It's hard to believe it's really been a whole week since I last posted. Time actually feels like it's going really slow right now but in terms of blogging, it's flying by. The last few weeks of school have been a bit like pulling teeth and the whole school just sort of feels tired and ready to be done. The older kids at school just finished their final tests last week but they still have 2 weeks of school left, so we basically play games and review with them for no real reason other than to sharpen their English more I guess. I have 13 actual school days left this semester so that's pretty cool. Also, hard to believe the first semester is actually over. In a way, it feels like I arrived in Taiwan only yesterday. I'm also glad the 6 months are already over. During the first few weeks here, I met a lot of people that talked about how they'd come here to teach for a year and they ended up staying for like 3o years. I was definitely not sure what was going on during that period of time so I got worried and thought to myself that there would be a remote possibility that I'd want to stay longer. However, as I near the 6 month mark, I can safely say that 1 year will definitely be enough for me! Actually, I had made up my mind a few months ago. It's been an amazing experience so far and I don't regret any of it one bit, but one year will be enough. Anyway, enough deep thinking for the day...
On Saturday, I went to a pool party with Andrew and his friends. This was pretty fun but also kind of lame. It was at the Taipei Country Club, a few miles away from Taipei 101. It was basically a foreigner hang out, but with a lot of drinking and Taiwanese kids mixed in. It was really nice to swim though and escape the oppressive humidity! I did run into 2 fellow hashers, and I met a guy who was interested in doing the hash so hopefully my words of wisdom persuaded him to try it out. After hanging out there for a few hours, we walked back into Taipei, which took about an hour and a half but none of us were in a hurry to get back for anything. They were gonna head to a club later but I learned that they have a dress code at all of the clubs: pants and shoes required. I had neither so I went home. One of Andrew's friends was a guy from LA visiting for a month. Apparently, he got a 1580 on his SAT when he was 13 and he graduated from Berkeley at age 16. Pretty impressive. He was a bit eccentric too though. But yeah, he was like an "ABC" Doogie Howser. Overall, it was a pretty good day.
Yesterday, I hung out once again with Brian and his family! I tutored him for an hour and then we drove into Taipei and hiked a mountain overlooking 101. This was a great hike, and it wasn't too long so the kids handled it well. At the top, there were at least 20 photographers hanging out waiting for the sunset to capture the perfect skyline picture. It was pretty picturesque. The only thing that seemed funny was that they were all taking the exact same picture. The sunset didn't actually turn out to be that good because there were hardly any clouds in the sky so it was missing that dramatic effect. After the hike, we drove to Maokong. This is a little mountain village that can usually be reached by a really cool gondola ride, but that operation is closed down temporarily because one of the steel supports was sliding down the mountain! Not too safe. We ate dinner at an open air restaurant overlooking all of Taipei. It was pretty stunning! My picture of it on flickr isn't that good though because I had my little camera and it's hard to hold it steady for night shots. It was another great day out with an authentic Taiwanese family! All part of the experience! More later...
I added about 25 more pictures/videos from the weekend's events so check them out!
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