Beyond Nesting

Greetings to all my wonderful friends and family in Canada! It is time for a lovely update from Asia! Thank you all for your wonderful emails that you respond with! I love hearing how everyone is doing!

This picture I've posted is simply a photo of the first ride Katelynn and I took on the MRT (basically like the Toronto Subway system but much better! and cheaper!). We were on our way to visit a friend from my university who also lives here; just downtown Taipei.

One thing that I'd like to do in this email is thank my parents for letting me play as a child! I teach children here between the ages 2 to 12 years old. TWO YEARS OLD!! These kids (the wealthy ones of course) are learning the English Alphabet before they learn Chinese (for it is far too complicated!). At my cram school I will take the older class out to the park to play soccer between classes if they are well behaved. The thing is, they cannot kick a soccer ball! It's actually very sad. Many of these children spend 10-12 hours a day in school and on Saturdays they will have piano lessons and other "extra-curriculars". I am teaching about 'leisure time' in one of my classes, but I know that they cannot relate! The class was asked to write paragraphs about what they do during their leisure time and more than half of them said they do homework! So, thank you Mom and Dad for letting me play after school!

I also had my first ride on a scooter!! This may not seem like a big deal... but despite being the sister of 3 car/dirt bike/go-cart obsessed boys, I have never rode on a motorcycle or anything of that "2 wheel" nature (minus a bicycle of course). My friend who was driving (he has been living in Taiwan for 8 years) brought me up Yaming Mountain (we live beside a mountain!!) to view the city lights at night! It was so magical! It only took 10 minutes to get to the top; however, once there we realized that at 12 am it was a couples-only hangout! We had a good laugh... and didn't stay long! I may consider getting a scooter. There is someone who rents them by the month, this is a good way to test whether I like it. Getting a scooter licence here is a computer 'true or false' test and a short drive around pylons (it's too dangerous to test on the actual street!!).

Last week I was very tired and overwhelmed with my new schedule; however, this week things are becoming more of a routine for me. While I had planned to give up coffee upon moving here, I quickly accepted that this was not bound to happen in the near future! My mornings contain a wonderful Starbucks Coffee or a coffee from Mc Cafe (surprisingly, fantastic!) before I head to the pre-school to teach the A B C's. I usually have a break for at least two hours between the preschool and the cram school and I will use this time to send some emails, do some shopping, take a run or nap! I teach at the cram school until either 6:30pm or 8:30pm and then go out with friends (which I am still in the process of finding more!!!), do more shopping or hang out at home.

Need I say that the shopping here is FANTASTIC!? I am in love with clothing stores and am developing an unhealthy adoration for shoes! Everything is so different and inexpensive that it's a wonderful excuse to spend spend spend! (don't worry Mom and Dad, the loan payments will be made!) Soon I will be looking for private tutoring jobs as well. I had a temporary one last week (to prepare a university graduate for an English portion of a finance interview), and it paid $40 CDN an hour!! I'll take that no problem, whether or not I know anything about finance (I don't!).

I love and miss you all! Please let me know if you would like a phone call! I've finally figured out how to call landlines and cell phones in Canada and the U.S.A. through my computer! It's fantastic and unlimited for only $3 CDN a month! Everyone should use Skype! -Peace-