The beginnings of a new year.

Today was the ceremony for the new freshmen. Since I am part of the Freshman Staff, I was also included in the photos and even got to go on stage to be introduced to the students. This felt like quite a big deal to me since it made me feel like I was actually a part of the staff and not just the non-speaker that was tossed into the empty seat in the corner. Actually, my seat is in a nice cush location where I can easily harass the students with English as they walk by.

The hardest part of the day, though was trying to decide what to wear. Not because of the girly reasons (kinda), but as a way to physically show everyone that I was the ALT, and not just one of their Japanese teachers. Yet, it was a special occasion so showing up wearing red, white, and blue with cowboy boots didn't seem appropriate. The standard dress code seems to be black suit, white shirt, white tie. I settled on black jacket, black sweater, and red skirt. WHEEE!! I'm a rebel! I always try at school to wear a little bit more color than the other teachers. I guess it's a way to show off my American individuality. Since my face doesn't scream "Foreigner", I've relied on my wardrobe to get that message across. And according to the squeals and かわいい～～　of my second year students, Mission Accomplished.

My last free, yummy, expensive so I would never pay for it bento.