Man truly is a creature of comfort. Not too long ago I was bitching ceaselessly about how the rain here has a way of ruining the best laid plans. With this recent stint of gorgeous weather, though, all I can think of is my flagging stamina walking outside. Short of directly injecting adrenaline into my veins I've adopted several countermeasures: taking cold showers, finally breaking down and turning on my AC, sitting around naked in my apartment (I actually did that back home too anyway, so it doesn't count)...you'd think keeping hydrated would be high up on the list, but I seem to have an aversion for drinking water. And yet, I'm drinking more of it than I ever have.
Walking towards work, I noticed the streets are now littered with dead cockroaches, when before you might see one or two, indistinguishable at a distance from the chewed-up husk of a betel nut. Maybe they too find this new heat unbearable in the countless underground spaces they inhabit. Or, more likely, what's unbearable is their appetite- food rots much more quickly in this heat. No longer do I stare in morbid fascination when a giant cockroach scuttles underfoot, though I doubt this will ever extend to those I find in my own apartment.
Settled at my unofficial desk I set about grading the pile of homework I had put off until my lightest work day. Before too long, I heard the pitter patter of rain steadily grow into a downpour. Thunder rumbled ominously, a mere warm up before it rent the skies above asunder. The only time I've heard louder thunder is in China, when it sounded like the gods were blowing on my windowsill. In the middle of that storm, I gained an appreciation for the attribution of weather phenomenon with godly behavior. Who's to say they were wrong?
I'd gotten to the branch early, so at this point the Taiwanese teachers staggered inside in varying degrees of wetness. Part of me was quietly embarrassed that I'd missed the storm entirely, but that's the way things are in Taiwan. The storm persisted only for about fifteen minutes before dying down to a mist-like drizzle. As I look through grated window of my prison-like balcony I see Xizhi bathed in a golden radiance, the hills in the distance shrouded in the evaporated offerings of the storm only hours before.
Today is the last day I teach my Step Ahead level 10 class. Weeks of prodding, pleading, commanding all for naught, the rapport I slowly built up washed away like a sandcastle against the tide. Schedules have been switched around to accommodate a departing teacher, and I've been caught up in the ripples of its grasp. The class was a difficult one to teach (though I hope Ryan can do a better job of reaching the students than I did), but at the same time, they were one of my first classes, so naturally I feel a connection with them. And now it's gone. Well, after I do the final oral test with them I'll tell them the news. Wonder how they'll take it. Hopefully not with practiced indifference.
It's about time for me to get going. I picked up a box of Japanese sweets from the wedding. I could easily devour them myself, but I get the feeling my fellow teachers would appreciate them more than I. These things are gourmet, and fancy food has always been wasted on me.
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