finally...i hear the fab four in TAIWAN!

today i was walking down the street. i heard paul mccartney's sweet voice, ringo's drums, and john and george's guitars. all is right in the world. all is right in taiwan: they listen to the beatles after all! :) :) :)

---> my favorite photo of the fab four.

its a really good feeling to know that you are right where you are supposed to be. even though i would describe myself as a restless soul, i can feel that i was meant to be an english teacher in asia. truly. of courseeeeeeeeeee it is hard being away from my friends and family and everything that is familiar to me...but i began feeling a disconnect from america when i was in england. someone very wise told me that it was god preparing my heart to be away for a much longer time later :) maybe...? ive always wanted to do missions of some sort, just never knew what. but, ive truly felt myself be called to asia for teaching. some people think thats not real missions...and maybe it isnt. but, it is what i have been called to do. why is following the call so hard? ah, i wish i knew.

for something that seems so natural to me (go to asia to teach english...seems normal, right?) sometimes it is a hard life :) tonight, for instance, my air conditioner began SHOOTING out water at breakneck speeds and then, my cable went out. under any normal circumstances (ie in america or anywhere else on earth that speaks english) i would have been able to solve both of these problems. BUT im in taiwan and my landlord doesnt know one piece of english and i dont know one piece of chinese so there is the problem, folks. and it is a problem! its haaaaaaard to live in a place and not be able to speak the language. borderline obnoxious, really. its hard to live in a place thats too small for me (i have to sleep in my bed sideways because im too tall and there is only one brand of shoes that fit my huge feet). its hard to live by myself. its hard. but its fun! and its totally worth it...i know its what i was meant for.

***today i was trying to teach the difference between Turkey and turkey. i asked the students what little t turkey was. response? a really ugly chicken. i laughed very loudly and uncontrollably for about 5 minutes while my very confused asian students stared at me: the crazed american teacher. i love this job.

the sun just got through going down
on a sleepy little texas town
population plus one minus one
a new grandma rocks my sisters kid
just like 20 years ago she did
the same thing in that same chair
she said 'this ones born to run'
everyday at noon like a chapel bell
find her jesus keep her well
help her do more right than wrong at the end of the day
ive got five good years and a tank of gas
50 watts and johnny cash
a guitar and a broken heart just full of things to say
you taught me how to stand those tests and trials
but you can't see a desert sunset in the bible
she loves me more than anything
and she wants the world for me
her west dropped off in el paso and her north in abilene
mama im okay out here ive seen how hard the world can be
my step is sure and i know my name
im strong just like you prayed id be, im strong just like you prayed id be
if i had done what you and daddy done
i would have never lost and never won
or gotten myself kicked when i was down
i would not know how to travel well
a hundred bucks and cheap motels
i would not know how to fight for my own heart next time around
dont you cry another night about me
in this city ive got angels all around me
she loves me more than anything
and she wants the world for me
her west dropped off in el paso and her north in abilene
mama im okay out here
ive seen how hard the world can be
my step is sure and i know my name
im strong just like you prayed id be, im strong just like you prayed id be
i felt it every time you prayed for me
im strong just like you prayed id be

if you replace everything in this song about texas with the north carolina equivalent, this song is so perfect for me. not only about my mother, but both of my parents.

i really and truly love taiwan. and even more than that i love my JOB! ahhh its truly my dream job! and who knew that i would really love teaching little kids?! i think i am the most suprised of all! this is most definitely NOT (!!!!) to say that i will ever teach elementary school in the states (because i am convinced that it is of course just as scary as i always imagined) but i really love teaching these asian babies! i want to do this job forever ;) today after i taught my classes, i came downstairs and some of my students had brought their pet creepy crawlies to show me! the hugest most disgusting beetles i have ever seen and about 2348032 caterpillars that they are raising!!!!!!!!! oh it was sooo funny. they are soooooooo cuteeeeeee!!! the term is ending soon so we are veryyyyyy busy trying to get everything together so that we can start the new classes next week for august! which also means that we are adding new classes and new students so we are getting very busy! which is amazing. im so thankful for this job, I LOVE IT! =)

taiwan is still so hot that it is almost impossible to breathe. ahh especially at night (counterintuitive? i know.) meanwhile, its still really hard to get myself motivated to want to clean this place when there is no "angry american mother" or japanese roommate (or anyone in the ihouse =) telling me to clean. its still so strange to live by myself!

