Peace Boat Orientation

As I said in my last post, Peace Boat orientation began bright and early on Monday morning. However, it wasn’t actually very bright Monday morning, because it was raining, as you can see in the photo below that I snapped at 8am in Shibuya on my way to the Peace Boat office.

When I arrived at the office, it was very surreal, because I was finally able to meet the rest of the GET (Global English Training) teachers that I had been corresponding solely via internet for the past couple months. We began with ice breakers, talking about how we all made our way to Peace Boat, which was a very cool way to get to know each other and all of our very different paths to this point. Following the icebreakers, the rest of the day was filled with meeting more awesome Peace Boat staff and receiving a TON of information. It was all very exciting information, but quite a lot to take in, leaving us all pretty exhausted. Good thing we had some pretty cozy capsules to crawl into at the end of the day…

On the last day of orientation, all fifty members of the Peace Boat staff were brought together for some workshops. For lunch, we broke off into groups to eat and find three things in common among us. Our group bought some bento boxes and took them to the park to eat them under the beautiful cherry blossoms!!

 While our group got along very well, we did not seem to have much in common at all!! There was always one person who would differ from the rest. It was actually pretty hilarious. In the end, the three things we had in common were:

1. We have all been to Okinawa, Kyoto and Osaka.
2. We all like to drink water.
3. We all like funny stories about cockroaches!!
   

Upon returning, we listened to everyone else’s common things. They were also pretty funny.

At the end of the last day, we all went out together for a celebratory dinner and had a final hurrah while we are still on land. At the end of it, most of us were still in disbelief it was really happening…

So, that was the week of orientation. Today was a free day to spend collecting items we still may need or working on some things while we still have internet. Part of my day was spent doing those things, but the highlight was definitely seeing my good high school friend, Nanae! We met up for lunch and caught up on our lives over the past four years…

Now, I am back in my hostel and about to head to bed, but not before I do one more quick post. So, do read on…