The time is near. The school year is drawing to a close and the summer is imminent, hot, humid. Inevitable. Tantalizing. Ann will be here in just over a week and we will wander about Taiwan for a week or so before taking off on our China adventure. I can’t wait for her to get here – I’ve missed her so much! Besides that, her arrival marks the near end of school. And her upcoming visit has me reflecting on the past year.
It has been a year of great change and much progress, in so far as one really progresses. I arrived 10 months ago and in that time I feel that I’ve accomplished a myriad of feats, some quite small, yet pleasing to me. A few:
-Learning a new school, including many new kinds of students and faculty members
-Living in an expat community of other teachers is like living in a bubble where everyone talks about everyone and knows everyone else’s business. I’ve learned to not fight this inevitability, but I still don’t love it. I long for hermit-like life sometimes.
-Gained my Yoga Alliance certification through an intense 3 month course on the weekend, and grew my yoga practice in lovely, unexpected ways
-Learning Chinese, and being able to converse with taxi drivers about pineapple desserts (today’s entertainment).
-Getting weekly massages and monthly hair washes at the salon
-Relinquishing consumerism for most of the year. I haven’t bought any clothing, furniture, decorations or much of anything in Taiwan
-I have, however, spent my money on food. The food is sometimes good, and many times wonderful. I’m starting to figure out the places that blow me away.
-Friends I have made, and particularly the beauty of knowing Sherry, through Carolyn
-Getting to travel during my breaks around magnificent, thoughtful, curious, bizarre Asia (and New Zealand)
I relish my good fortune and am so thankful for the astoundingly great luck I have to be able to do this all. I want to pay my gratitude forward after this amazing year.
