Last Few Weeks: Newcomers Party

The newcomers party was held last Monday (15th Aug). I went to meet the new ALTs and also meet the re-contractors who I hadn't seen for a few weeks.

I had a strange feeling at the party. It was held in Hot Spot which used to be Cheers, the venue for last year's Welcome Party, so it brought back all the memories from when I arrived last year. And to be surrounded by 76 new ALTs, I wasn't sure if they were invading my turf or I was gatecrashing their party. There was only one way to suppress these feelings; get drunk and moan about the food.

The party was a nomi-tabehodai (all you can drink and eat), with the drinks coming from behind the bar and the food served buffet style. HotSpot had put out extra tables so everyone could sit with their food, but it made things a bit too crowded so I escaped with some second years to one of the snugs. It was there I met Errol, the new Niigata Prefectoral Advisor.

A few more drinks later, it was time to get up and dance. At the time teh floor was pretty empty but it eventually filled up as everyone else got more drunk. I met some more new ALTs, including one who was really interested in play footy for us. From the conversations I had, it sounds like most of the newbies are heading to Sado this weekend for teh Earth Celebration. I'm still undecided, mainly because I want to save money for when I got back home in September.

The newbies were all staying at the BoE dorms so they had a curfew of 9.30pm, just as we had last year. This left HotSpot entirley to the re-contractors and soon took over the pool table and carried on drinking til the wee hours.

Getting up early on Tuesday to catch the coach back was difficult, but once I'd got onboard I slept all the way and was ready for work. Maybe I should take the bus more often than driving all the way there and back to Niigata.