Travel - eazychinese.com

8 September 2013

拜拜! Zhen Qing Temple

Today I went with my fiance's family to a temple in Bali on guī mă shān 龜馬山(Turtle-Horse Mountain) called zhēn qìng gōng 真慶宮. My fiancé's brother will be joining the military for his obligatory year at the end of the month, so the family went to the temple to bài bài 拜拜, or pray. It is not uncommon for people to go to temples seeking guidance or to ask for help with their business or to look after their wellbeing.Taiwan is a peaceful country, and generally serving in the military is not very dangerous, but with political tension between Taiwan and the mainland being what it is, you never know what could happen, so we asked for her brother's year in the service to pass safely.

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(Outside the temple from the bottom of the mountain, and up close and personal views)

This temple has been in construction for a long time, and besides the giant plot of land it is on, many Taiwanese families have donated millions of dollars in local currency to see it completed. It is also the largest temple in Taiwan to the God xuán tiān shàng dì 玄天上帝.

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(The money for each of these pillars was donated by devout families…they weren't cheap either!)

The first thing we did upon arriving was to place incense sticks into the three giant incense holders. There are three at this particular temple. At each incense holder, we say a silent prayer, bow three times and place the incense stick with the others already burning to ashes. This is called shāo xiāng 燒香, burn incense, in Mandarin Chinese.

When you enter the shén diàn 神殿, the innermost portion of the temple, it is customary to use a branch with leaves to sprinkle blessed water on your head and two shoulders to keep you safe and protect you from bad spirits. The reason you put water on these three points, is because in Chinese Taoism/Buddhism these three points are believed to hold fires on them that protect you from evil.

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(Me cleansing myself to enter the inner temple)

In the inner sanctum of the temple, which is decorated heavily in gold ornamentation (gold is a lucky color in Chinese culture) lies a large table in front of giant statues depicting various Gods. here you can donate money and take a píng ān fú 平安符, an amulet, for luck and protection. The 平安符 are separated by color and animal of the 12 year cycle. I was born in the year of the rat.

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(We all got a new 平安符. Take a closer look at mine.)

After taking an amulet, you can make wishes or ask questions to the Gods with the jiăo bēi筊杯. Kneel on the knee-rest, hold the two wooden halves together in your hands, tell the Gods your name and address (so they can find you) and make your request. Then bow three times and throw the two halves to the ground. If the two pieces are showing opposite sides, then the answer is yes, if they are the same, it is no, so ask again!

Before going, we revisited one of the incense pots and "super-charged" our 平安符. It is customary to hold your amulet and circle it clock-wise three times over the incense smoke, and then to cup your hands and place the smoke over your head (again, because of the protective fires).

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(Bathing my 平安符 in the incense smoke, and a little on myself for good measure)

I love the feeling inside temples here in Taiwan. The smell of the incense and being surrounded by the beautiful carvings and architecture fill me with a sense of peace and contentment. I can't wait to see what this place looks like when it's finished!

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(Some cool carvings from the temple walls, and an image of what the temple will eventually look like when it is finished)

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How To Get There:

The temple is located near Dansui in Bali. If you don't have a car, the best way to get there would be by bus or taxi. You can take the MRT to Luzhou station on the orange line and then either find a taxi to take you there or you could take bus number 928. Here is the address in Chinese, so you can just show a cab driver, as well as the contact information. The temple is open from 6am-9pm.

Address: 新北市八里區中華路二段165巷33號

Phone: 02 2610 4373

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Chinese phrases of the day:

拜拜= pray

燒香= burn incense

神殿= the inner sanctum of a temple

平安符= a safety talisman

筊杯(pronounced ba-bwei in Taiwanese, and this is how it is usually called in Taiwan)= a pair of crescent shaped wooden tools, rounded on one side and flat on the other which are used for divination

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4 September 2013

就 Fun! / Jiufen

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(The long, winding streets of Jiufen are best viewed at night.)

This quaint little town nestled in the mountains above Keelung and Taipei County(now called New Taipei City, though it\’s actually a conglomerate of cities). During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, Jiufen was rich in gold deposits and became very important, because who doesn\’t love bling?

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(One of the miners!)

