Looking Back...

I cannot believe it's been over a year since I wrote my first blog post sitting in the Vancouver airport on our journey to Taipei.  Definitely feels like yesterday. (Looking back that is.)  It has been a great ride and I am happy to have had the opportunity to live abroad for a year.  I had wanted to teach abroad from the moment I began my teaching degree, and I accomplished my goal.  Makes me feel old that that dream has come and gone, but now I will go on to the next chapter.

This year in Taipei has had some highs and lows.  Looking back I mostly see the highs.  All in all it was a fantastic year and I will never regret coming here.  I will remember this experience forever.  I go home in 9 days and it feels so surreal.  I feel like I've been waiting an eternity to go back home and the day is almost upon us.  When I began this journey I did not foresee just how difficult it would be on me to be away from my family and friends.  This year has opened my eyes to just how important having friends and family in my life is, and how I appreciate their close proximity to me!  So I am eagerly counting down the minutes days to be reunited with all of you!  I love you all so much!

With that said, I will horribly miss the shit (sorry mom) out of my friend Mary.  She has been an amazing friend to Mark and I this past year and I will miss her dearly.  I will of course miss my students and the great people I've had the privilege of working with here.  Thank you guys for making this year memorable.

Here are some of my favourite memories of my year abroad:

Beautiful scenery.....

KTV duets....

Friendship.....

Movember........

Cute Christmas.....

Taipei Christmas....

Thailand vacation...

Koh Phi Phi

Hong Kong Trip

Hilarious children's cries.. life is so tough

Favourites

Teacher Amanda will never forget you!

Cute Halloween

Cute Batman

My older girls in Treehouse.. I'll miss you!

Avicii concert...

Dustin and Mom's visit....

Highlight forsure..

Scootering...

Meeting my beautiful students...

Friends!!

Bye bye Taipei!!! It's been a slice!

See you next week family and friends!!!

Things I'll miss the most

Yesterday, while on our way to the beach a friend asked me "What will you miss the most about Taiwan?" and my answer was: you guys!  I think what I will miss the most are the people we have met here and the fun times we've had.  We have had the privilege of meeting awesome folks from different parts of the world, and they have made this experience all that much better!  Thank you all for being awesome and making living abroad a great experience!

Mary's rooftop has been our main hangout spot this year!

The many faces of Larry Keaty....

Countless KTV duets....

Taylor and I

Miss Maroney and I, not sure what I will do without her

They are too much fun

Leave it to Mark to ruin the picture

Man massages.......

Serenades.......

So happy together.....

Beach days.....

Sandman.....

Happiness in the sand!

 

So many great times we've had with great people this year.  Mark and I are grateful to have met everyone of you.  The hardest part about traveling is meeting such great people, and then not knowing when or if you will ever see them again.  Hopefully we will see some of you again, but it's doubtful we will all be together again in the same place. We will miss you all dearly!

Heat and Sun

I must apologize for the lack of blogging lately, no excuse other than my laziness.  Life updates:  Well, summer is here, and the temperatures are soaring.  The weather here is so funny.  It literally went from raining like crazy every day to sunny and scorching hot everyday.  We actually got a day off school in early June due to torrential downpours and flooding.  The overnight storm and constant thunder kept waking me up all night long, it was some of the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard!

An umbrella does next to nothing when it's raining this hard.

 Then all the sudden, snap! It’s sunny! The cloudy, every day rainy weather sure brought my mood down and I can safely say, since the sun has been shining, I am a lot happier!  We weren’t able to get to the beach that often in May and June because it was miserable out, so since the shift in weather we have managed to get to the beach 3 times in the past few weeks.  As I type this, my computer is showing that it is 36 degrees outside and sunny and obviously stupidly humid.  You would probably melt if you didn’t have air conditioning in your apartment, which I’m pretty sure is unheard of here.  The forcast is calling for highs of 34-35 everyday, which I’m sure won’t change until September or October.  This is the heat I remember from last summer when I first got here, but I think this time around I am more used to it. 

