Coming Home, Learning, and Why Your School Should Accept Sarah Emily Rogers-Tanner

First of all, I am SO EXCITED to be coming home in August!!! Unfortunately I'll only be in MN for 6 days so if I don't end up seeing you please know that I certainly wish I could see everyone! This trip is going to be quite the whirlwind but also a lot of fun! I can't wait!!!
That being said I have a little piece of writing here that's about how much I love Ujitawara (despite it's far-away-ness)

I love this town. It can get a bit claustrophobic at times but I really like seeing my students all around town. There are kids I play taiko with on Fridays that I also teach at the middle school. I get to see my preschool students in the grocery store (so cute!) And the longer I stay here the more I realize that I'm in some way connected to almost everyone in this town. Just tonight I was riding my bike past what looked like a huge event. There were cars parked on every street (granted, there's not that much 'street' in this town) but there were people lined out the door of this big traditional building (though not a temple). I happened to run into someone who I had met before at the town office and she told me that it was a funeral for the mother of one of the nursery school teachers whose big, welcoming smile always makes me feel at home when I arrive to work in the morning. It was so interesting. If I hadn't talked with that woman it would have been just another event that I passed thinking, "wow," but all of a sudden I was (however minimally) peripherally involved. I've been thinking a lot lately about how many students and adults I know in this town. I've even wondered if the old men who I see on my morning walks have grandchildren that I teach in elementary or middle school. Whenever I hear the ambulance going through town I wonder if it's someone I know or a student's grandparent. Living here, and also experiencing the way teachers work in Japan (it's insanely involved- don't get me started) has really added to and expanded my ideas about community and education... and that's why you should admit me to your graduate program (haha, grad school personal statement on the brain...)

Anyway, I enjoy every day!!! (That's some Japan-glish for you)

Seriously it's great here... but I can't wait to be home ;)