We got there about 5 minutes early and I was glad we did 'cause there was already a little line of moms & kids waiting to register themselves for the day. This involved receiving a name tag for the new student, finding out which classroom you need to go to after registering, paying a JPY20 fee I think for the day (about 25 cents), placing completed paperwork in appropriate piles, and paying any remaining fees. They'd handmade name tags for each student to wear just for a few hours that day! Our last name was spelled wrong / differently, and they'd prepared a spare blank one just in case but I said it was OK. I didn't quite understand where I was supposed to go but after another try and still not being able to understand, I just said thank you and moved on. @_@ When I went to hand in the forms, I was told that our automatic payment bank form was missing one stamp (personal seal) and I realized I hadn't colored in Juhee's symbol-thing (will explain more later) as I was supposed to so I asked if I could bring it back the next day. Then, we were supposed to go to our allocated classrooms, but of course I went to the wrong one and they had to get someone to help me find the right room... @_@ And of course, everyone had indoor slippers/shoes to wear except for us (it wasn't on the "to bring" list!!!) so we walked up to the classroom in our socks and were greeted by a shocked teacher who immediately ran downstairs to get us some... @_@ Felt so bad!!! One of the teachers explained to me that I had to go downstairs to the "hall" for a "talk" so I said "Yes, thank you" but stuck around for a bit longer to make sure that Juhee was OK. She came up to me again though and informed me that I need to go down. I still had more than 10 minutes left before the scheduled meeting time so I didn't want to go down yet, but I did. As I entered, I noticed that the parents were scanning through and putting a check mark in a box so I looked to see what they were looking at. It was the school bus schedule - yay! We'd told them that Juhee would be taking the bus so I looked for Juhee's name but couldn't see it. She was on the "not sure" list! :( I scanned the various lists again, this time for both her stop "Coco's" (yes, the restaurant) and her name and found her name in brackets by the stop. The teacher in charge of the bus list started talking to me really fast and when I told her "Sorry, I can't speak Japanese" she just completely stopped and didn't know what to do. So I said "I speak a little bit of Japanese" and then she started speaking to me slowly. She had to repeat herself a few times 'cause I kept on guessing wrong as to what she was saying, but we eventually got there - phew! The main problem was that she was asking whether or not Juhee was going to be taking the school bus. I could pick up most of the words of the sentence but I was confused because we already told them that she was taking the bus so I kept on thinking that she was asking something else. One of the things I'm finding the most difficult and frustrating is that I can often identify nouns, adjectives and verbs within a sentence but because of the few missing parts I don't understand, I can't figure out what they're saying! Thankfully, sometimes I can :), but most times, I can't. :( Yet. :)
The next hour and a half was painful as I sat there in the auditorium, listening to the principal and someone else give speeches and go through the handbook while I sat there, trying very hard to pick up on things. Needless to say, I didn't take down a whole lot of notes!
(Click on images to see larger versions.)
After the meeting, a friend of a friend found me and I was sooo grateful!!! Both my friend and her friend speak English - yay!!! :) We both had to go to our kids' classrooms for lunch but we agreed to meet afterwards.
When I went back to the classroom, Juhee was having fun and happy. As best as I could, we followed the teachers' instructions (i.e. copied what everyone else was doing). Lunch was amazing! Each little table had a small vase of fresh flowers, a small towel to wipe the table with (very typical, even in restaurants), and a container for napkins, small spoons and small chopsticks. Each classroom had their own rice cooker and trays of food delivered to them by cafeteria staff all decked out in aprons, hats, etc. The meal was delicious! After the meal, all of the kids had to put their bowls, etc away neatly. Then, finally, the day was over and it was time to go.
The day was supposed to finish at 11:30 but Juhee and I came out at 12:30 so Peter & Sungjae had to wait in the car for a long time. I was very nervous and the day wasn't without hiccups, but I survived, Juhee had fun, and we're a little bit closer to being ready for Juhee to start school in April. I actually know the date of her first day of school now too - April 8th! :) Still need to figure out what we're going to wear that first day, her first day of school "ceremony" day, 'cause all of the kids and moms dress up big time... @_@
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