Where To Go... (the epic conclusion)

I suppose this blog entry is a lot like going to see Titanic or The Mighty Ducks in theaters. You know the boat is going to sink, the Disney sports team never loses, and I will be going to Taiwan. So, despite the lack of a ginormous budget or a teen heart-throb actor, I will try to finish the story and make it entertaining as possible. So, let me pick up where I left off.

Jason and I were destined to teach English somewhere in the world. We just had to decide where to go. As it turned out, Jason's girlfriend, Amanda, had been studying China quite intensely for the last few years and wanted to study there upon graduation... and when I say quite intensely, I mean exactly that. Jason and his girlfriend are the two people in college who sit in the library for nine hours a day and shoot you a dirty look if you sneeze. they're very territorial about their library space. Jason used to hide books in the freight elevator, and even contemplated hiding in it one night so he could stay in the library after it closed. So Amanda and Jason wanted to move to China. I had only ever heard horror stories about pollution and hacking coughs and smog so think you can't see the sun. On top of that, I used to have pretty bad asthma, so China was out of the question for me.

So, logically, our research stemmed away from China. We explored Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and others with some help from our friend Google, when we stumbled upon a little island known as Taiwan: politically stable and progressive, economically powerful, the people speak Mandarin Chinese, less pollution than China. We stumbled upon gold. The decision was made. Taiwan here we come.

The plan was set. Jason and Amanda would go in August/September and I would meet them there a few months later upon completion of my four and a half years in the higher American educational system. Jason started to study Mandarin; I signed up to take a Mandarin class. We prepared, studied, and educated ourselves as much as possible for what we were going to be doing. We were ready to go.

Fast forward 6 months. It's September. Jason's visa was denied and he was never told why. Amanda moved to Wisconsin to work for some hippies. Jason is still in New Paltz. I will be going to Taiwan on my own, sans library rats. I would not let their failure hold me back. In fact, it made me want to go more, but I still had 6 months of school to finish before I could go. So i temporarily put my plans on hold to try and get some work done, but I never stopped talking about it. I told everyone I could what I was going to do. A few friends, here and there, thought about coming for at least a few days but ultimately would not commit to anything. Yet, a few seeds had been planted.

Fast forward again. It's December 19th and I have just graduated. I returned home in two feet of snow to a fridge filled with beer and drunken roommates. The perfect ending to college. I get a call from my friend Johnny who just walked down graduation road with me and he's coming over to hang out. In a drunken stupor at the end of the night we get to talking. He says, "Make me want to go to Taiwan." So I made my pitch. I delved through my mind and recounted tales about Ilha Formosa I had read, and even busted out little known facts about Taiwan that are inexplicably intriguing, and he was sold. That was that.

So here I am, one year later, recounting my tale three weeks before I leave and I'd like to mention how utterly simple this entire process has been. Everything seems to have just fallen into place... but I suppose that's because we haven't really settled anything. We're just going. We don't have jobs yet, or a place to live for that matter. We're just going. We took a class and have since received TEFL certificates, and we'll have our diplomas in hand, but that's about it. Straight up gangster.