Life

Wow, it does NOT feel like 3am. And that is a VERY bad thing for my sleep cycles. But, also, a not-so-bad thing for my blog.

I had a pretty decent day, all considered. Watched most of a Scottish miniseries starring David Tennant--which, obviously, made me want to throw all my stuff in a bag and MOVE THERE NOW, though I resisted. FINALLY turned in my application for what I might do come September--and then accidentally half-way applied to a job in New York, which was odd. And grotesquely ironic: this job was posted on the website for a major publisher, and was one of FOUR fantastic jobs now posted on that site for which I may actually be qualified. Of course, I found them directly after mentally committing to another program. Sigh. Now to determine whether I should apply to them anyway...probably?

But the highlight of my day was easily my dinner plans. I met up with Tiffiany and our Chinese teacher, Mandy, at a great little Western-style restaurant on the Love River called Sandwich Island (and, stupid person that I am, I completely spaced that the dragon boat races going on would mean parking would be impossible--so I was 15 minutes late). The food was scrumptious, of course (fried chicken sandwich--mmm), and Mandy was so sweet--she brought Tiffiany and I some fantastic going away presents! Cue the part where I wish I'd brought more gifts to give away...

So we had our little meal, and then strolled along the Love River with the hordes of other people, watching dragon boat-ers who DIDN'T suck. And Tiffiany utilized her Chinese to ask a very nervous (but adorable) little girl to take our picture:

Extra smiles for our new 小朋友!

 Next up was some continued strolling and a stop by my personal favorite Kaohsiung gelato place--two scoops for 100NT (~3USD) of some of the BEST gelato ever. Tonight, I went for dark cherry and mulberry (2 separate flavors) and they were to DIE for. Then we kept strolling.

It's so PRETTY when you're not being forced down it with paddles in your hands!

Hey look, they're winning by almost as much as we lost by! (butnotreally)

And, thankfully, this ISN'T actually going to be our last hang-out like we'd originally thought. We made plans to go see BRAVE tomorrow (wow, I'm big on the Caps Lock tonight...sorry about that). Brave, for those who don't know, is this:

All I have to say is: Disney/Pixar? Check. Scottish? Check. Archery? Check. COUNT ME IN!

The End

This is hard to write. Today was my last day in my schools. I am no longer an English teacher. Every sentence I put on here sounds stilted, unreal, and that's actually quite fitting: it doesn't feel real at all.

Today was one of the most chill days I've ever had at my schools. I arrived at Qingshan at regular time, 8:30, and discovered that, a) graduation had been moved from that night to that morning at 9:30, and, b) all the 5th graders had been instructed to sit in the courtyard for the next hour until the ceremony began. So, there went English class.

We hung around for an hour, then went to the ceremony, which included a very solemn march of the 6th graders around the courtyard, several speeches and awards, and, of course, Zoe's English speech. Fortunately for me, the Director forgot to ask me to introduce her, so I managed to make it through this graduation without taking the stage, apart from a generalized "thank you" to teachers. It was really a very nice ceremony, with lovely little moments like the 5th graders singing a farewell to the 6th graders, and the 6th graders singing a welcome to the 5th graders. Very sweet.

Afterwards, Patty and I went back up to our classroom to discover that our classes would continue to be cancelled, so that the kids could clean up the courtyard. In the end, we had our last class of the day for about 20 minutes, and that was it.

But of course, that couldn't be it! Patty was nice enough to postpone her lunch and take me around to the 5th grade homerooms, so I could get a picture with all of my students one last time, and give them each a lollipop. These visits also, of course, included an extraordinary amount of signing--not just of papers this time, but of pencil cases, bags, and desk mats. One boy gave me a massive bunch of balloons from the graduation ceremony; one girl, Kelly, gave me a note which read "Don't go back to America stay at 5th grade forever! Please! Please!!"

As I drove away, a small contingent of kiddos waved me off from the third story. But still, even now, it's impossible to believe the truth: that was the end.

