Freshman camp

There have been quite a few things that I haven't been able to talk about recently, so I'm going to play catch up.


Freshman camp is one of the bigger events this summer. This is the first large event for freshman, and it is a bonding experience for both students to students, but also students to BEST club. This is one the first times where freshman get to be involved in activities with upper classmen and get to really meet all the members of BEST.

It was quite fun, and it marks a great milestone in my relationships with students. In BEST club, it has become a tradition for the each grade class to have matching sports jerseys with their names on the back. This way when everyone plays sports, you can see who is in what class. Well, in the middle of the camp, both Mandy and I were both surprised by the sophomore class with matching sophomore class jerseys! It's hard to express the meaning that is behind a gift like that, but it's quite incredible. The current sophomore class is who we are the closest with, and I almost cried at the thought that they wanted to include us as a sophomore! It's a big deal! Anyway, enough sappynesss, here are some pictures.

Argentina colors. And I think they picked number 6, because that is the month of my birthday.

In some ways, I feel like "belonging" is one of the highest values in Japanese culture, (where as in America "independence" is higher) so to be invited to 'belong' is a very, very strong sentiment.

...ok, ok, I'm going to stop, or I may cry again...