What I miss most about the States

I've been feeling reminiscent so I thought I'd make a list of what I miss most about the States, people excluded and in no particular order.  

1. driving!

2. TexMex

3. people saying "bless you" after sneezing

4. speaking English

5. personal bubble space

6. living in a house (vs. apartment)

7. actual enclosed showers

8. ovens

9. air conditioner/heater

10. people saying "excuse me" when they bump into you

11. cheese! on everything!

12. sandwiches

13. Target, e.g. one stop shopping

Conversely, this is what I'll miss about Taiwan.

1. MRT

2. cheap food

3. night markets

4. all of the convenience stores

5. speaking Chinese

6. buses

7. walking everywhere

8. the close mountains and ocean

Well this is all that comes to mind right now.  If you'd like to add to the list, let me know!  

JAPAN!

I just got back from snowboarding in Japan yesterday and I am exhausted! I loved Japan, their cities are super clean and they have just the right amount of mix between old and modern architectural styles. The people there are really cute and they are way too curteous for their own good. Besides getting a small cold and getting held up in immigration on my way back, this was such a great trip!

I went to Osaka, snowboarded in Hiroshima, and toured a little bit in Kyoto. I went to go see my friend Thomas, and he was so great to show me around the country! We ran around and pretty much owned whatever town we were in. It was refreshing to get to speak fluent and coherent English pretty much the whole time I was there.

Snowboarding is ridiculously hard but I sort of figured it out on the second day. I managed to beat myself up learning so I've got several big bruises on my legs. Thank goodness our hotel had great hot springs so we could unwind every day afterwards.

Food-wise, I had great okonomiyaki in both Osaka and Hiroshima but I do have to say that I preferred Hiroshima style better. I also had amazing sukiyaki in Kyoto and I finally got to eat conveyer sushi! Now to plan my next trip... Korea anyone??

Pictures to come soon!

Hualien

This weekend, a bunch of my coworkers and I went on a biking trip to Hualien. It was great to go to a new place in Taiwan since I feel like I've been to Taiwan every other summer for my entire life but really have never been outside of three cities! We biked around a ton and basically just enjoyed the scenery, sadly, it was probably the most exercise I've gotten in the past three years.

I met some Americans there, since this place is a favorite spot for tourists, and I realized how rusty my English has gotten! I kept second guessing myself when I spoke, which is weird since my job requires me to read and write English all day, but I guess without speaking it every day, you can loose that fluency really quickly. Obviously, I can still speak English fine and without a crazy accent or anything like that, but I think that sometimes I couldn't talk as quickly and as fluently as I usually do at home.

Anyway, now I am trying to figure out how to get myself to the airport early Thursday morning so I can go spend Christmas in Japan! It can be difficult to be without a car. I never realized that I liked driving so much until now. I can't wait to go skiing, it'll be perfect to see snow for Christmas.

Well, I will leave you with some pictures from the trip for now. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!!


P.S. I just noticed that my Chinese Word of the Day application hasn't posted a new Chinese word since I've put it up. Sort of defeats its own purpose ... I will have to look into it.