Located on Keelung Mountain, there are several ways to get there. I have personally taken two of these routes, because I used to live in Keelung, but there is a third option as well. If you are planning to visit Keelung city and want to also see Jiufen, I\’d recommend taking the bus nearby the Keelung train station. The ride is about 30-40 minutes long and the fare is 30NT. Another option would be to take a train to Ruifang station and then take the nearby bus to Jiufen. The ride should be a little shorter than the one from Keelung. Another option, maybe ideal for those of you based out of Taipei, would be to take the Jiufen bus from the Songshan train station. I\’m not sure about the details of the ride or the fare, as I\’ve never taken this bus, but it should be over an hour ride and probably around 100NT(have an easy card with several hundred NT and you should be good).

Well, nowadays if it\’s gold you\’re looking for, then Jiufen might not be the place for you. But it has tons of other attractions that might catch your eye.

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(A cool museum of masks located in Jiufen…what seems to be out of place?)

lăo jiē 老街, old streets are some of my favorite places in Taiwan. They are a perfect blend of the traditional Chinese feel, with a touch of the modern. Jiufen is my favorite old street (I\’ve been there six or seven times, but who\’s counting?), but there are tons more that I\’ll be writing about in the future, and they are all worth a visit.

Jiufen is a great place to see and buy tons of traditional items, from clothing to toys, charms and the list goes on. There are also quite a few stores that sell hand-made leather items(though a little less traditional in nature) and even a novelty sex gag store, which was definitely not around when this was a booming mining town! This is just one of the signs of how much Taiwan has changed in recent years.

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(What can I say? I love playing with all the cool traditional toys!)

Another popular attraction are the beautiful tea houses spread out on the hills of the old street, and the spectacular views that you can get from them!

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(Feeling thirsty? Check out this awesome tea house!)

And of course, you have a wide variety of snacks to choose from(we\’re in Taiwan after all!). You can get just about anything you could possibly want and more, but a few of my favorites are wild boar sausages shān zhū xiāng cháng 山豬香腸, and yù yuán 芋圓.

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(芋圓 a chewy dish made with flower, taro and sweet potato and served with red and green beans)

I\’m not sure if she\’s still there, but there was a very friendly old woman who sold 山豬香腸 at the end of the first part of the old street, before you start climbing all the stairs. Even if you don\’t like sausage, her stand is worth a visit, as she dresses very uniquely. She might look funny, but this clown is a good cook!

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(You know you want some of her sausage! Get in line already!)

There is a great place to get 芋圓 at the very top of the old street(so save some room). The restaurant is simply called ā pó 阿婆, or grandmother, and the view from the giant window there is amazing! It\’s a great place to get a view of the surrounding mountainside and ocean while eating a great Taiwanese snack.

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(A few pics of the amazing view you get from Jiufen…the pictures really do it an injustice.)

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How To Get There:

If you are planning to visit Keelung city and want to also see Jiufen, I\’d recommend taking the bus nearby the Keelung train station. The ride is about 30-40 minutes long and the fare is 30NT. Another option, maybe ideal for those of you based out of Taipei, would be to take the Jiufen bus from the Songshan train station.

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Chinese phrases of the day:

老街= old street

山豬香腸= wild boar sausage

芋圓= a chewy dish made with flower and different ingredients, usually taro and sweet potato

阿婆= grandmother

The pictures are all mine, except the ones of the 山豬香腸 and the 芋圓 , I got them from here http://www.flickr.com/photos/22151591@N07/8149875532/ and here http://chriszeekent.blogspot.tw/2010/07/blog-post_15.html

2 September 2013

Beef Cake!

Today I want to introduce you to another of my favorite Chinese dishes. If you have been to Taiwan, then chances are you have at least tried it once.

niúròumiàn牛肉麵, beef noodle soup is easily one of the most popular local dishes, and you can order it just about anywhere. The quality will vary from stand to stand, or restaurant to restaurant, depending on the noodles it is served with, and the herbs and spices that are used to flavor the soup, so the flavor can differ drastically depending where you order it.

If you want to eat the best (in my opinion, of course) niúròumiàn牛肉麵 that Taiwan has to offer, then I suggest you try the two restaurants that I recommend below. The first, niúlǎodà牛老大, is located in the Shida Night Market shīdàyèshì師大夜市 in Taipei, just near NTNU.

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(牛老大, located in the Shida Night Market in Taipei. Worth a vist…or three!)

This is the better of the two, in my opinion, as I really like the flavor of their hand-made noodles, and you know you are are getting the real deal because you can see their master noodle maker doing his thing right as you enter the restaurant. This in and of itself makes it a unique dining experience. The noodles are thick and chewy, and they make a big difference in the overall taste. Their soup is also really great, a little spicy, but not so much that people who don\’t do hot food will be turned off.

