Last Day at Soga

Yesterday was my last day at Soga Elementary School. If the students had been there, I probably would have cried, and actually when I walked down the halls last week and the students weren’t there, I almost did cry. I’m not nearly as attached to the teachers, although I will particularly miss the 5^th grade teacher. Anyway, I was told that I would give a farewell speech, and two hours before hand my palms got sweaty and I could feel the adrenaline. For two hours. Is this normal? I know all the 20 or so people there, and I’ll never see most of them again in all likeliness. Regardless, I was so nervous that I ended up forgetting about half of my short speech. How do I do that when my job is basically public speaking? Bizarre.

I found a buyer for my bike, although I ended up charging less than I had intended. I heard two more reports that the second-hand shops barely pay any money for items despite their high sales prices, so I'm happy to get as much as I will. I also posted the other items that I want to sell or get rid of, though I'm not especially optimistic about my panniers. I'm hoping that I can have almost everything gone or at least spoken for by the end of the weekend. Saturday I need to buy a suitcase and do a bit of shopping, plus I'll meet the pastor of my church here, and then I'll pack. Sunday I'll do my last bit of cooking and shopping, the rest of the heavy duty cleaning, and if I have time I'll go to Matsumoto and buy some souvenirs. If I can get all this done, I should only have a few things to do the day that I leave.

As for my goals, I decided that I will suspend most of them as mentioned in my last post. I think that I can still make the Bible memory goal though, so I'll keep that, and my choreography goal shouldn't be much of a stretch either.