An awesome weekend!

Ni hau! Happy May to you all, I can only hope this means the end of all bad weather for everyone! My weekend was great, I worked all Saturday and was so tired from never being able to sleep in, when all of a sudden Lee calls me on my lunch break and asks me to step outside: which had me panicking that something awful was about to be said - when there he was! Standing in front of my school with a picnic lunch that he made! He drove us out to this beautiful lake-view beside an enormous temple, it was the sweetest way possible to brighten my day! After an afternoon of teaching, and a private session with our cute little kids, we indulged in a pizza dinner and there was nothing better! Around 10:30 we met a few friends at a bar called Functions that was, get this, GIVING AWAY FREE ALCOHOL!!! Anytime before midnight you could drink as much as possible, and we did! The place was completely packed and orders were being filled for 6 drinks at a time! We stayed there until about 2am, observing part of a Taiwanese bisexual kissing party lol (funniest member seen above), at which point we finished the evening by dancing at a night club until almost 4!
Sunday morning I woke up and cleaned the entire apartment (fun!!), went grocery shopping, and then in the afternoon Lee and I went to Taipei for a day full of shopping. The highlight of it all was a restaurant called Cold Stone Creamery, which was essentially a make-your-own ice cream place; in short, my dream come true!! You pick any flavour you want and any toppings you want, and they had EVERYTHING you could imagine!! Then they put all the treats inside of the ice cream like a stuffed pocket, so the ice cream is a ball with this amazing delicious treat inside! I was in Heaven!!
All in all, it was tons of fun and now I'm just back at work for 2 weeks until Lee's family arrives for a week long tour of Taiwan!

A Penny Saved, A Camera Earned!

Spring greetings! It is hot and sunny here now, finally, and I'm enjoying every skirt-wearing minute of it! I have been sick with the flu all week and this weekend I finally felt better. All week I was teaching while sick and just going home to sleep after, no bowling, no nights out. After teaching all Saturday and playing with my cute private class' kids, I happily went out for a friends birthday celebration, which was a night at one of the local restaurants/bars from 10 until 4 in the morning! Quite the entertaining night! Everyone left then to go to another bar, but I left with a friend and walked home. Then on Sunday Lee and I went to the next nearby city for an afternoon of shopping, and a successful trip it was! A new shirt, some cute undies, and a pair of green army Converse shoes which I can't decide if I want to keep or not! But the really big news is that I made the official decision on the purchase of my new camera, and with this decision made, it was time to perform the feat that I have been building toward for 6 months: the opening of my piggy banks! Two piggy banks, full of 50's (the equivalent of the Canadian toonie) added up today to more than enough for the entire cost of my new red Casio Exilim digital camera! I am so excited!! Now I start over again; next piggy bank purchase: my Sony Vaio laptop! Giggity!

A Taiwanese Pesach!

Belated Chag Sameach! Passover came and went, and I didn't even have any matzos! I made Lee and I a candle-lit sedar complete with soup, chicken and latkes! I managed to keep pesach almost entirely, with just one little slip-up; understandably so in my opinion, as I live in the land of rice and noodles! I broke it officially over a Pizza Hut buffet, indulging in pizza and chicken wings and pasta and salads, it was a FEAST! I hope all of your sedars were family-filled, as mine could not be.

Nothing else too new. Last weekend was a holiday here, but it poured for 4 days straight so day trips were minimal; shopping in Taipei, nights out at the bar, a few restaurants, and many rented movies! Now it's back to school and classes are good! I finally have internet in the new apartment after many, many weeks without it! Everything else is great and I'm just enjoying the quiet time until Lee's and my own family arrives in the upcoming months!

Osaka, Japan

*Konichiwah!* I have just returned from 4 crazy days in Japan! Where to even begin... well, Lee and I left our apartment at 5 in the morning in the rain to find a cab, which was as fun as it sounds! Our flight was overbooked when we arrived, so the amazingness that always happens to other people finally happened to us: we got bumped up to first class!!! It was only a 2 hour flight so we barely had time to enjoy it, but it was sooo awesome to have these big comfy seats, good food and drinks, a personal movie monitor, and we were even in the upstairs seating :o)

We arrived in Japan and it was FREEZING!!! It is 21 in Taiwan now, winter just ending, and was a high of 6 in Osaka! Including the weather, the city really reminded me of Toronto - a lot of landscape and space and parks and trees and sidewalks, friendly people, normal drivers, very clean and nice and everyone spoke at least some English! They drive on the wrong side of the road over there, but there are almost no scooters and everyone is on a bicycle! One of my favourite things: in all public washrooms, the toilet seats are HEATED!!!