the trash truck is still following me. i heard it THREE times today >.<

waxing poetic

i didn't do anything significantly thrilling today besides eat about 23840238 nutella sandwiches, discover that my cable is out (sad, sad times) and take a shower so i dont really have anything to report except that taiwan is still hotter than blue blazes. after teaching the kindergarten (those kids have mad amounts of energy!) tammy and i went for guo tien (i have no idea the english spelling) and sour/spicy soup. mmmmmmmmm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6H1UILaKgo ---> i love this song. watch the video! its amazingggggggggg.

i dont really have much to say today other than that its very hard to live two lives at once. its really nice to see all my friends in the states doing well, getting big girl jobs, getting married, having kids, moving back to the i-house...but, its also sad because part of me wants to go back to the i-house and stay forever. i miss greensboro so much. top ten things i miss the most:

1. artistika. id cut off my arm to go salsa dancing just once in taiwan!
2. jimmy johns/stamey's/la fiesta/tate st. coffee
3. downtown!
4. hey, i even miss greene st. never thought id say that.
5. the i house and all that encompasses ;)
6. target on wendover. even the traffic.
7. friendly center and four seasons!!!!!!
8. being able to read and speak the language
9. staff meeting! acutally i really mean this! and eating in megan's apt...going to steak and shake...taking family photos...plotting to steal things from the i-house...oh it was a good life =)
10. being able to be a bum in public and wear pajamas if i wanted to.

hard to believe that tomorrow makes mine and taiwan's three week anniversairy together. its been a great 3 weeks! here's hoping for a great 51 more.



“If you came back, you wanted to leave again; if you went away, you longed to come back. Wherever you were, you could hear the call of the homeland, like the note of the herdsman's horn far away in the hills. You had one home out there and one over here, and yet you were an alien in both places. Your true abiding place was the vision of something very far off, and your soul was like the waves, always restless, forever in motion.”
-The Immigrants

amazing weekend!

what a weekend. =)

saturday after teaching the kindergarten, it was time to head down to taichung. caveat emptor: i dont speak chinese. in england, it was always very easy for me to find my way around because i spoke the language. it is so hard to navigate my way through a country where i cant speak the language!!!! (yet =) somehow, i managed to get myself from my house to the train station in a taxi (i will never know how i did that) and then from the train station in jhubei to taichung!

the train ride was brilliant. it was gorrrrrrrrrrgeous scenery the whole ride (about 1.5hrs). i ended up sitting by a girl who studied in newcastle! she is from taichung. she was so super nice. i really love all the people in taiwan...they are some of the nicest in the world i guess. anyway, she asked me who i was and what i was doing in taiwan and i heard myself say "i live in jhubei and im an english teacher." so strange to say that! i live in taiwan! wow. it still hasn't even sunk in yet. but, its true! i live in taiwan! amazing.

anyway, i arrived in taichung (amazingly) and met claire! it was so good to see her! we crammed the weekend full: ate deliciouuuuuuuuuuus japanese food (real japanese food, not yamato's), saw harry potter 6 (in english!!!!), went to a night market where i saw the cutest little boy selling cellphone charms and i couldnt resist so i bought one =), i drank mango green tea (my new favourite), and ate and ate and ate. the next day, we went to church! she translated the sermon for me. they even sang 'victory in jesus' in chinese! it was so amazing. afterward, we hung out talking to her friends...i have learned the words "mei guo ren" which means "american." i hear this when i walk down the streets often. all the people at her church were so nice! again i was telling people "i live in jhubei" and it felt a little more natural this time, though still unbelievable! the one thing i really hate is when someone comes up to me and starts speaking chinese and i cant reply. they usually switch into japanese then, and after that, they just smile and pat my arm. its kind of funny actually.

after church, claire and i went to the taichung national science museum. soooo amazingggggg! i love any kind of museum, but historical/science museums are my favourite (though i dont really like science...go figure). there was an awesome photography display and i got to see alot of cool things about taiwan's history (which now i'm dying to know more about!!!) then we went to an exhibit of chinese medicine which is fascinating. after the museum, we ate japanese fastfood (MOSBURGERRRRRRRRRRR) and then it was back on the train to hsinchu! just as pretty a train ride home. taiwan is an absoultely beautiful, beautiful place.

