aaacccck..... life!

MY BAAAAAAAAAAAD I meant to write sooner but I've been kept super busy by well... life. We just went to Jinshan (Gold Mt.) to visit with my moms college classmates. It was great! One of them had built his "retirement" house up there and has direct access to a hot spring and has it piped to his house!!! We ended up spending the night up there but are now back in BaDu.

At the moment we're trying to line my ducks up in a row... things aren't set in stone and that's making me a little anxious but what can I do, ya know?

Here's the situation right now...

I got my Letter of Clearance authenticated by the SF Taiwan Consulate =) yay... My blood work came back from the hospital and I'm missing some shots (something weird like German measles or something) which I got yesterday. =) Today I pick up the medical clearance.

We dropped off my papers at the immigration office and I should get a call in about a week stating whether or not I've been approved for residency. Once its approved I begin my mandatory 365 days in Taiwan. Once I finish the calendar year I submit my papers for citizenship. =)

As far as housing goes I'll be living with a woman who's a relative of my mom's best friend (complicated huh?). Well the place is pretty cool. I get my own room and bathroom, and the living room and kitchen are shared spaces. The neighborhood is supposed to be one of the most coveted places to stay at. It's centrally located, its near all the night hot spots (where those are, I have no idea), there are a lot of buses, and its pretty close to my Uncle Vincent and Auntie Amy's offices. Tomorrow I sign a 4 month contract!


Letseeeee exactly what will I be doin???.....
It seems like the only thing to do for people in my position is to teach [English] or to be taught [Mandarin].... apparently I'm doing both.

uggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh... we all know that I don't really want to do either... but I can't make it here without money and I can't get any other job without speaking Chinese... so what else is there for me to do while I'm learning the language.
I'm currently filling out my application for Hess which is an English learning center for kids that range from elementary to Jr. High So I need to get my resume together for that.

I'm also trying to get into the Mandarin Training Center National Taiwan Normal University...(long ass name huh???).... well apparently its rated as one of the top 5 universities in Taiwan to study Mandarin.


As far as how I've been feeling??? Nervous and anxious and anticipating a complete break down once my mom and sister leave.
I came here to find out exactly what I want to do, while in the process get to know the language and my family over here. The other day my mom and I went to my Uncle Vincents. When I sat down in his office with no reservation or hesitation he had asked me what I wanted to do while I was here and where will I be in three years. I have no idea.
My Uncle Vincent can be pretty intimidating and its not that he's scary or anything but he has such a strong sense of self, such a clear of vision of what he's here to do that it kinda makes me feel so unprepared for life.

You know how companies have board of directors??? Well I've got my own: Uncle Vincent and his wife, cousins Soo Ching and Soo Young, Uncle Henry and his wife, and my Auntie Amy... (there a lot of other people here to help me out and I'm so grateful to have all these people in my life.)

My board of directors have helped me decide what my first step should be: as it stands I will be going to school and teaching English and though they don't top my list of things to do I know its whats best


I am so grateful and overwhelmed by my family's generosity, it just amazes me everyday.

Once I get settled and my mom and Rita leave I'm suppose to check in with one of my family members once a week. I think they want to check on my progress and make sure I'm not starving or any thing. On the weekends I'm suppose to make my way back out to BaDu to have dinner with my Great Aunt. =)

Yay! things are coming together and even though I'm scared about my mom leaving me I'm really excited...and I think I'm ready to rise to the occasion... and meet my future.

thanks for reading ♥

so so SO SORRY =X

A THOUSAND AND ONE APOLOGIES FOLKS… I am so so SO sorry about the incommunicado-ness.

MY AWESOME COUSIN JASON came to see me off at the airport... I think the appropriate reaction would be tears of happiness but i was taken so off guard I didn't have time to cry. I really appreciate the the send off. =)

We’re staying at my Uncle Vincent’s (who I’m eternally grateful to for allowing my mom, my sister, and I to use his home as my base of operations while I’m getting set up here in Taipei but since no ones lived here in the last 10 months they’ve BEEN had the WIFI cut. Totally understandable… but I’m truly sorry about not keeping up with the blog and FB. If I wanted to get online I’d have to bug my cousins down the hall. (Yup my Aunt, Uncle Vincent’s sister, and her two girls are my neighbors!)

It’s all been such a whirlwind since I’ve landed. I really feel like I’ve fallen through the rabbit hole and I’ve come up somewhere in Taiwanderland. It’s so fantastically different; I just know that it will definitely hold my attention for quite a while.

