Diving

The last two weekends I was down in Kenting completing my PADI Open Water Course for scuba diving.  It took three days and now I am officially certified to dive.  The first day we were in the pool so it wasn't that exciting but by the third day we were out in the ocean having a look around and I did not want to get out of the water! Probably sounds familiar to those who could never get me out of the water when I was younger ;)

We had great weather both weekends and the ocean isnt very cold here.  Im looking forward to the next diving adventure!

This was the first time I've really used my camera underwater, I had it in a waterproof bag so it took awhile to get the hang of taking clear pictures.

Then I didn't write for six months

I recovered fully from my injury and then got super busy and six months disappeared in what felt like overnight.  Blogging has definitely made me more aware of time, in a positive way.  So, I came home for a visit, which was possibly the best two weeks spent all summer, and now I'm back in Asia for about a year.  Today is our last day in our old apartment.  One roommate is leaving and I'm ready to live in a new part of the city.  Deidre and I put a lot of effort into finding a new place and it totally paid off!  Our new place is smaller, but we've got a pool, reading room, and yoga room in the building :)

The summer flew by, but luckily the weather doesn't really get cool here until December.  I'm not working such a busy schedule in the fall which has given me a much needed break and I've got a lot to look forward to in the next few months!  I'm still taking Chinese classes, which I'm really enjoying and being able to communication easily is making life here much more convenient.  Next week, I'm transitioning to oil painting (from drawing) in my art class.  In the past I've only experimented with acrylics and watercolors and Im looking forward to learning a new medium.  In November I'm doing the PADI Open Water Course (finally!) which Im psyched about because I've been wanting to scuba dive for years and haven't had the money/gotten around to taking the course.

Recently, I decided to get rid of my facebook account.  I've wanted to for awhile, but I always thought it was an important tool to keep in touch with people - especially because I'm living abroad.  I realized, that 95% of the time I spend on facebook is not actually spent keeping in touch with close friends, and that Skype is a much more meaningful way to stay in contact.  So, for awhile at least I wont be using facebook.  Skype is a free program that lets you call or video chat with other users.  It's the primary way I stay in touch with my parents and it works great.  Check it out, and if you want to set up a skype date send me an e-mail!

Unfortunate Accidents

Another eventful few weeks in the Far East ... At the end of our Wednesday night soccer practice I managed to trip and fall while running backwards to receive a pass which resulted in a broken wrist :(

I was not happy, and attempted to keep playing because I didn't think it was broken but realized I couldn't even run it hurt so much.  I've been pretty lucky and have never broken a bone before so of course I had the completely irrational "it will never happen to me" mentality about getting injured.  After a 3am trip to the emergency room followed by three more days in the hospital I was on my way to recovery with six pins stabilizing my wrist and a robot arm looking contraption.  Hospitals in Taiwan are an interesting experience, one I would have preferred not to have.  All the doctors speak English (their medical classes are in English) but a lot of them aren't comfortable actually communicating with a foreigner.  In addition, Taiwanese pretty much blindly trust the hospital staff and don't ask questions.  When I came out of surgery and the anesthesia wore off I completely freaked out.  They had told me they were going to use pins, but had referred to the operation as "external fixation" which I assumed was a cast.  But when I woke up this is what I saw!

In the end, it's much better than a cast.  There is no risk of the bones healing abnormally or my wrist joint collapsing which can happen with a cast.  They expect I wont have any problems with my wrist in the future, which is a good thing because I dont plan on giving up glassblowing ;)

The doctor just gave me the okay to start running and training for soccer and I was pretty glad to hear that.  This weekend I am going on a visa run to the Philippines, so I'll have a little time to relax before getting back into everything.  I was hoping to get certified to dive on this trip but that will have to wait since my arm can't get wet.

Things have been going well at Melody (the publishing company).  I really like working there and it's been nice to have a break from teaching.  Working in a quiet office feels like a vacation compared to teaching at my preschool.  I've decided that I'm going to take a break from teaching after my injury until I find a school that will give me full time hours and my ARC. At Melody, I've been doing a lot of voice over, recording in English, and here I am at work.