when i got back to hsinchu station, i met my friend milliya who is going to study at uncg next semester! she also brought her sweet sweet family. we headed out to the beach! it was a m a z i n g!!!! so beautiful. we got there right as it was getting dark and the sun was going down, and it was just amazing. i cant believe i was standing in the taiwan strait! unbelievable. it was nice weather too...finally not so hot. i really love taiwan beaches. very different from american ones, though. black sand and no discernable shore line. but still water and sand and creatures and fun times =) there are TONS of little tiny crabs that run around the beach and make little holes with really pretty designs in them! so cool. anyway, we headed back up from the beach to eat some supper. we ended up in a temple (yes, that kind of temple). it was actually amazing. for supper, we ate DELICIOUS food: some rice/pork something-or-other, tofu, soup, and pig intestine something-or-other (not so delicious but not as nasty as i had thought it would be). i also drank tea made of grass... after eating, milliya and her sisters took me through the temple, showing me all the gods and teaching me the customs. it was sooo interesting and temples are actually very beautiful. hsinchu city is so amazing!

tonight, i decided to head to the mosburger in jhubei (yayayaya im so happy they have one!). then i explored another part of the city that i hadn't been to yet. i ended up finding the coooooooolest home store (that i could never afford to shop in, of course) and a bazillion new restaurants to try. so excitinggggggg! i went grocery shopping after that and after a successful trip (i found nutelllllllllllllllllllllllla) i was walking out the door when this guy came up to me and asked if he could "make a short talk to me." he was asking me where i was from and did i like basketball, etc. he wanted to practice english! we exchanged emails and will probably be meeting soon! taiwanese people are sooo nice!

i come to love taiwan even more every day. when i was in the taichung night market, i saw a kid with a shirt that said: 'the road is long. so what?' i think that's good advice for all of us.

生日快樂 pamela! happy birthday!

tgif.

so...today was a good day! one of the best since ive been here. soooooo windy. they weren't kidding when they called hsinchu the windy city.

today i took my lunch out to the park across from my house. it was a gorgeous day out. but it was soooooooooo windy. it blew the coke right off the bench! my hair was going everywhere and my bag was blowing away...when i went to work, i looked a mess =) such a great day at work, too! i really love my classes. who knew that i would ever love teaching little kids? they are so cute and funny, though. and actually, they are all so smart and catch on to what im teaching so well. i must be a pretty good teacher ;) we are still just doing phonics phonics phonics, but in my movie review class i get to teach grammarrrr which is totally amazing to me because i am a huge nerd and i love grammar. i reallllllly love this job. i want to be an english teacher forever! pretty good thing that that was the plan anyway.

after work, one of my coworkers and i went into hsinchu city for a bit of shopping and EATING of course. the one thing i love in taiwan even more than my job is the FOOOOOOOD. this food that i love, of course, does not include: anything still alive, 90% of things that used to be swimming (read: octopus and shrimp, any fish with eyes still attached), and things that i cant readily identify. but i love the mi fen! hsinchu is really famous for this. its basically just rice noodles, basil, pork and soy sauce all mixed together and its delicioussssssssssssssssss. oh my word. i could have eaten my weight in it but i was about to explode, so we went to get green tea (mmmm) and some of the best fried chicken ive ever had in my life (sorry south...i think taiwan might be beating you). after eating like pigs, we went in all the department stores in the city (i FINALLY bought a wallet that will fit taiwan dollars...thank goodness) and looked around the birkenstock store because it is the only store in the whole blessed country that has shoes big enough to fit my huge stupid american feet. i cant wait until winter comes and i can buy some of the clogs! birkenstocks are unbelieveably cheap here. i will probably come with about 324283048 pairs. =) if im lucky that is... we came back to my house and i got my very first official chinese lesson. it went well even though my pronunciation is horrid and i cant remember the grammar...ach, i will just have to keep practicing. soon i will be speaking chinese like nobodys business (if im lucky!!)

tomorrow im off to taichung to visit my friend claire! so excited. sunday is beach time with milliya! im beginning to love this life.