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(Just look at those chunks of beef! Yum!)

Though they have a full menu and offer a variety of dishes, pretty much everyone just orders the beef noodle soup, because it\’s just that great! I have also tried their hóngyóuchǎoshǒu紅油炒手 which is also the best of this dish that I have had in Taiwan, so I\’d imagine that their other food must be good too!

The other place that I highly recommend is a chain-store called sānshāngqiǎofú三商巧福, which I love and eat at regularly, as they have a location near one of the schools that I work at.

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(This is the 三商巧福 near my school in Taoyuan county)

This is my fiances favorite, but as much as I like their niúròumiàn牛肉麵, I usually end up ordering their niúròushòuxǐfàn牛肉壽喜飯 because it just tastes awesome. It\’s a simple dish consisting primarily of rice and beef, but the addition of ginger adds an extra kick that really compliments the taste. Plus, I always order a set meal with a side of kimchi(which usually gets stirred in with the rice, yum!). Also included in the set meal are a seaweed soup and a fountain drink of choice.

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(Above, the beef noodle broth 牛肉湯麵 (no beef chunks), and below my favorite, 牛肉壽喜飯 (a beef and rice dish) served at 三商巧福)

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Regardless of where you get your niúròumiàn牛肉麵, you should have access to an ample supply of pickled Chinese cabbage, suāncài酸菜, and I suggest you take advantage of it.

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(A healthy serving of 酸菜, and there\’s always more where that came from!)

It\’s a really good compliment to the soup\’s flavor. A lot of stores also refill soup for free! Take your time and enjoy! mànyòng慢用!——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Chinese phrases of the day:

niúròumiàn牛肉麵= beef noodle soup

hóngyóuchǎoshǒu紅油炒手= dumplings served in a spicy sauce

niúròushòuxǐfàn牛肉壽喜飯= a beef and rice dish

suāncài酸菜=pickled Chinese cabbage

mànyòng慢用= take your time/enjoy

The first three pictures are taken from http://www.ipeen.com.tw as I didn\’t have any photos of the restaurant on hand, and the rest are my own.

27 August 2013

How To Use Chopsticks

One of the many interesting cultural aspects of dining in Taiwan, or many other Asian countries for that matter, is that people use chopsticks to eat. Everyone has seen chopsticks and knows what they are, but not everyone can use them. I remember many years ago when I first saw chopsticks(years before even moving to Taiwan) my initial thought was "How the heck do I eat with these!" So today, I will show you in 5 easy steps.

Step 1: Pick up a pair of chopsticks. In Mandarin, chopsticks are called kuàizi(筷子).

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Step 2: Place the end of one of the chopsticks on the webbing between your thumb and pointer finger, and support the other end with your pinky and ring finger. While you are eating, this chopstick will not be moving.

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Step 3: Now take the other chopstick and grip it with your thumb on one side and your pointer and middle finger on the other. This is the chopstick you will be actively controlling to eat with.

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Step 4: Now that you know how to hold them, it's time to make those chopsticks work for you! It's very simple and you should get the hang of it pretty quickly. Keep the first chopstick stable resting against your pinky and ring finger and across the webbing between your thumb and pointer finger, and use the other chopstick to pick up food by moving your middle and index finger. Think of it as a tiny lever and fulcrum.

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(The way I usually eat with chopsticks is to hold the two sticks parallel to each other)

Step 5: Now that you've got it down, all you need to do is keep practicing. Now go eat some Chinese food. Forks are forbidden!

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(Another way to use chopsticks, and the one favored by my fiance, is to hold them with the sticks crossing. The grip and controlling chopstick are the same, you are just picking up the food in a different way. Think scissors.)

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Chinese phrases of the day:

kuàizi(筷子)= chopsticks

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25 August 2013

Bada-danbing!

Okay, so I have to take a minute to rave about my latest addiction…no, it\’s not anything bad, except maybe a little for my waistline. And the culprit is shūcàidànbǐng(蔬菜蛋餅)!

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(The stand I always go to in the Zhongyuan Night Market in Zhongli City. Let\’s take a look behind the scenes.)

Like the classic Taiwanese breakfast food, dànbǐng(蛋餅) which is like an omelet, only injected with steroids(not literally I hope, but they are seriously like 5 times the size of your regular dànbǐng(蛋餅)!), these babies will keep you coming back for more! This growing chain of stands is popping up all over the place, and with good reason. With flavors such as tuna wěiyú(鮪魚), barbecue kǎoròu(烤肉), beef niúròu(牛肉), corn yùmǐ(玉米),cheese with bacon qǐsīpéigēn(起司培根), ham huǒtuǐ(火腿) and more, you won\’t get sick of eating them, just try a new flavor each time!

