Last Days

It's been a whirlwind here the past few days. Crazy enough to keep me on my toes and keep me from getting to nostalgic or weepy. Saturday we went to Osaka where we hit several neighborhoods on our own and met up with Iwa High School staff for an amazing goodbye dinner. It was one of the best carefree days I've ever had. That's us color coordinating with a giant ferris wheel up there, by the way.

Sunday turned out to be the complete opposite with almost every stupid thing that could possibly go wrong doing so. Just lots of small foolish things on our part which culminated in Colleen reversing the car into a steel pole and shattering its back window. We walked away fine and the car only had a small dent and the loss of a lot of glass to show for it, but it really topped off one the most downright crappy days I've ever had.

Yesterday I spent most of the morning fretting about the weight of my luggage which teetering right around the 70 lb. 'must be counted as cargo' point. (I know I'm paying a heavy baggage fee, but we really can't afford the cargo shipment fee.) Then my afternoon was spent tendign to car repair. Or lack thereof. We decided the car is officially scrap metal after we leave so Colleen will just be driving around with a sheet of plastic in the back for the next couple weeks. A 1998 Daihatsu is the equivalent of a 1973 Ford Pinto in a country where people buy a new car at least once every two years, so this really just dots the "i" on that point.

After that, we went to a final BBQ dinner at Albero. Good time all around: mellow, not too sentimental, good food. And tonight I'm going to a final dinner with my English Conversation class. At least the quality of my meals has been consistent the past few days. Nothing else has.