Greetings from Taiwan

So everybody keeps asking me to update my blog. So I guess I’ll finally do it. I’m sitting in the passenger seat of Shao-ling’s family car using my phone to write this entry, so please excuse any typos. Anyway a lot has happened since many of you last heard from me

I have been living in Taiwan for the past two months as most of you know. I’ve been very busy at my new job. And I’m usually mentally exhausted my the time I leave work each day. At least I’m getting paid relatvely well (for Taiwan). Especially considering that my normal expenses for each month is between 500 and 600 USD.

I moved into a small apartment within a week of arriving in Taiwan. It feels as if I’m back in my college dorm room. At least I have my own bathroom here. I have to share my washing machine with 4 or 5 other people, and then hang my clothes outside my window to dry. I have a few small appliances, including a mini-fridge, hot-plate, and small electric grill. Maybe I’ll upload a video so ya’ll can see it for yourself.

I’ve been slowly learning more Chinese Mostly foods right now. I need buy it every day so I get more repetition with food words than most. Maybe in a month or so I will take some classes, I’m too busy at work right now though.

Since I arrived in January, Taiwan has had two holidays. Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival. I think that Lantern Festival is actually tied to Chinese New Year somehow. We didn’t do much for Chinese new year besides relax and eat … a lot. But I got a week off from work so that was kinda nice. Except that it put me even further behind schedule for my current project. I think that the lantern festival was more interesting. In central Taipei they held a huge light show. I had never seen so many people packed into one place before. The Chinese phrase for that is “people mountain people sea”. I didn’t like the pushing and shoving but the show was neat, and all the little models being displayed were neat. Last weekend we went to a smaller town to make our “sky lanterns”. Basically they are mini-hot air balloons. You write wishes on the lantern then you light a fire inside and let it soar into the air. Guess somebody else has to clean up the mess later. It seems a bit dangerous. Uncontrolled flames flying all over the place, but it is very pretty to see them all in the air. We had to take train for part of the trip. There were so many people that you got to know your neighbor very, very well. You really have to get used to crowded places to live here.

ok I need to go now we are in Costco shopping now. More to come later.