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(Let\’s see how it tastes….)

One of the reasons I love shūcàidànbǐng(蔬菜蛋餅) is that each one comes stuffed with cabbage, so you\’re getting a balanced meal all in one package(or at least I like to think so!). Actually, the only thing I really don\’t like about this stand is that the food is really popular and I always have to wait in line (waiting in line is just part of life in Taiwan, but I\’m an impatient American and I want my dànbǐng(蛋餅) immediately!).

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(You can tell by the look on my face that it tastes awesome!)

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Chinese phrases of the day:

shūcàidànbǐng(蔬菜蛋餅)= vegetable Chinese omelet
dànbǐng(蛋餅)= Chinese omelet
wěiyú(鮪魚)= tuna
kǎoròu(烤肉)= barbecue
niúròu(牛肉)= beef
yùmǐ(玉米)= corn
qǐsī(起司)= cheese
péigēn(培根)= bacon
huǒtuǐ(火腿)= ham

22 August 2013

Blown Away

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Is what my fiancé, Ruby and I nearly were this past Wednesday when we went to the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou. This is the largest hospital with the best equipment and facilities in Taiwan. You can get there very easily from many places, including the San Chung Bus that you can take from the Kuo Kuang bus stop located near the Taipei Main Station just out the South entrance and across the street to the right. The ticket costs around 40NT$ and it's about a forty minute ride (depending on traffic of course). But we live in Zhongli, so we took a cab to the shuttle bus on Zhong Yang E. Rd. In front of the 7-11 and hopped on. The bus-ride is about thirty to forty minutes long, depending on traffic and the fare is 35NT$ per person.

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(A view of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from afar taken from http://www1.cgmh.org.tw)

One interesting thing about hospitals in Taiwan, and hotels for that matter, is that they never have a fourth floor. Their floors go like this: one, two, three and then they skip to five. Now we all know that Chinese have a reputation for being good at math, right? So what the heck's going on here? Well, as I wrote about a while back, Chinese people are very superstitious, and a lot of their superstitions stem from how words can sound like other words very easily in Mandarin (Believe me, just try saying forty-four stone lions without screwing the whole thing up and you'll thing Sandy and her seashells are a joke!). The word four, or sì(四) sounds very close to the word sǐ(死) which means death! So would you want to get operated on on the forth floor? I didn't think so? Moving on. So, despite it being a Typhoon Day, Ruby and I were at the hospital for her surgery(a very minor and routine procedure, so calm down already!). She had already booked her appointment, and I had taken the day off from work to accompany her. It was a quick visit and we hit up the hospital's food court, or měishíjiē(美食街) for lunch after she was fineshed. She had beef noodle soup (broth without the beef chunks) niúròutāngmiàn(牛肉湯麵) and I had Subway. Are you kidding me? Yes we have Subway in Taiwan! Bellies full and feeling satisfied with the trip, we headed back to the shuttle bus to Zhongli…or we tried to! Somehow or another we got turned around in the hospital's maze-like corridors and ended up leaving by another entrance. Rather than going back the way we had just come, we decided to walk around the building to the bus stop. We hadn't gone a hundred feet before it started raining down hard. Another few feet and our umbrella was broken by the strong winds. It sucked, but strangely, even though we were being pelted like there was no tomorrow, our reaction was to laugh. Seriously, it felt like the rain was punching us!

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("Momma said knock you out"-LL Cool J)

We eventually made our way around the building, but rather than finding the shuttle bus waiting to take us home, we were back where we had started out from! It was too ridiculous a situation to get mad about, so we went back in and squeezed as much water out of our clothes as we could in the bathrooms, then we did what we should have done in the first place. We went back through the basement level of the hospital and eventually found the bus terminal and got in line. Cold and wet, with the bus's AC blowing in our faces, we made ourselves as comfortable as we were able and we took the forty minute trip back to Zhongli. Once we had arrived, we got off the bus, took a cab back to the house, followed by a hot shower and then a two hour nap! Adventures are tiring!

