很喜歡台灣

12 hours ago..well, i managed not to cry in the car even as mr. kuo dabbed at his eyes without saying a word, but i haven't really stopped crying since i walked through security (and i haven't even read what the people in the dorm wrote to me in my goodbye book). it makes me think of the first time i was in this airport, crying my eyes out because i didn't know what anything said, everyone was staring at me, and i didn't know how to get to my house or have anyone there except those friendly taxi drivers, who didn't understand a word i was saying, to help me.
(bras on the sidewalk in front of carrefour).
now i can ask for help and talk to the people around me. sometimes i can figure out a sign even if it isn't in english. i've swum illegally in taroko gorge, gotten $3 massages in the philippines and learned to dive in thailand. i've eaten squid balls, pig intestine soup, sheets of seaweed and fried durian.
i'll miss the stares on the street and people who talk to me through giggles just because they think i'm pretty. i'll always remember all of the things i've done and seen, all of the people i've met and things i've eaten. it's been an awesome year and a couple of months.
(asian-fab post-its).
even though i have blonde hair in blue eyes, i'll always feel a little taiwanese on the inside. i already find myself wishing i wasn't hearing the english around me. i've gotten pretty used to everything in chinese and i always looked forward to seeing the little change in people's faces when i started speaking chinese to them.
(entrance of carrefour.. which isn't usually filled with shopping carts).
time to get on the plane! all i brought in my carryon is my laptop, a book i had all of my friends/kids sign, my blanket and some shorts. and my pillow. first stop: honolulu. i asked for an exit row seat. here's hoping whoever sits next to me isn't a germaphobe because i still have a pretty annoying cough.
(fruit market).

thank you for following along with me for however long you've been here. even if you've never commented, i know you by your city from my hits tracker. from dumfries to sunnyvale, grandville, rockville and denver, columbus and brampton, the netherlands, hong kong, finland, france, sweden and beyond.. it's been nice to have you along for the ride and i hope you come with me wherever i end up!

goodbye taiwan

it's my last night in taiwan, in this bed, in the dorm, listening to clinking poker chips through my paperthin door (in a good way). most everyone hung out in the common room for a while and i got to see everyone who doesn't live at the dorm which was really nice. i can't imagine not seeing all of these teachers for several hours a day anymore! working/living/socializing with the same 30 people really brings you together in a unique way.
i've been going going going since i woke up this morning. jimmie and i changed the scooter into her name, i turned in my books, took pictures of everything/everyone in the whole country, saw the doctor for one last almost-free checkup, went to dinner with allen, showered, visited with the spa and coffee shop, chatted with everyone, raffled off my matress. it was busy.
(flashcards outside of the stationery store).
time for bed so i can get up tomorrow and finish everything. i have a looonnnggg travel day [and a half] tomorrow, so i'll post the rest of the pictures from various airport lounges. goodnight!

goodbye monday

goodbye secretaries..
goodbye jasmine's class! teddy and isabel moved to daxi so they were gone. we kept saying 'teddy!' and then pretending to cry. he was really a joy in our class. they said if anyone else leaves, they're just all going to go on strike.
i'm going to miss those girls! we were like a little group of girlfriends, gossiping and discussing fashion and boys. i always went to class 15 minutes early so we could chat.. half in chinese, half in english. kitty, the one hanging off of me, was louder than the entire class. she and eason would scream at the top of their lungs when we read.
we started off on kind of a rough note but we turned a corner when she entered the speech competition and i went to watch her. we would exchange nervous glances before it was finally her turn.
crazy boys. eason, in the middle, is so outspoken. his old teacher, jameson, called him 'poo poo man' so he would say it 10x a day in our class.
this is my view.
in my little kid class we did the shaving cream spelling game again. they went insaaane. i had shaving cream all over one hand, so i took these pictures with my left hand and my right arm, which is why the flash is kind of screwy.
bill and debby..
neil and becky
look how sweet those boys are! could they be any cuter? far left, jerry (formerly jellyfish), bill (formerly tiger) and scott were the three who would always run away from me and then let me hug them. the kid right in front of me is neil. he's been in our class a few months and he and i have become besties. the one on the far right is ethan, who would break into spontaneous dance.
happy girls. we never bonded like the boys, but they are so fun. so smart and giggly and fun.
week 2..
week 62. look how much jerry has grown! he used to not even come up to my shoulder and now he's past it.
i stood by the door and hugged everyone and they left, and jerry came back through the line 3 times. and neil stuck around to help erase the whiteboard and asked what i would be doing in america. i told him i'd work at the white house. he kept saying the real white house? and then he followed me downstairs to the secretaries to ask them if i was serious. he asked me to write them a letter from america. i think i will.