What have we been up to? Hmm.. well Mark’s uncle who he hadn’t seen in 10 years came to Taipei on business at the end of June.  We spent some time with him, taking him around Taipei and to the beach before he returned home.  Funny that their first meeting in 10 years happened to be across the globe in Taipei.  I think Mark was very happy to spend time with him, and I was happy to meet him!

Mark and his Uncle Tony

We are in full swing of taking advantage of the ocean that is an hour away.  Most weekends we take the hour and twenty minute train ride to the beach and spend a few hours there.  On the weekend, you most likely do not get a seat on the train, and it is soo packed! 

People have to stand in the aisle when all the seats are taken

Mark and I crammed behind two seats, sitting on the floor of the train

But it's worth the uncomfortable journey in the end

Time here is beginning to wind down.  In less than one week I will be finished a class that I teach 8 hours a week, so I will be down to teaching only 16 hours a week until I go home.  I will probably be very bored with such minimal hours, but I will have lots of time to be organizing and packing up our life here.  Crazy how much you accumulate in a year.  I will be throwing A LOT of stuff out.  You can only fit so much into 2 suitcases!  Thinking we may need more luggage….  Every week that passes, it hits me more and more that I will be closing this chapter of my life and it’ll be over.  It’s really getting weird.  I have been looking forward to going home for months now, and now that it is coming up so soon, its kind of freaking me out a bit.  A lot has changed at home over the past year.  Its funny when you leave for a year everyone says “It’s only a year, everything will be the same when you get back”, this has not been the case, a LOT has changed over the past year, so I will need a few weeks to adjust and settle into life at home.  I am truly looking forward to catching up with family and friends, I miss you all sooo much!  It’s surreal to me that I’ll actually be seeing you all so soon!

I’m going to fully enjoy the rest of my time here!  Going to take full advantage of the amazing food for CHEAP, cheap prices, I’m sure going to miss that!  Will visit the beach as much as possible, and will enjoy time with friends.  Time is flying…..

Winnipeg is going to seem oh so quiet and tame compared to life here

25th Birthday

 

I am now officially a quarter century old.  Feels a bit weird because when I was a little girl I thought I'd be an "adult", married with two kids by 25 years old.  Boy was I wrong! 

As I have a weird obsession with staying in hotels, I asked Mark to buy get me a hotel room for the night by the beach as a present.  I found a nice place online and booked it with his credit card, muhahahah, thanks babe!  I had been looking forward to our get away all month, and when the weekend finally came, I was overcome with a fever and sore throat.  Barely being able to move, I still managed to make the trek to our hotel.  All I envisioned on the way there was that I would have a king size bed to rest in and a bathtub to soak in, and that sounded rather lovely when I wasn't feeling good.  Our room was amazing.  It overlooked the beach, had a huge bathtub, sauna, HUGE bathroom and TV (which is a luxury in itself).  Unfortunately it was a rainy weekend, so we didn't get any use of the outside pool, but I was quite content staying in the marvelous room and resting.

The outside of the hotel

The gorgeous, although gloomy view from our room.

We like robes!

Tuesday being my actual birthday, Mark and I planned to go out for dinner at a delicious pizza restaurant.  I randomly had the day off, and was primped and ready to get the party started when Mark got home.  He walked in the door and I instantly knew there would be no party.  He had come down with a fever that afternoon.  The same damn fever I suffered from 3 days earlier.  Once he hit the bed, I knew he wouldn't be up to going out for dinner.  So, I instead spent my 25th birthday eating gross takeout pizza and yummy cake in bed while nursing Mark's fever.  We are going to try dinner round 2 next Tuesday and pretend it's my birthday again, and hopefully we are both healthy this time around!  Birthdays are just another day on the calendar, and I still got to spend it with the one I love, even though he was half dead!  Better luck next year!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes, cards and cake!  I truly appreciate it!