Yesterday was my birthday. When my co-workers wished me Happy Birthday, many of them referred to it as my "first birthday in Taiwan", leading me to ponder the likelihood that I will have more than one ( Read more... )

I just got back from a weekend in Taichung. Five people from my original training group live there so five of us from the Taipei area headed down for a visit. Unfortunately I work until 6:00 on Saturdays so it was a very short weekend, but it was definitely worth the trip ( Read more... )

Last night I spent a few hours in the "foreign ghetto", Tianmu. Tianmu is an area of Taipei known for its large population of foreigners, including westerners as well as people from other parts of Asia. It was amazing, there were foreigners everywhere! And the Taiwanese people didn't seem particularly interested in me, which was a big change ( Read more... )

I bought a DVD player, of the Pantiac variety. Pantiac seems to be a Taiwanese brand, but fortunately, it's not all in Chinese. For example, when I turn it on the display screen greets me with a friendly "Helo ( Read more... )

( Welcome to my new apartment... )

Today I walked into my Junior High class for the first time and the students immediately launched into a heated discussion in Chinese. My Chinese may not be anything to brag about, but I understood that they were discussing a favorite topic of all my students: how freakin’ tall Teacher Kaitlin is. This class wanted to know the exact measurement ( Read more... )

Today was a very big day for me, both stressful and exciting. I taught my first three classes today. None of them went all that well, but I don’t think they were complete disasters either. When it was over, I felt like all life had been sucked out of me, but everyone keeps telling me that it will get easier and I can see that it’s true. Even ( Read more... )

I'm quickly becoming accostomed to shoving unfamiliar food objects into my mouth and bracing for the surprise. There's some amazing food here, but there are also those moments when I wonder if someone is toying with me and feeding me an eraser to see what I do ( Read more... )

It's my second day in Taipei and I'm having a fabulous time. (hey, maybe I'll actually start updating this thing now that my life isn't so boring, eh?) I guess I haven't even done anything that exciting, but every once in a while I stop and realize where I am and what I'm doing and it's so thrilling ( Read more... )

Here I am, finally in Taiwan. I arrived in Taipei last night (Friday night - it's Sat. morning here now) and was too exhausted to do much more than collapse into bed, but now I'm awake and refreshed and bouncing off the walls with eager anticipation for my first foray into the city. Julie, my Taiwanese friend from Beloit, is still in town for a ( Read more... )