Well I did it again!!!!!!!! I have not updated my blog with stories for a few months. I have wanted to write, but ever since Alex left Taiwan I have been working on my thesis. The first month and a half after I had been back, was spent on reading articles day and night trying to build a background to start my thesis. After more than a month of researching hiring practices and attributes in Taiwan, I ended up ditching the whole idea and switched to "Determining the impact success factors have on project performance in Taiwan". So once I switched my research topic it took another month of reading, reading, and more reading just trying to create an outline for my thesis.
Well before the thesis stuff gets to boring I will mention the first big party I had which happened to be Halloween. What I have realized over the past few years is my best ideas for costumes come to me at the last minute. This year I took my left over blue face paint I still had from last year, and with my blue swim cap, I became a BLUE MAN. It ended up being a big hit for the night and Nina wore her belly dancing outfit and looked so beautiful. We had a good group of people stick together and went to the Armory to party for the night.
In between Halloween and Thanksgiving was more long days and nights in the research room (RR) working on the thesis and slowly getting the outline created. I wanted to have another Thanksgiving party this year and a perfect place to host it ended up being Clarks new place with his two ASU alumni roommates (Jimmy from Charlotte and Bryan from Northeast Guilford area). I created a facebook group to have it planned out and it soon spread like a wild fire. As it was originally planned to be around 10-12 people, there was easily 30 people who came by during the night. It could not have turned out better as it became a large pot-luck where everyone brought a dish or drink and each person only had to end up paying 150NT which is just over $4US for an all you can eat dinner with great friends for company. I tried to count up the different nationalities at one point and stopped at 13 because my food was getting cold and everyone was moving around a lot.
Well December 2009 is definitely a month I will never forget. As the thesis was digging in to every patient bone in my body with the nights becoming the early mornings in the RR and with only a few hours of sleep was back to work again. I call home to check in and Dad tells me nanny has been put in the hospital and has a blood clot in her leg and growing weaker every hour. The next day I call to check back in and dad tells me things have gotten much worse and they didn't think she had a whole lot of time left. With the stress from school, the little sleep, and knowing im 9000 miles away from home every daily task was becoming difficult and I could see my personality completely slipping away. Dad gave me the hospital room # and said they were going to move her to another floor soon and I should try to call. I said a quick goodbye to dad and dialed the # to have Uncle Keith pick up and try to fill me in on the latest news which was she had about a day left. He handed the phone to mom and she was able to put the phone by nanny's ear and with the little energy she had left, told me she loved me so much over and over and then that was it. That was the last time I was able to speak to my nanny and feel so blessed that I was given that chance to hear her voice one last time. Nina was here to comfort me as it hit me hard when I hung up the phone. The next day I just felt numb and had to still prepare for a final presentation for a class without knowing whether or not she had passed away. I had to wait until it was morning time (NC time) to call back to check in and the message came later from clint saying nanny didnt make it (Dec 18th 12:01am my time or Dec 17th 11am NC time when I found out). I know she is in a much better place and she will always be in my heart with so many great memories.
Christmas was less than a week away and I still had some shopping to do for Nina and also the two xmas parties (xmas eve and xmas night) for secret santa presents. I wish I could be home with the family as everyone is going through a tough time, but the best part was being able to watch my nanny's service on skype that was held at home. Randy did an great job setting up the camera and singing. It had been a long day for me and it was difficult to stay up until 2am, but it was great to be able to see the family and talk with everyone together.
Christmas eve was spent at sander and maria's house with marcin, ola, kyle, zen, zen, nina, clark, and two other friends of marcin and ola. We all made a dish to bring. I was able to put together a quick crockpot chicken, cream of mushroom soup, potatoes, and carrots while marcin made his famous polish dish called Bigos which is sauerkraut, four types of meat, allspice, and 4 days of cooking and cooling until it was ready. I will have to learn how to make it his way because it was delicious and i still have some sitting in my fridge. So Nina and I got to have our first real xmas together because last year we had just began dating. So yes, you guessed it, we just had our one year anniversary December 27th. I bought nina an MP4 player (similar to an Ipod) and she got me exactly what i was asking for, a cooking stone to go on my stove :) I will be testing it out shortly and im sure the steaks will turn out great.
So I have finally finished my thesis chapters 1-3 and currently working on my questions and will be having my thesis proposal January 20th. For new years we are planning on grilling out on top of Marcin and Ola's apt roof which has a nice open area to put their charcoal grill. Im really looking forward to cooking some steaks and lighting some cheap fireworks. I want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.
In Loving Memory of Nanny (December 17th 2009)
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