Last Week of Work

Last week was my final week of work for the Palau Supreme Court and it was very busy. I had three appeals to finish and a host of small projects to get completed. It wasn't all work and on Monday, the Chief Justice took Christy, Erin, and I to lunch at PPR with Justices Salii and Materne as a farewell to Christy. It was a beautiful day and lovely meal. It was hard to leave PPR to return to work.

Tuesday was Christy's final day of work. It was also the day before her departure and she had lots of errands to run around town to ship boxes and move out of her apartment. I still had work to do and was able to get signatures on two of the appeals and get them finalized. After work I played frisbee.

On Wednesday morning, Christy left Palau. She walked around the court and said goodbye to everyone and then Ben took her to the airport. I was now the last of my group, but I couldn't dwell on it too much because I had my final appeal to work on. After work, I went running with Phil up the hills of Arakebesang. We ended up walking through taro patches and other fields at the top of the hill that had great views looking down on Koror. It was one of the nooks and crannies of Koror I had not visited and it was great to explore an unknown area after a year of living here.

I took Thursday morning off of work to pack boxes for shipping home. This move has been much easier than the move here, but packing boxes for such a long distance is time consunimg. When I got to work, I finalized my last appeal. The previous week, I had gone to the Capitol for the final time to hear my final oral argument. It was a close case dealing with adverse possession and the judges were happy with the opinion I wrote. It was a little bittersweet getting it filed because although I was happy to have finished my assigned appeals, it was a little sad knowing I wouldn't get to write anymore. That evening I met up Phil, Sarah, and Carolyn for a nice evening at Kramer's.

Friday was my last day of work. I had a few little projects to wrap up, notably my last work for the Land Court. I also had to clean out my office and get it ready for my replacement (who arrives in mid-October). I also made a quick run over to the Post Office to mail the four boxes I had packed the previous day. For lunch, some of the staff took Justice Miller to Penthouse as part of his farewell and Erin, Ben, and I joined them. Being my last day, Justice Miller forced me to give a little speech. After lunch, I finished my projects and had just enough time to wrap everything up. I think I accomplished a lot during my time as court counsel and the judges were very complimentary with the work that I completed. I left my goodbyes until the next week.

After work, I played frisbee and then went to a barbecue for Judge Miller hosted by one of the former Land Court judges. It was a huge spread of food and a good crowd of people from the court. After the barbecue, the party moved to Bayside bar to hear Justice Miller sing. He is an accomplished singer in Palauan and does a good job with the music. I'm not a huge fan of Palauan music, but it is fun to see him sing. I left by midnight because I had to get up early to go running.