Graduation and Spring Vacation

There were many tears at the junior high graduation last month, but my eyes were only a bit moist. I was given a bunch of very nice notes from the students. I gave two speeches on that day--one a farewell speech to the whole school, and one of them just to the faculty and the drinking party. Both speeches were well received, and at least two of the students also told their younger siblings about my speech.

At the elementary school I only saw a few third and fifth graders crying. For me it was more emotional though, maybe because elementary students are cuter and I'm slightly more attached to them. There is an actual ceremony (relatively short though, at about 30 minutes) to say goodbye to the teachers who are leaving. Every teacher leaving gives a speech at this ceremony. The third-grade teacher had only worked at the school for a year, but during her speech she started crying (she was the only one of all the teachers at either school to do this). At this point I started crying too. Because the elementary school isn't my base school, it was not official that I would not return next year, and thus I wasn't able to actually give a speech to say goodbye. That made me sad. I hope I’ll be able to visit the school again this year, though.

Since I moved apartments and became worried about my singing with the guitar being too loud, I decided to buy an electric violin. I found one at a second-hand shop, but it did not have any accessories except a shoulder rest. Knowing that it didn't have a violin case with it, I first checked around to see if I could find a used one. There was one violin case, but it was quite battered, with the latches just barely holding on, and the bow holders broken, and it smelled funny. It was only $5, but it was such junk that I wasn't sure I would even take it for free. So instead, I bought a cheap tennis racket case (which I needed anyway) for $8 and put the violin in it. It was a bit of a tight fit (probably would have been almost perfect if I had thought to take off the shoulder rest), but I felt that it was better than just carrying the violin in a bag, as I could keep it close to me and carry it easily.

I got home without incident, although I was really nervous, and tried it out. It turned out that there were no batteries, but I was surprised at how decent it sounded even without them. After buying some batteries, I practiced a little longer. Overall I was impressed and excited. However, my left arm started going numb within 5 minutes of playing, so I had to take a break. It happened again, so I decided that I needed to relearn the basics of how to hold a violin.

I moved apartments two weeks ago. The new apartment is much nicer in most ways, especially because it has an actual kitchen. The following weekend two new teachers came, and I did their orientation. 

As for my personal goals, I decided to try a physical checklist instead of using just a blog to track my progress, but I have yet to actually find a way to print it out. Nevertheless I have managed to stay relatively productive in my non-working hours, studying Japanese every day and going climbing at least twice a week.