Are you viewing this post as an imported note on Facebook?  Click on "View Original Post" to see more pictures on my blog.

The Escapades continue

I had my second art class this past weekend, and I am so glad to be getting back into drawing and painting.  On the downside, I've been thinking about how much I miss glassblowing and how excited I am to see the Chihuly exhibit that's coming to the MFA in Boston. Luckily (or unluckily) the last day of the exhibit is the day after I come home so you know where I'll be that day!  I'm a little concerned that it will be really crowded with people trying to see the exhibition last minute but we'll see what happens - its still about 5 months away.

Soccer (which I will now be referring to as football after being harassed by the team) has been going great, I realized the other night that I have not done a soccer drill since I played in college and I have really lost my touch since then.  The training is good though, because I haven't had the chance to play competitively in a long time and hopefully it will come back to me sooner rather than later. I've been running to the nearby beach at night in an attempt to get back into shape a little faster and it has become one of my favorite places to chill out  after a long day.

We had a long weekend because Tuesday was tomb sweeping day.  There was a large music festival going on in Kenting, the southern most city in Taiwan so we drove down there Friday night when Adriana got off work.  We ended up camping because all of the hotels were full but I was happy about that because I am not a fan of wasting money on a hotel when camping is dirt cheap! We met some of our friends who went down earlier from the university and had a good group.  The weekend was lots of fun, they had electronic DJs playing music on the beach all night and we had a great time.  I dont think I've had such little sleep since college. J

Now, its back to the work week but I am looking forward to my upcoming weekend in the Philippines later this month!!

Baisha Bay

A weekend in Malaysia

I recently had to do a "visa run".  Which means leave the country and come back to automatically extend my visa for another 60 days.  At first, I saw this as a big inconvenience, but now I realize this is actually a blessing in disguise.  Who wouldn't want a unexpected weekend at the beach?!  This is the first time I've had to do this, because last time I already had plans to go home for Christmas.  I had been putting off booking my flight because I didn't really know where I wanted to go and wasn't excited about paying for airfare.  I ended up in Kota Kinabalu (the cheapest place Air Asia flies from Taipei).

Malaysia has the best sunsets I've seen anywhere in the world

My long weekend turned out better than expected. I found a cheap place to stay (about $10/night) and started reading about KK so I could figure out the best way to spend my 3 days there.  It turns out there is a collection of islands just off the coast that make up a national park.  You can catch a ferry in the morning to the island of your choice and swim, snorkel, and hike during the day.  I wish I had more time to get to some of the places outside of the city, but I can always go back sometime in the future.

Relaxing on the beach I discovered... no tourists here!

Things have not slowed down at all since Chinese New Year.  My roommate pirated a copy of the Rosetta Stone so we've both been trying to do it every day.  Initially I had hoped to learn Chinese, but I have lost motivation a bit because it's so difficult.  I'm still doing a weekly language exchange, but I'm probably learning more about Taiwanese culture from my language partner than actually learning the language.  I have been using the Rosetta Stone to keep up with my Spanish however!

One of my friends here owns an art gallery and this weekend I started a drawing and painting class there.  I've taken some art courses at home, but they tend to be expensive and I've decided to take advantage of as many classes as I can while I'm here because they're much cheaper.  In the winter I took a French class at the association where my roommate teaches, and I'm thinking of enrolling in one of their summer courses as well.

I also started playing soccer this past weekend with a group of expats in a league, finally!  I was on the fence about bringing my soccer stuff to Taiwan and I'm really glad I did.  I've been playing on and off when I've been home but I really miss playing competitively on a team.  The day after the first practice just sitting down was a challenge but I haven't forgotten how quickly sore muscles recover.  They practice twice a week and I would need to be selected to play in the league, but regardless of whether I end up playing in the official games or not I'm happy just to be kicking a ball around again!

