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July 12, 2003 |
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John Sparks gives his students some last words of advice and information before they leave to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train). All aboard! Next stop, host families!
From July 7-15, Valparaiso High School will be hosted by families from Hibari Gaoka High School. This is a picture of the main complex, the front entrance, and courtyard.
It may be raining, but nothing can dampen the spirits of the students from Valparaiso! Here, the students are waiting to catch the train on the Odakyu Line. Notice that none of them are carrying their huge suitcases? Many, many thanks to Perikan!
The NP:J students and teachers have been met by representatives of Hibari Gaoka at the train station near the school. The young man to the far left of the photo is a British foreign exchange student from Newcastle, Mike. Uno-sensei, an English teacher at Hibari Gaoko is in the back row, wearing glasses, standing to the right of Sparks-sensei and behind her.
Sparks-sensei kicked off the self-introductions by introducing the Valparaiso group. The first student to deliver his introduction was Louis McGhee. Both he and his peers did a great job!
Okay, I'm a little nervouse, because we've just met! But I'm happy because my host sister seems pretty cool!
I have an ice cold Coca Cola and a host brother who is REALLY happy to meet me! Life is good!
A host family poses with their NP:J host student before going home. We can't tell but it looks like the family just told the student that they'll be eating raw squid for dinner... |
A Very Special Sort of Summer School Monday morning, July 7th, all of the New Perspectives: Japan (NP:J) students and teachers woke up early, and brought their luggage down to the lobby of Building A at the Olympic Village. Their largest piece of luggage was wrapped in a special "perikan" (Pelican) bag. Pelican is the name of a luggage service that transports traveler's bags from one location to another. This saves the NP:J participants from hauling all of their luggage through the crowded streets and rail lines and airports of Japan! It was a bit overcast and cool on Monday morning. The weather continues to be unseasonably cool in Japan and this makes everyone's experience that much more comfortable. By 8:30 a.m., most of the eight school groups had had breakfast, were checked out of their rooms, and were meaking their way to the first leg of their journeys to their home schools. The schools are spread out over a pretty vast distance, with the furthest being Issaquah High School to the North in Sendai and, furthest to the South, Chesterton High School in Nagoya. For each Study Tour, the staff of TLI accompanies one of the NP:J schools to their host school on their "first day of school." This past Monday, we tagged along with Valparaiso High School's sensei, Cathy Sparks, and her students as they wended their way through Tokyo to meet their host school teachers and host families at "Hibari Gaoka" (Hibari Hill High School). The trip to the school took approximately two hours. Once the students' bags were taken care of by the Pelican service, Valparaiso walked to the Sangubashi eki to catch the Odakyu Line. Luckily, the train was outbound---heading out of Tokyo---during rush hour. Consequently, the students and teachers were able to get seats pretty easily, unlike most commuters on a Monday morning, who were being packed like sardines on most inbound trains! While on the train, many of the students used the time to practice their self-introductions in Japanese, and spent some time trying to learn a bit more Japanese vocabulary before they met their host families. After approximately twenty-five stops on the Odakyu Line, Valparaiso transferred to the Sotetsu Line for a much shorter, two stop trip to the station closest to Hibari Gaoka. Like all other NP:J groups, the students and teachers from Valparaiso were met at the train station by a representative from the host school. In this case, Uno-sensei (an English teacher at the host school) and a foreign exchange student from England (named Mark) met everyone as they approached the station exit. Introductions ensued and, following a brief moment to take a "shashin" (photo) at the station, everyone gathered their belongings and began the fifteen-minute walk from the station to Hibari Gaoka. Uno-sensei provided a brief description of Hibari Gaoka during the walk to the school. They pride themselves on having a very active international exchange program. Over thirty exchange students from around the globe are currently studying at Hibari Gaoka, including three students from America–one of whom is a former NP:J student from the 2001 program! Upon our arrival at the school, everyone removed their shoes and left them in the "genkan" (the entry way where outdoor shoes are left) and replaced them with school slippers. Uno-sensei brought everyone to a classroom where the students would eventually meet Sugawa-sensei, a teacher of English and French, as well as the school's Vice Principal and all of their host families. Sugawa-sensei and Uno-sensei reviewed Valparaiso's schedule for the next week. In addition to "shadowing" their host brother or host sister through classes for the next week, several special activities and field trips are planned. While these activities vary from school to school, Valparaiso's schedule will probably be partially similar to schedules for other NP:J schools. In Valparaiso's case, an offical welcoming celebration was held Tuesday at the high school. They would have held the celebration on Monday, but all of the students are fully immersed in their exam schedule, an incredibly important time of the academic year in Japan. After school club activities will include kendo, archery, karate and English. Also, the school will host a special calligraphy class for Valparaiso. On Saturday, all of the host families have been invited to join the Valparaiso group on a special field trip to Chinatown in Yokohama! Each of the Valparaiso students -- as well as their teacher/chaperones -- were asked to introduce themselves in Japanese. Everyone did a terrific job. The senseis and students at Hibari Gaoko were all very impressed with the quality of the students' Japanese speaking skills. Sugawa-sensei commented: "Wow! They did a great job! You must have a very good sensei!" As each self-introduction ended, the students were individually introduced to her or his host family. In some cases, one or both parents were present and, in other cases, if the parents were both unavailable due to work, the students were introduced to their host sister or host brother. More introductions took place. The students from Valparaiso were a bit more relaxed with their second set of self-introductions but their Japanese peers, having not had the benefit of a "warm up" self-introduction, were quite nervouse while speaking English. I think all of the young people, Japanese and American alike, were relieved to finally meet each other. As the introduction meeting drew to a close, many of the students were beginning to feel much more relaxed about the host family/school portion of the Study Tour. By noon or a bit thereafter, everyone from Valparaiso left school and went home to meet the rest of their host family. They were told that they were going to be visiting the middle school on Tuesday morning to meet the students there and to provide some help with English classes. They needed to be at Hibari Gaoka at 8:15 a.m. sharp! As of Tuesday evening, July 8th, all of the NP:J participants had received their Pelican luggage and were getting comfortably adjusted to life with their new-found families. As past experience has shown, they are certainly in for a very rewarding experience. According to the NP:J senseis, everyone appears to be doing quite well. A few cases of understandable homesickness aside, the NP:J students are having a marvelous learning experience. Thank you for checking in! This has been a brief "bonus" glimpse at the unique period of time when NP:J participants find themselves living more independently from their school groups in Japanese homes and communities. If past patterns of NP:J learning hold true -- and we are sure they will -- each of the participants is undergoing a time of substantial personal growth. Thank you for your ongoing support! We will be posting two more issues of the NP:J Newsletter. Please look for these issues on July 15th and 18th. We'll see you again on July 15th when all NP:J participants arrive in Kyoto! |
