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.

Life So Far

I suppose I should make a first post since I've been living in Taipei for over three months now.  Life is good, I like my work and my coworkers.  Taipei is a good city, everything is fairly convenient as long as you're not too opposed to walking for a little while or spending some money for a taxi ride.  

The subway system is wonderful here, although its odd that everyone seems to like to either sleep on the subway or conciously avoid eye contact by any means possible.  My general consensus is that people here are afraid of strangers and as a stranger to me, they'd like to keep the status quo of the relationship.  

I went to go see a play last week with some friends, it was in Chinese so I'm pretty proud of myself for understanding most of it.  My language skills have definitely improved here.  The play was called "Speaking in Tongues," a play originally from Australia, I think, but reproduced by the National Taiwan University theatre club.  It had a good plot line that was well written and well performed, which delved into the issues of marriage and extra-marital affairs.  

The end of this month should be a lot of fun.   A bunch of us from the office are taking a hiking trip in the storied Hualien area of Taiwan.  We'll be hiking and bike riding around the mountainous area that is a favorite nature area of Taiwan.  Hopefully I'm not too out of shape...

Then for Christamas I'll be heading to Japan to go skiing with a friend from back home who is living in Kyoto right now.  I've never been skiing before so that should be entertaining.  I've always wanted to go to Japan so this will be a fun way to get a taste of it.  Although I'll only be in Japan for five days, it should be enough for now.  

Then New Years will be spent with Rudy!  He's coming to visit for about two weeks so I can't be more excited.  I'll have to show him around Taiwan and its a trip that I'm really looking forward to.

Note: Picture is of a mountain area north of Taipei that my cousin took me to.