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Not a whole lot to report on, but I figure it's been a while.

It flew past me without notice, but the 8th was the one-year anniversary of my arrival on the Beautiful Island. Part of me feels I have been here forever but the bigger part really can't imagine it's been that long. Really can't believe it.

Kind of an awkward paragraph to follow that last one, but the last week was a "not a fan of Taiwan" week, but it seems the worst of it is over. I am in a better mood and things are generally looking up again for the time being. I got my applications for Toronto and Ottawa sent off and I will find out how I did in April. I have been spending my days getting out a little more although I have little time between classes and usually all I want to do is relax when I do have some time off.

I got a raise last week, nearly putting me in the "tell me again why am I going back to Canada?" salary range. Really makes little sense. I can save a load of money here now that I have established myself and have all I need. What I want chips away at it a little, but still, I will be fine for a while when I come home.

Still going to the Chinese doctor and I am now fully convinced that this is the way to good health. I have never felt better and any persistant problems I have are easily remedied though whatever selective mix of seaweed and mountain mushrooms they give me. Tastes terrible, but if you can cure what ails me, so be it. I might even say I am becoming more and more apprehensive about Western doctors/medicine. Yeah, me. Never thought I would see the day, but there you go. I asked about taking courses to learn how to do it but they don't accept foreigners. I will be most definitely looking into it when I get back to Canada.

I've been looking into taking Chinese classes in the mornings before school. I found a place that is 10-12 AM every day and I have put it off for way too long. I may or may not have the use for working Chinese in my future -- you never know. Japanese hasn't been all that useful to me, but it's been fun. I will feel like a complete mook if I come back knowing not much more than "elevator going up" and "Santa Claus".

Also a quick reminder that Christmas is coming up. Packages and letters take a little longer around Christmas time, so if you were planning on adding a little cheer to my otherwise non-existant holiday season, soon's the time to act. If you are of the persuation of folk that I am to purchase a gift for, let me know what you would like so I can at least pretend like I know what to get you (I also have to be able to get it in Taiwan, or be able to order it online). Alsoooo, I will be sending out cards again, so if I didn't send you one last year let me know you want one and I will include you in the fun this time around.

That's about it, but I also want to drop a quick shout out to my Grandpa Al, who after how many years has finally bit it and learned how to send email. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks, yeah?

Happy Halloween! This will be the first time in my life I don't have a real Halloween. I don't even get to have a fake Halloween: my boss is a little overzealous about being a born-again Christian so we are not allowed to celebrate at the school. Not going to stop me from giving them candy, designing Jack-o-Lanterns and talking about Halloween though! Halloween is a big part of North American culture--maybe even the second favourite holiday next only to Christmas--so why shouldn't they learn about it?

I had some free passes left over from when we took the Polar Bears swimming in the summer so yesterday I went for a swim at Shuang Ho Water World. I am so out of shape. After just an hour of moderately paced lengths I thought I was going to pass out. Tells me I need to do a little more exercise, heh.

PTAs were this weekend too so last night all the teachers went out to a shabu shabu restaurant (that was really not any different from the usual hot pot less the individual soup pots) but still so great. Perfect for a cold day.

The temperature yesterday was a chilly 16°C; enough for me to put on a long pants and a sweater. I just couldn't seem to be able to warm up last night, so I even broke out the huge comforter usually reserved for cold winter nights. Mom had mentioned she was going to do a lot of winterizing yesterday because it was going to be 16°. The weather here is still humid and damp in the colder months, so it's more of a "to the bone" cold; the kind that is hard to warm up from. I might get a space heater this year. I nearly froze to death last winter.

Alsoooo I am thinking of applying to teacher's college for Sept. 2006! And by thinking of I mean I am going to try to get my applications in for the deadline of Dec. 1st. I am applying to Brock, University of Toronto and University of Ottawa. After one year at any of these three schools I will have my Certificate of Qualification from the Ontario College of Teachers and a B.Ed degree. I think my experience is a little thin than the usual applicant, but hopefully it will be enough.

I can hear someone beating up their kid from outside the window and it is really throwing me off. The kid is screaming and I can actually hear the guy's hand repeatedly connecting with the little boy.

From what I hear it is common enough here but to hear it so publicly, wow. I am not a huge fan.

This week has been relatively uneventful. Nina has been acting a lot better since I put my foot down. After she broke my new C$80+ shaver I decided she simply cannot be left free in the apartment when I am not home so we have a new compromise: when I am not at home she is in her cage and when I am home she is out and always stocked with fresh rawhide bones. Been working well so far; I am proud of her.

The weather is finally cooling down a bit, and I even find myself wearing long pants at night sometimes. We have used up all our holidays until Christmas, and even then it is not even a day off. Thank goodness it is on a Sunday--I can't imagine working on Christmas.

So this weekend was a huge bust. Here was the way the plans went for this weekend trip:

1) Go to Hong Kong Disneyland [too expensive, too busy]
2) Go to Green Island [no tickets/rooms available]
3) Go to Kenting (say it like kun-ding)

So we settled there. Regine's friends said it would be no problem to find a hotel down there, even though it is the last long weekend before summer and Kenting is the most popular beach town in the entire country and nearly 1/5 of everyone I talked to was going down (and had a room or two booked). I voiced my concern, but nope, it'd be a piece of cake.

I heard Kenting is a 3-hour drive south--way south--at the very southern tip of Taiwan. We left at 11 AM Saturday morning and arrived at 5 PM. For those of you with less than stellar math skills, that's twice as long as I was expecting. We walked around for 10 minutes and realized every hotel was booked, so we split up. Half an hour later we got the call that we were going to give up on Kenting and head back up to Kaohsiung. We got to Kaohsiung at 10:00 and left at 11:00 after realizing there was no vacancies anywhere in the third largest city in the country. So we drove to Tainan, where we found a double-room at a, um, motel, that is usually used for purposes other than sleeping (the beds faced each other and the complete bathroom was separated only by a piece of slightly frosted glass).

We woke up and checked out at noon, had some lunch and saw a building. I forget what it was called, but when the Dutch settled in the 1600s they built a fortress there, then when Koxinga came from China he fought them out. From a quick history check it could have been Fort Zeelandia (安平古堡) but I would have to ask Fanny to be sure. You can read up more if you are interested here and here. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera because it was pretty cool.

Then we drove home. I spent near 16 hours in the car in two days on a tiny ass island going in circles. Although it was a complete failure, it was still manageable because at least I enjoyed the company. I would have snapped if it was with people I didn't like.