I never thought I would have to type this post, but it’s true I’m sitting in Narrita View Hotel with is next to the airport and I’m watching some tv. But this time tomorrow I’ll will have been on my flight for a little over 3 hours. Before I really get into the sadness of this reality, let me tell you about the best day ever – today!
We put all of our luggage on a charter bus, that we would later take to the hotel, then headed for our last visit to Technos. Once arrived we went to our usual “home base” and we waited for our session to start.
We went to the guy with the early childhood career students! They had a variety of games for us to play. We played (Japanese version of the following) Duck Duck Goose, Telephone, Red light/Green light, and ultimate Rock Paper Scissors. I’ll explain some of the difference in the following 2 paragraphs.
Duck Duck Goose
So imagain playing a normal game with the same rules and this will be a lot easier. So normal rules, but you put your hands behind your back. Whoever was “it” had a rag. They would walk around and if they dropped the rag into your hand then you had to chase them like in our version. You have to tag them with the rag with it in you hand, as if you were tagging them with your hand in our version.
Red light/ Green light
Once again think of basic rules and this will be easier to understand. So this game was played as normal. The goal was to tag the person saying stop or go. If you were caught moving you would turn into “eyes” and watch everyone else to help the talker catch others. Once the person speaking got tag, everyone had to run as fast as they could to the other side until the talking person yelled stop. They would ask the person who tagged them how many steps they were allowed to take. The person replied and the speaker had to take that many steps to tag the next speaker.
Hope that all made sense 
After that we ate lunch at the college, and then had to waste two hours while the students got ready for our farewell party. When I looked and saw that I was a little upset, but that was nothing compared to what happened today.
Once we go to the party we all sat down and listen to some very well spoken speaches. Then we all got a “Certificate of Completion”! 
It was very cute how they all did this for us! After that we had some snacks, and we had to vote on the 12 finalists and guess what!
The one on the bottom left is mine! I made it to the finals! I submitted for all three categories and I acctually made one!
After the snacks, we all chilled and Rina (Technos student director) had a gift for us. The students had wrote on boards for us with little going away messages. Talk about emotions, then they said that they were going to announce the winners of the photo contest. This was the first time that they had done this competition, and they hope to carry it on. They announced the 2nd and 1st place winners for culture. Then they went to the category I was in. I was hoping for second and I knew that the start sky photo on the bottom right was gonna be first. They announced 2nd place and it was that photo, I was shocked. Then they said first place and they said “Jacob Wilson”…. I didn’t get up because it didn’t register that I acctually won! I got up and Rina gave my gift. 
After that we all took a photo and then the best thing ever happen. The students got up and My Life would suck started playing. They all got up and started dancing in sync! Like that was what made us cry. It was amazing. We then all went outside to take one last group photo.
We boarded the bus and waved one last goodbye to the students. Rina said by Jacob I miss you so much. I again cried and then we left the college! 
On the bus I opened my gift and it was a beautiful table scarf. I had Leslie pose with it.
We went to a new town for dinner and spent some time playing games. We boarded the bus one last time and finally arrived at our hotel. Matt told us about our flights and how to get there and when to leave. We got our keys went upstairs and I repacked to fit everything.
Now I’m laying in my room with Elizabeth and we are just kind of chatting!
This trip was life changing for me. A small town kid just went to Japan. I can honestly say that I am so proud of everything that I did on this trip. The people I met on this trip will not be forgotten. Most of us are hanging out and laughing, only to avoided the reality that in a few hours most of us will never see each other again…. it’s gonna be hard I really can’t remember what it was like not knowing these people and I’m gonna miss them like crazy. We all connected so fast because of this one great thing. I can honestly say that if you’re one of thoes people I’m talking about. Thank you for coming into your life, thank you for making this experience better than it was suppose to be, thank you so much for just everything. You all will hold a place in my heart and I’ll never forget the experiences that I’ve shared with you. Photos will help relive the memories, but the best ones are in my memories.
All that’s left to say is that I will miss you all. And that I don’t wanna leave you guys but I have to.
I’ll try and post tomorrow before my plane.
Please stay in touch
Love,
Jacob
2017 McKendree Technos Excursion 