Hannah's Graduation

 Yesterday was Hannah's graduation!

Christopher and I traveled to the city by train and then made a mad dash for the bus! I got to practice my speed walking!!

Unfortunately, the weather was bad, very cold, rainy, and windy; it actually snowed later on! 

The bus we got said that the stop was in front of the venue. The bus company's idea of in front of something and mine were very different! I was expecting to see the building and just walk through a parking lot. Instead, we got off at a busy street that was more residential than city buildings. Christopher had his phone, but it was difficult to read the map as the rain was very heavy then. We were dashing from shelter to shelter, trying to figure out which way to go. I was worried about being late. According to the map, it was a six-minute walk from the stop.  I often wonder how they figure out how many minutes it takes to walk from one place to another. I don't think they use a 62-year-old woman with a bad knee as a model for walking speed. It took us more like 15 minutes to get to the building. 

I thought Hannah would already be there, but she was still on a shuttle bus from her university. 

She arrived a few minutes after us. I didn't recognize her at first. With her hair and make-up done and wearing a hakama she looked very different. And very beautiful!

Selfies from Hannah

Hannah's hakama

with me feeling very proud

with Christopher

ribbon on the back of her hair

Waiting to go in

outside the hall

The ceremony started at 10:30. The graduates sat at the front of the auditorium. Parents and guests sat behind.

The banner is the name of the university and the year of graduation

On the left are university staff, on the right (blocked by the lady's head) are special guests.

First they read out how many students were graduating from each department. Then, a representative student was called to collect their diploma.

This is the student who represented Hannah's course.

This took a long time.

Then came the speeches. I tried to focus and understand what was being said, but I was sleepy, rather warm, and comfortable. I kind of dozed off!! I have the excuse that I can't catch all the Japanese, as it tends to be rather formal, but I wonder what excuses other people had?! I noticed a lot of people dozing off during the speeches.

After the main ceremony, Hannah's course and another course were asked to stay behind to receive their diplomas and licenses. Hannah now has a license to teach in elementary school and at a special needs school.

Hannah getting her diploma

With two of her teachers

The sign says about the graduation

I had called Mikey while I was waiting for Hannah to finish. He was kind enough to come and pick us up, which really helped.

We took Hannah to the kimono shop so she could change out of the hakama.  Of course, things didn't go as planned. The building where you change is separate from the kimono shop. You have to take off your shoes to go in. After Hannah changed, she called me. Somebody had taken Hannah's boots by mistake. Staff knew who went into the building at the same time as Hannah, so they could call her. A few minutes later, the girl came back and exchanged boots.  We thought it was rather funny!

After that, we had a quick lunch. Nothing fancy, but we enjoyed it. Hannah said it was nice to eat something that she didn't have to cook. I felt the same way.

At lunch

Nice and simple

After that we dropped Hannah off at her apartment and we made our way back to teach.

The weather got really bad. The rain had turned to snow, and was really coming down! The video doesn't show how bad it was!

We got to the city in time to start our classes. 

We didn't get back home until 10:30 at night, long day!

The course that Hannah graduated from had a party/dinner in the evening.

Hannah sent me loads of photos. I think it was a nice way to say goodbye to friends who had been together for four years!

From her class

With her teacher

selfies again

It was a nice day! Exhausting but wonderful. Happy and sad. On these days like this, I really miss Hisao!

I'm very proud of Hannah. The past four years have seen her grow up so much!  When she started it was at the time of the pandemic. For the first year, most of her classes were online. We didn't know if she would have a real university experience, if all four years would be online or not.  But as we got over the pandemic and things went back to normal, she started having classes and meetings at university. She did her one-month teacher's training. During that time, she realized that as much as she enjoys teaching elementary school children, the workload, the attitude of both parents and kids, and the way new subjects are added to the curriculum, that job wasn't for her. She decided to go to graduate school and get her license to teach at junior high school.  She has managed to work part-time, usually two different jobs at the same time to make money for everything!

In April, she will start her graduate course. She is already thinking about her thesis!  

I'm hoping the next three years will be good for her and she can go on to become an English teacher in junior high school.

I got lucky as my student today canceled her class, so I could rest a bit! I'm glad, as I was so tired last night! According to my fit app I did over 5000 steps yesterday! Good but exhausting!