Friday, July 13, 2007

Anna Molly

Is the fantastic song that I am listening to. I love Incubus! So. Life is tough. Actually, life is great, but jet lag is tough. Very. As I type this, it is 4:02 a.m. and I am wide awake. No fun!

We left Japan on Monday but I finally got home on Tuesday night. What a long trip! It did not make it any easier because I was trying to come up with cunning plans that would keep me in Japan a bit longer, but nothing worked. I should have let Sara go ahead and steal my passport.

Saying goodbye this year was much harder. Much, much harder. So, Saturday we did the fireworks/onsen thing. I cannot spend too much time there because it is so humid and way hot and it messes with my asthma. I love it anyway!

Sunday was of course church. Mr. Siato (I love him- he is like my Japanese grandfather) found out that am the editor for the school paper and wanted me to read a little speech he was going to make later in the day. Haha, such a great guy. He gave me a Japanese poem, some sheet music to his song, and his email address. He wants me to send his copies of my writing. Then, I was finishing up a fantastic book titled Captivating and he wanted to know the title, author, and publishing company. That is fine, but the book is about the feminity of women's souls.

After church we had the fabulous potluck. Loved it! After potluck the church presented us with these fabulous gifts. They are stamps with our names on it. Written in katakana or hirigana (?) of course. Love it!! What a fabulous gift. Thank you!

We all got up there and said a few words about LST and what it meant to us. Already, I wanted to cry! So sad!

We then got ready for the farewell party. It was great. Emotional, but great. I have not put any pictures up yet since I have been back, but I took no less than 50 pictures that night. Honest! We gave all of our readers that were there little certificates of appreciation, and that was difficult. Gah, I wanted to just stop right there and say I was staying forever! Alas, I could not. It had to continue. Our readers had gotten together and made us these personalized pictures that everybody signed. Oh my gosh! I could not have received a more perfect gift. Thank you!!! Beautiful.

After all the speeches came the cameras, and after the cameras came the goodbyes. Man, I hated it. I took pictures with practically everybody there. Amazing.

After the party we went to dinner. My last Japanese meal was shared with Anna, Sara and Hanna. Perfect fit! We went to the tempura shop and I had tempura. I was delicious. Sara and Anna freaked me out by eating my shrimp tails. Crazy!

After dinner we made our way to karaoke! Yay! It is not a long walk from the church, but it felt like it took forever. Anna and I were walking together and talking when Sara came and grabbed our hands and cried the whole time. She did not want us to leave! The three of us walked hand in hand all the way to Cosmo World. It was around 9 when we go there. Hanna, Sara and Makoto had to leave at about 9:30. NOOO!!! Those three were so hard to say goodbye to. Hanna and Sara especially. I was fine until Makoto started crying. Shy Makoto! The girl who never speaks! Oh my goodness. That broke my heart. She actually reached out and hugged me! Wow.

We went back inside and tried to sing a few songs. Yeah, it did not happen. People had to catch the train and many people were leaving at different times. Wow. It was harder to say goodbye to some more than others.

About 10:00 Sugao came by and gave us some gifts. He gave me and Tyler puzzles, Holly a purse, and Shane and Adam cool t-shirts. How sweet! When he left, Minako and Yuka showed up to say goodbye. They gave us sweet letters and we took pictures. Yuka goes to school in Abilene, and Minako will be in Lubbock in October. That is great!

Around 11 Mike came by to take Anna home. She was really hard to say bye to. We became real close that last week. I miss her!! She was balling. I was balling. The other two girls were balling. Sad day!!! Gah! The tears! I wanted to take her home! She is like a sister to me.

Around 11:30 we all moved into one karaoke room and sang together. The Snow's left. Michi cracked us all up by singing. She sings beautifully by the way.

We sang until around 12:30 when Holly announced that she was ready to leave. Masayo, Rina, and Kaori walked us out and it took us forever to say goodbye to those girls. Masayo was crying the whole time! Gah! Kaori wanted to take my glasses. I made Rina say my name because I like the way she pronounced it. We finally got back to the church around 1:00 a.m.

That is where the fun began! I had not even started packing, so I had to have that done by 8. Plus, we had to have the church cleaned up and all that good stuff. I planned on not sleeping. I did not.

It was about 3:45 when we realized the sun would be up in a matter of minutes. We made our way to the beach to watch the sun rise. Beautiful!!

We got back to the church and I finally started packing. Six weeks of packing items is not fun to do in about an hour and a half. However, I got it done, and I cleaned the entire upstairs.

Sugao came to the church around 7:30 to help us load up. Junichi showed up around 8. Judith, Michi, Ma-Chan, Mr. and Mrs. Siato all showed up around 8:30 to see us off. Judith and Michi went with us to the bus stop.

Our bus left at 9:25, so we got to the stop about 9. When we got there, there were the 5 LST people, Mr. and Mrs. Snow, Bryan, Dan, Tomoko and Kiara, Jun, Junichi, Judith, Michi, Sugao, and Mike showed up right at the end. We said goodbye to all those wonderful people and got onto the bus. I did not cry, but once I got on the bus, I let the water works pour.

I miss it all already.

The flight was not too bad. I gave up my aisle seat to a young girl so she could be with her friend, and sat in the middle between Tyler and Holly.

We got in Houston, went through the immigration and customs thing and had just enough time to board our plane. We finally landed in Dallas ahead of schedule and dad and Hannah met me at the airport.

We went to my families house in Arlington and had a nice party. My grandmother was there. My sister Hannah, dad, cousin Caitlin, Kim and Darren and their three kids. Great time! I slept over there and had to be at the hotel in Dallas by 10 for the End Meeting.

End Meeting over at 2.

6 hour drive back to dad's house. I tried not to sleep in the car, but failed.

Had Mexican food for dinner. Awesome!!

Got to dads a little after 9:30.

Checked my email and I had an email from Anna! Awesome! I love her! Tried to go to sleep, but wound up staying up all night. I finally went to sleep around 8 a.m. Dad woke me up around 1:45 that afternoon. Went to get my sisters car from my moms house. It was a little wierd to be driving. I loved it! Went and saw my mom at work and had dinner with her. Went to my aunt and uncles house and saw them. None of my cousins were home, but when I was leaving I saw Matthew nad Micah pull into the driveway. So, I saw them the day before I left, and they looked like they had grown a foot in six weeks! Matthew is 16 and looks like he is 6 feet tall, and Micah is 14 and looks just as tall. Macy was not at home. I am guessing she was at work or hanging out with friends. Probably both! I love how all three of their names start with an M, as does their last name. MM! Love it! Their last name is McMeans, so I call Macy McMacy. Haha. She probably hates it.

So, that is my brief run down of my activities as of late. A lot has happened. Oh! Even more: Bree and I signed our lease for the apartment. Me and the sis went to see Harry Potter and Ratatouille at the drive-in, and that is about it. I recommend taking the family to see Ratatouille, but Harry Potter was ok. I still enjoyed it because I enjoy the books and I am a nerd.

That is about it. Now that I have left Japan, I doubt that people will read this. Oh well. I just like to write. Take care guys. Pray that the jet lag goes away and that I will be able function while at work on Monday. Love you all.

1 comment:

Judith said...

Cell group was lonely this week without you guys. Only 10 of us. But Jang moved his Korean club to Thursdays so he could start coming to cell.
Jang, Niumaiah and I stayed after cell group for a long time talking how people come to believe in God, etc.
Keep praying for the readers and email them!
They miss you guys soooo much!!!