Well, after an entire year I've decided to start updating this thing again....Let's see, well...I'm living in Taipei the capitol city of Taiwan...teaching first grade at an international adv. school. ADVENTURE! Though I don't have the beautiful waters of Saipan in my backyard anymore...and I miss paddle boarding terribly...there is a new thrill...it's called riding a scooter downtown. NO...more like surviving a scooter ride....between dodging buses, other scooters, and taxi's....woo. Try imagining Rome traffic...and double it... by about 8. That's Taipei scootering. And every street looks the exact same..they say it gets better..lol.
Anyways! My apartment couldn't be any more perfect...I have a ridiculous view over the entire city, and on Yang Min Shan you're just far enough to get away from the noise...The mountains surround the entire city, so it's like being in a bowl of green giants...one mountain in particular called "Sleeping Buddha" silhouettes beautifully as the sun sinks behind it every evening...that is if it's not typhooning outside..lol. We have a traditional tea room too...so it's pretty cool to eat on the floor within bamboo and rice paper walls...
My classroom is finished! School starts on Monday...so I'm ready! The people here could be any nicer (besides in traffic...) and we've been fed and carted around everywhere, it's been so nice! Going to the Taiwanese grocery store was a bit of culture shock last week...I've never played grocery charades before...the only way you can tell what your buying is by the picture.
My suitcases are slowly being unpacked...there are no fist-big cockroaches to battle at night here, so I sleep quite soundly...until the garbage truck comes in our gate blasting some creepy ice cream truck song...yes...the trash pick up must be announced. Not to mention Taiwanese are uber into recyling EVERYTHING. So I literally have 4 trashcans in my kitchen...WHICH is interesting enough, and it doesn't have an oven! Sigh...not many people bake here. They are into...ya know the usual...stinky tofu..duck tongues...chicken feet...mmm! I honestly had no idea duck's had tongues...
Hopefully planning on going to the beach soon...since it's the lunar calendar "ghost month", I just learned, the beaches are quite empty. The traditional people here basically avoid life this month due to spirits being unleashed from hell for a few weeks to try and attempt to switch bodies with a living human...so that leaves out swimming, driving, and flying for them...AND they can't buy anything new because it may just have bad spirits hiding in them as well...stressful month...lol..and we though Halloween was bad!
But all in all, this place is great...God is good. I miss my family, both at home and around the world...but this is settling in nicely :) more to come...Wan an.
