At last

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have arrived.

Yesterday was my first day in Taiwan. After the LONGEST flight in recorded history, during which I chatted with a Filipino couple who were preparing to attend her 50th high school reunion and a Thai exchange student heading home, I arrived in Taipei. I honestly don't know what I expected of this city, but this isn't it. It's modern... and not. Clean.... and not. Bright.... and not. The one thing it definitely is is hard to describe. Like the modern part: Most of the buildings are what you would expect from any major city - concrete and glass contraptions. However, randomly placed throughout the city, there are temples that look like they belong more to the time of legends than to today. The streets are immaculate, and every time I turn around, someone is sweeping somewhere, but then there is just a sheen of slight disrepair and grime on all the buildings. The signs are enormous and so brightly colored, and everything is packed right on top of each other, but that same grime makes things look a little gray, and the signs all the more lurid.

I am slightly ashamed to say that, after landing, procuring an unidentifyable breakfast (I later learned that it is called congee, a kind of rice soup), a cup of coffee and a phrase book, I literally slept through my entire first day. What was to be a "short nap" starting at about 1:00 ended up being me waking up at 2:30 in the morning. Oh well, though. I was so exhausted and jet lagged after the trip yesterday that there was very little I could have hoped to accomplish. Today, though, will be different.

Today I woke up (again) at about 8:30, and decided that I was going to be fine. So, I got dressed, put on my rain coat and my shoes, and walked out into a beautiful day. And I managed not once, but TWICE (!!!) to communicate what I wanted in Chinese. Granted, it was the same phrase (I would like) but I managed to get some kind of buttery noodle and pork breakfast, which, just as a side note, was very hard to eat with chopsticks, and another cup of coffee. A note on coffee here- it's kind of odd. It is definitely coffee, but they make it kind of as a latte. I'll have to figure this out. On the "to do" for today is to get a phone and a camera, neither of which I can do for a bit because nothing opens until 11 at the earliest except the market where I have been eating and the occasional shop catering to westerners. I hope to stop by a tea house today, perhaps, and to go to one of the museums.

I feel like there is so much more to say but I am running out of internet time! All said, though, I think that I am going to like it here, once I get my feet under me. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful, and there is definitely a beauty to everything here.

All my love, and look for my next post!

The next step

Holy Crap, ladies and gentlemen. Today, at 9:46 am, I bought my plane ticket to Taiwan. I am going. It is final.

I had failed to mention prior that there has been a slight alteration in my placement. Instead of going to Taichung, I was offered a position in a school with better accomodations, though it is in a smaller town called Maioli. I faxed off my contract today, bought my plane ticket, and Friday I secure my visa. This is happening for real.

If you know me, which I believe most of my readers do, then you know that I have had a pretty long sting of get out of my job free schemes. I was going to move to CA. I was going to open my own bookstore, then my own coffeeshop, then my own restaurant. I have been working on a book, a collection of short stories, and an autobiography since about 1998. When I undertake change, I don't do anything small.

Still. This is HUGE. This weekend I attacked my apartment with a fairly primal fury, tossing clothes, knicknacks, and general junk into the "To Trash", "To Sell", and "To Store" piles. Did you know I had around 200 books just hanging out in my apartment? 200 books!!! Wow I am a packrat. Uprooting my life is proving to be a new and unusual challenge. I am ready, though. Finally, I think I have completely accepted that not only is this happening, but I am doing it to myself. And I kind of like that.

Oh, did I mention that the new school is providing me with a bicycle? How cool!

Anyway, that's the most recent news in my upheaval. Thank you so much for your support in this new, weird, and slightly terrifying chapter in my life.