I recently joined a local sports club I’ve been wanting to join ever since I arrived here 7 years ago. It’s quite expensive, so I’d shied away from it before. (Thanks to Smith’s School of English, I can now afford such a luxury!) Wouldn’t you know I ran into one of our students my first day there! We later met for a yoga class and had a great time. We both enjoyed chit chatting in a setting completely unrelated from the school. Far from making either of us self-conscious, exercising together made us feel like we were in the same boat. Our schedules don’t always match, but we join the same yoga lesson when we can. I am confident she’ll tell her friends at the sportsclub about our school.
I’d known that some of our other wealthier housewives had also had memberships there, but I’d heard they’d stopped going. To my surprise, a couple of them have kept their memberships (still paying monthly dues) even though they had stopped going. This week, I made a date with one of them (whose children we also teach) to go to the gym together. I showed up early in the morning with no makeup. (The horror!) And to my great relief, she did too! (Nice way to bond for us girls!) We really enjoyed it, laughing and chatting, and learning from one of the trainers how to properly use free weights.
It’s always great to see students out of class! Of course, owning our own school makes this possible. And rewarding, both for us and for our students.
My husband and I really feel part of a community here in Azamino, which is one of the best things about being here and having a Smith’s school.
Leave the mega-stations like Shibuya to the mega-schools. I’ll take a small, personal, loyal neighborhood any day!
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