Tag: taichung

September 19, 2018

Where (And How) to Learn Languages Abroad

About a year ago, I began seeing a tutor to learn a fair bit of Mandarin.  The whole situation lasted about five months, before things were cut off and we both went separate ways.  In that time, I made it through two and a half textbooks.  So I like to tell people I learned what I like to call “survival Chinese”.  I can order food, drinks, read numbers and basic signs, and ask for help for specific things.  I recognize about 40% of what is said, and from what I do know how to say, I say it correctly.  Only 50% of the time.  Like I said, survival Chinese.  I’m proud of it, even if I didn’t get as far as I originally intended to at the beginning of it all.
September 16, 2018

Crazy Girls Racing In the Rain

A few weekends ago, the city of Taichung was informed that we would be having no work or classes.  That meant for the first time in my entire time here, I had a three day weekend that wasn’t a scheduled holiday.  Businesses and malls would be open, but I would not have anywhere or anyone to see.  No classes to teach.  Nothing.  And ironically, it also happened to be the same week I finished my latest manuscript and had given myself a proper break from writing my books.  I decided there was only one thing to do: reevaluate.
September 12, 2018

That Time We Stood On A Fortress

About a year and a half ago, one of my best friends and I traveled by train down to Kaohsiung.  We were going away for the weekend to the hottest city in Taiwan.  It was, admittedly, the first time I had ever booked a hotel in my life without my mom or dad assisting.  Aside from the moment I stepped away from my family at the airport two years ago, I like to think of that weekend in Kaohsiung as one of the first times I really felt like a responsible adult.
September 8, 2018

Why I Went Vegan (Again)

Way back when at the age of twenty-one, I was seeing a girl who was deep into veganism.  It was, honestly, the first time I had seen or heard anything about it.  And I was intrigued by the idea.  At the time, I was a little oblivious and ignorant to my own needs.  I thought I was healthy and continually found myself in a pattern.  I’d lose weight, get real close to where I wanted to be, and then I’d falter back, ending up right back where I started.  I was unhappy, not healthy, and I needed a change.