One of our students is in the long process of trying to move permanently to Canada. Not entirely sure why, exactly, but it is her dream. Her husband has joined her in this adventure and went to Canada ahead of her in search of permanent work. After going on a student visa, he has finally found a permanent job as an engineer and is applying for permanent residence. Since things are still unstable, our student has chosen to remain in Japan and continue at her (good) job just in case. So she visits him in Vancouver every couple of months.
She has been with us from the beginning (our 8th student), so we’ve had many opportunities to get together with her: movies, dinner parties, school parties, festivals, casual drinks. We’ve also been instrumental in introducing her to several new friends she has made through studying at Smith’s, either during the lessons or at our school parties.
This time, as usual, she offered to bring us back some things from Canada. Usually we decline the offer, but we took her up on it this time. In return we invited her out for Shabu-Shabu. Since she was the last student of the evening, scheduling dinner was a breeze and we locked up and headed to a restaurant around the corner from the school.
It’s very nice to be able to switch off and enjoy a good meal with our student-friends. We had a good time joking over the meal and were glad to hear she’d gotten a one-day job helping out at a medical conference while she’s there. Step one towards a new life in Canada!
We’ll be looking forward to enjoying many more meals with her and her husband many years from now whenever we decide to return home to Canada!
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