Q&A - Week 4

The point of the Q&A posts was certainly not to ensure that I wrote once a week... but that is what they've turned into.  I apologize.  I find myself working many hours these days and rarely ever leaving the school campus. There isn't much on the campus that is interesting enough to write about so I have to stockpile the interesting for later.

1)  What are you going to do for the 4th?  (Wayne)

Well.  Last weekend a few of us went to a 4th of July/Canada celebration that was put on by the City of Taichung Chamber of Commerce.  It was a good  attempt at providing the many ex-pats and foreigners here in Taiwan some good ol' 'Merican patriotism.  There were Exploding Cheese Hamburgers and craft beer.  There were men selling Indian food and more with Turkish ice cream.  There were German pork steaks and a Mexican stall complete with quesadillas.  There was Spanish paella and sangria and so on.  As best as I can tell, for the Taiwanese, "American" is anything that isn't Asian.

This was the sky as we were leaving for the festival.  Photo credit goes to Andrew. 

There was also American/Canadian style music.  The band that played while were there was a trio of Indie Rockers from Glasgow....

I rest my case.  It was a good try.

I'd seen this particular Turkish Ice Cream guy.  I knew that he messed with people when they bought their cone.  So when Andrew said that he was going to partake (unknowing of the comedy to come) I whipped out the camera and thought I would try to catch it.  Mildly successful I think. Editor's note: This is what happens when you don't check your settings before you take a photo. 

I did do one extremely American thing that night however.  I finally got my hands on good cheese.   Heck, GREAT cheese.  The Wisconsin in me is still alive and well.

On the 4th specifically I did... nothing. Some of the Americans on the Morrison Campus had a bon fire and some sparklers.  Mostly, I stressed about work and spent a few hours preparing for my classes the next morning.

2)  Junk food.  Give us a break down. (Janet)

Everything. They have Lays, and Doritos, and Ferroro Rocher.  Granted not all things taste the same.  They also have new things like pea chips and shrimp chips (no I haven't tried them yet), they have horse beans (I'll leave that for another post) and almost everything is garlic flavored.

A common snack for me is dried mango and cashews.  Or chocolate covered almonds.  Or popcorn chicken (available semi-fresh from your local 7/11). 

3)  Where the HECK have you been?

Right.  Okay.  So.  What?  The last week and a half has been really quite hard.  I have been working many, many hours.  I've had some big, big decisions on my plate.  I've also been waging a war on all fronts in our home against bugs and vermin.  The housing provided to us by our employer has some serious cockroach, mosquito, spider, mice, gecko, etc problems.  After waking up from a short nap on the couch Friday afternoon with a cockroach in my hair I LOST IT.  I booked a hotel in downtown Taichung and I was out of there in less than an hour.  My roomies and I spent the weekend at a schmancy hotel downtown and did absolutely nothing.  We lounged around in comfortable beds.  We soaked in functioning air conditioning.  We enjoyed the bug free bathrooms.  It was a little slice of heaven.  Most importantly... we did no work.  Work was not an option.  We didn't discuss work, we didn't whine about work, we didn't do any work.  We just vegged.

I've learned to appreciate my surroundings and the effect they have on my mood.  The last two weeks I have not had any motivation to blog just because I could never relax.  I was always watching out for a cockroach to run across my foot, or a gecko above my head.  That's no way to live.  Thankfully, Ruth and I managed to arrange other housing which we moved into last night.  Let me tell you.  It is great!  I slept so well last night.  I had a calm morning where I actually sat down and ate breakfast.  I'm organized and clean and ready to go.  I actually tried to look cute for work because I could use the bathroom to get ready without a full on offensive from the spider clan.  There are of course lingering stresses but hopefully in the next week my blood pressure will return to a normal, healthy state and my blogging will resume as normal.  I do have quite a lot of fun things to write about.  At least I think so. 

Check back for your normal programming starting this week. :)