Work is going well. Not astoundingly well, but a solid improvement from a month and a half ago. My student numbers are up, my 3rd semester class has finished reading a 40 page Aladdin book, and I don’t really have any lazy students anymore.
The social life has been good, too. There are [...]

What a painful day it was at work yesterday. On Thursday night, I got an email from Martin, saying that there was a bread-maker with my name on it at his place. Since he was leaving for Japan the next day, I headed over right away.
The apartment looked like some sort of disaster [...]

Last night, Rika threw a dinner party over at my place. Since she and Martin already sold most of their things, including their refrigerator, to the Tealit vultures, she had to make the food over at my place. I’ve been really busy with work recently… but hey, they’re leaving and the party needed [...]

On Saturday, Martin and Rika sold all their stuff to the “Tealit vultures”. Within one day of posting an ad on Tealit, Martin got over 80 emails from people interested in buying the stuff he couldn’t take with him to Canada. It sounds great, but he didn’t call them “vultures” for nothing. [...]

I guess I’ve always organized and remembered my experiences based upon who was around me at least as much as upon what I was doing. My first couple of years in Taiwan were difficult in several ways. That time ended when I started working at Modawei, though. More than anything else, I [...]

Tonight I went to a Harbin restaurant that Martin found a few weeks ago. The cool thing about this restaurant is that the laoban actually is from Harbin. Unlike the other Chinese restaurants I’ve been to in Taiwan, this one is pretty authentic. There were great lamb kabobs, quite a few potato [...]

Last week, I was hanging out with two of my best friends in Taiwan- Martin and Nathan. Both of them are philosophy majors, strangely enough. Anyway, the conversation turned to will power, somehow, and Martin told me that my experience gaining weight over the last few years was eye-opening for him. He’d [...]

Today was a day that only comes once every few years. I was so absent minded that I managed to make Martin seem like some sort of organization and efficiency guru. Considering the lady who runs the local zăo cān diàn by the MRT said, “啊, 馬丁! 那個很糊塗的那個老外.認識!” when I asked if she’d [...]

Last night I had the uncomfortable experience of reinforcing some negative stereotypes about lăowài. I’ve been hurt by these stereotypes in the past, and I hate to perpetuate them. Back when I’d only been living in Táibĕi for three months, I was kicked out of my apartment with very little notice because my [...]

Last night, I went back to Taibei to play chess with my old co-workers. It’s kinda scary, really. They’ve all been playing regularly, Martin’s been reading books on strategy, and I fully expect to get left way behind in terms of ability shortly. Mike W. was there, though and the topic turned [...]