I’m only now recovering from over a week of having a running nose and from some pretty obsessive tissue-blowing. I thought it had something to do with my Jessie-Irene constant-rain visit to the Taipei Zoo, where I ended up touring the place with my shoes soaking wet, but walking into class in the mornings you can’t help but feel that even the mightiest western immune systems would not be able to counter the viruses that must be flowing in the air. Everybody’s holding a sack of tissue papers close at hand, everybody’s staring around blindly with hopeless looks suggesting sleepless nights and everybody’s moaning about their Taiwan weather misfortune. It couldn’t make sense that people coming from the UK and …

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I could never understand Christmas. Ever since my time at the states in 6th grade, I couldn’t get this weird holiday. How is a myth of an old man flying around - going down people’s chimneys - giving away gifts in a bright red CocaCola clothing - got anything to do with Jesus Christ? Why are the Christmas songs so annoying and childish? Especially going around Taipei and seeing shopkeepers with Santa hats and the stupidest Chinese adaptations of Christmas songs seems to be surreal. While I’m at it - Christian Asians celebrating western Christmas rituals? why?

I could never understand Hanukkah. Ever since my first candle lighting, I couldn’t get this weird holiday. I found the story …

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“Oh, so you’re not from the states?” he asked suspiciously.
“No, I’m not. I’m Israeli. Yi-se-lie ren” I smile back.
He looks puzzled. He pauses for a few seconds, looks at Mas sitting next to me, then asks me “A Jew?”.
Ah, hmm… Where is this question leading to? - “Yeah, I’m Jewish”.
He smiles, “So, let me get this straight. Mas - a Muslim, brings you - a Jew - to talk to me here about a job opportunity. Is that right?”
Oh, yeah, Mas and I. Staring at each other, laughing, we could all see the possible irony.

I don’t know if this technical writing job will work out since there are too many parameters involved that might fail this process. But, the basic …

Mountains rising over a long stream of small waterfalls with a relaxing sound of flowing water. From within the steam colors of blue, white and green mix together in harmony. Comforting heat embraces you, the smell and feel of minerals softly teasing your senses, beauty in your arms, you feel you’re in paradise.
After a few days of rain and cold, Mother Nature has mercifully blessed us with two wonderful days of sunshine. There was an appointment I was supposed to go to after class, but I figured that a day like this one is worth doing something a bit different.
Take the MRT down to Xindian MRT station by the lovely Xindian river waterfront, then transfer to a 20 minute bus …

.I like to be reminded of the special time that I’ve had in the past year. As most people who know me are aware - I’m extremely fond of Vietnam, and find my self telling Vietnam stories a lot when talking to friends in Taiwan. I try to relay the feeling that I had while I was there, which is special and very different from the feeling I get here, but find myself failing each time. Vietnam and Taiwan are two unique attractions that fill me up inside in ways I can’t really explain.A Christmas card I got from my HoiAn good friend - Tam - had a Vietnamese tune that I love in the background which reminded me of …

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It’s been a month now in Taiwan and I finally feel like I’m starting to settle down. Geeeeezzzzz… That was some month. I think even I’m a little surprised as to how this whole Taipei visit turned out. Got this Chinese class going for me, a girl that I adore, a few friends, a fairly comfy place to stay and if all goes well I might even have my first freelance technical writing job next week (tfu tfu, knock on wood).

It’s more of a ‘routine’ time and that generally feels like a good change. I try to go eat lunch with a different classmate everyday in a different restaurant at a different area, I try to vary my sitouts at …