Closure...

It's taken me a few weeks to communicate the last blog entry on this site, but I'm finally here to tell you how I finished up in Taiwan. I enjoyed many amazing moments in the 10 days after I wrote the previous entry and before my departure on October 4th. The final weekend of my time in Taiwan, we had another typhoon, and it hit pretty solidly on Sunday afternoon so the government officials canceled Monday classes. This was a gift to me (which later bit me on the backside, but I'll get to that in a bit) and my roommates.

The Saturday of that weekend, my friends Mari, Anneloe and Julie treated me to a massage and lunch. Thanks, girls!! That afternoon, my friend Lucy, came over from Taipei to bring me a homemade cheesecake and see where I'd been living. (Lucy is Irene Morris' sister and she's a generous person.) In the evening, my friend Hein and I attempted to make a homemade gnocchi, which ended with us opening a packet of pre-made gnocchi instead. (Don't ask how long it took to get our kitchen back to clean again.) That Sunday, we had to taxi to church because of the weather, and we retreated quickly back to the apartment afterwards. We were pretty scared in our 18th floor home when later that afternoon the wind got so gusty the building was literally swaying. But what could we do? I must admit I got a little queezy. This didn't deter my roommates taking me out for dinner at a local teppanyaki joint (Japanese style cooking, prominent in Hsinchu and all over Taiwan) just as the schools were officially canceled, and the rain settled down. We took some pics, which you can see here.


Mari, Anneloe, Me and Ryno eating teppanyaki.

Because of the typhoon, it was a slow night
for the teppanyaki cooks, so they posed for a pic.
I think their names are, left to right, Grumpy,
Stumpy, Happy, and Giggly, collectively known
as "Boys to Boys" on the musical touring circuit.

Starting in August, some of my co-workers and I would go out on Wednesday nights after work for some late dinner and laughs. We met up with some friends that weren't working at Kang Ning so it made it feel like we were doing something different than normal. We had some good times in the last few weeks, the best being the last Wednesday night when we met up at Amber and Sarah's and had Mexican food. It was a crack up night to remember and I was so thankful to the girls for hosting it. I've posted some pics so you can see what we got up to.

Mexican food makes a bunch of tired
teachers act crazy after midnight.

Close up of the girls and a few of the guys.

Me, Amber and Sarah saying goodbye!

The last week of work was short but intense. I was told pretty early on that because of the Monday school cancelation, my Monday night class, A15, needed to have Parents Day on my last day at work. (A15 was a class I inherited the last month of my contract, and I never really wanted to be teaching beginners that late, 7:45-9:15, on Monday and Friday nights.) Doing a Parents Day didn't really bother me because in most of my Parents Day experiences, no parents showed up and it's just a party day for the kids. Color me shocked when I had 6 parents show up to that class, WHEN IT STARTED, not at the end of it. This meant that rather than throwing a party for my class, I had to TEACH!! I had spent the last three days throwing parties for all of my classes and would you believe it, I had to actually do my job. I was pulling out all the stops for the parents in front of a class that's only been studying English for 3 months. I was sweating it and at one point I said to my manager, "I'm done, man, if you want to teach you can do it. I just want to talk to the parents and get outta here." He was cool about it and let me get on with the parents part of the evening.

Before I left school that night, Alex paid me my months salary, plus bonus (Praise God!), I said my goodbyes and went to church to sell my scooter to my pastor. My friend, Julie took me home and I got to hang with some friends for a late dinner and coffee. As everyone left at about midnight I was just sitting in the living room with my roommies talking about the day, when Mari said something about my ARC and it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't have my ARC (Alien Resident Card). Then I realized I didn't have my passport!! I freaked out, called Alex, explained to him that I had given him the ARC and passport the day before so he could make all the arrangements for my taxes to be processed. He was so embarrassed and apologetic, and he asked where I was so he could bring it to me right then. I was laughing so hard as I met Alex in front of my apartment complex at 1:20 in the morning to get my passport and ARC.

I stayed up most of the night finishing the packing, and after just 2 hours of sleep, got up to leave. My cool roommies got up at 6:30 in the morning, on a Saturday, to have coffee with me before we said goodbye and I left Taiwan.

When I got to the airport, I discovered that my school had failed to keep my ARC valid, and after paying a fine, I got a stamp in my passport prohibiting me from traveling to Taiwan again for a year. It felt like a fitting send off from a situation I'd struggled to embrace for over 13 months.

All is not lost, of course. I had a great time in my apartment with my precious roommates (whose mamas all raised 'em right), and with my co-workers and friends from church, I made a years worth of memories that I'm enjoying reminiscing over these days.

Thanks for keeping up with me on my blog and praying for me. This will be the last entry on this blog site. You can catch up with me at www.aftertaiwan.blogspot.com where I'll continue to journal life as I see it here in Asia and wherever God takes me.

All the best,
LC, no longer from the TW