The past couple weeks have been uneventful but fulfilling; the kind of time you can use to just sit, relax, and be happy. I feel refreshed and comfortable with everything right now. People keep asking me about getting a job: "have you found one yet?" "are you looking hard?", and to that I have a story for you and some personal reflection to follow (pull up a seat).

I know a few of you have already heard this story, but here goes. I left my last school knowing full well I am planning on coming back to Canada in June/July regardless of whether I get into teacher's college or not, and I know that any job I find now is going to be a) a part-time/under-the-table job, or b) a real job with a year-long contract I am going to have to break in a few months. I have been looking around but not really sure on what was going to happen yet.

I had an interview at a high school last week. They were interviewing and demoing all week and I thought I only did a mediocre job of it, so I wrote it off as a miss and carried on. It was high school anyway, and I don't know how I feel about it. I've never taught high school, and while I'm sure I could do it, I don't know if I could do it well. It was also 8:00-5:00 weekdays plus test writing and marking, so I wouldn't have much time to do anything else, and the reason I had decided to leave my other school was so I could experience "Taiwan" instead of "a city like Toronto only with less English".

So at the end of last week they called me and offered me a job. I was a little surprised so I asked if I could have a day to think it over but he said he needed to know then because they had others on the list. I turned them down. The key reason being I'd have to break the contract. He seemed like a really great guy and they were going to go above what many, many schools are willing to do here, and I just couldn't walk into it knowing I would be leaving halfway through.

I felt good with myself that I made the ethical choice for about ten minutes then I regretted it hard. For the rest of the night I felt like a complete idiot but a good talk with my mom brought me back to my original goal: enjoying the rest of my time in Taiwan.

I figure I have worked hard over the past year and a half, and have had many pretty heavy stresses in my life for even longer. Call it a copout to avoid responsibility, but I think I will look for some privates to tutor and just take it easy. I have been exceptionally happy since leaving JacksonFive and moving to Fengyuan, and I really wouldn't mind keeping it more or less this way until I come home.

I have been riding around on the scooter, taking the train to different cities I have not yet visited, exercising, eating better, and overall just doing much better. I really am happy right now, and I can't wait to get back to Canada. I have been feeling the need/desire to go back the past couple months, but I am not quite done here yet. I really look forward to seeing everyone!

Fanny and I went to Sinshe and Dongshih near the start of the month; I added some pictures from that to the Fengyuan gallery. I went to Miaoli this past Tuesday but it was pretty uneventful (I didn't even take any photos).