Last day of school!

Friday Aug. 10th, finally!
Working on very little sleep, I headed off for my 8am class/exam. I'd decided to take my final exam as soon as possible so I could get it over with. I'd allowed myself to get worked up over this exam for some reason, and just about burst into tears when I found a small bouquet of fresh flowers from one of my previous teachers on my desk.

I took the written and oral test, and did pretty well (got an A). Luckily I'm one of those people who generally test fairly well. But I know that there's a lot of material that I didn't know and wasn't tested on. And I know that I'm far from where I wanted to be at this point and very far from fluent. But I'll talk about that some other time. In the meanwhile I gladly accepted my Grade C diploma.

Earlier in the week, my S. Korean pastor/missionary friend planned a party for the two of us to celebrate finishing school and to express our thanks to our teachers who put up with us. So, after class we went to the restaurant called "If"...Korean of course. I was a little worried if I would have enough money. And was completely surprised when he wouldn't allow any of us to pay towards the meal. He said it was his gift to show his thanks, and it is typical in his culture. OK. What else can you do but say thanks?

As I walked home that afternoon I was rather melancholic and sobered by the love I'd developed for this neat little town of Antigua. And I was even more touched as I continued my walk when I was stopped by one little shop owner after another because they wanted to say good-bye and wish me well. I hadn't even realized how many people I'd gotten to know. I guess that's what happened when I walk the same route to and from school essentially the same day. Louis nearly went into tears when I stopped to sit beside him and tell him I was leaving in 2 days. Louis is maybe 30 years old, is poor, sits in a park all day and tries to make enough money shining shoes to buy a bus ticket home and food for the day. He and I had become friends from almost day one. He's not the brightest crayon in the box...but then again neither am I. But his frequent and worsening seizures are probably directly related to his slow capacity. He can't afford a MD nor the medicine for seizures, which are hard to control and stay on top of in even the best of circumstances in the USA. As best as I could understand, his last seizure, (early in Aug), caused him to stumble into a moving bus on the street in front of him. That explained why he had more stitches than usual and in more than one place, and more than the normal amount of scrapes on his face and the rest of his body. Knowing Louis has (and still does) give me a reason to think a lot about life.

Friday evening, An-Hui escorted me to her boyfriends apartment where he was making a dinner in my honor. I'd thought An-Hui was going to cook a traditional meal, but I guess her boyfriend (also from Taiwan)decided to do it. He invited a few other friends that live in his same apartment complex. He and everyone else treated me like royalty. I wasn't allowed to help or hardly move a finger. I was seated at the head of the table, and was always served first and served the best of the food. It boggled my mind that a person who barely knows me...has really only seen me briefly twice...would go thru so much trouble to make a special dinner for me (especially when I know he really doesn't have the money for such an extravagance). The night was relaxed and slow, and we enjoyed ourselves well into the night. Quite a nice touch to end such a special day.