Greetings to Class 22!

收到Lewis的信真是太開心又太感動了~

Hi folks!

Be advised that this e-mail will be only in English!
The Lexile level for this e-mail is 1623. (and you love it!) :)
I hope I have all your e-mail addresses correct....

It seems like August 19th was a long time ago. We all are immersed in "different worlds" now doing different things in different places with different people. Most of you are at various schools heavily involved with your studies. In the last 9 weeks I have received a few e-mails from members of the class. I can tell you that some of you did the following: made dumplings at Peggy's mother's house; ate at a lovely restaurant on Yang Ming Mountain; watched the stars from Chin-Tian Hill; viewed Taipei from the roof top of Stephen's dorm; and heard Timmy sing and realized what a great voice he has. Additionally, I know that Echo has adjusted to her new college life and has some good roommates; Stephen is now a student at NTU; Joy and Stephen have watched the movie Notebook and liked it; and Grace is with me in Maine in her senior year at high school in Machias. Peggy, no doubt, continues to put on weight as she approaches her "big day" in November.

I returned home this past Tuesday after 119 days on the road. I traveled some 25,000 miles (40,250 kilometers) spending a total of 63 hours on various planes. I left Taiwan the day after some of us went to that outstanding waterpark, three days after our last day of class, and went on to visit Hong Kong, Thailand (Bangkok, Pattaya, Ayutthaya), Singapore, Australia (Cairns, Sydney), New Zealand (Queenstown, Christchurch, Picton, Wellington, Auckland), and Tahiti. I have been fortunate enough to have been traveling for 9 of the last 15 months since I retired from Scarborough High in June of 2005: 10 weeks in Europe last fall; 10 weeks in the Caribbean and Florida this past winter; and 17 weeks in Asia and the South Pacific this past summer.

I encourage all of you to travel at some point in your life. It should not be a question of "if", but "when". While you don't get a degree, it is another form of learning the value of which you cannot measure. All you need is time and money - and you folks are loaded with both! :) I took a hike in the Blue Mountains of Australia west of Sydney with five people: an American, an Australian, a German, a Chinese woman, and an Irishman. We had a great day talking about our lives and countries; English was the common language. You meet many interesting people while traveling, and you find out how much we all have in common. And when you do travel, your first stop should be, of course, Maine.

I learned a lot from this recent trip. It was my first time visiting the six countries and one territory that I hit; it was my first major trip to Asia (I've been to Europe some 15 times.). My time with Class 22 was certainly the high point of the trip. I had more contact hours with you in 7 weeks (175 hours) than I did with my Scarborough High students in one school year (124 hours). As a class you had a 14 year range in age; you worked well together and you looked out for each other. I was impressed. You are a very capable group, and your futures look bright. When I think of Taiwan, I will think of you. I enjoyed the time we spent together in class, and I enjoyed the time we spent out of class: playing basketball (We had some great players!), seeing the movie Superman Returns (Superman is dead!), going to the night market (stinky tofu?!), our paintball "battles" (poor Lynsey!), Miramar (the ferris wheel), watching you folks cook at Wenshan Farm, riding on the scooters, singing, etc etc.

You are lucky to live in a developed country like Taiwan with a homogeneous population that is very harmonious (except for perhaps your politicians!). You are an island nation and can control your borders. I think the people of Taiwan are some of the friendliest I have ever met.You have some beautiful countryside with places like Yang Ming Mountain, Taroko National Park, and Jiounfen. You all are at a good spot on your lifelines (Remember that exercise we did?) where most of your lives are still ahead of you. You all have a lot going for you.

I hope you continue improving your English. Joy is taking five classes; two of them will be taught in English. That will help him a lot. Pick up a China Post every once in a while; watch a movie in English; talk to people in English when you get the chance - practice makes perfect. With a language you either use it or lose it! It will certainly help you in the future to be bilingual or multilingual whether it be in applying for jobs or in traveling.

Since I last saw you, I have looked at the booklet, that all of you contributed to and Echo put together, several times. I like it a lot. I showed it to my family Saturday. It is something I will always keep. It brings back a lot of memories and allows me to see your faces. Thank you.

It was my pleasure to have shared some time with you. I want you to know that you are very highly regarded as a class and as unique individuals by this teacher.

Take care of yourselves and be good to yourselves.....

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