On Saturday morning, I woke up and went out to cheer for Wenzao's Dragon Boat team (on day 2 of DB, I got to 休息 because we had too many people on the team and not enough spots on the boat.) After our race, our group of French, Spanish, American, Vietnamese, Italian, Taiwanese, Belgian, German, and Russian students headed over to McDonald's, and I was pretty cognizant that this was the last time I would see many of these faces.
It was sad to say goodbye to so many good friends.
Part of my second semester Chinese class
The last week in Taiwan, I had a lot of goodbye lunches and dinners with various Taiwanese friends, and I felt a bit 難過 with each good bye. I couldn't have been luckier with my host family, so it was especially sad to know that I didn't have much more time in my little corner of heaven in 岡山，高雄，台灣.
Goodbye dinner with Ivette and Alfredo
My last day in Taiwan, I woke up, went swimming at 大地, and then ate at my favorite Thai restaurant by 新左營 with a Taiwanese friend. I got back to 我的家 by around 1:30, and the rest of the day was spent packing and trying to make a year's worth of stuff fit into two 50 pound pieces of luggage. My host mom's brother (my host uncle?) came over with a gift of 錄茶(green tea leaves), and Jubbie and her mom gave me a Mahjong set to teach other Americans at home. Cleaning out my room was pretty bittersweet, and before we knew it, it was time to drive to the hotel where my NSLI-Y 同學 and I were spending the last night due to the hotel's proximity to the airport. My host family and I stopped at the tea shop where they took me the first day we met, and Jubbie and I ordered one bubble milk tea and one green tea.
Sunday night, the IEARN staff in Taiwan took us out for a final group dinner. We took lots of pictures and ordered as much Taiwanese food as we could. There aren't many hot pot stores in Tennessee. Nora had come back from a day of modeling and her hair had been dyed back to a fairly normal shade.
Ya-Shu Mommy eating 火鍋
Ya-Shu Mommy and her adopted kids
My host family!
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. After hanging out in our room for a bit, Nora started crying uncontrollably. Naturally, Jubbie and Ben started taking pictures.
I started laughing.
Before we knew it, Ya-Shu Mommy was leaving, and everyone started crying as we said goodbye. She told me "別要哭" (don't cry), but at this point everyone was crying. I think Nora wanted to take pictures (revenge), but if she did, they haven't made it to Facebook.
After Ya-Shu Mommy left, we spent the rest of the night hanging out. There wasn't a lot of sleeping, as we all had to be at the airport Monday morning at 5am, and Jubbie along with two other Taiwanese friends stayed at the the hotel and helped us take taxis and get to the airport in the morning. The night went by fast, and it was crazy see the clock and know there were only a few more hours in Taiwan.
We got to the airport at 5am, and though there was some initial confusion about our flight, we eventually got on a flight from Kaohsiung to Hong Kong. They gave us our tickets 20 minutes before take off, so saying goodbye to our friends at the airport was emotional, rushed, and over too soon.
We were really lucky with our flights, barely catching both the connection from Taiwan and the next flight in Hong Kong. Getting on the 16 hour flight was a relief for everyone. I watched an Indian movie called 3 Idiots that Jubbie recommended that was really good.
Before long we had arrived back in America!
We landed around 3pm. Because of flight delays, I took off for home around 8:30. While I was waiting, I met a Chinese guy near my age who was visiting family in the US, and it was cool to already put my Chinese language skills to make a friend. I also realized I need to study simplified Chinese; it really isn't the same as Taiwan's/pre-Mao's traditional characters.
On my flight home, I sat next to a Stanford alumni in his late 30s, and it was pretty awesome to hear him talk about his college experience (which he clearly loved) and a cool coincidence for me.
After two days of being awake and my last plane ride, I was home! Dad, Christie, McGregor, and Tanner were all at the airport along with Drake, Alex, the Blantons, and Mark. I was told there was a bagpipe and a group of friends from my high school there at 9pm, but when the flight was delayed two hours on a Monday night, that group bounced. I got home around 11:30, and there was a welcome home Costco cake along with the rest of immediate family.
Currently, I'm sitting in my US home, and it's unbelievable to write, but my gap year adventure in Taiwan is over. Thank you to everyone who followed this blog; it's had over 4,000 since last August. I'm so grateful for an amazing year abroad, and please keep in touch-whether you're from Taiwan, the US, or somewhere in between.
我很感激所有我在台灣遇到並幫助過我的人，感謝你們為我做的一切，我會永遠記得你們的，謝謝台灣！
Charlie in his new panda shirt in my room. He grew so much!
Skype-ing with my host family.
One side of the world to the other!
Thank you!