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Chinese phrases of the day:

sì(四)= four

sǐ(死)= death/die

měishíjiē(美食街)= food court

niúròutāngmiàn(牛肉湯麵)= beef noodle soup (no beef chunks, just soup and noodles) ———————————————————————————————————————————

22 August 2013

Look Who\’s Talking

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Alright, so for today's post, I want to share a little of my experience learning Mandarin with you. When I first came to Taiwan I could only speak three phrases: nǐhǎo你好, nǐhǎoma你好嗎？and xièxie謝謝. That was all. Was I particularly good at communicating with the locals right of the bat? Nope. Am I now? Yep. But it didn't happen over night.

In a few of my previous articles I mentioned that I spent my first year in Taiwan in the harbor city of Keelung. I lived about five minutes from the coast and there was no lack of beautiful scenery. Needless to say it was a big change from Texas! But this post is not about Keelung specifically. It's about learning Chinese! Living in Keelung was, in my opinion, essential to my acquisition of Chinese. The reason for this is quite simple. In a big international city like Taipei, people are used to dealing with foreigners and it is completely possible to get around solely speaking English. This is not the case in the countryside. Though many people I came into daily contact with in Keelung very likely could speak a relatively decent amount of English, they simply lacked the confidence to speak in English with a foreigner (though of course there are exceptions, I'm just making this generalization to get my point across).

So what did I do? Well, I got on Tealit.com and found myself a tutor and made the trek out to Taipei twice a week to learn with a native speaker, one-on-one. But as I lived in Keelung, the lessons didn't end after my classes finished, I went out and made a point to try and converse with the local people as much as I could(be it ordering food at a restaurant, or just trying to chat up my neighbors). Was it easy in the beginning? Heck no, but I kept trying and within three months or so my conversational ability was decent, though certainly lacking in many areas.

After having lived in Taiwan for around eight months, I met my fiancé and saw a sudden improvement in my Chinese almost overnight. It's really convenient having a walking, breathing dictionary with you, though she might not agree! Anyway, after we'd been together for a while and my contract was up with my school, I decided to move to Taipei and study Chinese intensively at NTNU for a semester. I took a trip to Thailand to do some sightseeing and switch over to a student visa, then I came back and took the university's placement test, which consisted of a reading comprehension and speaking portion. I scored very well on the speaking test, but since I hadn't practiced much reading or writing my first year, I did considerably worse on this portion. Still, my speaking was proficient enough that I tested out of the first text book, and half of the second. I want to make it clear that I am not bragging, I just had the benefit of living in an environment very conducive to learning conversational Mandarin.

After my semester as a student, I once again started teaching English, and continued my Mandarin studies independently. I've made a lot of progress over the last five years, but I'm still learning new phrases all the time. Which brings me to the point of this post, I am working on a FREE Mandarin course that I will be starting to upload very soon here on my blog. My approach to teaching/learning is different from the popular method of memorizing grammar rules and sentence patterns. This was never the best approach for me, and my philosophy has developed over the past five years, but you can start benefitting from it immediately! I'll be making updates on the status of the Language Lab in the weeks to follow, so please bear with me for the time being and of course, I'd love to hear any suggestions you have for how this program can work best for you. I'll also be posting tips on how to improve your Mandarin that I have learned through my own experience. Gǎnxiè感謝大家！

Chinese phrases of the day:

你好= hello

你好嗎?= How are you?

謝謝= thank you

感謝大家= to show appreciation for everyone

22 August 2013

Look Who\’s Talking

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Chinese phrases of the day:

你好= hello

你好嗎?= How are you?

謝謝= thank you

感謝大家= to show appreciation for everyone

20 August 2013

Rain Rain Go Away!

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With a typhoon set to arrive tomorrow you can count on heavy rains and strong winds through Thursday. In fact, even though it has yet to arrive, we already felt the influence of the typhoon on the weather. Seriously, it rained cats and dogs today! But typhoons, or táifēng(颱風) are just an ordinary part of life on the island that you must learn to cope with if you plan to spend any length of time here. I'm just glad I don't live in Keelung anymore! Expats and locals alike are(or should be) stockpiling food, drinks and various other necessities to get them through the next few days, so get on that if you haven't already! Seriously, if you go to an RT Mart, A Mart, Carrefour or Costco at the last minute, you will be stuck with what you can get, which is usually just about nothing! So, to make sure that my readers are well prepared for their coming Typhoon Day(they're practically like national holidays here, hence the capital letters) I have prepared a short list of a few essentials you shouldn't be without when the milk tea hits the fan.

