The Weekend Review - Busy Days & Final Goodbyes

This weekend was so busy, but I had a great time. It's boiling down to the final few days for my friends leaving the country for their respective homelands, which means a lot of "last times".

On Thursday, I met Kelly after school to move some of the furniture and odds-and-ends my friend Jen left for us as she was cleaning out the apartment she has called home for the past few years. Afterwards, we met the rest of the girls in Okubo to have dinner with Lena's mom. Her mom was really charming. She grew up in Korea and just spent the last month with family there. Lena has studied here before, but it was her first time in Japan... I am sure Lena has a lot to show her! They're traveling all week.

On Friday, I met up with the Minnesota girls (Brianne, Shannon & Emily), as well as our friend Shin from Osaka and another one of Briane's friends for dinner and Emily's going-away party. Em is another "ole" (um ya ya), and is leaving Japan soon. We wanted to go to SOGO Beer Garden, but got rained out, so we spent the evening at Sky Buffet, another all-you-can-eat/drink place in Kobe with the best views I have ever seen of the city and pier (and you can mix your own drinks!). Lots of fun! Shannon and Emily stayed over on Friday night. It was cramped in my little cottage, but we had a good time.

I was busy all day on Saturday, and spent the evening at a going-away/birthday party at the Brazilian Restaraunt near Kobe station in central Kobe. The food was to-die-for! I was going to go to our friend Shag's apartment with Jane to watch some Arrested Development and hang out, or out for the after-party, but am still a bit sick, so I headed home.

Sunday was relaxing. I had a charity committee meeting in Sannomiya in the morning adn went to the beach near my house with Kelly, Miwa and Lena for a picnic dinner. We thought we would be the only ones there, but we were joined by a lot of families and groups of teenagers, who - along with us - brought fireworks. It was quite a show. We ran around and played in the sand while enjoying the meal and sunset over the water. The tempurature was perfect and the breeze coming in from the sea was great! I learned I can still do cartwheels, too (without breaking my arm - it's happened).

After dinner, I went over to Ben's house to pick up some stuff and help him pack. I didn't get there until around 9 or 10 (on Sunday night, he was leaving the next day), but the dude still had a lot of stuff laying all over the place. I helped him put it in his suitcases and borrowed Kelly's scale to weigh his bags (I've gotten good at taking JUST the limit...ha!). I probably went home around 1 or 2 (we decided it was better to drink Ben's rum than pour it down the drain... which we ended up doing with most of it anyways, but not the best to drink so late at night). It was probably the caffeinne from the rum&coke, but I didn't get to sleep until after 4am. Monday was painful (good thing I don't have classes), but it was a nice last-hurrah with a friend I'm going to miss.

Definately a good weekend! I'm starting to get pretty sad about the thought of my friends leaving, but I also think I'm somewhat in denial. Part of living alone (and so far apart from other foreigners) is that you don't see people all the time, so it still feels like Ben is still here, for example, but that I just haven't seen him yet. It hasn't quite struck me that soon I won't be able to just call up Ben or Jane, but it's the natural flow of life and something I've become more accostumed to (even though I don't like it). I'm heading back to the doctor for more meds today with Chris, so probably just a lot of resting for me coming up (with a few events in between). More to report when there's, well, more to tell:)


(ps - the pics are a little out of order, but I wanted to include all of them. check out the 'goodbyes' album - to be posted soon - for more!)