I miss home immensely… well maybe not “home” but the people who make it feel like home. I want to thank my wonderful friends who made my last two weeks at home some of the best times I’ve ever had!

I miss my dad and hope he’s doing ok. Which reminds me… will someone make sure he’s feeding himself something other than KFC?

Btw… Mel, Grace, Trish, and Arthur I forgot to get your mailing addresses before I left =O please email/facebook it to me… ANYONE ELSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE SNAIL MAIL FROM TAIWAN PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR MAILING ADDRESSES AT goneandsaidit@gmail.com!

WARNING: This post will be long… I’ll try n break it down to the highlights… and I really appreciate yall for reading. ily

Let me try and go through a quick run down of my daily…

The regular routine goes something like this:

• 6:00 Wake up (If anyone is wondering how I do it… blame the heat and yes it is hotter than satans balls out here, um, and yes I did just say that.)
• 6:30/7:00 ish I go across the hall to eat breakfast with my Auntie
• 8:14 Catch the train either into Taipei (South) or Keelung (North)
• proceed to do X, Y, and Z
• and usually head to my Great Aunt’s (Who be-tee-dub lives down the street.) for dinner.
• I take a COLD SHOWER
• Then if its after 10p I’m usually knocked the eff out… waking up at 6 ain’t easy yall. And trust me I’ve tried to sleep in but with this heat its damn near impossible.

My aunt and her 2 girls live down the hall and my great aunt is half a block away so I’m thoroughly enjoying the fact that my family is in close proximity to me. It makes me feel a whole lot more secure than if I was out in the city all alone.

Day 1 (6/29)

• We were able to open up a bank account =)
• Had a delicious sushi lunch… at I♥Sushi, a sushi chain out here, its kinda like Sushi Boat but conveyor belt style ;) They had this weird corn/mayo nigiri and an oshinko appetizer which included shredded tamago. It was good but nothing can touch Sushi House. I miss me some spicy scallop. Le sigh
• Dinner at my Great Aunties (shes uber cute, she does NOT believe in Vegetarianism, she’s loud and out there and yes I ALREADY love her!)

For my first day it wasn’t too bad. Everything was moving along and I was too hot to notice how tired I really was. Going through the day with my mom, Rita and my family here made me feel very optimistic about being in Taiwan.

Day 2 (6/30)

• Head into Taipei to really quickly visit my Auntie Amy
• We head over to see my Uncle Vincent and have lunch with him, his completely adorable wife, his son and newly wedded wife, and the younger son. Then all of us head down the street for a little lunch… it was DELICIOUS… ALL 12 COURSES… oh em gee yall I didn’t know that there was gonna be that much food. It just kept coming and coming and coming and coming… for dessert they had these delicious mini Taro ice cream bites yummmo
• From lunch we went to the Taiwan Museum of Modern Art to go see the Jean-Paul Gautier exhibit. (If you don’t know who he is, he’s the guy who designed Madonna’s cone bra. Big in the haute couture world.) It was um definitely interesting.
• Dinner at my Great Aunties

Day 3 (7/1)

• Trek through Taipei and hop a bus across the river to head to my great Uncles place to hang out for a bit and eat some lunch ;)
  
  um yes I know that every entry has me eating out and yes I always say its delicious because it is… wish you could join!
  
  
• Later that night we made our first trip to the Keelung NIGHT MARKET ugghhhh eff yeah man! We ate bomb ass noodle soup and had “ice” ice cream… PAO PAO BING… I got peanut and condensed milk, YUMMY, if you could… you’d see me throwing up the peace sign asian style.

Day 4 (7/2)

• First thing in the morning we head out to the Immigration Office in Keelung. They told me I was missing paperwork... UMMMM...If I were missing paper work that would mean that I’d have to come home to complete it. … YUP I NEARLY LOST MY SHIT man…
  
  Let me just stop and say that I’m not coming home (not that I don’t want to but not this soon) and besides I don’t even have the money to come home.
  
