yooooooohooooooooo

today was kind of a funny contrast with the past few days where i've just been all excited and floaty. this afternoon i went to lunch with allen, who was really quiet and somber and kept mentioning how he's sad that i have to leave. he's understandably not excited at all about me leaving in a month.

after that, i went over to romantic paris mansion to help them set up the internet. while i was waiting for the internet guy, i hung out in the lobby at a table with 2 security guards and 3 men who live in the complex. they were chattering in chinese as i sat down and they quickly asked if i understood chinese. i said yes, we became fast friends, as they said we have no foreign friends, you can be our foreign friend. they were all smoking and drinking tea so one of them bought me a tea from the vending machine and money just started pouring out of the change slot. we laughed and they kept pointing at me and telling me i was so lucky. so i felt a little twinge of sadness about not becoming besties with those guys. they seem like a lot of fun.

thenn i sat with tess and katie while the internet guys did their thing and it was sad that i don't get to live in romantic paris mansion with them.

thennnn! i went to see the kuo's who were all excited to see me after thailand. mr. kuo just stood there for a long time and looked at me when i first walked in. mrs. chan made some kind of cold cucumber salad she's never made before, and she made golden curry just for me because it's my favorite (as she reminded me when i told her i wasn't super hungry.. so of course i ended up eating a giant bowl of it).
but then i told mr. kuo about the internship and he was sad. he kept saying one month! and we agreed that this year has flown by too quickly. he kept staring at me as i ate and said taiwanese people love you. we will miss you when you go to america.

and my classes tonight are so sweet. i had a gaggle of girls meet me at the door when i came in and we all walked in a big clump up to the classroom, where the other kids raced to show me who got hair cuts (i always make a big deal of it when they get one because i think you always feel kind of special with new hair and it's fun to be noticed).

my next class had changed their seats all around and we have a new set of twins, eddie and .. someone. i forget the other kids name. that class loves to pick on me and today whenever i would say 'ask a question' (instead of ask a QA), they'd say 'what is megan's phone number?' or 'who is megan's boyfriend?' and they thought they were sooo clever. even emily, the quietest girl in the whole world, said something like 50 words to me at break which is unprecidented.

so it was kind of a bittersweet day. i think i'm going home under the best possible circumstances, but i do have a life here that i'll be sad to leave behind.