So we stayed in a nice budget hotel, with a double bed and fridge and closet and tv, and there was a communal washroom down the hall - and I mean COMMUNAL in the true sense of the word!! It was like living on a nudist colony or something! But no peeeking allowed :o)

Our first day in Osaka we saw a big famous temple, thousands of years old, and the Sky Building which is an incredible piece of architecture! We moved around the whole city on trains, railways,subways and cabs, and it costs about the same as Toronto prices, so, not overly expensive but compared to Taiwan it was! Every night we went out for dinner and drinks and explored the nightlife in town!

Our 2nd day was spent in Kyoto, where we visited the authentic geisha district and watched a world famous sumo match! It was sooo cool! We also went sight seeing into shrines and shopping and stuff. The big rage here is this combination of arcade-slash-slot machines, they are EVERYWHERE!! We went back to Osaka at night.

The next day was spent in all the famous shopping districts, and at night was supposed to be the Chili Peppers concert; IT WAS CANCELLED!!!!!!!!! Yea!!!! Keides, the lead singer, was in hospital for 10 days sick with bronchial pneumonia or something and cancelled the concert at the last minute. Needless to say, Lee and I were devastated. I mean, this was our main reason for going - but there was nothing we could do about it so we made the most of our time there. We got our money back for the show, but obviously I'd rather have the concert... I also caught the flu on our 2nd day in Japan, so I was sick the whole time!!

We had authentic Japanese food on our last day and saw one last shrine on the way back to the airport. It was the fastest 4 days you could imagine, but we did and saw everything we could and had a wonderful time! Hope to hear from you soon!!

Living New!!

"Long time no blog", and I'm sorry about that! But having no time AND no internet will do that to a person :o) So school is good, still loving almost all of my classes, rockin' the gym, and Lee is great!

All of last week I was consumed by The Move!! Everyday, I would walk or scoot over to the new apartment with little things to unload, a couple bags or boxes, a shelving unit, a bed!! etc. But then last Saturday was a holiday for us as part of Chinese New Year, so the plan was to completely emtpy out the dorm and finish moving - until our high school decided that they needed us! So after teaching from 9-2, we went back to the dorm and packed every single thing that we could before Lee went to work again at 3:30 leaving me alone to move everything single-handedly! AND I DID!! I got every single belonging out of the dorm, into the hallway, the elevator, down to the lobby and out into a cab all by myself! We had too much stuff so only half of it would fit; I had to go to the apartment, unload everything and take it all upstairs, then go back to the dorm and do it all again one more time! I had to move all our furniture back in the dorm to the way that it was when we moved in, have our rooms checked and inspected and okayed, and I did all of this with my own huge muscles in 2 hours!! I met Lee at 6 for one of our privates and then a night out of dinner and a movie: Thai and "Pursuit of Happiness", all good things! We ended the night by celebrating a friend's birthday; it was a busy Saturday!

Sunday was the usual, gym and groceries and laundry and unpacking, and a trip to Taipei that ended with us coming home in a horrendous rain storm...! This whole week was just filled with classes and privates and the gym and going out with friends and setting up the place, not to mention dealing with our still-not-working internet!! But the place looks great, Nate and Lee and I all get along really well as roommates, and I am just so much happier being out of the dorm! This weekend was a lot more fun and a lot less stressful! After teaching a full Saturday, Lee and Nate and I went to toast 2 more birthdays which lasted until 5am!!

And now, the countdown is on: 6 DAYS TILL JAPAN!!!

Back and Black!!

