In Which Jody Does Quite Well For Herself

I'm having so much fun! Went to a baby shower for Alex on my first night, which was nice plus I got to meet a bunch of other ex-pats. Most of them seem to do foreign affairs stuff, but a couple have taught English so I got a few tips from them.

Then I went back to my (now that I think about it) totally horrid apartment. The big debate of the evening was whether I should attempt to sleep with the air conditioning off (inviting certain death by steaming) or leave it on and probably not sleep because it was so noisy. I went with option B, and the jetlag made me snooze reasonably well. However, I have taken up the very kind offer extended by Alex and David, and I'm hiding out in their spare room for a while. It's heaven.

Next day, I took a taxi to Kojen HQ and filled out about a million forms before being whisked off to the hospital. I tell you - these Taiwanese don't fuck around when it comes to medicals! I was totally checked in 15 minutes flat, including chest x-ray, blood sample, and all the usual bits and bobs. To my relief, there was no invasive check (IF you know what I mean...) and no peeing in a cup.

I found a buffet vegetarian place for lunch which had lots of fake meat products. Highly suspicious, so I stuck to the things I could recognise. 'Twas delicious.

Today I went to my school, saw some of my kiddies (SOO bloody cute you would just die), met some other teachers, and then came back into town. When it promptly bucketed with more rain than I have ever seen in my life. It was great! I bought an umbrella.

And a cellphone. As soon as I figure out how to make it not be in Chinese, I'll let you know.

Anyway, overall impressions so far? I LOVE it here. The city is reasonably clean, there's no rubbish that I have seen, no beggars and not too many stray animals. The people are friendly, and I feel really really safe. I'm not sure quite how to put it, but there just isn't any agression in the air. Think drunk idiots on Courtenay Place - that kind of atmosphere. Here, everyone is just doing their thing and letting you do yours. It's great. The public transport is brilliant, the streets are set out in a way that makes sense logically, and there are little parks everywhere. Hooray for Taiwan!