Elaine is an extremely sweet woman who never stops smiling and probably has one of the biggest hearts I've seen since I came to Taiwan. When I last saw her, she was off to pick up to birthday cake so she could show up at her boyfriend's home at midnight and surprise him with it. She's just that kind of person, and unless he's stupid he'll marry her first chance he gets!
Shih-Chiang is the class family man (even though he's a year younger than me) and plans to retire in 10.....okay maybe 15......no....20 years (hopefully). He's a really good and friendly guy whose plan is to become rich, then help his friends become rich from the command center of his high-tech dream home. Good luck Shih-Chiang!
Celia was my MRT riding buddy since she and I took the same route to get home, and we had some good chats about baseball and computer games, her two passions. She is so passionate about baseball that she got up at 1:30am last Sunday night just to watch a game live from the USA (and has the cold to prove it!) so she could see Taiwanese pitcher Wang Jian-Min play for the Yankees. Someday soon she plans to live and study in the USA, and I think the school that gets her will be a lucky one.
Vivi was probably the sharpest student in the class, whatever goes into that well-groomed fashionable head of hers stays in there permanently. If she learned something, she was using it almost immediately, and I think she can easily be fluent at English if she keeps practicing. When not increasing the size of her wardrobe, Vivi has taken up exercising and I hope she keeps that up too, it will help her stress levels a lot.
There were two more students who unfortunately couldn't be in these pictures, Wesley (who actually is in the first group picture of the first post between me and Shih-Chiang) who had to leave for a dinner meeting and Charles, whose wife took ill during the afternoon and had to be taken to the hospital. Both of them were energetic and great guys, Wesley brought a lot of fun and a good attitude to the class (to say nothing of the best scary stories!) and Charles was always asking questions and bringing up interesting topics (as well as helping his poor teacher get though building security so he got home before dawn). Both of them were really missed at the final dinner, and I wish they'd be able to make it, especially Charles, who was my class leader and helped to organize this dinner in the first place.
Thanks to all of you for making the class a fun and memorable time! I hope all your dreams come true! Keep studying English! Jia Yo!
Rob
As I was walking home, I suddenly noticed that there was a Roach on the sidewalk walking along with a cigarette in it's mouth. Originally it actually had it by the end, just like a smoker, but by the time I whipped out my camera it had it by the middle. Too bad, it looked funny seeing a roach smoke!
There is a huge World of Warcraft advertising campaign going here in Taiwan, which includes this giant poster (it's about 7m tall) outside an internet cafe in downtown Taipei. I thought I'd snap it just for my WoW playing friends to see. 
Shih-Chiang is the class family man (even though he's a year younger than me) and plans to retire in 10.....okay maybe 15......no....20 years (hopefully). He's a really good and friendly guy whose plan is to become rich, then help his friends become rich from the command center of his high-tech dream home. Good luck Shih-Chiang! 
A few weeks ago my friend (and former student) Chalk (the smiling guy in the back) called me up and asked if Connie and I would like to go for dinner. Of course we accepted since Chaulk is one of the nicest guys I know here in Taiwan. He took us to what would best be called a Japanese-Style Steakhouse, where the focus was beef, but it was part of a long multi-course meal of light soups, salads and side-dishes, all of which were equisitely delicious. ( I would go there again in a second, and in fact did go there again 2 weeks later with Connie's family, but was too sick to appreciate it at the time.)
I know I've been remiss in writing in my Blog recently, I just got finished a nasty round of colds and some culture shock that didn't leave me much in the mood for Blogging, and I apologize for that. I have, however, been taking pictures, so it's time to get some of them up!
Last Sunday was Connie's graduation from University, and as a result all her immediate family gathered together early Sunday morning at a McDonalds near the graduation site for breakfast. (Hmm...maybe I should sell this story as a commercial to McDonalds...) After breakfast, we left for the site and met up with Connie's friends, co-workers, and her graduating classmates. Pictured here is Connie with her classmate Josephine, the two of them had their fair share of troubles over the past two years, but they managed to see it through to the end! 
One of Connie's high-school classmates met us at McDonalds and gave her this lovely giant bouquet of flowers, which I ended up carrying around for the rest of the day. (It was worth it, though. ) 
Here's a good picture of Connie's small family, including Monica (who is just Connie's friend, not a family member), and myself. So from left to right it's Monica, Connie, myself, AiYi and Connie's brother Li-Wei. 
The ceremony itself was held in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, one of Taipei's two great halls. (The other being Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.) It was standing room only (literally, as they didn't give out ticks or reserve seats) as students, family and friends poured into the massive hall. We were early, so we luckily managed to get seats, although right at the very back and not together, and we were better off than most of the people who had to stand. The ceremony itself consisted of music, introductions, a very special guest speaker, a couple of the school's bigwigs, and finally the class leaders went up on stage in groups to accept their awards on behalf of their groups. Since it was all in Chinese, I dozed through about half of it, but I do remember something about "honesty being the best policy" being repeated a bunch of times by the guest speaker. (Ironic if you know Taiwanese politics...) 
