It is October 24th and 33 degrees CELSIUS! yeah buddy. I just had the most magnificent scooter ride around town running errands and I am about to go back out just for some more sun time.

I am well over here. Had a rough week with homesickness and such, but I am a lot better now. I am constantly in disbelieve about where I am in my life. I graduated MC and then 3 weeks later I was on a plane half way around the world to start a job that is actually in my field of study. I am doing big kid things! Well...on some days. Most days, I play Marco Polo at work.

I have no idea what I will be doing in a year, who will be in my life or even what continent I will be on. I love it. I have finally decided to stop trying to have my foot in both worlds. I am in Asia land for now and will soak up every last opportunity I can find. This post is not my "see ya never, guys" farewell. I just realized that I have been incredibly lucky with this situation in my life and I can't eff it up. I will be home eventually, and with some people it will be like picking up where we left off, others might take some time. Jim and Jude

I am trying my best to stay in contact with people, but it is difficult with 1. the 12 hour time difference 2. my job/ unreal sleep schedule 3. pure laziness on my end, oops.

I am just content and outta my slump, finally.

Here are some fun things that have happened recently.
1. I had another parent teacher conference and they were speaking a lot to teh TA while I just sat there not understudying Chinese so I played a game called " match the parents to their kids" which is CONSIDERABLY harder here.
2. Going to a massive Halloween party, it's called HALLOWEEN MASSIVE. I think I am going as Amelia Earhart.
3. Taiwan healthcare is INSANE. Walked into a doctor's office wiht my health card, was seen within the hour, paid about 300 NT ($10) which INCLUDED meds. America, get your shit right.
4. Getting really good at scootering.
5. Haven't had a hair cut in 4.5 months. my head suit is outta control like when I was a kid.
6. Crazy to think it's almost 6 months I have been here.

I tell everyone to try something like this at least for a year. It's a nice transition and balance from college life to real world stuff. I am learning about myself, the world, questioning more and yes, even changing a little. It would be impossible to move half way around the world and come back the exact same. The best way I can describe it is I am just wearing a suit jacket over the weird costumes Annaleigh and I would wear to the Brew at Manchester.

Miss you Hagens. Stop worrying, I am better.

Love,
Zimmie

Scootin in Taiwan.

Mom. 

Found a GIANT pig outside a restaurant. I think we ate him later. 

Lutheran AND Brethren church? Double wammy. 

Brett(American), me, Claudia(Brit), Joe(Brit). 

祝你生日快乐！(Happy birthday!)

I got more rhymes than the Bible got psalms.

TaiwONDERFUL.

Still here.

Teacher Michael Jackson

As Katy Perry blares..

As Katy Perry blares in the background, I write to you all. I am doing well, thanks for asking. How are you all?

I have survived the typhoon and my apartment only leaked a little. However, thanks to Taiwan magic/ the stifling heat, all the water in my house has evaporated. Yippie!

Lately, I have been thinking about my life and where I am/ what the hell I am doing with my life. Big stuff, I know. I had planned on moving overseas after graduation and even while I was at MC. However, it still surprises me that I am actually here putting my degree to use (well not the Spanish part) and enjoying it. It usually hits me when I am riding my bike home after work and just looking at my surroundings. That includes street vendors, caged birds on the side of the road, scooters EVERYWHERE and the occasional "Hello!" from a Taiwanese local showing off their English.

I read this amazing article about the benefits of traveling while you are young today, and it was like a gift from the gods bc they could see me doubting/ thinking too hard about my life choices.  Professors, parents, and even strangers have told me to travel your ass off while you can. If I think about it, all of those people were really just telling me to leave them the hell alone and that I should leave the country to do so.

So, as I sit in my first big girl apartment, paying real life bills and dressing in work clothes EVERY day, I try to remain calm that I was TRICKED into coming here by people who just wanted me out of America. Just playing, I wanted to come here and this year will be an adventure four shore.

Pardon the nostalgic post, however I will leave you with a wonderful video of a boy dancing at the weekly dance competition we go to after Sushi Sunday. It is my fantasy that after attending these weekly dance face-offs, the MC will point to this white girl (imagine I am pointing at myself) and yell " Your turn. Show us what you got." When that happens, I will die of pure joy.

That's a good inch of water outside my front door.

