Last Day of School

Today was my very last day teaching and time to say goodbye. This week has been weird because I've felt that I should be saying goodbye all week and in fact I've already said goodbye to so many people and who knows when I will have the chance to see them again or if I will have the chance to see them again, or if I have the chance I will feel to shy and awkward and distant.

I made cookies for my co-workers, took my closest teacher friends out to tea and had my kids write letters to themselve that I will mail to them in a year. Today I just organized the classroom for the first two hours and gathered all my things. At the 10:15 break a binch of kids came and gave me presents and cards and then the teachers pulled out the keyboard and everyone sang the song that everyone knows in Chinese but the name escapes me, something with wo and ai. I cried again and all the kids lined up for hugs.

In the afternoon, we had a farewell tea for all the Fulbrighters and co-teachers. That was strangely anti-climatic, but if we had not met people would have left without me having the chance to say goodbye at all. I guess that would be okay too though, it's not as if goodbyes really do anything for me. Now I'm sitting waiting to go to dinner with a Fulbright friend Katherine, that I probably won't see again for and undetermined amount of time. I feel sort of sad, and just a little strange. I'm looking forward to moving in with Coling, but it's not the same looking forward that everyone elese is doing talking about eating sundried tomatos and doing those other things you can do in the states but not here (I really can barely remember.) It'll still be a long time before Colin and I are back to the home country, but I'm okay with that, even if it's strange at the moment.
On another note, I went to turtle island yesterday. It is the symbol of Yilan and it looks a lot like a turtle and I've seen it every clear morning from my bedroom. That was nice closure I guess, setting foot on the distant island I've seen all year. We saw some dolphins, I got burnt, the island was lush and militaryesque. Afterwards Katie Catherine and I went surfing. I would have backed out because of the feeling of surf culture when we arrived, but Katie drove forward. Once we got in the water I had a great time, overcame my SoCal insecurities about surfing and had fun. Katie, whose last surfing experience was tramatic, ended up backing out at the last minute, but she helped me do it- Thank You, Katie! I still can't say I really like having a headache from seawater up my nose, but at least I know that.

Anyway so much for closure, now it's packing time. That is, somewhere between Karaoke with the housemates on Saturday, tea drinking tonight, and BBQ with teachers on Sunday.