My eyes threaten to close on their own accord and never open again (to be honest, I've typed the last several sentences with them closed anyway), but I would be remiss if I didn't mention our epic THIRD PLACE FINISH in dragon boat racing tonight! I should really just leave it at that: we got third pace in our heat. I really shouldn't go on to explain that there were a total of three boats in our heat, and we lost to the next slowest by a full 55 seconds. But that also happened.

Oh well, we did at least finish the race, and make it back without holding up the race schedule, as has happened in the past. And afterwards we all ate watermelons and took pictures while Esther, Lydia, Paul and Alex frolicked in the rain; after that, Fonda, Chialing, Rachel an I, along with Evelyn and some of her friends, went to Chialing's cousin's place for some delicious papaya milk. So that was good.

That moment when...

Life is full of little moments. Usually, they end up in a Twitter hashtag. But I don't have Twitter. So, I give you, live from my blog, the little moments of my day. Including that moment when...

#you wake up with a sore throat, despite feeling fine the day before, and become terrified that you won't be allowed to SCUBA dive on your fast-approaching trip to Australia.

#you find yourself unexpectedly not that sore after a day of dragonboat practice.

#you go to dragonboat practice and realize your soreness was just hiding, waiting for the time when you'd ask the same muscles to do the same thing in front of dozens of people...because that's SO much more fun!

#you get shave ice with your dragonboat team and find yourself wondering how many more shave ices you'll get before you leave...

#you eat your last meal with a good friend who you might not see again before you leave...

#you have to say goodbye to a good friend who you might not see again before you leave...

#you finish writing 150 goodbye cards in just a few hours, and end up with exactly ONE card to spare.

#you actually have the TV on at the moment that the movie you'd wanted to remember to watch is playing.

#your dad is home at the same time that you're awake, and answers Skype, so you can wish him "Happy Father's Day."

#you hear a dog barking out of an apartment window and realize you just walked into a scene from Disney's animated 101 Dalmations.

#you go into a 7-11 and see it being used as a 7-11 in America would be: by big, burly men with late-night munchies, buying food from a bored-looking middle-aged man.

#you realize that writing daily blogs that are actually original and worthwhile is exhausting and impossible.

In brief

I'm currently at that particularly awful point in life where your eyes are refusing your orders that they stay open, and you still have a blog post to write. So, for purely physiological reasons, this will be short.

Today:

• Tom came to town!
• We had our first dragonboat practice, which resulted in obscenely sore muscles, a thorough drenching of the left side of my body, coupled with a deep understanding of how stinky the Love River is, and the realization that all may be for naught, if we can't get another foreigner to join our team by Thursday.
• Rachel and I hung out with Tom and two of his friends, Michael and Charles.

Welp, that's about all my eyes will let me write for now. More tomorrow, when we attempt dragonboating once again.

Overbooked, Underbooked

I had a feeling this might happen. I've been working on the side as a thesis editor for Master's students for months now, and now, suddenly, everything is coming due, literally. At the exact same time as my last week with my 6th graders, i.e. the time at which I need to have finished my end-of-the-year gifts, and the time at which my evenings are filling up with banquets and graduations. Here's hoping I pull it all together in time.

When it rains it pours, eh? And I can't even resist the cliche, for all the accuracy it's had lately: it has been POURING. We were supposed to have a dragon boat practice today. Oh yeah, have I mentioned that yet? We're participating in a dragon boat race next week. And we haven't practiced yet. Today, it was raining off and on all day, and by the time practice came around, it had let up--but still, no one showed up. It was me, Rachel, and Fonda--since Fonda graciously volunteered to drive us--and Allen (who's doing his military service at Sanmin). Eventually, Vincent, the other Allen, and a friend of Vincent's showed up--but, given that it takes 20 people to crew a dragon boat, our practice still consisted of Rachel and Vincent's friend practicing with umbrellas in the air while taking shelter from the rain under the leaky cover of a row of trees.

We did at least get to watch others rowing, though! And we saw the dragon boats themselves. They're pretty cool. They look a bit like this:

...but not quite, since, you know, it was rainy today and we were on the Love River, not wherever that picture was taken. The empty part is right, though.

Anyway, here's hoping it all pulls together in time: theses, cards, dragon boats and all. Allons-y!