8 Days

Only eight days until we depart Japan for Spain.

Mother and Father were able to visit in before we leave. They did not see me much as I had exams to grade but being realistic, they were not here to see me. They came to have time with their grandchildren before they lose the opportunity to see them so easily.

I have one day of finals remaining; Monday. I have remained on pace to grade exams so I may even have two days of essentially babysitting what students do attend classes. Being what has amounted to an absent mom for the last few days has made our departure as uncomplicated as possible. All that will be required of me on Thursday is to make an appearance to say goodbyes.

It seems, according to other teachers at school, that departing from Haneda Airport in Tokyo is unusual. Others have been asking how we arranged to avoid the “Freedom Bird.” I have been told this is a contracted flight that departs from Yokota Air Base and is not the most luxurious flight to have. Well, it IS contracted and you know who wins contracts; the lowest bidder.

We did not arrange our flight though. It was done by the travel office and if I go by how the contract flight has been described, Spartan has been the word most commonly used, I am happy for our being scheduled as we are. We will be as comfortable as possible on a Delta 777 for 10 hours rather than an Atlas 747.

It is difficult to think our new adventure begins in only a few days. We will spend a short week at home, well, Mother Bing’s house, before going on to Spain. We will have two weeks to in-process and settle in before Jared assumes command in July. It seems as if we will finally not need to “hit the ground running” at the beginning of an assignment.

Only eight days. I am excited.

15 Days

Senior exams are finished. So far, it seems they finished well, and their future looks bright.  Even my “distracted” Mandarin student performed admirably in preserving her GPA. Now, I am left with seniors with nothing to do for the next week except count time to graduation. Five of Seven classes complete.

For the rest of my students, their finals begin next week. My exams will be complete by the 3^rd giving me 3 days to finish grading them and posting their final grades. So far, I am ahead in grading and I plan to keep it that way.

I have carefully planned my schedule to make my departure as easy as possible. I will not need to rush at the end even though our departure is imminent. Fortunately, I will have access to the grading system for a month beyond leaving. If I forget anything, I can correct it with my laptop and a hotspot on our new phones when we arrive at CONUS. Verizon, here we come.

I am surprisingly emotional about our departure. I did not wish to return here yet here I am regretful to leave. I will miss friends of course but it is more than leaving friends behind.

It is leaving Japan itself. It has been our home for eight of 12 years. We have been comfortable. It has been home in every sense of the word. We became part of our community. I look forward to living in Rota, Spain for sure. I love experiencing something new. But I am shocked to hear myself say, I will miss Japan. It feels as if I will leave a part of me here. I have not felt this way since I first left China to go to the USA.

I can only imagine how my children are facing this. So far, they are excited, but they are culturally more Japanese than American. Chao lei has been here most of his life. For Jun, it is all she has known. We try to keep a focus on the positives of leaving Japan and experiencing a new place, but I am sure there is coming a time when we will have to help them adjust to a strange new place with a culture totally unlike what they have grown up in. We will all face some culture shock, but I believe it will be more for them. It is good I will be undistracted when we arrive in Rota.

Only 15 days until our departure. I am excited to leave yet I am not.

It Is Getting Close

It is almost the end of another school year. The attention of the students is becoming difficult to hold. It seems they are finding it difficult to understand it is not the end yet.

This week, it is senior finals. “Let us finish strong!” seems to fall on deaf ears. I hope I am incorrect on that assumption though. Finals affect their grades tremendously. A strong finish will be necessary for their next step.

This is my last teaching position. At least for now. There are no forecasted vacancies at Rota schools. If that remains the case, I am likely to homeschool Chao lei and Jun. I will give them part of the summer off though. We will need to explore our surroundings first.

Once I begin homeschooling, there will be a short interruption around the beginning of October since that is when Su is due (the 6^th). That will be much easier than if I were teaching at the high school.

For me, I will probably do continuing education classes to remain current. Computer Science is a fast-evolving field so one must keep up with it or become outdated and useless. It will keep me busy.

To be honest, living out of a suitcase has gotten tiring very quickly. We have been doing it for over a month now and look forward to at least another month. Try as I might, I cannot get the children to neatly get what clothes they need from their cases. Instead, the suitcases look like they have thrown up all the clothes on the floor. I will have to repack them at least twice more; when we move to the Navy lodge for our last two weeks, which is in one week, and before we go to the airport.

Su is moving now and an active little one she is. If I am to sleep, I must nap when she naps else her acrobatics prevent me from sleeping well. I do not remember Chao lei or Jun being so active, so early. I will also miss my 20 week ultra-sound since we are in the middle of a PCS move. Barring any emergency, it will wait until we arrive in Spain.

It is only 19 days until this tour is over. This time we learned how to do a tour correctly. I look forward to doing Rota correctly. I can do this.