goodbye saturday

i am getting so tired of this whole not ever seeing my kids again thing! enough already! i'm glad tomorrow is sunday so i can take a break. i was the first foreign teacher for both of these classes, so they've only known me so far. i'm not sure it really clicked with them that they're going to have a new teacher next week.. but we did have a lot of fun today.
i brought all of the stickers i have left and stuck them all over everyone. there were stickers on the floor, walls, kids, desks, lightswitch.. (this is neely).
daisy! her wish came true: their next teacher is going to be a guy. phil. he's new/awesome. they'll love him.
phina and kiki spelling words in shaving cream.
daisy nailed benny in the face with a whole sheet of shaving cream-covered tin foil as i was taking the picture of their messy hands!
he was not thrilled.we made a biiiig mess in the bathroom. dora's class was one of my favs because it was all little girls (and ian, in the middle). most days, every single kid was wearing something with some pink on it. and vivi always had her bear.
sammy and sandy. try saying their names 3 times fast. we also had vivi and vivian.

messy hands!
after that, i spent 3 hours at the kuo's hanging out with mr. kuo, mr. chen and mr. wang for the last time. i'll see the kuo's on tuesday, but not the trio. if anyone had told me that my best friends in taiwan would be 3 drunken taiwanese men, i'm not sure if i would have believed them. they're the best though.
mrs. chan is all business, but she's great. she's always walking around on a mission and jumping up to make people food and get business done while her husband is laughing and saying hello to everyone. today they kept wanting me to drink and i said no no no, but when she went and got a bottle of wine out of the fridge, i had to. i've never see her drink a sip!
and a saturday without cake is no saturday at all. we had spaghetti that mr. chen brought, green tea, beef stir fry, guava.. and just when i thought i couldn't eat one more bite, mr. chen disappeared for a bit and came back with a bunch of cake. there was no way i was getting out of there without eating the cake, so i just stuffed it into an already full stomach.
they boss me around and make fun of me and hit on me and spoil me. what am i going to do without them?
this is the official megan's favorite cake. cake around the outside and strawberry whipped cream on the inside. yummm!
it makes me teary just to think about not coming back here every weekend. we've had such a good time. (that's mr. kuo's little sister with the pool from the other week).

goodbye friday

goodbye friday! "what happened last week? right, we had a typhoon. well, i was supposed to tell you last week, but i have a new job in america, so this is our last week together." not the ideal way to let my mostly-boys class i'm leaving them. but i don't think they cared tooo much.
cindy was the only one in there i really got close to. during break, she stands beside me and lets me listen to one earphone of her ipod and she plays her favorite songs for me. during class today, she made an improvised going away present.it's a pin, the best note a teacher can receive from a student, and some drawings she ripped out of her QA book. the bottom one is me.
cindy and shirley. shirley has TWO lazy eyes. that makes sticky ball games kind of difficult.

my second class had a demo tonight. we love our demo's in there. we've done 3 together. this is one of my faaavorite classes because the kids are super sweet, eager to learn, and elaine keeps them in line so i just get to be the fun one. don't tell anyone, but eunice, sally, vanessa, jessica, paul, ryan, joseph, kendrick and i used to speak chinese like crazy before class every day.sweet girls! every time they saw me they'd run up and say MEGANNN!! and we walked in a gaggle upstairs to discuss the previous week.
during our demo, they had to try not to blink. these are their 'non blinking' faces.
"wake up, billy! you are late for school!"
"there's no school today, mom! it's a holiday."
"LAAAAZYBONES!"
i couldn't pry them away from the snack table so i just hugged them from behind while they stuffed their faces with shrimp chips and cookies.
ryan, total teacher's pet (in the cutest possible way) made me a card :)
i subbed his brother's class literally a year ago in the first few weeks i was teaching, and he remembered me because we played spoons. they're really fluent in english so it was just like chatting with friends.. a welcome surprise when you're a new teacher.
i almost cried a million times during our demo, but i knew if i started, i probably wouldn't be able to stop. i'm going to miss that class so much. we would just laugh and play games and have fun the whole time. they always wanted to tell me about their lives and show me their new things and ask about my life at home. they're all super smart and just good-natured kids.

p.s. corey over at tongue in cheek wrote a really perfect description of what it's like to ride a scooter, or in her case, motorcycle. she and her french husband are currently on a tour of europe on their motorcycle. she lives in provence but she's an american. i love her writing and spirit.

goodbye thursday

goodbye mr. wang! thank you for the cake, tea and company. "do you love me?"
goodbye thursday yellow book class! crazy pronunciation, following emily's rules, exchanging funny faces when no one was looking, voices that no one could hear, slow writers who became the fastest in the class, judy 1 and judy 2, unhappy moms.
left to right: outspoken mandy, strong wendy, inaudible elaine, funny face angela, sweet angel, clueless kelly, coming out of her shell judy, focused bella.
sweet, crazy boys. spaced out ryan, "i don't know" danny, slurred sean, ADD jason and quiet kevin.

goodbye GL2! it was a victory just to get everyone to sit down at the same time and stay seated. you can't read with your fingers on the words (or read at all, i think), but you're super sweet and you'll get better with time..
wendy during our reading/writing relay.
charlie and i paper scissor stoned before/during/after class and once i introduced jerry's "claw", he started coming up with his own variations. the bird, the double claw, the dog. wendy, sherry and charlie demonstrate:
cutest, tiniest boy in taiwan. i'm going to miss that sweet face (and the snail)!