I have just arrived home from what is literally the most beautiful, breath-taking island in the entire world! Boracay is just over an hour flight away from the main city of Manila in the Philippines, but you can't fly directly there it's so remote: Lee and I flew to Manila, then took another flight to an island called Caticlan, where we then took a tricycle-cart ride to the ferry loading dock and rode on these crazy spider-like boats to Boracay, where you then have to take another tricycle to the main beach - it was quite a (worthwhile) process! The entire island is about 7km long and shaped like a dog bone; long and thin with two large chunks of land at either end, which we walked up and down almost every day. The sand is so soft and so white, the water is perectly clear sky-blue and warm, everyday was sunny and hot and the air is so clean and fresh, it was Paradise! I got a great tan, and a billion red ant bites covering my legs! Lee was an allergy-free man for a whole week :o) I ate more food than I knew was humanly possible, waking up everyday to gourmet breakfasts and fresh fruit, having smoothies and shakes and daiquiris on the beach everyday, going to a different restaurant every night for dinner of Mexican, Greek, Italian, pizza, crepes, Mongolian Grill, stir-fry...! We watched the sunset every night on the beach during Happy Hour and listened to incredible live music at the bars, and danced at the clubs, and partied with a few friends we met up with there! We got massages on the beach; we rented a motorcycle and went to the highest point on the island; Lee went snorkling; we swam and sunned and went shopping and watched the stars at night. Our resort was a bamboo straw hut style cabin, with a sun-light cut into the shower, deep in the heart of the palm trees and right on the beach. We saw wild piggies and monkeys and baby chickens, played with the local beach kids and fought off the locals who harrassed us everyday to buy things; but the people are all so sweet :o) Words can't describe something so divine, you must just go on your own to see it! All I can say is it was perfect.

Banquets, Biopsys and Boracay, oh my!

Greetings one and all on this fabulously warm, sunny day here in Taiwan, I am so happy to say winter is over! (Sorry I had to rub it in :o)
So this past weekend was tons of fun; Saturday night I went out with the girls from the dorm for dinner and dessert, then to see 'The Holiday' which I totally loved! It was the perfect chick flick, highly recommended for those of you who didn't see it two months ago when it came out at home! Then Sunday night was the Gloria Banquet; my staff work party!! Everyone got all fancied up and went to this Chinese restaurant where ELEVEN courses of "food" were served straight for 2 hours! I use the term food loosely because most of it was quite sketchy; I am actually one of the few people who TRIED everything (everyone is so unadventurous!!) and some of the dishes were okay, like the lobster and stuff, but most of it was quite yucky, unidentifiable and everyone left heading straight for pizza immediately after it was over! Some awards were given out to the teachers and staff - no I did not win anything! :o( After the banquet a large group of us went to this fabulous bar called Le Parc, which was filled with shmancy red sofas and candle-lit, and we all just hung out drinking and chatting until 2am! I had a really great time meeting staff members I don't ever get to work with.
Teaching is still excellent, my privates are fantastic, the gym and Chinese class fill my days until this Sunday when Lee and I leave for our one week vacation to the beautiful island of Boracay in The Philippines!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!
On another note, today I booked an operating room at the hospital for the day after I arrive back from Boracay to have a biopsy done on my leg; no biggie! Just the same blood clot I have had for the past 4 months that refuses to go away, so I am having it diagnosed just to be 100% sure that I have nothing to worry about, and I promise to let you all know the good news as soon as I do!
Wishing you all a very happy Valentine's Day and a healthy Chinese New Year!! The pictures above are from the Banquet: some food, Lee and I with one of our bosses, me holding the most scrumptious little baby in the world, and my friend Brandon completely passed out at the bar; an example of what happens when a work party includes free booz!!

Three Whole Years!

