Coconuts, Adventure, Goats, Moonrises, Sunsets and Surfers...Live it up!

The beauty of life is too enormous to just sit at home and let it pass by.  

I was sitting homeless in a Las Vegas casino sportsbook a few years ago eavesdropping on a conversation between two blue collared black guys sick of doing nothing with life other than the everyday worker norm when the one said to the other, "You gotta go out and make things happen.  Nothing happens to you if you just sit and do nothing. You have to go out for things to happen to you."  It was the only thing I needed to remember life is precious, and to stop wasting mine in post-Officer Candidate School-injury self-pity.
  
I am grateful for days like yesterday.  I rode down one of the most beautiful highway drives on the planet on the back of a rented scooter going about 60Kilometers an hour.  I was white knuckling the rear scooter grip trying to enjoy the scenery, but I was also scared for my life, because my friend Julie LOVES to go fast on the open highway.  I was also digging the ride a little too with the wind in my hair and some of the most truly awesome scenery I've ever dreamed of.

East Coast of Kenting Park

Insignificant me.  If I had a better camera you could tell that that's a huge drop below my feet.

Formosa at it's finest

We rode from Kenting about 25 minutes to the East Coast of Taiwan at the beach known locally as "Surfer's Beach." They get an A+ for originality around here.  I shouldn't complain though, my blog title should have been "Couldn't Think of Anything Witty to put Here so I Chose This." 

Eluanbi Lighthouse

After the ride down we stopped and had a beer on the beach then Julie and I jumped the surf as our friend Sebastian took pictures of beer cans and coconuts.  At almost sunset we got the brilliant idea to speed back around the tip of the island near the lighthouse so we could watch the sunset. It was a little cloudy but we did get to see the full moon come up over the eastern part of the island and the sunset as we reached town.  It was one of the most spectacular things I have ever gotten to witness in my life.  On the way back up to town we also got to see goats with kids walking along the road.  In fact, unknown to Julie because she had her Ipod in, I was baaahhh-ing all the way back to town.  

Coconut Milk is good

So yesterday I got to drink milk from a coconut, see the moonrise in the east and the sunset in the west at about the same time, see some awe-inspiring cliff-side beaches, watch the surfer boys do their thing, spend a day with a couple of great people, fall asleep in the sun, play in the aqua blue surf, and chill out on the beach at the end of the day.  Life is good!  

Beer and a smoke on the beach

Yep, you have to go out and do things, you can't just wait for things to happen.  "It's not brave, if you're not scared." Where would I be if not for eavesdropping and awesome friends?  Have an appreciation for life it's the only one you're going to have...Live it to the fullest!

 

Where did these first degree burns come from?

I channeled my inner idiot this morning as I was looking for a coffee stirrer near my desk.  I was looking around frantically for a stir stick, spoon, pencil, pen, tongue depressor or anything that I could dissolve the sugar in my hot coffee with.  In a moment of sheer genius, I stuck my right index finger into the bottom of the cup and started moving it in a circular motion while grinding my teeth and pushing the pain into the back of my mind.  I continued to stir the boiling hot water with my finger until I felt the sugar dissolve then I pulled my finger from the cup while screaming at the same time.

"What did you do?" inquired Ida, my Chinese coworker.
"I wasn't thinking, and I just wanted my coffee to get stirred".....she then proceeded to hand me a spoon from the sink near the coffee maker, I turned as red as my finger, gave everyone else a sheepish look, then put my head down and went back to my work station with my head down laughing quietly at my own stupidity.

Yep, I'm a teacher.

French Fries in Teriyaki Sauce

YES, PLEASE!!!!

McDonalds, I've eaten more of it in the last four months than I think in all of the rest of my life.  For starters it's unhealthy crap and we all know that.  I've read Fast Food Nation and have seen Super Size Me.  Do I care?  I thought I did, but the golden arches have become a comfort food and a reminder of home, so nope, I guess I don't.  It's not that I don't have principles, but I change my mind about them whenever I want or when it's convenient (avoiding arguments) ...I call it flexibility.

They do not have barbecue sauce at Mickey D's here so I usually order sweet n' sour with my meal because ketchup is boring.  Aaron, my roommate, came home with my double cheeseburger meal without the Asian Nectar so I went to the cabinet and thought, Teriyaki sauce, why not? The Earth Stood still as the flavor hit my mouth; soy, honey, garlic, molasses, and deep fried potato sticks.  It was heaven, I flew through them and then because McDonalds adds a salt storm to each magic red box I stuck my fingers in the remaining sauce and licked my fingers clean like the eternal 8 year-old that I am, and it was fantastic. DON'T JUDGE ME!, you know you lick your fingers when you've finished McDonalds fries because if you don't you need Orange GoJo to get all the grease and salt off, and that stuff hurts it has lava in it.

It was so good I'm thinking about steaming a potato and dousing it with Teriyaki.  I bet I could sell it at the night markets.

