My Taiwan Adventure

Sunshine. Glorious Sunshine. And I revel in it. I went to the Big Buddah on the hill that overlooks ChangHua and sat in the sunshine in the courtyard there. It was wonderful to feel the warmth of the rays heating my face. I achieved the Albertan's dream in the middle of January - sunburn in a warm climate.

Yes, I've recovered enough from my inital paranoia to go on a forray on my own in this country which is so foreign to me. Jeremy has kindly lent me his phrase book which has acted as a very helpful supplement to the 2 Chinese words that I actually know, "Hello" and "Thank you."
On my afternoon adventure I met a local gentleman who works in the building industry and is a Christian. He taught himself English from watching DVD's and writing down all the words in both English and Chinese. Who knew that we'd be making the next English teachers Hollywood movies?! Anyway, he was bold enough to say hello and we had a nice chat as he is quite anxious to practice his English I've shared my e-mail acct. with him. The other teachers in the building think that I've possibly landed some "language exchange" for myself. We will see what happens.

The view from the Buddah was a prized military possesion as on a clear day you can apparently see the ocean. Of course, clear days here seem to be a rarity. It was a reasonably clear day yesterday, but no ocean to be seen... not clear enough. Just enough sun to give this pale white girl a sunburn that seems to be getting darker by the minute. All in all there were a few path signs at the site that were in English - everything else was Mandarin. (There's a surprise- NOT)
Having a language buddy wouldn't be bad. I ran into some teenagers who were "USA all the way." Which I thought was quite funny given that I'm pretty Canadian at heart.

By far the most humorous thing that happened to me was on the way back to the apartment. I was walking down the street when 2 scooters drove by. One yelled "Hi Tammy!" The other one yelled "Bye!" It was 4 of the other western girls who live in and around ChangHua that I had met through Jeremy the night before. I found myself laughing on the side of the road. I've only been here 3 days and they're already shouting my name in the streets!

I'm seeing all kinds of new things now rather than just being overwhelmed by the surroundings.Fighter jets flew overhead a few times yesterday, which I guess is quite normal given the situation between China and Taiwan. We get an airshow every day! I also saw a completely white gecko. (I think it was a gecko?) I kind of tried to avoid it as it was climbing the apartment stairwell. Plus I got good pictures of the apartment we live in from a pedestrian overpass.

A bunch of us went out to eat at the coffee shop/florists down the street. They have a very nice mushroom soup and also the pasta is reported to be quite good. I enjoyed hanging out "Friends" style for a while. The coffee shop also makes a mean latte and I was quite impressed. What was really enjoyable was dining surrounded by such beautiful lush greenery. ChangHua is very industrialized... I treasure all the plants that I find. There was a very unique tree that we walked by that looks like a giant rubber plant. Also there are tonnes of impatients being cultivated in flowerbeds throughout the city. I was invited back to one of the girl's flats to watch Wuthering Heights and also to maybe join her next weekend at the street market if I'm still in town. Having gotten some semblance of balance again I'm eager to do a bit of travelling... as soon as I master a few more words.

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