1st day of school

today was the first day of school. now this school does things a bit different. on the first day, all we do is have an opening ceremony and kids sit with their homeroom teachers and chat i guess.
kinda not the most fruitful day but i did get alot of work done since i stayed there for the whole day. it was great seeing the kids back and how they (especially the boys) can change over 2 months. new teachers were introduced and all that good stuff. but it started raining and that cut it short a bit - which was nice.

we also said goodbye to one of our students. over the summer one of the students in year 9 died. it was one of those totally ridiculous and senseless things. apparently he was changing a light bulb with wet hands and got electrocuted. now this is crap! and i guess faulty wiring from buildings put up with lax safety standards. some of his friends said a few words for him. they had been together since year 1 and it was really hard.

at the end of the day, i found myself thinking about how funny emotions can be. i found out about Ahmet over the summer and was shocked. I got a little choked up when the kids were talking about him (others in the audience were also crying). i later went to go and say a few words to him mom (she school presented her with a picture/plaque thingy for remembrance). she was all broken up and crying. when i went to her, she hugged and kissed me and told me that Ahmet said that i was his favorite teacher and how he would spend loads of time on the computer doing work for my classes. I told her how great he was (he really was a lovely kid) and i would miss him - i just kinda have a mental picture of his seat being empty. i taught him two subjects and he sat in the same place for each class. Now, if you'd asked me my reaction before hand, i would have said ehh, nothing much. i left the woman and i was bawling. somehow, her comment, the situation just cracked my hard outer shell.