Cleveland

Made it to Cleveland!  A little early, in fact. 

Minnesoooda

I feel kind of like the mother in home alone.  I've been to Taipei, to Guangzhou, to Minneapolis, to-where am I now?  Actually, I'm still in Minneapolis St. Paul, waiting for my 4th and final flight.  The flight from LA to here was uneventful, except for a few computer problems, which caused the attendant call lights to turn on, and some of the reading lights to turn on randomly.  Mine turned on around 2 AM.  It didn't bother me, but the guy next to me was asleep, so they taped a menu over it.  Very classy, Delta.  That flight seemed so short, compared to my last one. 

Steps 2 and 3

After a few delays, I had an uneventful flight to Guangzhou.  Honestly, that's probably the crummiest airport I've ever been in.  I did meet a Chinese family traveling to San Francisco, and we practiced English conversation.  I don't think they realized how big the US is, they were asking me about high schools in Los Angeles :). The flight to LA wasn't bad, just very long.  Thirteen hours, to be exact.  After I arrived at LAX, I had to recheck bags and get new boarding passes, very routine.  At the gate, I ran into Meike, a former co-leader of mine, who was returning from Australia with a delegation of high school students.  I should be boarding soon for my next flight to Minneapolis.

The long journey home

I'm sitting in the airport, waiting for flight #1.  The Taoyuan airport isn't bad, there is a variety of themed waiting rooms, including Hello Kitty, Ecology of Taiwan, and The Library.  I'm supposed to board in a few minutes, but I think they delayed my flight by an hour. 

Update: the plane is apparently not leaving until 3:50.  I'm trying to stay patient...

For Good

Tonight I had dinner with the other FET's, probably for the last time.  I said my goodbyes, but it hasn't hit me that this is goodbye for real.  In the last 11 months, with the absence of our real families, we have had to be family to each other.  We hang out a lot, and sometimes we get mad and yell at each other.  Sometimes we tease each other relentlessly, but if one of us is in trouble, we all step up and move heaven and earth for that person.  I'll probably get confused at some point in the next week and call my mom Peggy, or wonder why Linda isn't at dinner.  And I'll need to find someone to insult, without Thomas around.  I've already started:  the last couple of times I passed through Houlong on the train, I looked for Tara, even though she's been in Canada for at least three days already.

    

My inner Mary Catherine Gallagher would like to express my feelings in the form of a song:

  "I've heard it said, that people come into our lives for a reason...

I don't know if I believe that's true, but I know  

I'm who I am today, because I knew you."

And I made a slideshow

    

Almost done

I realized a few days ago that I haven't blogged in a few weeks.  Things have been crazy, trying to fit everything in before I go in 5 days.  My apartment is kind of a disaster, I had this crazy scheme in my head that I was only going to take one big and one half-sized suitcase.  Instead, I'm taking two big suitcases, my small suitcase is on its way to Michigan, and I'm mailing more of my belongings back to the US.

Taichung
Peggy's nephew, Cole, is studying Chinese, so he came to visit her.  We took him to the science museum and the night market in Taichung.

Miyahara, a fabulous shop in Taichung.  This is where we went at Christmas time.

Cotton Candy!

The Taiwanese are excellent sleepers.

Tainan

The last weekend in June, Peggy, Cole, and I went to Tainan.  It's the oldest city in Taiwan, and full of great architecture.

The Anping Tree House 

An old factory that has been taken over by Banyan trees.

The remains of Fort Zeelandia, built by the Dutch in the 1660's.

Koxinga Shrine

Summer Camp

See, I told you I've been busy.  Summer camp was two days of English classes, for students in grades 3-8.  I taught seven classes, of students at all levels of English.  I had great help from my co-teacher Meiya and SMS boy Bruce.  It went ok, but I'm glad it's done!

Dinner at Din Tai Fung to celebrate the end of the school year

July 4

Friday night, a few of the FET's got together at Peggy's and celebrated by eating a lot and then blowing stuff up.  A real American holiday :)

Peggy and her co-teacher bought fireworks, there are some pretty funny videos, but you'll have to look at my facebook page to see them.  

Fireworks

Dancing.  This is something you just can't unsee.

Saturday, we all went to Sunnyworld, a water park in Hsinchu.  There was a lap pool, and a water spa.  The spa had "stations" that you could swim to, and the jets would massage a different part of the body.  One was for hips, another one was for the neck, etc.  They also had a lazy river and kids section.  

So I have four days left in Tongxiao.  I need to pack boxes and suitcases, and finish co-teacher gifts.  I'll try to update more in the next few days.