Treat every intersection in Taiwan as a 4 way stop, regardless of what the traffic lights suggest

Well, the thrill of the hash has definitely faded somewhat since my initial experience but this last weekend was still a lot of fun. What was funny was that there were a lot of new people this time. I'm sure this is how it is every year though, as the new teachers and what not arrive for their contracts. I did meet 3 guys who live in Linkou just a few blocks from me. One is from Texas, one from Singapore, and one from Italy. They all spoke perfect English and I'm sure I'll see them again in the future. I did ask the Italian what he thought of the food in Taiwan. I consider Italian food like basically the best in the world, so I thought his opinion of the food would be something along the lines of disgusting, but he actually said he liked it for the most part. Kind of interesting. I also met 2 guys from Australia, and one from Brisbane. They're here studying Chinese for 3 months on a full-ride scholarship. Anyway, the hash was funny but I think my funny feeling was just from the fact that there were so many new people and it felt like a new group I didn't really belong to. I'm planning on going to the Taiwanese hash on Saturday though so that will be a whole different experience altogether. Should be interesting.

As for the run itself on Sunday, it was great! Wildman was the hare, who supposedly does it once a year, and every time, it's not to be missed! He's a Taiwanese guy with flowing, wild hair, aviator shades, and really short shorts. And he drives a big, creepy van. The run was about an hour, winding through rice paddies, people's houses, and went right by what I think was a pig slaughterhouse. Pretty gross. The sounds coming out of there were not pleasant at all!

As for school, things are going well. The final exams for the older kids start on Friday and go through next Monday. Then we have 2 weeks of class with them where we practice more English although they've already taken their final exams. What boggles my mind is the fact that they have their final exams at their main elementary schools this week also, so it made me wonder why they don't move the English exams to next week if we're just going to be playing games anyway? Hmm, there must be a reason. After those two weeks of games, I have one week of games with the younger kids and then I'm done! I am so very excited and counting down the days big time. It's been very cold here and only adding to my excitement about leaving. The temperatures here have been below 10 C but because there is no central heating in buildings here, it's that cold all the time, so as you can imagine, it gets a little old after awhile. Australia is in the 30s right now, but it is their summer.

Oh well. It's getting kind of hard to believe that this year is almost over although it still seems like a long way off and not real yet. I do know I've been here for awhile though, based on the fact that I feel my blogs are becoming less interesting in the sense that day to day life here is no longer as strange as it initially seemed. That's bound to happen anywhere though. I'm eager to start my next journey, though the culture shock in Australia won't be nearly as jarring. Jarring, I think that's a word.

Today, we had the floor repaired in our apartment. I think I had mentioned previously in a blog that we had had an earthquake here a few weeks back and it messed up the tile flooring in our apartment. Anyway, I got home tonight expecting a nice new floor, but instead what I got was a floor covered in dust, all of the furniture piled in the corner, and no grout between all of the tiles. Oh, and 2 freshly cracked tiles. Apparently the job was too big to handle in one day so hopefully everything will be fixed tomorrow. But it's Taiwan so I'm not holding my breath. That's all I've got for now!