bungled goodbye...

Today I said goodbye to my fave kids at Tachi-chu! It was really hard because who knows if I'll ever seen them after I leave Japan. I said my speech twice... once in English (that was REALLY hard for me!!) and once in Japanese (let the tears dry!). I was given a beautiful bouquet of flowers and hand-written messages from the kids!

The only thing that marred the day a bit was the end. I wanted to take a picture with my baseball boys... I've wanted that for AGES and finally they were all together in the entrance hall and I had a photographer all ready... when in steps Tomomi-sensei (my "friend") and puts a stop to the picture (which given 30 more seconds would have been over anyway). Why?? Because the kids had to go home... and that 30 extra seconds that would have delayed them was unacceptable. (What's more... she allowed these same kids to hang out under the eaves for another 10 minutes before they left!!)

I've never been so hurt in my life!! Tomomi is someone I consider a friend... after the kids did leave she tried to apologize... but for once, I turned into the old, semi-confrontational Alisha. The one who doesn't say "yeah, that's alright," and told her off. Told her that she doesn't know what leaving is like, and that I may never see any of those kids and that I've been trying to take pictures all month, all week... all day! Then my taxi arrived and I got in and left... seething.

So, my kids... were lovely. I LOVE them!! I'm not exactly sad to leave the teachers...

sorry for the rant! Just needed one last go at it before I let it go. I'm better now!