beginning of the end

It's been a jam-packed week. Wednesday I had dinner with G., a friend of a friend who grew up in Quito and whose parents still live and work there as missionaries. I totally bombarded her with questions for two hours (poor girl was so busy talking that she was the last one to finish her meal) and walked away with a much better picture of what life is going to be like. The biggest relief (and first question I asked) is that my school is a good one. Preppy, she said, but good. I can handle preppy. Much of what she said is not terribly different from what I've experienced in other foreign countries, which helps because I've not really had a framework (or a schema as my mother says) for what to expect, but now I can start to fill in the picture.

Friday morning my colleagues at the middle school had a breakfast for me at the local diner. (And I mean local diner--the old farmer men were sitting at a table drinking coffee like they must do every morning.) Far more people showed up than I expected--it was very complimentary to see so many people wanting to wish me well. I wasn't prepared for that sort of thing. Now I have three days left of work, and it feels wonderful. Not sad, not nostalgic, just wonderful.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty low-key holiday weekend. I've spent time with my aunt and cousin being lazy and watching movies. I've already switched to summer mode, and I feel like I'm going to breeze through these last few days and then get down to the business of summer. There is so much to do to get ready for the move, plus I want to spend lots of time with my friends here and really enjoy the last of our times together. I know the clock is ticking, and I want to enjoy every last minute.