Here's the benefit of teriyaki, it's not overly processed garbage.  So if you want to add a little nutrition to those fast food fries (not that you can, you're taking a year of your life as you eat them) throw a little teriyaki on top...and for some added vitamin C use the stuff with orange zest. 


just for fun I found these at Carrefour, I call them Copsicles

Copsicles

My First Four Months In Taiwan

I woke up, sprawled out on our living room couch, in the same clothes I wore last night to poker.  I had that wonderful crusty hungover feeling from drinking too much Jack Daniels.  I looked at the weather and decided that no, I am not going camping this weekend, and that I am too dizzy to ride on the back of a scooter for two hours anyway.  I looked at the calendar on my computer and realized that I left for Taiwan four months ago today and decided to start my blog.

So here I am writing my first and probably what will be my longest blog because I have four months to cover, but you are here cause you're semi-interested so read on if you dare...

I remember sitting at LAX and looking at the 777 I was about to climb aboard to take my voyage across the Pacific.  The excitement was almost too much to bear.  Excited and joyous, all I could think about was what was I going to do when I actually set foot in Taiwan.  Avoiding lectures from worried family members and friends I told everyone that I had a job and a place to stay, the truth is I had no plan at all.  I didn't even know where I was going when I first arrived.  People don't usually tend to understand my often wreckless behaviors, so to avoid being lectured from everyone from friends to my father I lied my ass off.  Anyway on the plane over on EVA airlines they show a video about Taiwan with the main theme being; Fall in Love with Taiwan.  I kind of laughed at it at first, I thought it was a dumb country pride type thing, but it's actually happening.  Oh and Taiwan has a right to be proud, they have come so far in the last twenty years that they should have a little bit of "look at me" swagger in their personality.  Okay so I arrived in Taipei the following morning exhausted from being too excited to sleep on the plane.  I had my backpack, my golfclubs, and my computer (The only things I own aside from some books that are at my cousin's house in California).  I went outside grabbed the bus to actually get into Taipei and sat in awe at my new surroundings.  After getting off the bus at Taipei's main station I dragged myself to a reasonably priced hotel put down my bags and crashed for eight hours.  I woke up in the evening and watched some movies while I tried to decide what to do.  Stay in Taipei and look for a job or go to another city.

After some discussion with friends that were already working in northern Taiwan I decided to head down to southern Taiwan in the morning.  At the train station the following morning I flipped a coin for Tainan or Kaohsiung and Kaohsiung won.  So I boarded the train and took a slow seven hour trip down to Kaohsiung.

building I really liked on the train ride down to Kaohsiung

After arriving I took a taxi to the hostel which would be my home for the next month.  I stayed in a dorm with two guys; Blake from Australia and Ali from Canada.  We are all pretty easy-going so when it got to the point that we couldn't take staying at the hostel anymore we all moved to an apartment with one other guy, Aaron, who was also staying at the hostel in the room next to ours.  So those are my roomates even though Ali moved out a month ago and went back to Canada.

roomates Ali, Aaron, and Blake, friend Sarah, Beetle Nut guy, and me

hanging out at beerfest

big sexy's excited he received a lanyard for buying a beer

I took the first couple of days in Kaohsiung to just figure out where I was and how to get around the city.  A couple of days later the job hunt began.  It was even easier then I thought it would be.  I would walk into schools and they would see that I was a white, young, female and boom I would have a job offer before even handing over my resume.  After searching for about two days I decided to take a job at one of the nicer looking English institutes.  I had some training but wouldn't actually begin working until the beginning of August so I would basically have to wait a month before working.  Since I'm habitually poor, I was okay scrimping for a month and Taiwan is cheap anyway so I was okay waiting.  In the meantime, I just explored Kaohsiung and took a weekend trip down to Kenting National Park, which is absolutely beautiful.

School started in August and I hated the school I worked for from the get go, so I was happy when in the beginning of September I got fired after my back injury flared up on me making me immobile for a couple of days.  Discrimination Yes, did I care, No, I was happy to be getting the hell out of there...they didn't want the kids to have to see what would happen if I had one of my attacks from the nerve getting pinched so they fired me, but oh well I'm on to much greener pastures.  I secured a job at the English Villages here and I start next week.  I can't wait.

At the beginning of October I was in a scooter accident while learning how to operate one of the damn things.  I went face first into a parked car and lacerated and shattered my nose.  I had some other minor injuries too, but I'm alright now.  I had to have surgery to put my nose back together and I also had seven stitches after the initial blow.  Had I been looking down and not up I'd probably be dead.  A little scratch on the nose to remind me to always wear a helmet and that scooters are not toys, might be what I needed to tame the daredevil inside me. 

Aaron is making me laugh and it hurts

I was a bloody mess.  Lucky as hell though.

And that's where I am now, just chillin' in Taiwan, working when I get called, making friends, waiting to start my job so that I can really explore this country and the rest of South East Asia and the world.  Okay I'm outta here.