我 愛 taiwan!!!!

counting to ten

i have been waiting to blog about this day =)

this morning i tried to sleep through that blessed ice cream truck's round through my neighbourhood but to no avail. i hate that thing. its one mission is to haunt and tease me! its so strange to feel as though i have a trash truck after me.

for lunch, i went to 7-11 and got some kind of bread something-or-other and peanut butter m&ms (im going to be so fat if i keep eating that). i took it to the park across from my apartment and ate. i love taiwan. it was such a gorgeous day today! hotter than blue blazes, but gorgeous. kids were playing basketball, old men were smoking and arguing, new mothers were pushing babies in strollers (or 'prams' as i have to call them at work...haha), and the world was still spinning. people are basically the same everywhere i guess; here they just speak chinese and stare at me everywhere i go =)

work was sooo good today! i love my job. when i got to my phonics class, one of my students started begging me to change his english name to 'michael jackson.' after i stopped laughing, i told him no in english. the more and more he begged, i finally told him no in chinese and it shocked him so much that he stopped asking (they always freak out if i speak in chinese). for the entire rest of class, he sang "billie jean" and i just couldn't stop laughing. next came my movie review class: those kids are so smart. we played scattegories and they were blowing me out of the water! next came the challenge: the kindergarten. those kids are sooo cute, but really difficult because they can't speak any english. i mean they are three. they are still learning chinese! they are also really scared of me because they have never seen a foreigner before. its really fun though! i have been chanting colors for about the past 3 hours. glad all thats over though its very cool. kindergarten is no joke. =)

after work i got a chinese lesson from the owner of my school's son. he is so cute! i learned to count to 10 =) it really trips him out to hear me speaking in chinese. i dont think he can quite comprehend it: a foreigner speaking chinese. i also ate the best thing i've eaten since ive been here...i dont know the exact spelling of it, but its something to the effect of "zoo soon yow." soooooooooooo good! its baby bamboo and beef (i think) in some kind of doughnutty thing...i cant describe it, but i could have eaten about 100. homemade too! =) washed down with a big bottle of pocari sweat (much better than it sounds of course): doesnt get much better! except maybe a big plate of bridges bbq or jimmy johns! last night i dreamt i was in ingles and i bought a mr.p's pizza and went home, sat on my couch, and watched what not to wear. i woke up and i was in taiwan. interesting...

i live right beside a 7-11, so needless to say i go there all the time. the people in there im sure think im a moron because i cant do anything but smile at them and buy m&ms. anyway, there is this dog that is always just sitting outside the door. it never goes in, never barks, never does anything...just sits there and watches people go in and out of 7-11 day after day. funny. another thing i find really funny are the women on scooters in taiwan. business women! in suits and high heels who hop on their scooters, put on their helmets and medical masks and go on their way. i laugh everytime i see it. speaking of scooters, i must take this time to wax poetic about the traffic rules (or lack thereof). anyone who knows me has likely heard my speech on traffic patterns and why i find them funny. taiwan has no such traffic patterns. everyone- scooters, cars, pedestrians- just goes when and where they want to. sometimes its honestly scary. !!! i have no idea what is the best/safest way to cross the street or when or where...its just a free for all really. but, kind of fun. you never know when a scooter is going to come by you so quick that it almost blows your hair off your head and so close that it leaves a mark. taiwanese pedestrians certainly live on the edge (in more ways than one).

john denver makes it big in jhubei

1. today is an awesome day. =) its actually a bearable heat outside...of course that still means its 30 degrees... but i can breathe today.

2. taught my very first movie review class today. its so strange...i taught for the same amount of time that i used to in the states, but the day seems sooooooo much quicker! maybe its because i start at 2...but the day seems to fly by! i have my first private lesson tonight @8. i really love the classes that i teach. the students are sooooo cute!!! the ones in the kindergarten can't speak any english so thats a challenge, especially when the one thing i really need them to understand is "SIT DOWNNNNNNNNN!" and they can't =) but the phonics class (my favorite-who knew. a class full of 8 year olds!!!!) is coming along nicely. today i taught Ss, Tt, and Uu. we chanted those sounds for 90 minutes and played game after game after game. its so funny...i acutally genuinely enjoy teaching little kids. again, its night and day compared to teaching american high school, but its loads of fun really. they are just the cutest kids ever and it makes my day to hear "teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecha!" when i walk into the room. the kids in my movie review class (we are studying night at the museum) are really advanced and speak brilliant english. that is the closest i have to the kind of teaching i did in america, so i like it. they are hilarious too, and they think its fascinating that im from america (which i still find amusing =) basically, i love this job! i really love the people i work with as well...today during our little break, the school manager's wife gave me a lesson on how people in taiwan use abbreviations online. it was so funny! couldn't have asked for a better place to work =) but i do hope they hire another teacher soon.

