My body/brain system knew exactly that there is a reason to be nervous but didn’t know as well that it is no use to do the 5 o’clock-thing when I would not leave before 10:00 anyway.
There was not much to do before leaving: packing the mat and the sleeping bag (5min), cleaning the room (5min), finishing packing the bags (7min).
I tried to explain this to the rest of me, but it was useless, because, if my brain starts working, it finds other reasons to get up early, to use the extra hour and when my body starts working, blood pressure and heart rate are no longer compatible with sleeping.
So, I could use the time for an extra working hour. At 6:00 I was glad about getting up earlier, because grandfather stood outside the door, calling my name. His last information was from yesterday, evening when I said good-bye to them and thought I would leave at 6:30. So he had got up so early to buy and bring breakfast.
Can the words “thank you!” express what I felt?
I said thank you, more than once and still felt helpless in view of so much kindness.
I tried to explain the again changing situation but was not sure, if he could understand.
Mark and I went to the – and now: definitely! – last working session in the garden, last day only for me, the work we started is still unfinished and gardening/farming in itself the more.
We went home and there was grandma, helpless and desperate with my bag of chocolate and 2 pairs of shoes of me. She had thought I would have left without these things (and I wonder what she thought about my 4 big bike bags!)
For me this was cute and I felt pity, but Mark was a bit angry with her (I couldn’t understand, but you could hear it and feel the atmosphere..)
So, I had even more mixed feelings when I really left half an hour later.
After my experience from last time, I am a bit more careful with the words “never again”. 2015 I thought I would see them never again, because the idea to make this bike trip was only a nucleus, a wish.
So, we said “hope to see you again!” and why should we not hope and wish…
The 30km to Kaohsiung were flat and without wind, it was just getting rainy and cooler.
I was only 500m away from the office when the agent called to inform me that berthing should be on 9th and the procedure of boarding should start at 13:00. So, I could have spent another day in Pingdong but for my nervousness, it was the right decision to go to Kaohsiung.
So, I went to a hotel and stayed there until early evening to go to the nearby night market.
I wanted to get a last taste of Taiwan and I wanted to buy a cake, because I had read too much about birthday cakes and was ….inspired.
I bought roasted sweet potatoes & taro and a kind of veggie-omelette and a cup of bubble milk tea with grass jelly and managed to get all of that in my own containers instead of one way packages.
On the way to the cake shop, I refilled these things to my very own container but still was looking forward to eating a cake. There were two sizes, normal and smaller ones, and at least I was reasonable enough to take a small one.
In my room, I started eating it with delight, but after half of the cake I needed a break.
In this break (and before) I read and answered messages and posts for my birthday and admittedly this was a nice task, even my brother Markus in a way had reacted to that ?
(But I would also be ok if not – our brotherliness is not depending on the exchange of wishes).
I could stop writing here but I am sure that at least someone wants to know what happened with the other half of the cake.
When there is something I have learned on this trip, then my motto “do what has to be done” so I saved the poor creamy thing from getting corrupted in a warm room overnight, it just took me another break after 75% and after that I was satisfied in the certitude of not having missed out eating cake on my birthday, I really could feel it!
(Helen, the teacher from Pitou who had organized my visit there, had forwarded this letter to me)