and... I live in Taiwan

Kaohsiung, Taiwan is the place I now call home.

Me and Anya finally moved into our new apartment. We decided to name it The Babbaganoush because of the awesome decorations and Mediterranean feeling to it. It fits us well. We made a video so that you can check it our by yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5c-Vdw9M9Y

It is true, Taiwan is different from what I am used to. Nevertheless, I love it. I love the crazy traffic and the adrenaline rush you get from riding a scooter. Seriously, at the end of a ride I sometimes find myself shaking or just thinking about the time another driver stepped on my foot and the implications that this could have had if I had been stepped on by a tire instead of another foot. Instead of thinking of the danger though, we see every ride as an adventure... some crazier than others. Like last night... we were driving to a bookstore, confident on our ability, not really worried anymore... when the universe decides we are bored and need more excitement.. and something just flies off our scooter. Was it the motor? a mirror? the alternator? oh! no! It's just the gas cap! yes, the gas cap flew off our scooter in the middle of one of the biggest intersections in the city. Oops... i guess we'll keep driving and just come back at 1am, when traffic has slowed down and our lives are in minimal danger, so we did. And that's the story of how we rescued our gas cap, in the middle of the night, long hours after we had lost it, where it was faithfully waiting for us.
(a little video of our driving adventures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRZn5wrktwA)

We do not like the humidity, but appreciate it as the price we have to pay for such a beautiful landscape. SO MUCH GREEN! And not just green, but luscious green, shiny, exotic green. Mountains covered with it, everywhere. So, we appreciate the humidity regardless of our uncontrollable hair, our sweaty bodies and shinny faces. Everyone looks the same anyway!

I also love the people. Such kind people everywhere. Me and my fellow travelers have not encountered a single negative interaction with the locals. They are helpful and friendly and patient, they even try to teach us Chinese - we have learn to ask for Green, milk and black tea so far, even though every time I try to use my little Chinese I am encountered by a confused look and usually a response in English. I will keep trying though, I certainly will.
We have hit the two weeks mark today, and I can call this my home. We feel acquainted with the city, we have cell phones, we drive like locals and wear the fun outfits (including rain coat and masks), and most of all, we have jobs! Yes, i am an American educated Mexican teaching English in Taiwan... probably not the first, but still quite exciting. I went through three different interviews to find the perfect fit for me. I will start work on Monday at a tiny school where I am one of four English teachers - there is Michael, the owner's son and director of the school; Trent, a nice Australian who has been living here and teaching at Focus Learning Center for the past 2 and a half years; another Taiwanese man whom I haven't met, and myself. It sounds promising and I think I am going to love it. I am sure I will have fun stories to tell about my students. I got to demo this week to see if I was qualified for the job and I loved it! The kids are not only super smart, but so funny! Of course, they asked me if I had a husband, and when I told them that if I did, I would have a ring on that one finger, they decided to count all of the rings and earrings I had one... we got to 10... it was fun.

Bottom line, i love this place. It will be my home for the next year and I cannot think of a better decision for me at this point in my life. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Let the Adventure Begin

Caminate

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino,
y al volver la vista atras
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino,
sino estelas en la mar.

-Antonio Machado

TAIWAN '09!!
Y asi empieza esta aventura...Sali de Los Angeles el Martes 14 de Julio a la 1:40am y aterrice en Taipei Taiwan con mi amiga Anya el Jueves a las 6:00am. Un viaje increible!

Estos fueron nuestros primeros momentos En Taiwan al aterrizar despues de 13 horas de vuelo! We rearranged pretty much the whole plane in order for me and Anya to sit together. it was so worth it!

Once we landed it was a shock to leave the airport and the magics of A/C! WOW!! It's so humid and hot here! We had to stop for a second take it in. It is going to be a while until we can get used to this weather, but it will happen. I'm sure.

The city was impressive. Huge buildings, lots of traffic, losts of people and shops, and food. It was fun to walk around. Anya got a new camera, I got a toothbrush. We ate really good food - noodles, gooy soup and a taco/omelett looking thing. Quite different, but so good.

In our hot hot walk we found a cool park and definitely took a nap. 15 hours difference can mess up your sleeping schedule, you know? The park had little temples, it was next to a museum. It also had a beautiful stone foot path - I tried walking it but it hurt way too much. Anya ventured out and she managed to get pretty far. I just took pictures and laid on it. it was actually pretty comfortable.
At the hostel we had our first casualty! Little Anya's toe got butchered by our room door. Pretty funny, but kinda sad.
After this long day we got back to the hostel at about 6pm and passed out! It was hard to sleep through the whole night. We kept waking up feeling ready for the day, and then we would look and the clock and notice it was actually 1am, or 5am. At one point we just got up and went to see the sunrise. Quite a nice view from our 13th floor hostel. This is a picture of the nice Taipei sunrise... the city looks so calm at this hour - so not a representation of the real Taipei!

The next day we took the train to Kaohsiung, the second biggest city in Taiwan and our home for this next year. Locals found it amusing to see us sitting surrounded by luggage, we agreed with them on this one! (as you can observe in the picture, there is definitely no leg room whatsoever... not as uncomfortable as it seems though)
After 4 hours, we arrived into Kaohsiung and took a taxi to our friends Danielle and Anthony's apartment.

The world games are going on in Kaohsiung and in this picture we are at a Starbucks next to the Love River with the Netherlands' Yujitsu Team. Kinda cool to have this going on here.

A few hours after we had arrived, we already had a scooter!!

It's so fun driving it. A little intimidating, but so so fun. People drive like crazy in this scooter town. Everyone gets into everyone's way and you just have to keep your eyes open all of the time. The stradelling part is also very amuzing, especially when we went to our job interview in nice clothes.

This are us ready for our job interview! As you can see, we are pure professionalism!

Our friends Danielle and Anthony driving around. I'm stradelling, so I get to take pictures of them.

And talking about scooters and adventures, so it happens that they can brake at the least expected moment... and it happened to us, in the middle of the night, when it was pouring rain! Our friends didn't see where we stopped, so they lost track of us and me and Anya were alone, drenched, and had no idea where we were. So, we parked the scooter and started walking on the street that we thought might take us home... why not? After about 20 minutes walking in the pouring rain, we found a Family Mart (very similar to 7/11, although not as popular here) and entered. As it happens often, the worker put a face of surprise and mixed with fear as soon as he saw a couple of foreigners, especially since we were completely drenched! We saw him and I immediately went: Scooter! Died! Call! Taxi! All of this, of course, accompanied by signs! It might have been super funny, but the point is that he got it and we got a taxi home! What a night!

This is us at the beginning of the night...

This is us at the end of the night...

As you can see, it's been quite intense few days. Lots has happened, and we are loving it. Every minute! We looked around for apartments today and we finally found one! It's really cool, hardwood floors, on the 15th floor, great decorations, awesome vibe. We think it was a good decision - it felt like home. We move in on Monday!

Lots of more things will happen. I will try to keep this full of fun stories and pictures. I don't want to fill this up with pictures, so I'll keep putting the bulk of them up on my Picasa Albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/sandra.gtrz - check them out and live this and many more adventures with me!

With much love and excitement from Kaohsiung, Taiwan!!