NEW BIKE! For FREE. 

Rice fields 

Tea harvesting as a family.

That's a tank. 

So is this. 

PingPongSaola

Not a typhoon, her name is Tropical Storm Saola. Heading to the coast of Chia now.

Also, after days of channel surfing to get the Olympics, I finally found it. Too bad it is ping pong.

Typhoon days< snow days

There is a typhoon outside. Typhoon= heavy rainstorms that make my apartment building leak. My roof is leaking outside my front door so I have to walk through a little lake before exiting my residence. There is also a waterfall trickling down the wall in my balcony. I can nothing about either of these problems but tell myself it is just water and I can mop it up when the rain stops.

Good news is that they canceled school today bc of the typhoon. This couldn't have come at a better time bc Thursdays are my busiest days. My manager, Hannah texted me last night to tell me, bless her heart. That mean typhoon celebrations. Maria, Claudia, and some of her friends met us at Bar FLy and then we met up with some of our TA's at a dancing club. I danced my face off again and left the club in the early hours of the morning.

Some interesting highlights from last night
1. Met a magician
2. Despite the typhoon, Taiwanese still like to go dance clubbing on a Wednesday night.
3. I still am having trouble hearing from last night

As you may have noticed, this is not a video. I decided that today I was not going to shower and not leave my apt since the only thing open is the 7-11 (which is where I had my lunch). I have been resting and watching my apt fill with water, ahha just kidding sorta.

I have a new phonics class and it is smaller with only 9 kids this time. I absolutely adored my last phonics class so these kids have a lot to live up to. I also passed my head office observation so all I need now is my ARC (Alien Residency Card) and I am all set.

That's all for now!

I'm a real teacher with real students. Here is the proof.

Proof.

Students. 

One of the crazy ones.

My wonderful TA, Gina. 

Friday night. Teacher Ali, Teacher Megan, Teacher Sammy. 

Welcome Dinner, cook your own meat. 

cook an entire fish.

Pope=manager

Sushi Sunday

The connection cut out 1/2 way through my vlog. I'm not fixing it.

Enj..

Taiwan keeps giving me gifts like stumbling into dance competitions and all I can give in return is, sweating my body weight for her every day

Videos AND pictures. It's like Christmas.

Teacher Ali's desk. Those are actual student test ya'll. 

Teacher and TA office.

Class/student binders. 

I wanted water and all they had to sell me was this sweat. It was salty tasting, as advertised. 

Sleeping Tiger, Hidden Dragon. No, no, sleeping Asian, hidden dragon. 

One of my vocab words to teach. I made them act this one out a lot. 

Giant Buddhist statue. 

Tree with branches growing straight up.

Luv Stock 2012. 

Abandoned Amusement Park. 

And fire dancers. 

Stare at dis, ASIA!

Lost in Translation.

I have seen some pretty interesting and rough English translations here. Some are on clothes, signs, names and even businesses. Here are the top 3.

3. Woman walking along with a shirt "DJ Sexy"
2. Students' chosen English names. 1. Dinky 2. Eagle 3. Horse 4. Candy 5. Jerome, but it is pronounced Jeremy (yeah right bud)

And my all time favorite so far..

1. A woman passing out church fliers and she was wearing a shirt with large print that said " Too drunk to fuck".

Minority Report

Prepare for pictures

I had today off for some reason so I decided to climb a mountain! It's not so much a mountain as much as a tall hill with A LOT of stairs. A lot. I put in my iPod and slipped on my shades and climbed to the top of like 50 different tall hills. It was amazing, however, there were a lot of trees blocking the panorama @ the top of every hill so I didn't really get a good scene of the city, thanks a lot nature. I saw a lot of giant butterflies, grass (finally no more cement) and these little temples with idols to pray to. I also saw and felt every mosquito in that place. I was eaten alive and decided to retreat back to a mosquito free zone. Regardless, I had a great time and I sweat my body weight, and then some. 

Now normally I get stared at a lot here bc I am in the minority( which I am getting used to. I smile and say hello a lot here so they are not scared of me) but I am starting to give the locals a misguided sense of all foreigners. Thanks to my mother, I tend to sweat a lot and it's not pretty. I don't understand it either, but the women here look beautiful all the time, and never sweat. IN FACT, they wear leggins, layers of shirts or just jeans and regular tops. Meanwhile, this gringa is wearing as little as possible and still sweating. I see these lucky women to be born without sweat glands wearing pants and I become 1. angry 2. even hotter bc I can't even imagine wearing jeans! 3. defeated. Well that is my sweating rant, sorry so gross. 

