Out with a whimper, in with a bang

Well, here we are - my last blog post for the year and not a moment too soon. The time for goodbyes is upon us and with each farewell party that comes by, I can feel my engine lugging more and more. I have no real reason to be exhausted because all in all it's a very gentle end to the year; having said that, I think you always end up with exactly the right amount of physical and mental energy to crawl over the finish line and not a drop more. That must be it - the endless parties, schizophrenic sleeping patterns and late night coffee binges have nothing to do with it, I'm sure.

It's been a weird week, but the home stretch before a big change always is. On Monday night we had the farewell party at one of my schools, the entire English department piling themselves into a tiny hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant for the occasion. Normally these events are huge, impersonal affairs but this one was pleasantly intimate and the food was all delicious and home-cooked. I didn't think any of it would particularly move me but it's hard not to start feeling sentimental when people start saying extremely generous things about you. Dumb little things I had done initially, praise for the hard work I'd put in over the year researching my blog and things I'd helped the staff and students with - have I really had time to do all those things? I'm not sure I believe the calendar. I did my best to flatter them back - thank you all, I couldn't have asked for better coworkers, I'll come and visit and so on. It's the first time I think I've genuinely meant it, rather than focusing on the next big and exciting thing. Even the teachers I haven't said a word to all year seemed a bit upset at me leaving, which was quite touching. I was grandly handed a beautiful lacquer tray and china tea set, popped them back in their bags and wished I could trade them for another year there.

Because of exams, I decided to use a couple of days of leave and took Tuesday and Wednesday off. Originally I had planned to do a bunch of stuff (as you do), but ended up doing none of it (as you do). Instead, I was happy to sit in my pajamas both days, drink coffee and space out for long periods of time. Thursday night was the work party for the other school, which was practically the opposite of Monday's - a whole-staff extravaganza in a hotel boardroom. Again it was Chinese food but this time huge plates of lobster, abalone and Peking duck. Halfway through the evening we pulled out bingo cards and quiz sheets; our team ended up coming second. Mystery prize bags sat up the front and it was up to each team to pick which one they wanted. Our volunteer grabbed a medium sized one, opened it and recoiled in disgust - ours was full of animal soft toys. I ended up with a very nonplussed-looking Kappa. I wasn't asked to make a speech or anything - I'm not entirely sure that school knows/cares I'm going. It would probably be like throwing a farewell party for the filing cabinet.

Friday night we had Mel's birthday party, an all you can eat and drink affair at one of our haunts. Having spent two hours eating just about every bit of a chicken and significantly depleting Kobe's supply of plum wine, most of the group headed to the Luminarie illuminations (a big light festival to commemorate the earthquake) while Lis and I led a charge to karaoke. "There's 3 of us to start with," I said, "but maybe 5 more will show up in about an hour." About an hour later, 9 people barreled into our tiny room (I can only imagine the faces at the reception desk) and we spent another hour or so belting out songs and drinking outrageously weak booze. Once we had checked out, we stepped out of the lift and Lisa was suddenly not there - a very large and very drunk middle aged Japanese woman had crash-tackled her back through the doors with a cry of "I love foreigners". The woman's friends tried to heave her off Lisa, who was by this time wedged between puffy coat and wall and pink from laughter and embarrassment. I'd hate to see what would have happened if she hated foreigners.

Saturday night we headed to Luminarie with Len after a day of Christmas shopping. Like most things worth visiting here, it was excruciatingly crowded; you had to find the start of the walk and then spend an hour or so shuffling along with the mob before you got anywhere near the lights. The barricades snaked all over the city and armies of orange stick men formed amusing human chains to direct the traffic as necessary. Eventually we got to the entrance - a huge display of lights replicated dozens of times to make a long tunnel of them. This led through into a very pretty marquee of lights that circled the centre of the park but by that stage I was more interested in the scores of food and drink stalls surrounding it - my camera had died anyway. "That's one of my old students," Lisa said, pointing at the boy working at the kebab stall.
"Give your teacher a good one," said the manager earnestly, "teacher special."
Having enjoyed most of Lisa's teacher special, we decided it was time to head home and then did what any sensible person would at midnight - watched Inception. I'm starting to realise why I'm exhausted.

We have one more work party coming up on Friday night and then that is officially that - we fly out on Monday. Very little will be happening apart from that, beyond farewell speeches at school and packing; I'll spare you a blog post about which undies I'm planning on taking to Perth and finish things up here for 2010. It's been a fantastic year and I've very much enjoyed sharing it with you throughout these 54 thousand-odd words - here's to the same again in 2011. I'll be back at the end of January but until then, have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.