I will kick off the blog with an apology for not having written in a while. It's been nearly a month since my last post, and I had certainly intended on keeping more up to date than that. The last two months have blown by Sara and I, leaving behind two heads full of more great memories and hard drive overflowing with pictures. I think part of the reason I haven't been chomping at the bit to get another post up is due to not being able to put up any new pictures. Apparently the overabundance of photo opportunities has been too much for my ancient (lol... not really, but computer technology sure does leave us in the dust these days) Macbook. We're planning on buying an external hard drive to help out with our upcoming paycheck. Along with that exciting purchase, we're looking to buy a relatively inexpensive scooter, which we're thrilled about. We've gotten the chance to see how they are both in Kenting (the beach town we went to for my birthday) and when our coworker left for two weeks and left us hers to use. Despite the ridicule many scooter riders receive in the States, I am quite unashamed in saying that they are a lot of fun to ride. It's hard to beat the sensation of driving down a palm tree lined road, skirting the coast of the ocean, with the salty air whipping your hair and clothes. I want to erase that last sentence for sounding like something out of a romance novel, but it's hard to describe the feeling in a way that doesn't sound corny. So I suppose I will happily accept the teasing that comes along with being a proud owner of a scooter.
We celebrated Sara's 26th birthday last weekend and took yet another adventure outside of Chia-yi. Sara has long been dropping hints that I've needed to take her horseback riding. Apparently I have little in the way of hint-picking-up abilities, as I was quite oblivious. However, she finally made it obvious enough that she wanted to do it for her birthday so with the help of our ever helpful Chinese teachers at school, I found a horse ranch in a nearby county. We hopped on a train the Saturday after Sara's birthday and got off where we were told to, only to find the scooter/bike rental shop closed and not a whole lot in the way of friendly strangers willing to point us in the right direction. Fortunately, one of the train station employees spoke enough English to get us on a local train (basically like a train in Chicago) to the next closest stop. As is our habit, once we arrived, we depended on patient strangers with any English at all, and ended up in a taxi of a guy who spoke a small amount and he drove us about five minutes to the ranch.
After a few more uncomfortable communication attempts, we eventually found the area where we got to ride horses in a large circular area. Despite our disappointment that we didn't get to do a bit more riding out in the open, it was still a very fun experience to feel like we had even a little control over these powerful and very intelligent animals (emphasis on little control... both of our horses kept stopping to munch on stray leaves and grass whenever they wanted). It helped that the country scenery was made that much more beautiful by the crisp fall air and the sun shining through all of the trees around us (I promise to post all of the pictures as soon as possible). After our ride we explored the ranch a bit more, and got to see the big area where the horses got to romp around. A few even started rolling around on their backs like gigantic dogs in the dirt, reminding me very much of a particular canine nephew of mine. It was definitely something I've never seen before. Later on, we tried out some archery, which was (for anyone who hasn't done it) a lot of fun. On our walk back through the little town to the train station (we had accidentally misplaced the taxi drivers card), a woman on a scooter with her two young children pulled up next to us and started speaking rapidly in Chinese. We were friendly but tried to convey that we didn't understand. After a few moments, we heard the word for teacher, and told her in Chinese that we were English teachers living in Chia-yi. She was very excited about our use of Chinese and went on to say in very broken English that I was handsome and Sara was very beautiful (remember: picture us walking along a rural road and this woman on a scooter with a child in front of her and a child behind her on the seat, riding along next to us). We both laughed (in a friendly way) and she drove off smiling. Just another example of how friendly people are everywhere we go on this beautiful island, I suppose.
Sara and I are both really enjoying slowly building our Chinese repertoires via our Chinese lessons once a week, and it really is exciting to use something we've learned and watch it actually sink in to the person we're communicating with. To the same effect, we are also picking up a lot more of what people say around us, generally being simple phrases between people, but occasionally we'll overhear a child say the word for American or tall. I successfully communicated how tall I was in centimeters to a man the other day in the elevator of our building (195 cm), and was quite proud of myself. The kids get quite a kick out of our Chinese as well, although I don't use it very often, seeing as a lot of the time I am trying to get them to stop using Chinese and I don't want to encourage them to by doing so myself.
The job is still going fine, and both of us have gotten in a good routine with most of our classes. Classes that were a challenge for me at first have become much more manageable and the time I have to spend making lessons plans is less and less. Sara and I have our three year anniversary coming up on Nov. 11th and we are planning a trip to Taipei (the capital of Taiwan) the following weekend. We're both really looking forward to experiencing what we have heard is an incredible city. As always, I guarantee more pictures to come soon. As a last note, I think that all of the longings for the Fall colors and weather back in the Midwest that Sara and I have had lately have brought a little Fall weather here. In the last week and a half or two weeks, the temperature has dropped dramatically. I even had to wear long pants and shoes to work instead of shorts and sandals! What a change! Regardless of my wishes to see the fall colors, every day when I check the weather back home and see that it's a few degrees colder, I am a little less upset that I am not walking to the bus stop or waiting for the train back in chilly Chicago. I suppose I'll have the rest of my life to make it through Midwest winters, and I have every intention of loving this "very cold" Taiwanese Fall/Winter to it's fullest extent. Till next time, our best to you!
