In the morning we attended the “Traditional Taiwanese breakfast” in the Hospice unit. It was delicious! It was warm soy milk (a must if you ever go to Taiwan), with dumplings, pot stickers, rice dumpling, seaweed sandwich, yam ball, Taiwanese sandwich, and lychees….yes we each got all of this…ha ha. We were stuffed.
We went back to clinical for a bit but then we were told that we were to attend a “Press Conference”. This was the only information that they gave us so none of us had any idea what to expect. We were lead to a room in the hospital and TONS of stuff was set up. This huge projector was in the center of the room with a long table going along all sides of the room. They lined us all up in the front of the room and sat us down…..then the craziness started…TONS of people with huge video cameras and photographers started pouring in. 
They just kept coming and coming. We were then informed that the presentation about to be given would be on live tv then replayed every day for about a month on Taiwan TV. Also that all of the national newspaper reporters were there, various national news stations, online news stations, and magazine reporters were there….(Americans truly are celebrities here ha ha). All of a sudden…a huge group of people started cramming around me shoving microphones in my face. Out of all of the girls sitting there (of course, it's just my luck), Wei Ying (the nursing director) walks up and says “ Sarah, the reporters would like you to say a few words about your experience here in Taiwan…ok go “ (and about 3 cameras literally started filming me right then and there! Ha ha). I was sooo taken off guard. I normally don’t ever get nervous for anything like that but I totally was. I was on National television in Taiwan completely on the spot. The other nurses and girls crowded around me just laughing because it was so unexpected. I don’t even remember what I said….ha ha luckily it all had to be translated on tv for the public so no one knows exactly what I said….I probably made a fool of myself. Sophia got a video of part of it so ask if you'd like to see it. 
After this, they gave an impressive presentation about us and it was so touching. They had all of our pictures on the projector and introduced each of us to the press. They seriously love us here. It’s so overwhelming. After the presentation we all had to speak with the newspapers and answer some questions (no one else had to be video taped for tv…not fair!). It's funny because the Taiwanese loooove Obama. They think he is the best thing that ever happened to America…so it was definitely interesting when our professor Kris kept getting questions about her opinion on Obama…ha ha ha We then spent literally 20 minutes just taking pictures….there were flashes every where every second. I felt like some crazy famous celebrity…and they just kept coming and coming. I’ve definitely never experienced anything like that before.After the conference we all went up to the community office to have some mango and say our goodbyes. Right after this we had lunch….ha ha The surgical ICU provided us with a delicious lunch! We had Korean style pork and one of the doctors ordered us special dessert for our last day. It was “Tofu Pudding” and it was sooooo good. We had such a good time at lunch talking to everyone. We seriously spent 3 hours straight in the lunch room with the doctors and interns. Half of the time was spent laughing ha ha . After lunch, Dr. Yu brought us “Twin dough”, Bao-itzi, and some Taiwanese meatballs (these are his favorite and he wanted us to try it before he left!) I don’t think I’ve ever been more stuffed in my life.
At around 4 we had to say goodbye to our unit…..it was one of the saddest things I’ve ever done! It was so funny though because literally EVERYONE dropped all of their work (I’m not kidding, there wasn’t a single person working) so all of the patients were ALL alone and everyone was crowded around us. We all rotated taking pictures and exchanging presents, giving hugs, and saying our goodbyes. The Taiwanese people are so open. We’ve only been with these nurses and doctors for two weeks but they treat us like friends they’ve known for years. Some started tearing up…everyone got us presents…and everyone was so sad. It was so touching. I seriously love these people…I’m going to miss them so much. I don’t know how missionaries say goodbyes after two years…..1 month is bad enough. We then went to the other ICU to get the other girls…and we repeated the exact same thing lol.
After clinical we went to say goodbye to our Cua Bing friends. We showed up and they now have a blown up picture of us with two fans on the sides with our signatures on them hanging up on their wall! Ha ha They are planning on keeping it there forever so they can show people their “American friends” ha ha I thought it was so adorable.Right after this Davit and Kyle met up with us to hang out for the night. (Davit messaged me and said that Kyle missed us soooo much and couldn’t bear having us leave for America without seeing him again)….so they drove all the way from Kaohsiung to see us.
We took them out to pizza hut (because it is Davit’s favorite) and then just hung out at our apartment complex (we finally convinced the security guard to let him in). We played ping pong, fooze ball (neither of them had ever played this in their life) , pool, and boxing. We then had to say goodbye to them too….this was definitely one of the hardest ones…I love these guys and I’ll miss them so much! I really wanted you guys to see what they're like...so I got a video of them!
No comments:
Post a Comment