Xi jian

The last day...I wasn't ready for it then and I can still hardly believe that it has come and gone.  Saturday was our last official day.  We had all morning to work on getting our group presentations ready for the afternoon.  My group just had to get all of the parts of our paper patched together and create the power point for our presentation, so it wasn't too bad.  It was really funny though because almost everyone was down in the lobby of the dorm working with their groups.

All of the presentations went really well and it seemed like all of the groups did a good job.  The professors acted impressed.  When everyone had presented, we proceeded to the closing ceremony.  Some of the department heads said a few words, we were presented with our certificates of completion, and we all got a NTU keychain as a gift from the university.  With all of the official business completed, we walked down the street to Cafe 83 for our farewell banquet.

I was so impressed with the banquet. There was so much food that it verged on the point of being ridiculous.  As soon as we got there we had access to an appetizer bar that had food that was more like a main meal, including soups, delicious bread with four types of spread, seafood, pasta salad, barbecued beef, and even a waffle maker.  There was also a salad bar, fresh fruit, desert, and a stir-fry bar.  For drinks they had a soda fountain, a coffee/latte machine, a slushie machine, and a build-your-own-pot-of-tea bar with several types of tea bags and other ingredients like ginger and plum.  All of this was before the entrees we had ordered! I had the salmon which was served with a white sauce, a fire-roasted tomato, a baby corn ear, a few sprigs of broccoli, and a small scoop of mashed potatoes.  Everything was incredible! It was also all western and we ate with knives and forks!

We spent the last hour and a half taking a million pictures with each other since we all would be leaving the next morning.  Of course I forgot my camera! Thanks to Facebook, I have some pics to share :)

Ivy and Cynthia

Rebecca, me, and Flora

Me, Janet, Ruisi, Jenny, Fan, Vivian, Flora, Cassie, Anbo

Me, Jenny, and Corinne: We all had the salmon, yum!

Our fearless leader, Jack

China, represent!

After the banquet a lot of the group went to do KTV, which is like karaoke except that each group rents their own private room.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend our last evening together.

 After KTV we caught the last MRT back to the dorm.  None of us really wanted to leave one another, so we went to 7-11 for snacks and drinks, stood around chatting, and finally, slowly walked back to the dorm.  It was probably 2am before we separated.  I was too wired emotionally to sleep, so I stayed up and packed until 3:30. I tried to sleep then but couldn't, so I skyped my sister for an hour instead.  I knew that Fan was supposed to leave for the airport at 5am, so when I got off skype I went out to the lobby to see if he was still around.  Unfortunately, I missed him by just a few minutes, but I did see Cassie and Teresa.  They were camping out all night and all day to say good bye to everyone, bless their hearts!  After that I finally went to sleep for three hours before I had to get up to say good bye to Corinne and Stephanie at 9am.

In the morning Flora brought a few tea pots and cups and was brewing Oriental Beauty and Oolong for everyone.  When Corinne and Stephanie left we were all a mess and in tears.  I don't think we were prepared for it to be over.  The rest of us went back to the lobby once they had left to talk some more and organize ourselves for leaving.  The tables ended up covered in all of our junk that we couldn't fit in suitcases or didn't want to take back with us.  I still had to clean my room, so I borrowed a mop and broom from Flora.  I also gave her my bed set since she wanted it.

I went to lunch with Sharon, Cassie, and Teresa to a famous noodle restaurant across the street from the NTU main gate.  At the restaurant we met up with Vivian, Anbo, and Zoe too.  It was really good, and I realized during that meal just how used to using chop sticks I had gotten. I decided I might even miss them after I got home.  At least I have a set that I brought back with me :)

At 1:40 it was finally my turn to go with Jenny to the airport.  This was the third or fourth round of good byes for the day, so it didn't seem as bad as earlier.  My eyes got misty, but we weren't crying as much as before.  During the ride, Jenny and I were talking about how we couldn't believe that it had gone so fast.  It was really nice to have a traveling buddy at least for the first leg of the trip (she was going to L.A. on the same flight, but after that was going to Indianapolis).

I had a really short time to make my connection in L.A., so that was a little crazy.  China Airlines did give me an express pass to get in the shorter line in customs, which was a big help.  After I found my luggage on the carousel, I didn't notice the express customs examination line.  I stood in the long line for five or ten minutes, getting pretty nervous because my next boarding time was just beginning, when one of the China Air attendants saw me and rushed me over to the express line.  Right when I got up to the front, Jenny appeared at the front of the line next to me! I was glad I got to see her again, but there wasn't time for a real good bye before I had to go.  Thankfully, the China Air attendant was amazingly helpful.  She showed me the way out of customs to the American terminal where I could drop off my luggage directly to the people loading the plane.  I made it through security in record time, and when I arrived at the gate they had just begun calling groups for boarding.  Never again will I book a short connecting interval! Still, it was so much nicer than my connection on the way over!  All of the flights went smoothly, but I wasn't able to sleep at all.  In all, I had 3 hours of sleep out of the last 51. By the time I got to O'Hare I was pretty delirious. My family was really excited to see me anyway :)