Feb. 7th was mine and Lee's 3 year anniversary (gasp!) and the day was just too insane not to share it with all of you! So it started off with a little sweet gift exchange and then we quickly left for Taipei, where we had a full day of fun and adventure planned out ahead of us. As usual, it went a little off the beaten path! On the train ride there, we were trying to call a Traditional Chinese Medical Clinic to go and explore the foreign world of acupuncture! This is supposed to be a very succesful treatment towards Lee's allergies (and I was just getting it for fun!) Meanwhile, we had no such luck communicating with this place, but luckily for us a young woman overheard us and offered her help; turns out she personally went to acupuncture on a regular basis and made us an appointment at her clinic, and then she generously gave up her afternoon and escorted us there!! This place does not have any English-speaking employees, nor is it on the train line, so we would have had no way of getting there if it weren't for our new friend (named Power!!). We cabbed there and she stayed while Lee and I got treated: Lee on his face, me for my back. It was an exciting and unusual experience!! It didn't really hurt, just pinched, and we laid in relaxation for 15 minutes with needles stiking out from all parts of us! We both felt weird and tingly after, but not for very long. Power then escorted us to the nearest train station where we treated her to some Starbucks and just chilled for an hour :o)
Next on our list was something that Lee has been CRAVING ever since we left Canada; you guessed it, ice skating! We (eventually) found the one and only ice rink in Taipei and it was the funniest sight I have ever seen!! First of all, when we walked in they informed us of their mandatory glove-wearing law - weird, but okay - and their requirement of us to wear HELMETS!! I knew this was going to be funny... We both refused and had to sign a waever, stating that we understood our 'impeding danger' :o) When we walked into the arena, before my eyes was appr. 300 Chinese people awkwardly skating round wearing knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and helmets! All bumping into each other, falling to the ground, hanging onto one another for dear life and screaming as each one dropped to the ground over and over again! You can only imagine how hilarious this seemed to us, 2 Canadians who grew up ice skating, 1 who was practically born wearing a hockey uniform! The next hour and a half provided a life time's worth of hysterical memories! My only regret is not having taken a camera :o(
Around 6pm we left and walked around the city for a while before going to this highly recommended restaurant, The Cafe Onion, for dinner. Lee and I shared delicious 5-course meals for very cheap; yogurt fruit salad, chowder, garlic bread, salmon, rizotto, I got mushroom chicken and Lee had boneless ribs, with a drink and chocolate mousse cake for dessert - we couldn't walk by the end of it! Everything was delicious and the service was so fancy, I had a great time!
The rest of the evening we walked around the city exploring different areas and shopping before heading home round 11. The whole day was like a puzzle that just fit together for us; each thing we wanted to do was magically timed out perfectly, we barely made both of our train rides, we had random, kind strangers helping us with directions all day, the weather was 20 and sunny and we got to see and do everything we had wanted to! It was an awesome day and a perfect way to celebrate 3 years :o)

the mother of all birthdays!!

Greetings from your older (and not much wiser) friend!! How are you all!? I hope you are not suffering too much from the weather and that school, work, family and everything else is treating you well!
For my birthday on Saturday I worked all day, 8 hours - but it was great! I awoke to many phone calls from friends and family (thank you, you know who you are!!) And then at school I received birthday cards from my students and co-teachers, the kids sang to me, and then the head staff all signed a card and got me a piece of yummy cake! Then Lee and I went to one of our privates where, at the end of the lesson, they turned out the lights and lit a whole cake and sang to me, and bought me beautiful M.A.C. make-up! I felt so touched that these people opened up their homes to me as a friend, not just a teacher, it really made my night special. Then we went home and I opened a gift from Lee's family: AN MP3 PLAYER!! They bought me the fabulous Samsung player in black, without even knowing how obsessively I've been looking to buy one here! Then I opened a home-made calendar from Lee, commemorating our last 3 years together plus pictures of all my friends, family; he had other people in on it, helping to send him pics and dates and it is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever made for me! After that a bunch of us went to this bar for dinner and drinks, and more friends and co-workers came so it was a really good time, and then at round 11:30 we took it to the club! We had booked a VIP table for 12, which meant we were really livin it up! Bottls and bottles of booz kept flowin as we drank in this lavish curtained-off table with couches, and before I knew it there were more than 30 people all out to wish me a happy bday! One girl even bought me red roses :o) I spent the entire night on the dance floor, it was soooo much fun!!
The next day, Lee and I went downtown and walked around, I treated myself to new blonde hair streaks (and now my hair is straightened), then Lee took me out for a deelish dinner and dessert! It was so much fun, and all in all a truly unforgettable birthday! I was feeling rather anxious and extremely fearful for this birthday, having a quarter-life crisis all week, missing all of you so much - and I do wish that I could have shared it with you, but there is not anything else I could have asked for here to make me feel more at home or loved by the people around me, it was truly one of the best times I've ever had! Even going back to work on Monday was okay, another student bought me an adorable picture frame, and I have another package coming from my family at home soon!! All I can say is that looking in the mirror and saying "I'm twenty-four" is a very surreal experience!

Wild Times!

