I did it! Hooray! I did, as someone suggested, feel exactly like Tom Hanks in Castaway. I wanted to jump around the backyard howling. Instead, mom and I had a celebratory smore. She was there as my witness, lest anyone try to disqualify my accomplishment. It was really exciting, actually. Altogether, I probably worked at that for 24 hours, over three days. It's not nearly as simple as it looks, and it took that much experimenting and refining to get it right. But I think I can repeat it now.
Yesterday my friend Charlie called. I met him in Madison and rode to Louisville with him. We picked up Courtney, then went to Waterfront Park for the free "Waterfront Wednesday" concert. Apparently, we missed Willy Mason, who was the opening act-- explain that to me, now? But we saw a local act and the main act, the Avett Brothers. They were good. Jessica met us there, and I also saw Joe, which was great. I haven't seen him in a year, because he changed his phone number and I hadn't tracked him down yet. His parents were there, too, which was nice. I also got to see Joe's friend Drew, but only briefly. I miss all those folks.
Whew, time flies when you're watching satellite TV all day, every day. Actually, it's kind of slow, but I'm enjoying my little vacation.
I arrived home on the night of July 4. I had the window seat on the last leg of my flight. Coming into Louisville at 10 pm, I could see fireworks exploding over backyards in all directions, as far as I could see. It was a great homecoming. My parents and my brother picked me up at the airport with chocolate chip cookies. God bless them.
That weekend, I went to the riverfront at Madison for the fireworks, where I met my high school-- wait... lifelong-- friends Courtney and Amber, along with their boyfriends and Courtney's parents. We all went to Shipley's Tavern for a round after the show. My aunt Debbie and her friend joined us, too, and a good time was had by all, I believe.
After Shipley's, a few of them wanted to continue to Madison's liveliest nightspot, the Electric Lady. I was set to ride home with Courtney's parents (having ridden to the fireworks with my own parents), but the girls convinced me to stay. I wish I could say I'm glad I did, but frankly, the EL experience was pretty forgettable. I saw a lot of people I'd rather forget, listened to some awful music, and got more than my fill of good ol' 'merican style machismo (not to mention beer). Heck, I even saw a bar fight! Now you just can't beat that, can you?
No way!
Is this real? I began to wonder. You bet it is!
Whew, what a way to make the transition from Taiwan back to America.
The next night, Amber and her bf and I went to Abbie's for her fireworks show. It was fun, and she had some big fireworks. Afterwards, we played some playstation karaoke as well as taboo and charades. Thanks, Abbie and family!
At some point, I went to Louisville for a couple days. I met a Louisville friend, Nick, for a drink, then, as it was Wednesday, we ventured to my old Wednesday karaoke haunt, Seidenfaden's. I had a relatively good time, but would like to have seen more people I know. I have yet to locate my old roomies there, but I will soon.
I visited my friend Ash in Bloomington for a weekend. We caught up, ate some good food and went to a state park nearby.
Last Friday, my parents and my little brother and I spent some time visiting a sickly relative, then went to Franklin to visit my brother and his wife. It was nice to see their new home. We shot a little pool and played cornhole, the yard game sensation that is sweeping the nation.
Readers, I confess I'm hooked on Man vs. Wild, a Discovery Channel program where a former British Special Forces soldier is dropped in exotic wilderness locales with only a knife and water bottle, and forced to survive for days until he makes his way to civilization. This, combined with my boredom and my woodsy streak, has inspired me to undertake an experiment. A week ago or so, my little brother and I spent about an hour in the back yard trying to create fire using the "hand drill method." We got smoke but no fire, and we quickly grew impatient. But yesterday, from lunch until sunset, I patiently set to work uncovering the secrets of fire. After a couple hours of assembling the proper materials from the woods, I set about preparing a bow, a spindle, a fireboard, a socket, tinder, etc. in an attempt at the "bow drill method" of starting a fire. I got closer and closer, got all kinds of smoke, and even got a tiny, tiny ember one time, but I never got a fire. It's a good thing I wasn't really in a survival situation. But, I had fun, and I learned somethings. Now that I have all the materials and I feel I'm getting close the fire, I'm going to pick it up again tomorrow and see if I can make it happen. If you're curious, you can search "bow drill" online and find lots of instructions.
Otherwise, I am spending my summer studying for the GRE, which I plan to take before returning to Taiwan. I'm also studying some Chinese, mostly audio conversations, and I'm playing Guitar Hero II with my brother. It's a good life, I suppose.
I want to wrap up a few things from my last days in Taiwan.
