Sarah's Post - Our First Day at School

Konnichiwa! My name is Sarah Barnes and today I’m updating the blog. This has been taken over by Tara~!!!!! ^_^ Okay, back to regular programming…

Yesterday was our first day of school. It was very interesting to go through all the regular subjects in Nihongo (Japanese). The teachers would ask about American things, like in politics class, the teacher asked about when Americans become adults and can smoke and drink. They were surprised to hear that the driving age in America was 16. Classes were otherwise difficult to understand, especially when teachers were not speaking directly to the American students. Speaking of which, there were 3 other exchange students from America that are staying here for a year, along with a few JET program teachers. It was a welcome sight to see other Americans and I’m sure that speaking in English was even more of a comfort.

Unfortunately, the school’s uniforms haven’t exactly worked out for us- none of the outfits seem to fit anyone. So most of us ended up wearing what we packed (which in my opinion, is more comfortable).

Shout out: Mom and Dad, I’m ok and my host family understands my pickiness with food. I love you and miss you a lot! I will try to call you as soon as possible! >

-Sarah B.

The outside of our sister school, Koyo Senior High.

Katharine pictured with her host, Mimi

Tucker playing basketball in gym. He was a good sport, no shoes or gym clothes but they really wanted him to play!

Trenton in science class from waaay far away.

Brianna and Tara working on a project with homeroom classmates. They

are getting ready for the Koyo School Festival (Koyo Sai)

Hina - Yoshiya`s little girl. We`re best buddies.

Colton pretending he knows what he`s doing with his class`s preparations for Koyo-sai.

Brianna and her host Haruna after the pep assembly for the baseball team.

My former student Andrew Neely and his wife Kayo. It was really awesome seeing them!

Tucker with his gym friends

Tara playing table tennis instead of swimming for PE class. The rain prevented them from doing swimming.

I imagine Jeff is thinking, "Sensei, you usually let me skip pep assemblies..."

Brianna, Tara and Lauren doing self introductions in front of their homeroom.

Colton with his host, Miki.

Carrena with her homeroom hanging out after school.

Pep assembly for the baseball team before a big tournament.

This are the kids hosted by 2nd year students preparing to do self introductions in front of the entire 2nd year student body!









My apologies for delays in posting. The school's firewall has blocked most blogs and I have to wait for special access to get on! I'll try to post more now that I'm figuring out how to get around the rules.