Monday, June 9, 2008

tonight i will be miss taiwan

so this blog is to keep y'all posted about the happenings of my adventures in taiwan and otherwise.

so, here's the plan. i come to utah for training and certification in ILP's unique form of teaching English to foreign speakers next week. from salt lake city, we leave to taiwan about a week and a half later. i will be living in FENG YUAN CITY, which is in TAICHUNG COUNTY. (ps capitalization is so you can know where to look on map below for TAICHUNG.)

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there, i will live for six months. i will even spend christmas there. housing is provided by the school, as is airfare. so, hurray! i hear that the people in taiwan are very friendly, and also very inclusive towards foreigners. so, though i only know how to say "thank you" in mandarin (sher sher), i think i will be fine.

the school also provides bicycles to its employees from america. i am very grateful for that, and to get the heck away from my car for six months. the prices of gas and the amount of time i have spent in traffic lately could cause me to swear. but since my grandparents will probably read this, i will spare you.

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as the time rapidly approaches for me to go, i find myself running around like a crazy person, trying to fit in time to spend with family, friends, the dog, preperation, paperwork, etc. as of late, i have been apartment mystery shopping, and babysitting for the well-to-do-folks on mercer island, WA lately for cash. it's pretty cool: all the kids have been great fun and their homes are even gorgeous so it's been double fun to babysit them.

from reading to kids, i have learned a good deal about pirates (you know, the 3rd pirates movie, while being completely trippy and an exersice in glamour pirate photography, was historically accurate in some ways), and dinosaurs. for instance, i had no idea that a kids book about dinosaurs could feature so much illustrated blood and not have a parental warning label on it. nor did i ever wonder if people who get turned down for jobs as story boarders with slash-horror movies go into illustration for children's nonfiction.

the mystery apartment shopping has been interesting. in most instances, i get to pretend that i actually have some money to lay down on my own place. plus, i have gotten to tour some fabulous apartment communities in downtown seattle. if you are ever in the market and the income bracket to afford the $2,000/month required to live in Harbor Steps, i'd suggest it. the community is like its own little world, with 3 fitness centers, on-site personal trainers, restaurant, and yoga studio. AND amazing views of the puget sound to boot. THAT apartment shop was worth every lie i was telling about myself: that i was a young manager with a sales company based out of utah that had hit it big and was expanding. hey, plausible enough, right? anyone who has been in utah, idaho or california during the spring could say, "well, yeeeeeah."

and finally, i wouldn't feel complete about a post on missymeaygghan's blogspot without smacking some youtube videos on here. on friday, the family had dinner together to celebrate the youngest bro's completion of high school. grandma shugey, who had seen the equipment required for the video game "rock band" for some time, wanted to see how it worked. because of that, i learned that the only rock concert that my dad went to in high school was mountain's, and he heard "mississippi queen" live. way to go dad!



and plus, because courtney love is in many ways catchy in that obnoxious but endearing to any woman who grew up in The Grunge Area during The Grunge and Post-Grunge Era, i have that "hole" song stuck in my head.....you may or may not want to click on the video below. just three seconds of it has the power to stay in your mind for three whole days.....

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