Moving day today. Anne, Andrea and Irene stopped by to have a cup of coffee with us. Normally, I'll be making the coffee in the kitchen but since we delivered the coffee machine to Anne the night before, Andrea and Tony went over to Starbucks to get what we needed. We had breakfast and our last morning cup of joe together. Tony thought it would be appropriate that we have a name for our little group. We threw a couple of names around and will now be known as the "Shanghai Tootsies". Andrea, Anne and Irene gave me a farewell gift- a sayonara doll. It was beautiful little doll in a kimono that you unwrap and it reveals a hand written message from each of my friends. It was an emotional moment for me and yes, I cried. The doll will always remind me of my times with my friends here in Shanghai.
We had dinner plans tonight for our final meal together. Andrea unfortunately couldn't attend. She just returned from a trip to Beijing with her guests from the US and the kids were really missing her. That said, Matthew said farewell to Foster and Tanner at the school bus stop. It was an emotional moment for them. We'll see them again for sure since Andrea's sister-in-law lives in Stamford. We met at Mesa this evening and had a great meal. It's Irene's birthday tomorrow and we celebrated after dinner. Chocolate dessert complete with Zahra and Matthew signing "Happy Birthday" that's been altered to suit the palette of an eight and eleven year old.
We ended the evening with our final farewells for real outside the restaurant. Irene, Marty and Zahra will be leaving Shanghai as well and will be returning to the United States in July. We'vedecided to have annual reunions at different destinations. Our first one will be next summer, the last week in July to meet in Aruba. It's supposed to be a reunion for the ladies but it looks like the guys will be attending as well. I know that I will miss all my friends in Shanghai but really look forward to seeing them again in different destinations!