3. people still stare at me.

4. today i went to a dumpling stand to have supper and tried to order in chinese, but i couldn't. i ended up switching to english and the girl looked so scared. she had to call another girl over who spoke english to figure out what i wanted. i looked at the scared girl and apologised in chinese, and she smiled and said "its ok!" in english. ooooh my chinese. my lack of chineseeeee! if i could just speak chinese..........it would be a miracle. a miracle.

5. i have been in taiwan for 2 weeks today. that is totally hard to believe. only 52 more weeks to spend in taiwan... =(

6. my house is a wreck. when i have no japanese roommate or angry american mother to tell me when to clean, i am at a loss! it would also be pretty good if i could figure out how to take out the trash. if i could only catch the "ice cream truck" when it comes!

7. today i saw one of my students on the playground across from my house. i was walking down the street when suddenly i heard "TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHA!" i looked up and he was in rollerblades flying across the basketball court to come tell me hey. see why i love this job?

8. today i heard someone playing a john denver record while i was walking down the street. i have to say that is one of the most random things ive heard in taiwan. i didnt know asians liked john denver?

9. i think its really funny how couples dress alike here. today i saw 4 different couples dressed in matching outfits, the funniest of which was these tshirts with big angry faces on them that say "cheer you up." random. i also just love looking at the english on people's clothes that makes NO SENSE. so far i have seen one that says "jesus is the diamond i wash my face with," one with 2 paddington bears that said "pineapples," and one that just had a bunch of words put together: i remember "butterfly," and "you can be a 100 woman." it cracks me up. my favorite thing of all though are the medical masks that everyone wears.

10. find this on youtube. best.song.ever : 陳乃榮-不再MV 完整版

photo= me eating in jhubei. it was beef, and thankfully, it was dead.

i am falling more and more in love with taiwan everyday =) cant believe i will have been here 2 weeks tomorrow!

tonight after work, i decided to go exploring/foreigner-hunting. it was well past dark and the city was all lit up with flashing lights and neon and it was sooo cool. like a film. first i went into mcdonalds to "order" something, which ended up just being a coke because thats all i can order in chinese. on the way out, i accidentally opened the door on someones foot and i heard myself say "im sorry" in chinese. without even thinking! i was so suprised at myself that i laughed and the man just looked at me like i was nuts. i am.

i just wandered around the city, looking at all the shops (if i had enough money and small enough feet i would buy everything in them) and the 23048230 dogs that just walk through the streets. it was so cool! i was sweating buckets and really wishing that i could speak chinese, but it was so nice. i really love my city and the section i live in. its so cool! and there is never a shortage of interesting things to see. i saw a very large dog sleeping on a very small table, a man brushing his teeth, and about 93 near-distastrous scooter almost-accidents. its still so strange to walk down the street and be stared at so much. i still think its kind of funny, but its also a part of the culture shock that i have been experiencing. little kids are the funniest. i really think they think i come from another planet. sometimes, i really do too. america is pretty much another planet. i didnt see any foreigners on my little safari, but hopefully i will find some soon.

every night, i watch chinese tv and force myself to understand. i really wish i could open my brain and pour chinese in. im suprised at how much ive already picked up. they were right: being thrown into the language headfirst and being forced to learn is definitely the best way! though maybe not the easiest or the most fun...its so frustrating. if i ever learn to communicate in chinese, it will be a bonafide 100% genuine true-blue miracle. and i think everyone else will be as shocked (and maybe thankful, haha) as me.

love and miss you all verrrrrrrrrrry much.

hope floats

ok i know i've already blogged once today, and i dont really know (or care about) proper blog ettiquette, but i have something on my mind so im going to write about it!

