The NAMES in my life JuBei, Taiwan

Oak Tree is the name of the ESL school we work at.

Xian Sheng Er Lue is the name of the closest recognizable street we live on.

Duke is the name of our scooter.

101 is the name of the exotic pet store we frequent.

Burger Master is the name of the sandwich shop under our apartment.

Google and Yahoo are the names of the (adorable) dogs on oak tree campus.

Carefour is the name of our grocery store.

Mei Lin is my new Chinese name=pretty Forrest

Bringin in the Chinese newyear with Michelle and her family :)


Now that I am settled with a job and an official apartment, I realize that life in Taiwan is very different than I thought it would be. Less convenient in many ways, more challenging in some ways, more simple in many ways. I don't mean to make it sound bad at all, i actually like living here much more than i thought i would. in fact, we are considering staying for another year.

People have such a different outlook on living here. I could give you random examples of this..i have attempted to on a video in a previous entry, but it really doesn't do any justice to my point. I am glad to have the chance to soak up this culture--slowly--one day i see something that i think is so weird, funny, gross, smart, different. I see that same thing a week later, ten times again...and eventually it seems perfectly normal. sometimes i start to do it myself--like--i eat straight up dried sheets of seaweed everyday. it is delicious. i smack all over my body randomly to assist in circulation. I choose chopsticks over western utensils. i count numbers on my hands with different fingers now.

I haven't had any serious bouts of home sickness yet. i feel very lucky for this--i was sure i would be depressed missing all of my family, of course i do miss them. But i am not upset about it at all. The point of this entry, is that things in Taiwan are basically nothing like i expected them to be...but full of life changing twists and turns.

bag 500NTD Sweater dress 200NTD the perfect orange priceless!!





thank you for hanging with my Soliloquy :)
Meg