Only one more teaching day left - then it’s 4 days to pack, a day (give or take a few time zones) to fly, and we’ll be home!
Our tickets came today, so we’re sure (well, almost sure) to at least have seats on a series of three planes that will take us home. What we’re not so sure of is whether or not we’ll be seated together, since there are no seat designations on these retro-style paper tickets.
I guess we’ll be headed to the airport extra early in hopes of snagging some good seats.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Drive along a flat, open stretch of highway, where the sky is big and blue, the land is green all the way to the horizon, and I don’t feel boxed in by hills and clouds and rain and smog.
Only 2 more working days left! Woooo!
Not much else to say now, though. Still no tickets (eep!), more and more excitement as the trip home draws near. Also, I’m re-reading a fantastic book, so I’m sort of pre-occupied with that. So, yeah. Back to reading.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Buy shoes without the need to visit a specialty shop. My size 10s are way past biggish and well into freakish territory here.
We saw CJ7 today (IMDB page, Wiki page). It was a fun movie. We didn’t really know what to expect; Seth’s students had said it was an action movie, while the girl who sold us the tickets said it was a little bit of everything. It was fun, but since it’s not available in the states yet, I’m not going to say anything more. Well, except that we liked it and I recommend it if you can find it.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Cook in a spacious, midwestern kitchen. Where there are big fridges, 4-burner stovetop ovens, lots of counter and cabinent space, and room to move around.
I woke up this morning with a pounding headache, my sinuses all crammed with congestion. Teaching one class was exhausting, and so I came home afterwards and took a nap before Seth and I headed south for Caleb’s birthday party. We had dinner with everyone, said a few goodbyes (real goodbyes, not just “See you later”), and then got on the train to come back home. We’ve got plans tomorrow to help another friend finish packing up her apartment - she’s leaving a few days before we are. It’s been a pretty uneventful day, but each day’s passing means we’re that much closer to coming home. I’m really excited - this is so clearly the right decision for us. Someone at dinner - I forget who it was - even noticed and commented on how happy I looked.
It’s strange. By all rights, I should be completely freaking out, since we’re not packed, I don’t have a job lined up, we still don’t have tickets in hand, and we leave in just over a week. Make no mistake - there is some freaking out. But the worry is outweighed by the relief and anticipation of going home. Seth and I hadn’t realized, and never would have guessed, just how much we’d miss boring old Kansas. I guess I should have paid more attention all those time I watched The Wizard of Oz - Dorothy’s joy to be home after her Technicolor adventure is a pretty good approximation of how I feel.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Buy some new bras. I’ve been making do with ill-fitting ones for a while, and I’m excited to be able to fo into a store and know they’ll carry my size, and not just the teeny-tiny, padded, frou-frou confections they carry in the multitudes of lingerie stores here.
So, I decided to make some no-bake cookies tonight. I used my regular recipe, and then added a scant cup of pistachios (mmmmmm………). They’re awesome, sure, but I overboiled the chocolate before I added the oatmeal and the pistachio, so they cookies are dry and crumbly, which just bugs me to no end. Seth sees no problem (chocolate? yup. oatmeal? uh-huh. pistachios? check. awesome? you betcha.), and yeah, sure, they taste good, but they’re just. not. right. So, no recipe, since I want to make a pretty post with pictures (of proper-looking no-bakes, not dull, crumbly piles).
Anyway, we had some (very) minor issues with our tickets. We bought them through a consolidator (or something, I dunno really), and as it turns out, they’re paper tickets. Paper. I had no idea paper tickets even still existed. So, of course, those tickets need to be shipped, which brings the cost up such that any savings we realized from going through this place initially is pretty much completely obliterated. Bah. They’re on their way now, anyway (well, I think - I asked that they hold off on shipping them until Friday so that they’d be sure to arrive on a work day, since our mailing address is, uh, our work address), so it’s done.
And, yeah, that’s the news. Since I completely forgot to post yesterday, today we’ve got a double header:
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Wash my clothes, and then dry them. In a dryer. In under 48 hours per load. Oh, technology! You are wonderful indeed.
- Attend multiple events we thought we’d miss:
- Seth’s cousin’s wedding
- My grandpa’s wedding
- Special Olympics events (okay, this one is completely Seth’s - I’ll likely spend that weekend hanging out with my parents)
- Winfield!
Only one more week of work before we finish, pack up, and leave! Wooo!
There’s not really much to say today. I’ve entered into that annoying, inevitable, pre-big thing mode of constant, niggling worry. Will we get everything packed? Do we need to ship some things? Will our tickets (grr…they’re paper tickets - I didn’t realize those were still around) get here in time? Will I ever be able to not worry about the sort of things I can’t do anything about?
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Flush my toilet paper.
We woke up to a dry sky today, the sun struggling to (and briefly succeeding in) breaking through the cloudes. Two days in a row, people, TWO DAYS IN A ROW. Call the news stations, notify your neighbors - it’s a freakin’ miracle.
And, for a fun non-sequitor, I’d like to introduce a short series, folks. It’s called “Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan” and I’ll post one thing a day.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Get a 32oz diet Coke, straight from the fountain, at almost any gas station.
Well, crap on a stick and call it a corndog! The sun came out today! We didn’t get to enjoy it much, since we had to go to work, but the rain-free ride there and back was a pleasant change.
It looks like we’ve found a buyer for almost everything we weren’t planning to pack, which is nice. It’s a good deal on both sides, as she’s getting lots for a song and we don’t have to worry about what to do with all of our stuff.
In other non-news, I feel like I’m coming down with something, and am actively considering going to sleep now, well before 10pm. After all, we’ve got plans to play tourist again tomorrow, so I’d hate to be a big grey cloud (with a drippy nose and gurgly tummy) hanging over our day.
* I miscounted yesterday. We leave on March 3rd!
Well.
What the heck happened to me? I go and tell you we’ve got big news coming, then let Seth tell you all about it while I forget to blog for two days running. Uh…that wasn’t my plan.
Anyway, as Seth said, we’re headed back home in the very near future. Lots of things factored into the decision, but really, when it comes down to it, we aren’t happy here, and that was affecting our health and our general outlook. Not cool!
Now that we’ve given notice, we’ve got one-and-a-half weeks of work left, and then 5 more days after that before we get on the plane. It’s a little crazy, and I look around our apartment and wonder how the heck we’re going to get it all taken care of. We’ll leave plenty of things here, of course - I’m not planning to lug home the toaster oven or anything. Still, it’s going to be whirlwind, but we’re excited. Seth has a pretty firm job offer already, and I’m probably going to concentrate on renewing my teaching certification, looking for a teaching job for 08/09, and finishing up my languishing master’s degree. There’s going to be so much to take care of, from finding a car to getting real winter clothes, but I’m really, really looking forward to being home.
T minus 19 days and counting!
It would appear that we have successfully sold our house, sold our car, and quit our jobs. Now there may be a problem with our visas. This doesn’t at all mean that we won’t get to go, just that we *might* not get to go. We’ve sort of resigned ourselves to it though, and have decided that if Taiwan doesn’t happen, what’s holding us here now? No jobs, no house, no car, we can now seek employment virtually anywhere. So that’s what we’re doing, in case this whole crazy venture falls through at the last minute, which is seeming increasingly likely.