From school:
Teaching from our Let's Go Yilan! DVD.
Posing with two of my favorites, first-graders, who I know only as the-kid-who's-always-eating (left), and Teacher, me!, because he always shouts "Teacher, me!" when he wants my attention. A real sweetheart and good students, both.
And a couple examples of one of my favorite assignments, the write your own comic strip dialog thing that the kids seemed to enjoy. In case you can't read them, here's the dialog.
"There don't have any fish. This lake is bad."
"But I have a big fish."
"Oh my God. You fish is to big!"
I call this one Snoopy's-- er, Snoppy's Identity Crisis.
"I am who? Who is my father, Who is my mother? Who is my sun"
"Snoppy!"
"Oh~Yeah, my name is Snoppy!"
A going away card, which I can't quite read (yet!).
There are more, if you check my flickr page, in this set.
Other Taiwan stuff and pics I liked:
Waiting for a train.
Scooter vs. scooter, in Luodong. You can't see much here, but this was the nastiest wreck I saw all year. Eventually, though, after a couple of minutes lying unconscious, both riders managed to sit up and wait for the ambulance.
Last Supper.
Several of the ETAs and I had dinner at Jun in Luodong as a bit of a going away celebration/Luke's birthday party.
At my last dinner with my host family, my host father made some great coffee using this strange little boiler thing that I've never seen before.
When Denny and I went to the beach in Dongao, we stopped and took a couple photos from the highway. The views above Suao and Dongao are awesome.
Suao Harbor.
Dongao.
Nighttime at the Dongshan River Near Water Park, in Luodong/Dongshan.
When I cleaned the apartment to move out, I noticed this sweet albeit incoherent little text on the bottom of our frying pan. Classic Taiwan.
Oh, and on my last full day in Taiwan, I finally visited the National Palace Museum, home to a massive collection of art and artifacts, covering China's 8,000 years of known history. The history of the collection and the museum itself is quite interesting. The collection was originally taken from the Forbidden City during the Japanese occupation and relocated to parts of China to keep them safe from the Japanese. During the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek had the collection sent to Taiwan, and there it has remained. I didn't bother taking photos inside-- I'm not even sure if it's allowed-- but I took these on the grounds.
And as Viktor and I had flights on the same day, we spent our last night in Taipei together, scouring the streets for food at 3 am, eventually finding a New York Bagels. Here's a bad shot I took from the base of Taipei 101 on our quest. It was the last time I'd glimpse the tower as the world's tallest building, as it's now been overtaken by the still-in-construction Burj Dubai tower. I won't get into that... grumble grumble.
Finally, a video of me taking out the garbage. This is how it works in Taiwan.
I'm in San Francisco waiting on my flight. Since I had an open return ticket, I have to fly back exactly the way I came-- Taipei to SF to Houston to Louisville.
Hey, I'm in America! America! I'm so happy to be here!
The flight over was pretty good. I left Taipei at 11:30 pm, flew about 11 hours and arrived in SF at 7:50 pm. I was able to sleep quite a bit on the plane and even watched the new TMNT movie. By the time I made it through the checkpoints and rechecked my bags (so I didn't have to carry them from and to the airport) and got some dinner and made it to the hotel, it was almost 10 pm. I stayed up late trying to get the wireless in my room to work, but the signal was hopelessly weak, and watching Letterman and Conan. I guess I slept five hours last night, and I feel pretty good and not so lagged this morning. I think a couple of small naps is the way to get around the time difference.
I just gorged myself at IHOP and now I'm sitting on a bench outside the hotel lobby because it's the only place I can get online. I wish I was staying in SF for a bit. The weather here is lovely-- clear and a little brisk. Even from this dumpy Travelodge near the airport the scenery is great-- mountains in nearly every direction but toward the bay.
Anywho, I need to get on a shuttle to the airport in about 10 minutes. TTFN.
I'm flying off this rock in eight hours! I'm so terribly excited to get home for a while! I smile from ear to ear when I think about it! Yet, I'm a little melancholy about leaving... But I'll be back.
Oh, America, how I've missed you, with your abundance of cheeses! Feta, Gouda, Parmesan... Romano, Havarti, Cheddar! Jesus!
Real chocolate... oh dear.
So many burritos... pounds of hummus...
Beer
Dairy Queen
Anyway, I could go on for hours. I'm going to get some lunch here, rest a while, pack up my things, and head to the airport.
I'll be home late on July 4.
All this talk of food isn't to say that I haven't missed people. Duh. Drop me a line and I hope to see everyone I can this summer!