Typhoon Day Survival Kit:

1. As many packages of instant noodles pāomiàn(泡麵) as you can grab
2. A loaf of bread miànbāo(麵包)and some PB&J huāshēngjiànghéguǒdòng(花生醬和果凍)
3. Packages of dried food: cookies, chips, bǐnggān(併港) etc.
4. A few gallons of drinking water, and or any tea or sodas you may want to have on hand
5. A flashlight and extra batteries diànchí(電池) just incase you lose power, and candles wouldn't be a bad idea either
6. A basic first aid kit just in case
7. A stack of DVDs, I'll let you choose which ones(see, aren't I nice)

If you are a hardened veteran, having come out victorious over countless typhoons, then you probably already know it all, but if this will be your first typhoon, make sure you're prepared!
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Chinese phrases of the day:

táifēng(颱風)= typhoon
pāomiàn(泡麵)= instant noodles
miànbāo(麵包)= bread
huāshēngjiàng(花生醬)= peanut butter
hé(和)= and
guǒdòng(果凍)= jelly
bǐnggān(餅乾)= cookies, chips
diànchí(電池)= batteries

18 August 2013

Out of all the places in the world…

Being fair of skin, with a healthy serving of freckles and a side of strawberry-blonde hair, I think it's safe to say that you may notice me waiting in line in a crowded night market or making my way through the throngs of people at a bustling MRT station, which in my opinion is just about as chaotic as a kicked anthill. Among a flock of black-haired sheep I'm not exactly hard to pick out…okay, so I stick out like a sore thumb, happy now?

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(Fear me puny Earthlings!)

To tell the truth though, I have been living here so long, I feel like it's home, and it's easy for me to forget that I am different here. That is until I see a toddler staring at me on the train like he's just seen Marvin the Martian. And then there's my students, who like to stroke my arm hair…it makes me feel like a pet! Funny story, I once taught a kid who called me a golden monkey because of my blonde-hair! But I digress.

"Why did you come toTaiwan?" is a question I have heard countless times, in fact it is likely the most common question I get when I meet anyone for the first time over here. And I still don't have a good answer; in short, it's a long story.

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I first came to Taiwan shortly after graduating from college, and at that time I really had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I had a bachelors in education, and I had always loved traveling and learning about foreign cultures and languages. So I decided to spend a year abroad. But not in Taiwan.

Originally I had looked into living abroad in Ireland, as I have always wanted a chance to further explore my own cultural roots, and I had been to Europe and really liked the atmosphere. But that was a no-go. As it turned out, I wasn't able to get the teaching job I had looked into because I lacked a European passport. Oh well, back to the old drawing board.

Not long after my Ireland bubble burst, I started talking with a friend who also wanted to live abroad and teach English for a year, and we settled on Japan. We filled out online-applications and waited eagerly for our phone-interview. After getting off the phone with the recruiter, I felt excited and I knew this was what I was looking for. After preparing a lesson and waiting impatiently for the big day, a few weeks later we met representatives from Japan who were in Austin, Tx to interview prospective teachers. I was really nervous, and the interview didn't go as I'd planned. My friend was accepted into the program, but I wasn't! Curses, foiled again!

So after getting turned down for he second time, I was pretty down. But to quote Chumbawamba, "I get knocked, down but I get up again.

You're never gonna keep me down." So I got up, dusted off my jacket and applied to another recruitment agency called Reach To Teach. This time I wanted to get a job teaching in China. I once again filled out an application and had an interview with one of the company's representatives. The interview went great and they started sending me job offers from several different schools right off the bat! I was feeling really good now, and ready to set out for my adventure! Well…not quite(see, I told you this was a long story!).

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(Hanging out in the teachers' room before class, still fresh off the boat!)

The first few schools that I had offers for didn't pan out, and eventually the agent I was working with told me of a school in Keelung, Taiwan that wanted to hire me…but where's that? Well, I did my research and read as much as I could about Taiwan and I decided that it sounded like a great place to spend a year abroad. I was emailed a contract, read it over, signed it and faxed it back. About a month later I said my goodbyes to friends and family and my dad drove me to the airport. I remember him telling me that I didn't have to go and nobody would think any less of me if I decided to stay in TX. It was tough, but I said goodbye and boarded my flight. And little did I know I'd still be here nearly five years down the road!

Though the path I took to get here was long and winding, I believe that it all happened for a reason, and my life would not be the same today if I hadn't gotten on that airplane. I wouldn't have met my fiancé, Ruby or raised our dog, Popcorn and our cat, Pumpkin, nor made all of the wonderful friends I have here. When I came to Taiwan I was looking for something, I just didn't know what it was. But I found it!

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