tonight i was unloading on a dear friend of mine and listening to the beatles (and staring at them because currently they are on 3 of my four walls downstairs) and thinking about lots of things. it is easy when change comes to start doubting yourself, god, others...doubt is always easier than trust. wonder why that is? people keep telling me that im "so brave" to do this and maybe thats true. maybe the truth is that im out of my mind...i cant quite be sure yet. what kind of crazy person decides to leave a perfectly good life in a perfectly good place full of perfectly good people to pack it all up and move halfway across the world to do something they've never done before and furthermore dont know how to do in a place where they know no one and cant speak the language? how demented does this sort of person have to be? what kind of penchant for torture must they have?

they play the most random american movies on tv here. today i happened across hope floats. as i was watching and kind of wishing i was back home in the south where i can "speak the language," i was reminded of one of my favorite quotations:
"beginnings are scary and endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts the most. try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. just give hope a chance to float up and it will..."
yes. im terrified right now. im sad about the ending of my wonderful life in the states. but! i am so excited about this new adventure. its a new chapter in my life...a bit of a dream come true. im still not sure what the reason is im here yet, but as i was reminded of today by someone very wise: do i really need to know? im here! this is the next year of my life. even though right now it is strange and foreign and unfamiliar...it is. every beginning of my life has scared the pants off me. i threw up on the first day of kindergarten and had to go home, i cried my eyes out before i started middle school, i almost quit college at the beginning, i hated england for the first bit...but those were the endings that ended up being the saddest. this experience isnt going to be any different, im sure. change has always been hard for me and i dont fall in love with things easily.

so i said all that to say this: i am crazy and out of my mind, no question, but thats part of what makes me love my life so much. this is going to be a wild and crazy ride, but it is indeed what i signed up for. =) im so thankful for all the amazing people who are still on the other side, though. im looking forward to seeing what my reason is here...im looking forward to the hope floating up.

the first day!

taiwan weather report for july 20, 2009: HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT and humid.

i have to say that walking into a classroom full of 8 year olds is infinitely more terrifying than walking into a classroom full of 10th graders. i taught my first lesson today. even though it was a 90 minute lesson, it felt like 10! it flew by and it was soooo fun! i really love it! its night and day compared to teaching high school of course, and im in a completely different culture now as well, so of course it was different. the students are sooooooo cute! they call me "teeecha." very different than hearing "miss toms! miss toms!" every 5 seconds! they are the sweetest things. i really love my job! its very different than the kind of teaching i did in the states, but i love them both. i can really see myself doing this for the next year and loving it! i love the school and the cirriculum and the people who work there. jhubei is a cool city. its going to be a good year =)

got up this morning to the sound of the "ice cream truck." i must take a minute to explain that this sound is not, in fact, and ice cream truck. its a trash truck! the first time i heard it, i thought, oh cool! taiwan has an ice cream truck too! and then i heard everyone in my apartment run outside really quickly so i went to see what kind of ice cream this must be to incite such excitement. everyone had huge trash bags...full of trash. the trash trucks here play ice cream truck music! i was so suprised/embarrased. there i was standing in a crowd of happy taiwanese people all throwing their trash in this huge truck playing happy music and i was just standing there watching them...no trash to throw. haha, i love this place.

its so nice to live right by a 7-11. its always open! and it has EVERYTHING including my latest addiction, pocari sweat. sounds nasty, i know, but its kind of like gatorade. its sooooo good and its only $25nt! less than 1usd! so cheapppppppppp! i cant even believe it. for lunch, i ate some kind of raisin bread stuff...not really sure what it was but it was good. =) there is a park right across from my apartment that i love to go to. i love to watch the kids there! they are SO CUTE!!! i love listening to them shout at each other in chinese and laugh and play basketball! its weird though. everywhere i go in taiwan, people stare at me. i understand that i am a foreigner, but they are NOT afraid to let me know it! its never rude, just funny. i actually find it very amusing. its weird to get so much attention. i am still trying to remember that i am the foreigner. =) very hard to get used to.

i was up half the night because i discovered the most wonderful american thing since ive been in taiwan: channel 67 on my tv! I CAN WATCH CSI:NY!!!!!!!! =) =) =) =) this makes me infinitely happy. i was so happy that i sat on my tiny tiny asian couch and cried tears of joy. i also cried tears of joy last night because i was eating oreos. oreos and csi:ny in taiwan...does it really get any better?