What next? Well, teaching is going. I have two classes tomorrow and they will be my summer classes that will last for like a month. I also am teaching phonics in the morning starting Wednesday. The old teachers left since their contracts were up and now it is 2 old teachers and 3 new ones. Should be interesting. 

This weekend was a blast of rama as well. I was supposed to go see the Dali exhibit in Taipei which I was super stoaked about however, we couldn't find it. after wandering around this square for a bit, we decided to go to Tom's and drink, eat and be merry. We did indeed. We also decided it was a night for glitter so we made EVERYONE put on loads of glitter. I am talking lightining bolts on faces, sequins on your eyes, and glitter eye shadow, for both sexes. We made our way out of the apt. and into the MRT (metro). We were stared at hard, but at that point, no one cared. We found ourselves in a basement of this pub. That is when the trouble started. List of accomplishments that night 

1. Found a motorcycle helmet and refused to take it. I also made people knock" on it to test out its safety features. 

2. Ran to McDonalds with Sam to slam 2 cheeseburgers when we ordered 2. 

3. made plans to go to a Rihana concert with a straight man

4. accidently took a shot of absinthe. It was green, I should have known better. 

5. went to a dance club called Roxy and danced my face off

6. Slept on a leather couch with no blankets/ sheets and almost died of heat stroke

7. Took 2 hours to meet up with friends in the train station to go home bc they we lost and we were 3 floors below them

8. Didn't see Dali

9. Smiled a lot

I really like the group of new teachers from orientation. We are planning to hike some mountains or go to the beach this weekend. 

Oh, pictures! Some of these I snagged from my friend Sammy and some are a repeat from fb. Forgive me, Jude doesn't have fb and she has been pestering me about pictures. 

This is Chiang Kai-Chek Memorial Hall where we were led to believe a Dali exhibit existed. We couldn't find such a thing. 

Claudia, Natalie, Sam, and Megan. All British and hard to understand sometimes. 

Sam and Ali's River Crossing. Appropriately named for those who found it. It is a nice pond area by my house. 

Cinderella looking right? That's because there is a glass museum in Hsinchu and they made the Cinderella connection. 

I like this guy. 

Yay it's really hot and we didn't find Dali!

East entrance where we picked up an Asian lady friend. I'm not kidding, she saw a group of us walking and decided to join us walking.

Scenes from the park today. These are shelter tunnels? Idk really.

Teacher Ali in da house

This is for you Dinky

Ice cream, parks, guns and pigs.

MORE FACE!

Before I can teach, I have to figure out my washing machine that is in Chinese.

As promised. I am rambling bc I have stuff to get done today. Sorry friends.

See you tomorrow, promise.

Video coming tomorrow. Sorry I am super lame at updating, it might get better.

Stinky Tofu

Hello all,

I hear there are some troubles accessing the vlog. That's a shame because they are treats to watch. I will look into it but for now, I will do it the old fashioned way and chisel some words down.

For the past three days I have been in Hsinchu observing classes and finding an apartment. I have successfully accomplished both. I am very pleased with my new digs. Sam, another English teacher at my school will live below me which will be nice.

Here are the dirty details, I will be teaching 2-3 classes a day which are 2 hours each. The kids range in age and skill level and I am not sure where they will be putting me yet.

I start orientation in Taipei this Monday and will begin teaching June 25! I am very anxious to start teaching and get more settled into this place.

I saw my first Taiwanese Mafia incident the other night. I woke up to a ruckus outside my apt and ran to the window to see what was going on. I saw 5 or 6 guys beating the hell out of some guy with bats, crow bars and kicking him as well. I was terrified! I ran to turn out my lights so they couldn't see me watching. At this point, I realized I didn't know the police's number. I went to google it but by that time, I heard sirens coming. THEN, I saw a cop pull his gun on a guy on the ground who I assume was a suspect? I am not sure. I went to bed and closed the blinds.

No more shootings or beatings lately.

Moving on, I am excited to start teaching! Everyone here is SO helpful and kind. I think once I get into my groove, I will like this place a lot.

