Departure

Was it only two weeks ago that we welcomed the group to the United States? The time has gone by so fast. The program has been intensive and intense. Although most of the students claimed they were not ready to leave, I think that if they had stayed any longer they would have collapsed from sleep deprivation. Most of them solved the problem of early check-out by staying up all night!

We all met at the Quality Inn at 7:30 a.m. and by 8:00 were loaded on the Terrapin bus and on our way to Dulles International Airport, where it all began 15 days ago. The trip passed quickly because the group had prepared a very original thank-you "ceremony," which began with them setting off a firecracker (having fortunately warned the bus driver that this was going to happen); continued with the presentation of thank-you cards on which every participant had written a personal message to each of us; and ended with each participant taking the microphone to say thank you. We were all very touched by their words and impressed by their English!

After everyone had checked their luggage, we hung around taking pictures for a while, trying to put off the inevitable--but eventually, we said our final goodbyes (some very tearful) as the group passed through security and out of sight. (There was a lot of American-style hugging too.)

Nikki, Joe, and Mike passed out from exhaustion on the ride back to College Park (see slideshow). As I write this at 4:30 pm, I imagine twenty Japanese students in a similar state on a plane traveling west (or north?). Sweet dreams!

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Everyone has promised to keep blogging and to meet at Tapped In to chat. I hope you will keep these promises! I've set the next chat for Saturday, September 27, at 11 pm (Tokyo)/9 a.m. (EDT). Mark your calendars, and make sure your computer is configured for chat with Java Runtime prior to that day!) You can check this by logging in to Tapped In as a guest and seeing whether the chat screen appears.) You can also visit my virtual office (NinaTL_Ofc) to check on the date and time for the next chat. See you in cyberspace!