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.

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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