Want to hear some funny stories now?

I decided I couldn't live off of Pringles and M&M's any longer so I ventured out for food. I had a plan to find a restaurant with pictures so I could point to one like an American idiot. Turns out, there were none. I wandered for like 20 minutes and I thought I was going to die from not eating. I stopped at this corner place and said to the woman "Hello, I can''t speak Chinese. I am hungry. Will you make me some food, please?" She looked at me with a blank stare. So I mimed out what I had just said. SHe understood it and brought me some food. It. was. terrbile. After talking to a friend, he told me it was stinky tofu, a delicacy here. not. It was deep fried tofu with a marmalade center and spicy cabbage. I choked it down and rewarded myself with an ice cream bar and beer.

Hope America is treating you all well, tell her I say hello!

Yaysia

I'M ALIVE STILL!

您好！

That is Chinese for hello, thanks Google Translate. I hear the last video post didn't work? Too. Bad. Just kidding I will fix it later.

Let me see, things are as hot as ever over in the Asia. I haven't started anything to do my job so I get to spend my days exploring, eating new foods, and whatever the Asia I want. A normal day consists of 1. waking up at a fairly decent hour ( I can't help this, I would like to sleep in but I think this is my punishment for having no other jet lag) 2. Reading a little 3. First shower of the day 4. Meet Matt for lunch 4. Explore a little more 5. second shower 6. Explore or eat a little 7. Dinner with Matt

Here is a list of things I have discovered about Asia...
1. No one says bless you after you sneeze
2. Older people don't smile back/at you on the streets
3. No road rules here. People drive/bike on their own terms
4. Men and women aren't friends with each other unless one is gay or they are dating
5.

I am really looking forward to getting settled into my apartment and job.

I went to Taipai on Saturday with Matt and some of his friends, it was a blast-o-rama.

1. had my first Asian quesadilla which was delicious. Not as good as mine, but it's okay Asia.
2. We took the train to Taipei and the conductor was so nice! He stopped and talked to us for a bit and wrote me a love not on my ticket welcoming me to Asia and such. Asian boyfriend number 1.
3. We proceeded to the skate park, but not before stopping in a 7-11 for some beer. There are no open container laws here so cheers to that!
4. Watched Matt's friends skate for a bit and then proceeded to his freind's Anre's house for a rest up then out to a pub.
5. We went to this place called on tap to watch the soccer game and meet some friends.
5.5 Had the most amazing gravy fries there.
6. Stayed until the end of the game around 5 am. Decided to get a hotel and just sleep there since we had Taipai business in the afternoon it didn't make sense to go back to Matt's apt.
7. Went to a bakery for some grub. I got a suprisingly horrible concotion that looked and tasted like it had fur on it. Won't make that mistake again.
8. Matt is getting a tattoo here from this AMAZING artist so we went to her house so he could pay the deposit. I was looking at her sketches and it is going to look so good. She is amazing.
9. FOr lunch/ dinner we went to a pita pit-ish place which was delicious.
10. Came home and passed out at like 9 pm. solid.


I know these entries are kinda lame-o and not so detailed/coherent, but I am all scatter brained all the time and that's what you people get for now.

Woke up in America, went to sleep in Asia.

Do I look more Asian?

Look at my face!

Yay video blogs!

In one week, I will be setting foot on a continent some call Asia. It will be continent number 4 that I have had the opportunity to explore and wreck havoc in. I am going over there to become Ms. Ali, the jr.high English teacher. Thankfully, I will not have to wear heels every day  to remind students that I am the teacher and NOT some new student awkwardly standing in the front of the class like I would have had to do if I were teaching in America.

Sometimes I wonder how I have gotten to this point in my life where I am leaving all my friends, family and the English language for a year. I had always planned to leave America after I graduated but it seems surreal that it is actually happening. I am excited, sad, nervous, and anxious all the time, it's exhausting. I decided to spend my final days in America waking up late, spending time with friends and family, eating all the food I will surely miss next year and watching countless episodes of Law and Order: SVU.

I will update this bad boy as much as I can with all my Asian Adventures. I will miss most of you reading this (just kidding) and will try to skype your faces as much as I can. You can tell me how Asian I am starting to look.

Miss you America, see you in a year.

Love,
Nance