Formosa Road Trip

One of our campsites, a baseball field

The past few weeks have definitely been the busiest since I've come to Asia!  Melanie arrived right before Chinese New Year and we went on an east coast road trip that involved one scooter with the two of us and all our camping gear!  The weather was perfect (it never rained!) and we were lucky to find free places to camp each night.  We started out crossing over the mountains and heading north on highway 11 up to Hualien.  Midweek we arrived at Taroko National Park and set up camp there for two nights.  On the way back, we took highway 9 south and crossed back over to the west coast to Kaohsiung.

Taking pictures in a random field of flowers on the side of the road

The week was awesome, and I was really glad I had the chance to see the east coast - it was beautiful!  I have so many pictures and I'll be posting them soon.  After we got back from our road trip, we had a few days in Kaohsiung before we left for Green Island (Lu Dao).  It's the smaller of the two islands located off the east coast near Taitung.  Sophie (my roommate)  also had a friend visiting from France so a small group of us set off for the weekend.  We drove to Taitung and took a ferry from there.  In the past few years my travels have included many boats of varying degrees of comfort.  The ferry to Green Island was hands down the absolute worst.  It's nickname is the barf barge and for good reason.  Now, before we took the ferry everyone told me it was bad, even the writer of LP Taiwan said it was terrible.  But, of course my response was "Ive taken ferries, boats, and canoes all over the world!  It cant be that bad!"  Well, it was!  There were trash cans in every aisle and big packages of plastic bags hanging from each seat.  I only made it through the first 40 minutes of the one hour ride.  I even attempted taking motion sickness medication before we left, but all it did was make me feel drugged, and it clearly didn't help so I wont be taking that again.

Us on the scooter in Taroko National Park

Nonetheless, Green Island was very nice, and we had a good time.  They have one of the few saltwater hot springs in the world and the facilities were great.  There were numerous pools of varying temperatures and you could also walk down to the ocean and go in directly where the source of the hot spring was. There was even a boiling spring where you could cook your food!

During the rest of Melanie's time here I was part tour guide and part tourist again which was fun.  I've realized that there are still a lot of things I haven't done in Taiwan and hope to spend more time seeing new parts of my city and the country before I leave.  It's so easy to get stuck in your day to day routine!

I was lucky to have a friend from home here in Taiwan to celebrate my birthday.  A group of us got dinner at Brickyard and then hung out there for the rest of the night.  I had an awesome time!  I hadn't been to Brickyard for awhile and they have fantastic food.  My family sent cards and presents so even though I wasn't at home with everyone to celebrate I knew everyone was wishing me a happy birthday.  Thanks to everyone who made it special!

Super Fun! Starring Yours Truly

We are fostering two very photogenic cats :)

This weekend I filmed an educational series with Melody Publishing (the company that owns my preschool).  It was a good experience, but it was really hard!  Twelve hours of filming is not easy on the feet haha.  Actors definitely have their work cut our for them, and I am most certainly not cut our for the field (I was terrible at memorizing my lines).  But all and all it was fun, and I got paid to do it :) I'll be bringing a copy of the DVDs home with me so you'll all get a chance to have a good laugh.

Lulu and Momo

I'm still working at a preschool and an after-school program, but my afternoon school has changed. The place I used to teach at, Shane Schools was really terrible.  I won't bore you with all the details ... but being a foreign worker can be problematic and difficult sometimes and some schools just make it worse.  The biggest problem I had with working for Shane was that the management was awful and they were completely disorganized.  But, I like my new school a lot, and it's closer to my house!

Our new roommate Adriana also moved in this week.  Now there are three of us girls living in the apartment but I think things will go smoothly because we all get along really well.  Sophie and I each have a friend coming to visit at the same time so January will be a busy (and crowded) month.

I've also just started reading a book a friend sent me, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.  It's an amazing book and I haven't been able to put it down.  You can find it on Amazon here.  Highly recommended!!