expatriatism: a teleological anaylsis (and some stuff about wulai too)

what an amazing weekend. i am getting very very very tempted even more everyday never to leave taiwan. seriously.

i was meeting some friends in xindian (in taipei) at noon which meant that i had to be out of bed at the crack of dawn in order to get there on time. if you know me well enough, you know that i have never been out of bed on time in my life. same for today. i had every intention of being up and out the door by 830...not so much (actually i dont know why i even needed to be up so early anyway...im only a half hour from taipei! haha)

i got to the train station at exactly 10:00a and bought my ticket to taipei...the train left at 10:01. i had to literally RUN across the platform and leap into the train, but i got on and somehow got to taipei on time. met kristen and mary in xindian and got on the bus to wulai (you can read about wulai here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Wulai)!

a poetic digression:

while i was waiting for the girls in xindian station, an american came up to me and started chatting. we were just shooting the breeze about this and that, and eventually she asked: 'so are you an expat too?' i had no idea how to answer that question. am i an expatriate? in the most technical sense of the word, yes. i left my mother country and now i live and work in a country that is foreign to me. i love both places, in completely different ways of course and for completely different ways... but am i an expatriate? im not really sure, to be honest. i love love love taiwan and if you ask me today, i will tell you that i am never going to leave. but what about america? hm, im not sure. i love it to and maybe i do eventually want to go back someday. i got my a.r.c. (alien resident certificate...basically my taiwanese green card) thursday...which means that i am taiwnese now! but it is strange to hold that in my hand sometimes. in the end, after i stared at her like an idiot for about 3 minutes after she asked me the question, i finally said: 'yes.' suprised at how that word felt coming out of my mouth, i quickly amended my statement: 'and no.'

anywayyyyyyyyyy, we got off the bus (after a 40 minute bus ride that did a number on both my motion sickness and my nerves), we hiked!!! all the way up to the top of the mountain to see the 'big' waterfall (which ended up being kind of small...but still totally worth it!) it was totally gorgeous. the mountains were so tall, and everything was so green...the weather was perfect. such a great day! anyway, on our little hike, we saw about 1032820938 of the hugest and most fantastically disgusting spiders ive ever seen in my life, took a ton of photos, browsed through all the shops filled with aboriginal things (bought the CUTEST bag for only 100nt!!!!!!), and climbed about 23840283 steps.

then, we met up with kristen's friends danny and flea. after looking everywhere for a parking spot, we ate dinner/supper/lunch/not really any specific meal. it was sooooooooo goooooood. rice cooked in bamboo, chicken and papaya soup (not as nasty as it sounds i swear), pork, and some kind of vegetable, im not sure. i even got complimented on my chopstick skills by true real live asians ;) then we took a looooooooong walk down to the hot springs! IT WAS SO COOOOOOOOL! these natural hot springs are no joke though, mary and danny burned their feet! haha. i, of course slipped in and got myself soaking wet, but the water wasn't bad. we moved over to a rock overlooking the river beside some gorgeous mountains...just sitting there in the perfect weather, perfect view, talking about the trash/ice cream truck. it was good times. good, good times.

while the girls and i were bumming around the shops, we took a pit stop by the bathrooms. a little girl pointed at me and asked me if i was english (i am still in awe of the fact that i had a conversation with this kid in chinese haha). i told her i was american and she literally dropped her jaw and said 'wow' in chinese haha. she asked me my name, and i told her and she started shouting 'katie mei guo ren!' which means 'katie american!' haha. when kristen and mary and i were leaving together, she pointed at us and shouted 'SAN MEI GUO REN!' which means 'THREE AMERICANS!' we died laughing and kept on our way.

after the hotsprings, we went back to taipei and went to this crazy little ice cream store. i ordered half strawberry/mango thinking it would be small...it was the hugest thing of ice cream ive ever seen but it was SOOOO GOOD. we all sat around chatting about how hilarious it is to teach english in taiwan...and how much we love it! :) i felt like such an adult, hanging out and talking about my CAREER. as far as the teaching goes, i survived my first parent's day and observation and things are going well. i love my job. i love taiwan. i love this life.

with the cheif at the restaurant :) haha

waterfalls!