Back to School!

Today I had a very pleasant surprise: Natsumi is visiting! Natsumi was our Japanese foreign exchange student in high school when I was 17. We had 2 classes together, & she is definitely one of the most memorable students to pass through Oak Forest. My friend Katie called me, and she didn't say she was with Natsumi so when I ran outside, I was so excited to see her sitting in the front seat!

 

We drove past the old high school and decided to go walk around it, hoping we could get in without an appointment. It was no problem, since everyone remembered Natsumi and loved her! We visited our old lockers, classrooms, lunchroom, gym, and of course our favorite teachers. Some recognized me, some didn't. (I looked like this when I was in high school!) We found the teacher that Natsumi and I both had for Information Media and were lucky she didn't have a class! We asked about some videos we made back in high school and were sooo lucky she still had them.. on vhs, nonetheless! We watched them for almost an hour, seeing students we totally forgot about and laughing at our dean's awful, awful acting skills. The movie that was made with my group was called "real world oak forest" and was nothing short of ridiculous. I am also very happy I grew out my hair and stopped dying it! :p

 

From back to school

Natsumi in front of her old locker. 

katie performing in the cafetorium (cafeteria + auditorium) 

I hope I can get some pictures of Natsumi and I back in high school. She said she has them, but she's not going back to Japan until Sunday. I think they had to do with "let's see how many articles of clothing we can put on and then take pictures like models" haha. Stay tuned for those... 

In a weird way, I'm really glad we randomly decided to go back to the high school. We had a blast, it was awesome to see Natsumi, and got some great photos out of it. Plus, I feel like I got closure after seeing the Real World Oak Forest.. I've been trying to get a hold of it for awhile, but I think our group copy has been lost. All in all, it was a great Thursday.