits! I think perhaps the whim may have been from God!

While I was in the staff room before class, the vice-principal handed this to me:

First, I thought, "Well, not quite outer space...just America!" Just kidding! Turns out, after some explanation, this is an anime thing. All morning, the picture just made me want to giggle.

After classes in the 3rd and 4th period, I was supposed to pick up my lunch from the staff room and take it to have lunch with the 3rd year students. Imagine my surprise when I found that I had customized decorations! There was a placemat with those characters, and a chopstick holder and a spoon holder! That really made my day! It was so cute!

It also turned out that this same character was on the banner in the 3rd year classroom. so, we had our class photo taken under it!
Overall, I would have to say it was a pretty good day!

BTW, you may have noticed there was no post yesterday. This was basically due to a revolt on the part of my electronic devices. They are now under threat of replacement and doing much better. They don't have a union, so I can do that.