Travelin' Man

My latest post comes from Si-Jhih City, a suburb of Taipei. I'm in Taiwan. Goodness gracious.

The last week or so has seen more of the same. I have finished nine weeks of class and am currently on spring break. As far as class goes, I haven't gotten a single grade back yet; therefore, I'm slightly worried about what my grades might end up being. But that aside, I'm getting the hang of things. It's one thing to meet new people and start over after school, but doing that in a whole new country, in my opinion, brings a whole other slew of challenges. Not only am I adjusting a to a new culture, I'm in a place where there is a lot of people, but each is up to his or her own thing. Some people are studying abroad, some full time students, others here for only a semester. I don't take that into account, however. I'm prepared to make new friends if some are leaving at the end of the semester. But it is all part of the experience. All part of growing and learning who I am, what the world is like, and how I can learn from the past and hopefully make the world a better place. At least through my own individual actions.

One interesting encounter happened this week. I was spending time with some friends, two of whom happened to be British. My American friends in the group and I were talking about Thanksgiving; what we were going to do, "have a thanksgiving in the village." Or something like that. One of the Brits piped up with "Can I ask a stupid question... what is Thanksgiving?" That answer in itself was funny enough. But the response of the other Brit was "it's when we came over and killed all the Indians. Now they celebrate it. It's rubbish." A pretty humorous exchange nonetheless.

So anyways, I'm in Taiwan for the next ten days visiting Sarah. And let me tell you, it's a trip. I haven't even been here for 24 hours and the what I'm doing isn't lost on me. First impressions aren't too positive: it's hot. The humidity swallows you up as you step outside; even if it's raining, it still is miserable outside. And this is coming from someone who has been outside only once. Window air-conditioning units are everywhere. I get stared at for being white. I fear for my life walking down the street, paranoid being hit. It reminds me, in a lot of ways, of Israel. Existing and living in a place where not many people speak English and I have almost no idea of how I'm going to get around. That's where Sarah will come in, and we'll have some stuff to do while I'm here. Funny thing, as I'm typing this I'm watching the Yankees game LIVE. That is incredible. Really funny.

Anyways, I'm doing well, learning about a new culture, and hopefully spending a lot of time with a great girl. Hope everyone is well.

Cheers.