TAIWAN

Nihao! Wow I can't believe this blog has been in 'hibernation' for more than one year! Well, actually I can as I've spent all of 2007 & half of 2008 not traveling, but living and working in Taiwan as an English teacher. Most of my time has been spent living in the capital of Taipei and working Mon-Friday 130-700pm(great hours!) week after week...A big part of my life has been as 'Teacher Jeffrey' to 10 rowdy age nine 3rd-graders & 19 age eleven 4th-graders..These are very smart kids who go to Chinese school and then come to my private school to study English with U.S. textbooks in Spelling,Literature,Social Studies, & Language Arts. It was certainly a challenge trying to keep young children staying focused for the long(2 & 3 hour!) classes. Hopefully they learned something from me!
When I wasn't teaching I was chilling in my tiny rooftop studio in the University(Shida) district right next to a busy nightmarket. I also spent time with a few very special friends whom I went swimming, biking the river trails, and exploring the city with. As my studio didn't have a kitchen I basically ate out every meal. As a vegetarian, Taiwan is a great place to be as there are numerous inexpensive veg buffets to choose from.
It was also nice not having to have a vehicle(although there are 23 million people in Taiwan & 11 million scooters!) as I took the convenient Bus system to get to the great MRT(Metro) which I took to work everyday.
I quit my job June 20th & decided to circle the island as I rarely had gotten out of Taipei while working. I first went to the stunning East Coast & visited my buddy Justin & his big pet pig Noah(Justin had encouraged me to move to Taiwan & I lived with him for two months on arrival) I bought a cheap bike & then biked 165 kilometers down the beautiful coastline heading south. After camping 3 nights I left the bike in the town of Taitung & got a Bus to the big southwestern port city of Kaoshiung to stay with my buddy Cato. Cato introduced my to all his soccer buddies & my liver took a beating but we had lots of fun. From there it was on Tainan where I spent time with my buddy Abe & a few other hip friends (I took over Abe's teaching job in Taipei when he moved south to work on his doctorate)
Finally, it was the train back to Taipei where I spent one night with Mr. Brian Funshine & his wife Jenna & 2 nights with the sweet & lovely Lucy before taking off for the airport & Thailand on July 4th. Taiwan is a very special place with cosmopolitan big cities, lots of pristine Nature, & friendly people. I plan on coming back to live & teach, probably in the south with more sunshine than Taipei, when my new travels are over.