Leaving. Step 3: Lasts

We're living a life of "lasts": last meals at favorite restaurants, last trips to CitiMart on our bikes, last classes with students, last times with good friends. While all are very enjoyable events, each is tinged with a thin layer of sadness. We laugh and enjoy the moment, forgetting for a bit that it is the last. Then, when it is time to go we hug and walk away with the feeling in our stomach that what we just experienced was more poignant than all the others. Here is a sample of photographed lasts and a video of one of my favorites from last week.

Last round of Sunday frolf with great friends: Mike, Shane, Mike and Stacey. 

It was "Vietnam-hot" this day but the gin and tonics 

we filled our travel mugs with helped.

Last order of dumplings at the Sandy Bottom Pool.

Last Saigon Pedal Pushers bike ride into the country
with Mike, Brett, Elaine, Lisa, David and Stacey (not pictured)

Last haircut at Happy Hair & Nails. Likely the worst haircuts 

we've ever gotten, but at $3.00 a piece including...

...a shampoo and scalp massage (and occasional, surprising cucumber facial)
you really can't complain. Colin and I made this a regular father-son outing. 

Last parties. This week has found us out with friends almost every night of the week. 

This party, at our friends Brett and Heather's place, was a bottle party set up 

to help us with the half-used bottles we were not allowed to ship to Seoul.

So sad.
It was amazing how many other people also had half-used bottles to contribute.
This turned into our good-bye party. Could not have imagined a better send-off.
We'll miss how tight the SSIS community is and how often they all got together
to enjoy each other's company.

(apologies for the poor sound quality)

My last bike ride. I did this ride every other day at 5:00am.

Each morning I passed a man doing stretches on the top of this tiny bridge.

He always waved and enthusiastically said "Good Morning!".

Great way to start the day.

While we'll miss each of these and especially the people associated with them, we know we are in for many more both at home this summer and in our next adventures in Seoul. We also know that we have cemented friendships here with people that will last a lifetime. We lead such charmed lives.