  Well apparently all I was missing was a stupid sticker on my Letter of Clearance (its just an official piece of paper from Alameda County that says I’ve never been arrested). The sticker is there to authenticate the document: so the Taiwanese government doesn't think I just printed it out at home.
• Next we head to the office of Foreign Affairs in Taipei to see if we can authenticate it there but it turns out we have to do it at the Consulate in San Francisco. *forehead/hand*
  
  Ugh seriously?! So exactly how are we going to do that???… well we had to wait till midnight to wait for the Consulate in SF to open so we could call… pshhhhh

It was only the 3^rd day of my stay and the whole ordeal with the paperwork and traveling back and forth really brought me down. So on the way back to the train station my mom and I stopped into a bookstore. The thing about bookstores that I love the most is the smell of books (and definitely one of the reasons I don’t have a Kindle/Reader because I appreciate the physical-ness of the books I’m reading). Well for the most part I think bookstores smell the same and as soon as I walked into the store all the books immediately comforted me. Well my comfort was short lived…there wasn’t a book in the store that was written in English. It was just the first of many reminders of how big of a challenge my life here is going to be.

Day 4 (7/3)

• Had traditional Soy Bean Milk and Donuts for breakfast in Taipei.
• Took the longest nap of my life
• Diner at my Great Aunties

It was exactly what I needed… REST

Day 5 (7/4)

• Breakfast with my Auntie and her two daughters (the younger one is Rita’s age and the older one is 29.)
• We headed over a couple blocks to the local market to do some shopping for veggies n whatnot.
• Even though we had just eaten before shopping we ate again and after that we had SHAVED ICE! Mm mmm mmm… you get to choose 4 toppings and 3 out 4 of mine were some sort of tapioca and the last was almond jello. =D
  
  Seriously a delicious day and it was only 1 in the afternoon by the time we were finished with the shaved ice.
  
  
• My mom and I came back to the apartment to relax for a bit and we decided it was cooling off and we didn’t want to stay inside so we headed into Taipei to go to Taipei 101 (the second tallest building in the world.)

It was a food filled day so you don’t even have to ask if I enjoyed myself. ;) Our excursion to 101 was a lot of fun… the bottom 5 floors are the “mall area” (all the stores aren’t really my type of stores… Louis Vuitton, Coach, Chanel, high end shiz… not really my stylo) but it was nice to walk through the air conditioned mall and have dinner with my mom in the food court… I think once Chris gets here we’ll have to take a trip up to the top! PS I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GREAT 4^th!

Day 6 (6/5)

• We went to the post office in Keelung to get a mail order travelers check thingy and in an epic failure my mom forgot her ID. Yeah folks she really shoulda brought it. We needed it to make sure I could “express” my letter of clearance to the SF consulate office so I can get it authenticated. *forehead/hand*
• I really needed a pick me up so my uncle graciously treated us all to the Wasabi BUFFET in 101… oh boy was it delicious =) ommmm nom nom nom
• Right after we took a 3 minute walk to the TECH Expo where I bought a computer!!!! Yippy skippy yall I was so happy that I got a new computer =)
• What is it that one needs after a long day? Yuuuuuppp…. FOOD hahahah I’ve been eating so much here I’m surprised I don’t look like the good year blimp. But I don’t feel too bad since I’ve been eating loads of fruits and veggies and very little to almost no processed food.

Ok I know it seems like all I’m doing it eating… and that’s partially true but it doesn’t really matter cuz I’m having fun hanging out with my family… and we’re not even done seeing everyone yet.

Day 7 (6/6)

• Went to the clinic in Ba Du to register myself and get an ID # and an appointment. (I need to get a medical clearance as part of my paperwork for my residency)
• We took a needless trip to Taipei (don’t ask… it was pointless and not worth space on my blog to explain it fully)
• Met up with my Auntie and “Little” Auntie who took us to an old gold mining town... it was really cool but I was totally miserable in TRIPLE DIGIT heat and like 100% humidity… I was kinda sorta really grumpy =/

Ok, I knew it was going to be hot when I moved here but HOT DOG… if I wasn’t wearing shoes the ground woulda cooked my feet well done. =( I knew the day was going to be hot and the news advised everyone to stay inside between the hours of 10 and 2 but of course we hauled ass all over the city. So yeah I was cranky and I was wrong for giving attitude about it.

