(no subject)
hey everyone. i didn't drop off the planet, so here's the update:
during june i had to write a million reports, make a giant teaching portfolio, clean and move out of my apartment, go to numerous job-related ridiculousnesses, move to taipei (ellen's storage room, more accurately), and showed my sister around for the last week of june and first week of july.
it was really sad to leave my students behind. the end of the semester felt hectic and was crazy and i didn't really get to say a formal goodbye or anything. :(
i have gone through so much bs related to finding/securing jobs for next year. i don't even want to talk about it. please just add some positive thinking to the universe that says i will be able to go back to taiwan and live and work there without incident during this coming school year. and hopefully i can find a reasonably priced apartment to share with josue that isn't a total dump.
christie and i had a really great time and i loved being crazy sisters with her in taiwan for two weeks.
i flew back to the u.s. on july 8/9 and had a 7 hour layover in l.a. where i experienced intense culture shock. however, being at home and with my family has been wonderful and fantastic.
i just spent the past week with my whole immediate family on the beach in n.c. (where lisa lives). we cooked so much delicious food and i swam in the ocean almost every day (i'm quite sure it was 6 out of 7 days). when i wasn't swimming, cooking, eating, or having family time, christie and i were addicted to watching TLC, specifically john and kate plus 8, which if you have cable/satellite i highly recommend watching.
being in n.c. with lisa and wendy always fills my head with dreams of having my own little organic garden and my own little house and cooking my own delicious meals all the time :) it was so great to spend all that time with family too. i love it when we're all together.
today we drove 13 hours through anonymous countryside back to ohio. after unloading the van, i went on a bike ride since i'd been sitting all day and marveled at how beautiful ohio is and how much i love it here. there was hardly any traffic (three vehicles during the 4 mile ride). i just listened to the scattered birds and took in the delicious smells of ripening corn and freshly cut grass, and drank in the beauty that is my neighborhood at sunset/dusk. endless fields, the golden recently cut wheat is so stunning and the tall corn stalks are comforting.
then i held my old, blind, and deaf ollie cat while i talked with shana on my phone (all the minutes were free!! god bless the u.s.a!) about what to expect during her fulbright in kaohsiung (southern taiwan) next year (this school year...next month...). anyhow, ollie is so old, i think almost 20 or older in human years, and it's so sad she can't really see or hear and i needed to help her jump onto and off of my lap. and i love her and my heart just goes out to her. she sat on my lap for about half an hour and i'm really glad we got to spend some quality petting time together.
i'm feeling really content right now. i'm going to sign off of my slow slow slooooow internet soon and read and then go to bed :)
during june i had to write a million reports, make a giant teaching portfolio, clean and move out of my apartment, go to numerous job-related ridiculousnesses, move to taipei (ellen's storage room, more accurately), and showed my sister around for the last week of june and first week of july.
it was really sad to leave my students behind. the end of the semester felt hectic and was crazy and i didn't really get to say a formal goodbye or anything. :(
i have gone through so much bs related to finding/securing jobs for next year. i don't even want to talk about it. please just add some positive thinking to the universe that says i will be able to go back to taiwan and live and work there without incident during this coming school year. and hopefully i can find a reasonably priced apartment to share with josue that isn't a total dump.
christie and i had a really great time and i loved being crazy sisters with her in taiwan for two weeks.
i flew back to the u.s. on july 8/9 and had a 7 hour layover in l.a. where i experienced intense culture shock. however, being at home and with my family has been wonderful and fantastic.
i just spent the past week with my whole immediate family on the beach in n.c. (where lisa lives). we cooked so much delicious food and i swam in the ocean almost every day (i'm quite sure it was 6 out of 7 days). when i wasn't swimming, cooking, eating, or having family time, christie and i were addicted to watching TLC, specifically john and kate plus 8, which if you have cable/satellite i highly recommend watching.
being in n.c. with lisa and wendy always fills my head with dreams of having my own little organic garden and my own little house and cooking my own delicious meals all the time :) it was so great to spend all that time with family too. i love it when we're all together.
today we drove 13 hours through anonymous countryside back to ohio. after unloading the van, i went on a bike ride since i'd been sitting all day and marveled at how beautiful ohio is and how much i love it here. there was hardly any traffic (three vehicles during the 4 mile ride). i just listened to the scattered birds and took in the delicious smells of ripening corn and freshly cut grass, and drank in the beauty that is my neighborhood at sunset/dusk. endless fields, the golden recently cut wheat is so stunning and the tall corn stalks are comforting.
then i held my old, blind, and deaf ollie cat while i talked with shana on my phone (all the minutes were free!! god bless the u.s.a!) about what to expect during her fulbright in kaohsiung (southern taiwan) next year (this school year...next month...). anyhow, ollie is so old, i think almost 20 or older in human years, and it's so sad she can't really see or hear and i needed to help her jump onto and off of my lap. and i love her and my heart just goes out to her. she sat on my lap for about half an hour and i'm really glad we got to spend some quality petting time together.
i'm feeling really content right now. i'm going to sign off of my slow slow slooooow internet soon and read and then go to bed :)