Beginning of the end

Today was my last day at my board of education. They’re reorganizing and expanding, as the other area BOEs close and merge with ours, and they’re moving to a new building, splitting into two departments, and doing away with the ALT desks, so Chalice and I won’t have desks there anymore. This won’t affect me too much, except that on my days off I now will still stay at my junior high, and on Friday I’ll go into the community center office instead of the BOE. It also means I won’t see my awesome boss (my one Japanese friends out here), which is a shame. But still, though…they’d pulled some photos off the wall, and one was of an older and slightly sharp but kind woman, the former board of education kacho (section chief), and my former boss. All three of them worked here when I first arrived two years ago. I definitely remember my first impressions of Ikeda, most of which revolved around that office and that building. I’ll miss it.

We also started planning the eikaiwa welcome/farewell party to welcome Caitlin and say goodbye to me. Tentatively, it’s August 10th.

I’ve been busy, and I have to run to my afternoon shougakkou, but I just wanted to check in and say hi. The trip was fantastic and I’m still reeling from the fact that I was at Aso staring into the crater of an active volcano ON MONDAY.

Tomorrow’s the westie sayounara party, with 15 ALTs and 3 Japanese friends in attendance (would’ve been four, but my boss, who really wants to come, is unable to, which is a shame), and we’re all really looking forward to it. I have to clean my place up like mad because people are showering and staying the night here tomorrow. I have a huge photo backlog to upload, so it may still be a couple of weeks till my Kyushu photos make it up. (And there are A LOT. I went all geology-crazy and started taking photos of cool-looking rocks and stuff.)

And I’m off. Yesterday marked seven weeks until I leave Japan. Seven weeks. I’ll be gone six Thursdays from now. This will all be over so soon, and it’s in sight now.

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