Day 8 (6/7)

Well I haven’t mention before but apparently I’m allergic to the heat and broke out in a rash… but it only on the tops of my hands… Then I had this funky thing happen to my pinky finger… it was swollen and achey

• My auntie took me to the dermatological clinic in Keelung to see if he could assess what could be done about my heat rash and my pinky. Well he prescribed a cream for the heat rash and some pill for my pinky (apparently I had a dormant viral infection that causes limbs and digits to swell and ache… hmmm go figure)
  
  I’m all better now… rash gone… pinky back to regular pinky size ;)
  
  
• My Uncle Henry dropped off my computer!!!! I was so excited and happy. Then he took us shopping for some supplies at A Mart and COSTCO… I was so excited to be in Costco. They had samples and everything
  It was all asian food and it was goooood… and they had a food court
  YES they had pizza BUT they had 3 choices… SEAFOOD, PEKING DUCK, and hawaiin
  YES they had hot dogs BUT it was only pork and the buns weren’t the same
  YES they had chicken bakes BUT they also had a Korean style bulgogi bake too
  NO churros but they did have bacon cheeseburgers
• We heed back to Keelung to try n get my wireless thingy set up. So I purchased a wireless plan and a permanent phone number…
  
  Some of you won’t like this but I’m tell you anyway… the contract is for 3 years.
  
  Well the wireless plan comes with an iPod Touch… so ARTHUR I’ll be supporting RUN! And Pet Play Pen =)… the Wireless here is so convenient. I can carry it around with me so I can use my iPod wherever.
  HAHAHA well we purchased the plan but since they were doing inventory they didn’t have any available for me to take home so I had to come back in 2 days to pick it up.

I’m really excited about my computer!

Day 9 (7/8)

• Had my doctor’s appointment at the hospital to get blood drawn and x-rayed… they also wanted a stool sample… yeah… my eyes looked like this… @_@... but they saw that I was from the states so they waived it… wheeeew. Well any who… getting blood drawn doesn’t really bug me… it was the x-rays that made me laugh. They needed to check my lungs so I only got my torso done. I guess the techs here are used to someone who’s got boobs and he hella pushed me into the machine… yeah..it kinda hurt hahaha
• We head into the city for a delicious DIM SUM dinner… I love breakfast dinner. I finally got to see and hang out with my Auntie Cecilia, Auntie Amy and her 2 kids (Mary is SO cute and Peter is super sweet, I probably haven’t seen them in like 10 years) and Auntie Kay and her husband Uncle Shoo

Day 10 (7/9)

• Hang around the house… had Honey Bunches of Oates for breakfast.
• Head into Taipei to go look at a room for rent… (um, definitely wasn’t really a situation I was comfortable with)
• We tried to find our way to the Language Center (it's the most prestigious place to learn Mandarin) but we got lost and ended up taxing over there. I finally found where all the other foreigners were!
  
  It was weird hearing English, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese but it made me feel kinda weird and out of place. These people will come here to learn Mandarin and leave, but me? I’m living here, I have papers and I don’t even know the language of my country… le sigh…
• My sister heads to Keelung while my mom and I stop by the house to pick up my computer and meet me sister in Keelung so we can set up my wireless. It took FOREVER I mean like HOURS! But we finally got it.

I can tell that my impending living situation is starting to stress my mom out. She’s really concerned about my safety and is really afraid I’ll get taken advantage of in my transitioning state of acclimation.

Day 11 (7/10)

o The internet failed me… it stopped working and now I’m sad

o Headed to Tao Yuan to my Uncle Henry’s place. After he picked us up from the train station we headed over to a local BAKERY… we picked some stuff out for our breakfast the next day then headed back to his house and hung out before we went for a dinner of traditional Taiwanese food… yummo

o When we finally got the internet working we found out my sisters boyfriend missed his flight to Taiwan because his flight from GA was delayed =(… so we had to stay an extra night...which btw was the only reason we bugged our uncle to let us stay with him and asked him to help pick up my sisters bf... ugh epic fail.

Day 12 (7/11)

• The next day we ate the yummo buns from the bakery for breakfast and headed to A Mart (its like Taiwan’s version of a Walmart) after that we took a lovely trip to the Ceramics Museum wooot woot… didn’t know ceramics were that interesting but they ARE … =) true story
• Head back to my uncles to chill out, relax, and wait for my cousin Stanley to come home so we can go eat noooooodles =)
  

YO sooo my cousin Stan’s actually in this really cool indie pop folk band thing… and before you lump his band STAY COOL into shit you’ll never listen to… you just have to give it a try… cuz I said so…. kthx


ok folks sooo I think I've got you ALLLLLLLL caught up. So now everyones here.... I need to give my eyeballs and fingers a rest. I do need to followup with the "follow through" plan... and I swear on my OWN LIFE... it won't take as long for another post....

I appreciate your time and your patience.... especially your patience

ily