Hello Dear Family and Friends! I hope this update finds you all healthy and happy! Kate and I have been up to quite a lot since my last blog. For one, we went up Yangmingshan Mountain (the mountain that we live beside) with some friends with the intention of going to a fancy restaurant at the top. Unfortunately this experience wasn’t fantastic due to bad planning. It was dark by the time we got up to the top (on a sketchy bus…) and then we seemed to be stuck in the middle of a cloud for quite sometime. It was the first (and only) time I’ve felt that cold in Taiwan! After going on a small hike (which we weren’t dressed for, Kate in high heels) and encountering wild cows (they are much scarier in the dark) we had to wait for taxis to come get us (the buses had stopped at 6pm) for a whole hour! Finally we arrived at the restaurant an hour and a half after the time of our reservation. Despite all of that, we did have a lovely dinner and the view was spectacular from our VIP room!

The following day I went rock climbing with my friends Thomas, Matt and Brittany. I started rock climbing indoors in London in my last year of university and it felt so good to get back on the wall! We went to this free outdoor wall on the other end of the city. It was in the middle of a park, so we have a constant flow of people watching us and trying to make conversation in Chinese. Brittany got this really cute picture of little kids watching me climb. The problem with a "free outdoor wall" is that its maintenance was poor, if it is maintained at all... Many of the holds would turn when I grabbed them and I fell many times! I didn't mind that much because I find falling to be quite fun! But for Matt and Brittany who were first time climbers it was scary.

My school celebrated Halloween on October 24th. I'm not quite sure why it was so early, but classes were canceled for the day and we had transformed 3 classrooms into a haunted house. It was quite scary for the kids. While I didn't see any candy whatsoever, I'm told once they completed all of the activities they got some. Maybe they hid it from me, knowing that I LOVE candy! My job was to sit in the haunted house for 3 HOURS and scare the kids coming through. The problem with this was... I'm scared of the dark! I know, I'm a little too old for that... but it's true! The pitch black creeps me out! So those 3 hours were filled with Laura wandering out of the haunted house for some human interaction at every chance she got! Here's a picture of the teachers at my school (some foreign, some Chinese) and our costumes! I was a zombie fortune teller! ooo!
Kate and I spent one Saturday afternoon wandering around the streets near Taipei 101 (took over the "tallest free-standing structure" from the CN Tower and has since been replaced by the tower in Dubai). We didn't go up the tower (it was too cloudy to have a good view) but we did somehow find ourselves in an Organic Food Trade Show (like one you would see in the Toronto Convention Centre). That was pretty cool, I enjoyed all the free samples I could and even had my Chakras re-aligned (if you know yoga, you know what I'm talking about).

Most notably, we spent this past Sunday at the Taipei City Zoo! Just an MRT ride away (with 2 transfers) and only NT60 ($2 CDN) to get in! The Zoo surpassed all of my expectations with it's beauty and variety of animals! Please visit this link to see all of the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2376923&l=4ab70&id=58004131

Apparently, the same company that designed the famous San Diego Zoo designed this one. We were so exhausted that we only saw half of the zoo before having to go home! Soon we will go back and see the rest of the animals. Which animals did I like the best? The elephants, penguins, and the Koala! So much fun!

Other than going out for dinner a lot, drinking tons and tons of bubble tea and practicing yoga like it's my second job, nothing else is going on here. Sometimes I feel like I should be doing more, but then I gently remind myself of the very fact that I live here and I'm not able to play tourist every day of the week!

However, I am thrilled to announce that Kate and I are in the middle of planning our trip for Chinese New Years (we get 1 week of vacation). We are going to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! I am so excited to continue preparing for this trip! I'll keep you all posted! Lots of love from Taiwan!