Wednesday 9/4: Goodbye buddies, Hello Mom and Dad

I got into the 10 o’clock class. It’s 9 girls and 1 guy who is kinda cute and I think half white, but sits slumped in his seat the whole time like he’s being put here for punishment. When the teacher joked, [“Aren’t you lucky, you’re the only boy in this roomful of young ladies!”] we all twittered while he remained stonyfaced. After class I bought a lunchbox from the sidewalk and immediately headed back, only I forgot to cross the street and took the bus in the same direction and realized it was going too far, and rather than embarrass myself again I got off and took a cab back home, calling Gary to tell him I was a little late. OKAY, so I’m still not used to taking buses. I waited for them in the downstairs café, ordering a coffee just so I could sit and have my lunch. $1.50 for a small regular coffee of the day, that’s not cheap.

We brought their bags upstairs, making sure they were upright and zipped because I warned them about the roaches, and they went to get lunch and take care of things like Kate’s plane tickets to the US for October, while I waited for the phone guy to come. He came at 3 and installed it in a snap, then Arthur came up, said Kate and Gary were at the internet café downstairs checking plane ticket prices. He’d brought me a small cup of vanilla ice cream from a Japanese maker that he got outside which was actually quite good. Gary called to ask if Art was bothering me and if so, tell him to come down. Dad, Juling, and GuMa called, interrupting our conversation or lack thereof, and then not quite knowing what to do with him, I finally I suggested we go downstairs.

We ordered the computer next to Gary and Kate and took turns checking mail. I’d gotten further instructions from Mary that I could submit the thesis if I made a few final changes, and Congratulations. Got a long email from Dave about his goings-on. How I missed him! I read it over and over.

Back upstairs they took their bags, I walked them downstairs and said goodbyes. Gary and Art were off to China, Kate back to her hometown TaiZhong; Gary and Kate would be back in Taipei in a month, Art would go back to LA.

They’d warned me about tomorrow’s typhoon warning so I went to SOGO to stock up on food. In the basement food hall I got some sliced pork sausage and loaf of raisin bread which were not cheap. M&D called and sounded tired and jetlagged. They’d arrived last night and told me their funny story about taking an illegal taxi from airport. The driver had discreetly asked where they were going and instructed them to keep walking, then to take a bus, following him, take another bus, walk to a corner and a car would come. But it was only a Toyota. Dad was hoping for another Mercedes like the illegal one he got last time, and he was disappointed.

They came over, and we went to Ama and Agong’s for a bit. Mom’s sister led us to a store to get cheap cleaning supplies for my apartment—broom, dustpan, mop, wastebasket, scrubber. We each carried a couple things and I said we looked like a cleaning company. I also got mosquito bite menthol and poison tablets for roaches. Back in the apartment, Mom cleaned a bit while I planted the tablets every few feet. When they left barely 2 hours later, I found a dead roach a few inches from a tablet, next to the bathtub. Damn the stuff worked fast! I squirted the limp body with spray just to make sure—the worst thing would be to start collecting it up and have it suddenly up and scamper all over me.