My Taiwan Adventure

Hello everybody.... I thought I was going to have time to put up some pictures and write a long blog entry, but there's just no way it's going to happen. But I'm doing fine- just super busy with work. We move into the new apartment Thursday and hopefully then I can start taking Chinese classes. The classes I'm teaching are going great- I have a wide range of ages and I like them all in different ways. I think the younger ones are my favorite. I can't believe it's going to be April already! PS- I got a potted cactus and the spines are turning brown.... what should I do? I still love being here! :)

Really quick update before I run off to work- Last night I went to a Chinese Medicine place and got acupuncture and suction cup therapy for my cold and post-nasal drip allergies! It was fun- apparently my inner heat is overflowing and it's dry heat... whatever that means. :)

Just a quick update while I'm trying to survive this week. I officially have a cold!!!! I was feeling a bit under the weather since I've been here but it was just mild head cold symptoms/allergies going haywire. Now my nose is stuffed, my throat's been sore/itchy. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow! I started teaching my classes. It's demanding but I love it so far, especially the young ones. Albert and I found a dance studio to start going to (when I get better). I'm really excited-- it's run by two professional dancers and I saw them compete a few weekends ago (where I also saw the top 7 couples in the world). I went to the National Palace Museum this weekend with some friends. It has artifacts 2000 or more B.C. (no "E" here in this blog hehe :P). It was really interesting- we saw a cabbage carved out of a piece of jade. It was my favorite part! A little disappointing it wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but still impressive. We saw some...

Hi Everyone, I’m sorry I haven’t been good at updating but hopefully I’ll have more time now. I got offered a job at the Hess School (the biggest English school in Taiwan) and I have three branches in Taipei to teach at. So I basically have three bosses. I’ve met two of them and they are really nice, as are the rest of the staff (teachers, Chinese teachers). I am really happy- I feel totally comfortable at this job. The training was super intense. For nine days we had to spend all day at the MinQuan branch (where I’m actually going to be working) with 60ish other people. We listened to lectures, watched demonstrations of lessons, and had to do our own demonstrations in front of teachers and fellow trainees. It felt a little bit like Kairos (a Catholic retreat I went to in high school), only because we all bonded pretty fast. The trainers were awesome- entertaining and enthusiastic about their jobs. I was listening to Australian, New Zealand, English and South African ac...

I'm super busy training for a job here. A real update in about a week. :)

Hellooo!! I'm in Taiwan!!!!! Woke up today to a rooster crowing- one's crowing again now, hehe. :sigh of relief: That was a LONG journey. Flew about 10 hours to Tokyo, Japan. We went over Canada, Alaska and some of Russia I think to get there. I don't think I'll ever get used to sleeping in a chair. I am SO grateful I have a bed now. :) We got to watch four movies: All About Steve, The Informant, The Secret Life of Bees , and one other but I forgot it. I REALLY loved The Secret Life of Bees ! I won't tell you why 'cause it'll spoil the whole movie, but it's about African Americans during the civil rights movement and a girl who thinks she's unloved. It's so good I want to read the book. So, long flight, the landing in Tokyo was horrible. We had turbulence on the way down and I felt so dizzy and uncomfortable. It was like my heart all of the sudden fell down to my stomach and then way up to my head. It would have been much more bearable if we were...

So it turns out I won't be leaving until Friday. We were five minutes late for check-in and Friday's the net possible flight.