Golden Buddha at Hualian Gorge

The final weeks in Taiwan were kind of sad. Things in the core course wrapped up with presentations on our projects and speeches before our instructors other class. I really never felt comfortable speaking before a large group of people, especially in another language, but the mere fact that the students in the class seemed indifferent towards our speeches gave me confidence. Although my speech wasn't as long and I didn't remember a bunch of things for them, I think that I did a good job getting in front of them and expressing myself in a very casual manner. Not so great was the group presentation that I didn't present. Sometimes a group can just be too big. I put work into the project, but between Evan and Dave, they really seemed to have the information and they had things covered. Combined with the fact that I was extremely upset just made me not really want to get up and talk. I was upset about some people I met that really ruined my plans for teaching English. I just wanted to keep a promise so I canceled the appointment to teach English to teach it another day and my Taiwanese friend just cancel my appointment with him before he realized what I had done. So I became mad at Taiwanese people, many of them but not all. That anger actually lasted until I got on the plane and left. At which time, I began to realize just how much I actually missed Taiwan.

The best things about the last two weeks were the final trip to Hualian and the last time spent at 101. Hualian actually turned out to be a lot better than I thought. In the beginning many of us were upset because the schedule seemed too pressing and time was so limited. We worried we would not be able to have a break. Also we didn't want to go to the monastery that Christie did and eat the veggie lunch. The only bad thing about the trip I would say is food provided by CIEE. We were able to go to a hot spring there and walk on the beach. We saw the beautiful gorge in the mountains and stayed in a youth center that was not that bad all (on the last night of the trip). The first youth center was kind of questionable in its upkeep, but it was in some more rural part of Taiwan. One thing that I did like was the dinner we had the last night and the lunch we had before we left. They were almost exactly the same, but the taste was pretty good. I enjoyed the shrimp, fish, soup and noodles prepared.

The last morning in Taiwan was kind of sad. I started to miss the late night conversations with my roommate and I missed Dave's roommates, Brock, Wayne and Ace, who kept me entertained with photography and magic tricks. I still occasionally chat with them on MSN, but it was nice being able to see them and go out and do things with them. I regret not taking the trip with them somewhere. The one thing I made sure to do before leaving was having beef noodles for lunch. I didn't really grasp the seriousness of not being able to have a good bowl of it ever again but now I do understand. I really miss Taiwan.