Week one

The fact that I have only been here one week is AMAZING to me. This already feels like home. I ride my bike to and from school by myself in crazy law-less traffic. I know how to say everything important 'I don't eat meat/I'm a vegetarian' and I found a school supply store. (those who don't know, I have a strange obsession with school supplies especially notebooks) So needless to say, I have this living abroad, not knowing the language thing, in the bag! Here is a little peak into my life this first week. I never knew you could do so much in such a short amount of time.


This is my little Taiwan family. The top row. Emily,the main secretary at the school, and a huge help to us teachers. Sherry and her husband, Sherry is my wonderfully kind boss who owns the school. She is so sweet and so great. Mandy and Phil they are the married couple that teaches at the school. I grew up with Mandy till she moved our senior year of high school. She is the head teacher at the school and she and Phil are so great at what they do and are so dedicated to it. On the bottom row. First is the other secretary she is so kind and sweet too. Bree, she has been here a year and I'm taking over her class she has been a great help to get me started. Lauren, the other single teacher with me. I'm sure you will she her face often. I don't know a less cheesy way to say it but we became friends instantly and I'm so excited to teach, live, and travel together. Me, this is the 2nd night and you can see how tired I am. Jessica, she has been here 6 months and is leaving to go back to America with Bree tonight. She has been so great at showing me and Lauren the ropes of Taiwan. We are trying to convince her to stay. Sadly, Bree and Jessica are both leaving tonight :( it won't be the same without them.
This is a famous land mark in Taiwan. I'm not even sure what it is called but the Buddha is GIGANTIC! Pretty sure it is the biggest one in the world. But the area it is at, on top of a mountain is very pretty. A nice escape from the city with trees and it is well kept. I'm sure I will find myself escaping there often.

Another really cool part about where the statue is that it has this big walk out area where you get a 180 degree view of the city. My city. It was cool for me and Lauren to stand there and think 'this is our city now' we both feel like we are never leaving and that 6 months is forever (and not because we are dreading it) Don't worry she really is happy about it. Ha. She just REALLY likes taking pictures. For new years we went to a near by city Tijong (not sure on the spelling) and met up with some of the other ILP teachers at the other school. This is the crew that night. It was such a fun night.
You might not be able to tell but there are about 18 million people/ Asians there. It was crazy. We danced a lot. Gave the people a reason to actually stare at us. We had a good time.Last night we went to dinner with two of the students from the University that the teachers last semester taught. It was to much fun. Lison, the girl in the front left, is so funny! She had me laughing the whole night. She is also very patient to help teach me Chinese you know... the important stuff like 'I'm a vegetarian' I said it all night I'm sure it sounded ridiculous to the people around us but I was trying to remember. I still don't. Lison is a sweetheart and I'm so excited about our new friendship. Jordan is the boy in the back he is also a doll. He is really fun and just great. The food here is so good. As long as it does not have meat, it is delicious! We are very spoiled at the school and have an amazing cook who makes us authentic Chinese food everyday for lunch. but for dinner we go out and it is super duper cheep and so yummy. The place we went last night with the university students you take a basket and put in the food you want and they cook it and bring it to you. Well... I didn't think I put that much in my basket but when they brought out my food cooked... Two bowls, just my food. It was so so good but I was not even really hungry and because I was overwhelmed by how much food I had, I only ate a few bites and was full. So sad. I had them put it in togo containers to take it with me, what that means here is they throw it all in a plastic sack. Looks gross but I think it should still taste good.

Blogging is hard, especially with trying to email and webcam and with all the other millions of things i'm doing right now. But I'll try my best.

bye-bye