Last night we had lovely dinner with one of our neighbors from Atlanta. Unexpectedly, he emailed me and let me know he was “in town” and had a little time before he was off to his next destination. Chuck’s daughter Elizabeth was Chase’s babysitter in Atlanta and Chase and I really adored her. She was one of those kids who managed to escape the trappings of living with successful parents and having a nice home and ya-ya. She is such a lovely young lady and is one of the very few kids from Atlanta that ended up getting accepted to Vanderbilt University. Anyhow, her father Chuck is one of these brilliant scientist/entrepreneurs and as we spoke in-depth about his work, it was almost like discovering your neighbor Clark Kent was Superman all this time! We spoke non-stop the whole evening and it reminded me a lot of the first dinner you have with adults only after you’ve had a baby. I didn’t realize how homesick I was until I actually made contact with someone from my old hood. All in all, it was very fun and looks like he’ll be back in the future.
Cliff made it back safely from the States. The Typhoon ended up delaying him for a day but he weathered it. He swears he doesn’t have jet-lag, but every time I turn around he is nodding off on the couch. Having lived in Charleston, SC where hurricanes abound, I thought it was a pretty cool storm. It wasn’t until the next day that I realized from local Japanese that the Typhoon was really severe. In fact, schools shut down early and trains and subways were stopped. A lot of Chase’s classmates ended up having to return to spend the evening at school.
Chase is doing great. Found an awesome tennis teacher. She nicknamed him “Grandpa” because he’s so slow on the court. I like her a LOT! He was having a tough time getting into the math class, but he seems to be improving. The interesting thing is he really enjoys Japanese and according to him he is the best student in Level 1. Chase’s other milestone last week was coming home by himself by the subway. The school is getting ready to hold a funeral for a student who died there last week. It is really unbelievable because the kid was only in the 3rd grade. His dad is from England and his mom is Japanese. They won’t say how he died. It is so sad. We knew about it first because Chase’s best friend Shabab was really close to Oliver (the boy who died). Sorry for the sad note, but I felt like it was something that really troubled me. I know in the States at Chase’s old school, everyone knows when tragedy hits and we all rally to support the family. Here it is so different. I don’t know if one way is better or not. I hope I never have to find out.
Until next time…
