There is a Christmas in Taiwan!

Yesterday was kind of a rough day. Rachel and I gave our Christmas presents to our AK class because Jack is on a trip with his family so yesterday was his last day in class. Tiffany burst out in tears because she knows that we are leaving, and then Jack gave us Christmas presents and I started crying. Because Tiffany was crying and I was thinking about Friday and that I wasn't going to see Jack anymore and it was all very upsetting. But the day did improve. Rachel and I went to say Merry Christmas to the scooter people after she got out of class. See, every Sunday we have to walk past the train station to catch our bus to church. There is a parking garage of sorts for scooters next to the train station and there are three different people who work there. Every time we walk past they say hello and smile at us and they have become our sort of pals. So for our sort of pals we took fresh fruit and a Christmas card. And they speak no English other than "hello" and we speak no Chinese that would have been helpful in the situation. And it was grand and we were slightly cheered from our saddening AK happenings. And then on our way home we found this:

A Taiwanese Christmas tree! Hooray! And Look!

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS!!!! Baaaaaaaaahhh! This made us very happy. Also, I watched the Christmas Devotional yesterday, which is a happy thing too :)

Today I taught my second graders for the last time and my younger writing class :'(  I think tomorrow will be the most distressing though...

Oh! Also! Do you remember my Taiwanese-y backpack that was briefly mentioned awhile back? You know, the one I broke with my over-the-top karate chop? I got it fixed! Yay! I asked Charlene (one of the super awesome girls that works as a secretary here) if she knew of any place that I could get it fixed. She didn't. BUT, someone else downstairs did! And she only speaks Chinese so she explained to Charlene where this cobbler shop was whilst drawing a very obscure and unhelpful map that included a lot of circles and squiggly lines. And I'm sure it would have worked out nicely had I been able to understand her Chinese, but something got lost in translation when Charlene re-explained to me. There was some confusion of directions and something about turning left somewhere around the morning market. And well...I wandered down four different streets and found a bunch of alteration shops and some expensive pomegranates, but no cobbler shop. And I was frustrated and just wanted to be home where I could ask people for help and figure out where to get this stupid bag fixed and I finally decided to walk back to the place where I had parked my bike and just go home. Well, on the way back a girl saw me walking back down the street and asked me if I was lost. And then she walked me all the way to the cobbler's shop and helped me get my bag fixed! Because people are just awesome like that here. Girl who helped me, you will never ever see this blog or me again, but I love you!

Merry Christmas!

A Note

First of all, how am I going to say good-bye to faces like this one?

The other day I spent the better part of a Saturday sobbing. I am going to miss these kids so much. There are three days left of teaching and nine until I get on a plane to go home. I have a multitude of mixed feelings over this fact. On the leaving side I am very sad. I don't like good-byes and I certainly don't understand why the word good is in them. I love how willing everyone here is to help and how people actually smile back at me here. Also it is upsetting to know that I will not have celebrity status when I go home :) But, on the coming home side of things, it will be nice to not be stared at all the time, to be able to have complete conversations with strangers, and to not face death every time I set foot outside the school. I am happy to be seeing my families and my friends. And I will not be sleeping on something akin to a box spring! Hooray!

Also, I am going to miss everything being covered in cartoons and such. Everything here is cute! Well, not everything. But all their little nick-knacks and art supplies and bags and, and all that crap that you don't actually need, but want to buy because it's so stinkin' adorable. Plus, the money here is pretty. I will miss the pretty money.

As much as I don't want to leave, I really just want to get it over with. My stuff is packed, my lesson plans are submitted, my last primary lesson is taught, most everything on my to-do list is accomplished and I just want to go!

Okay, i am done with my blabbering.

Peace out my little lemmings (random reference for Heather)