External Memory

So, tonight was Keisuke's last night in Fort Collins. Tomorrow morning he'll head down to Denver and rally with the other Japanese students he traveled here with. They'll be doing a big ceremony to thank the host families and wish the kids good luck and all that. I won't be able to make it because of work, but, Kei's real host family invited my mom, and she'll be going at least.

After a big neighborhood dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, I took Kei downtown for his last bit of exposure to my world. If any of you know my friends here, you know how eager they are to welcome someone new. We've all grown pretty attached to the kid in the 10 or so days we had him. We're going to try to figure out how to get out to Kawasaki for his high school graduation in 2 years, hopefully we'll be able to get a group discount. Maybe I'll just tough out living with my parents so I can afford to jetset around the world. ^_^ Right...

On a more somber note, I still suck at goodbyes. And I hate how it seems like the way to measure a good visit is by how difficult it is to say goodbye. I'm glad I got the chance to meet him. He commented frequently about how he was amazed at how we all opened ourselves to him, but, I was never able to convince him that it was more demonstrative of his personality than ours. I don't like to do the whole misty-eyed thing, but I just wanted to get some evidence of my thoughts tonight typed out before they fade.

Have a safe journey home, Keisuke Yamamoto, we'll be waiting to hear from you soon!