I was running around in the afternoon, buying a thank you card for the S
family, a birthday card and flowers for MT, pumping up the van to return to DS,
etc. I realized that I’d been so selfish that I hadn’t thought of farewell
gifts for the S family, ugh! I also realized how hard to come up with gift
ideas for people who have included me as a part of their family. With my dead
brain, I bought a gift card of their favorite restaurant and placed it in the
thank you card. I also ordered a package of Japanese KitKat for the kids on
Rakuten. MB and EB love KitKat, and I hope a variety of Japanese KitKat
surprises them. It will be delivered to
my parents’ house in Japan, and my mom will eventually forward it to the S
family. A gift card and KitKat are nothing, compared with what they have done
for me in my years in this hippie town. Nothing can express my gratitude for
them enough …
I confirmed that I’ve been loved by people here. MT organized
a potluck polka party tonight. It was partially a farewell party for me and partially
a birthday party for MT herself and another. This was my third farewell party
this week. It was a big crowd with people from the Rotary Club and the local
community. People wished me good luck (of course, they teased me a lot by
making up scary stories about Ohio), and DS gave me a sweet speech about me. It was overwhelming to me. At the same time, I’m
glad that I got to know all those lovely people in the last five (actually less
than four) years. It takes time to establish good relationships, and it is
really sad to give up on those good relationships.