How are you all! I'm great, thanks - just decided to share an update with you, as it's been a while. Everything here is great, teaching and Chinese class and even the weather! This Wednesday Lee and I had the day off so we spent it in Taipei, it was awesome! We went shopping, explored the richest mall inside 101, went to this foreign grocery store to get a few things that remind us of home :o), got a couple things at the massive bookstore and then went to Chili's for an incredibly divine dinner! We didn't get back until 10 at night, and then just went right back out to bowling - not my finest hour! Last week I had my top score of 131, so I can only go down from there... but it was still tons of fun! Then around 1 we all moved it to the bar where I proceeded to win the next 7 games of pool in a row; I was unstoppable! We stayed there until after 4 in the morning, and then attempted the ultimate move in Taiwanese travel: 3 on a scooter. This is not even close to the ultimate move, to be honest, which actually involves 2 adults, 2 kids and a dog!! However, we did it the Canadian/Taiwanese way and it was the scariest 10 minutes of my entire life! Lee driving, with our friend Nate on the back and me, crouched down in the very front screaming for my life! It was a sight to see, I'll tell ya that right now! But no worries, we made it home safe and sound and it was actually kind of fun, but I still vowed to never ever do that again. It's not worth the risk. Meanwhile, we have been expecting the most recent arrival to the dorm, a guy named David, and found out this morning that he is not coming! All we know is that he missed his flight, and is no longer to be expected! I can only imagine what happened at the last minute to make him change his mind about coming here...!
All in all it was a long and crazy day followed by an even crazier night! This only leads into my next long and crazy day; my birthday is in 2 days....

Winter Wonderland

Winter is a very weird time of year, when the days are shorter but seem to last forever at the same time. One moment it is sunny and bright out, the next it is dark, cold and uninviting - the weather has such a huge effect on our moods; I vow to only live in a place that is warm and sunny!
This weekend was loads of fun! After a work-filled Saturday, I joined friends at a bar for a few drinks and then around midnight we took it to the club, dancin our booty's off till 4am! Then on Sunday Lee and I spent the afternoon shopping and followed it up with an evening of baking cookies and a movie; my perfect weekend! Monday was back to work with the kiddies and a week of Chinese class, trips to the gym, bowling and all the usual excitement in Taiwan!
In ten days I will be celebrating the day of my birth, 24 years ago, and for some reason I am having a hard time dealing with this fact. That's an under statement: accepting this truth is like believing that I am a quarter century old, that I have graduated from university, that I am working as a teacher and living with my boyfriend in another country on the other side of the world - and that's just ridiculous.

Trips, trips and more trips!

This is what it's all about folks: the travel. The journey. The adventures. The trips!! Lee and I are officially booked in our flight and hotel for one week in the world-renound Philippines in February, AAAANNNNDDDD we just set up a 4 day trip in March to JAPAN!!! TO SEE THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS!!!
I can't even believe it, in a matter of minutes the next couple months of my life have completely changed! The resort in the Philippines is like a hotel/cottage, an island hut right in the centre of the main White Beach, featuring the social hotspot bars for Night Life. The night before our trip, Lee and I are spending a traditional Chinese New Year's dinner with one of the families we teach, and then the next morning we fly to the main city on the island for a day, then take an overnight ferry ride to fabulous Boracay! Where we will spend the next 7 days suntanning, snorkeling, swimming, drinking and everything else imaginable under the sun!
Then in March we have officially booked our RHCP concert tickets and flight to Japan for 4 incredible days of sight-seeing through one of the most culturally rich and sound islands in SouthEast Asia, not to mention the world! The process and a half it took to get these tickets, however, was unbelievable! After trying every non-English website, and every non-English phone number, we finally paid a visit to our travel agent: it was not her, however, that got us the tickets, but her Taiwanese friend who had moved to Japan that asked HER husband to go to the stadium and personally buy us the tickets himself!! They are currently being mailed to us as we speak :o) We will be spending 4 days in Japan, 3 in Osaka and 1 trekking out to Mt. Fuji, Japan's highest mountain and dormant volcano. Day 3 of this trip includes my first (and Lee's third!!) time seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers; I CAN'T WAIT!!!
On an unrelated note, my family rang in my New Year with an amazing Chanukah slash birthday package!! It was filled to the rim with sweaters, hoodies, pj's, food, toiletries and more, and simply receiving it was the best present I could have asked for!! To help ease the pain of my inevitable aging process, impossible to avoid and approaching closer with each passing day... oy.