the beginning =)

there's a wild wind blowing down the corner of my street

every night they're headlights glowing

there's a cold world coming on the radio i heard

baby it's a violent world

oh love don't let me go

won't you take me where the street lights glow

ican hear it coming, i can hear the siren sound

now my feet won't touch the ground

time came a creeping, oh and time's a loaded gun

every road is a ray of light

it goes on and on and on and on

time only can lead you on

still it's such a beautiful night

oh love don't let me go

won't you take me where the streetlights glow

i can hear it coming, like a serenade of sound

now my feet won't touch the ground

gravity released me and won't ever hold me down

now my feet won't touch the ground

after spending about 2309482 hours updating my ipod before leaving the states, i got on the plane and immediately turned it on. i was on the plane from jfk to seoul...that flight took YEARS it seemed. i was shuffling through the songs when this one came up. its coldplay's 'life in technicolor ii.' for some reason, i kept it on repeat and listened to it until the batteries gave out. i don't know why, but the lyrics seemed really relevant to me. leave it to coldplay. =)

it still seems so strange that im sitting in taiwan in my very own place writing about the last crazy 11 days. taiwan is a brilliant place. its SO HOT...im literally melting here. i walk outside for one minute and am sweating to death. how will i ever get used to this weather? the humidity was the first thing i noticed when i got off the plane. i couldn't breathe. it is the kind of heat that goes all the way down into your blood; it feels like molten lead in your veins. it sucks the life out of you. the second thing i noticed about taiwan is that EVERYTHING IS IN CHINESE. of course i was expecting this, but it was very strange to actually see it. everyone is speaking chinese, everything is written in chinese...i felt so lost at first. its so strange to be illiterate! makes me very glad that im a teacher. being able to read is something that i truly took for granted until the first time someone handed me a menu and i just had to cross my fingers and point to something. (that night i ended up eating chicken stomach for supper.)

the first few days were spent taking care of logistics logistics logistics...a bank account, phone, id number, place to live and things to put in it, etc. i was so jet lagged and confused that i really dont even remember doing much of that stuff =) but, i ended up with the cutest little house in the middle of the city right beside a 7-11, a mall, and the school i work at. so nice to be in the middle of a city! im living by myself atm...which will be an adventure in and of itself! but its something i think everyone should do in their lifetime. guess now is my time.

the first weekend here, i went to the beach with the owner of my school and his family. ate octopus for the first time (tastes like really chewy bacon--not too bad if you just dont think about what it is) and to the night market with one of the assistant teachers at my school. i ate soooo much food! but by the time i got home, my dress was soaked with sweat (i know you all wanted to know that, but i just cant convey about the heat enough). the next day, i was off to taipei for the training week. soooo busy. i met all the other teachers. cool group. it was very nice to speak english and hear british accents =) taipei is such a cool city! i love it so much! the heat was all but unbearable. we trained all week and did loads of sightseeing: the chiang kai shek memorial (so amazing!), taipei 101 (AMAZING! the most gorgeous sunset ive ever seen), loads of parks and temples, eating so much amazing food....then at the end of the week, i met some of my friends from uncg. I WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE THEM! i missed them so much. still cant believe i was seeing them in taiwan! =) we went to night markets, danshui (i cant describe what that is...its like the camden town of taipei), ate and ate and ate, went to karaoke, played with live squirrels...it was just so nice to see them again.

i start officially teaching tomorrow...wish me luck!

taiwan is hot. everything is in chinese. i love it. i miss home. i dream of american food. i dream of the i house. i love taiwan mtv. i love my apartment. i don't like living alone. i love mi fen (very special noodles=). i like the adventure. i hate the language barrier. i like/don't like being a foreigner. i love taiwanese people! i don't like all the blisters on my feet from walking allllll over taipei. i love jhubei city. i love teaching. i love pocari sweat. i REALLY DONT LOVE eggs. i love the red birks that i only paid 40usd for. i can truly see myself here for the next year.

i know there is a reason im here...there were so many things that could have/probably should have gone wrong during the whole application process and didn't. everything went off without a hitch! =) im really anxious to see what that reason is and to see how this new life will pan out. it was sooo hard to leave everything behind and at times i wonder how crazy i must have been to want to do this, but im truly excited to see what all is in store for me in this chapter of my life ;)

i miss you all more than you know and love you more than you could ever even begin to imagine. xxxxxxxxxxxx