Yes, I'm still alive...

I've been a bad, bad blogger... (I knew it would only be a matter of time!) I've been so busy in the last couple of weeks that I just haven't had a chance to sit down and write (also, the fact that I don't have a computer at home kind of limits the time I have available to be online). So, sorry about that and I will do my best to fill you in on what's been going on recently!
Last weekend Nick and I went to Hong Kong. Taiwan had a national holiday on Tuesday, so we didn't have work Monday or Tuesday and Nick needed to make the trip to get his visa. We left Saturday afternoon and returned late Tuesday night. We didn't do a lot (and unfortunately I haven't put my pictures on the computer yet, so they're not included in this post). Sunday we found a huge indoor mall and walked around. I didn't buy anything because the stores included the likes of Versace, Tiffany's, Chanel, Valentino, Prada, Gucci, Manolo Blahnik, to name a few. We did go into a few of the stores and the workers looked like we were going to rob the place, so we refrained. The lady in Tiffany's actually pretended to be cleaning the counters, following us all over the store! Anyway, after a long day of shopping (looking) we went to a movie (Chuck and Larry - hillarious) and headed back to the hotel. Monday we spent a good deal of the morning in the Taiwan Visa office, then did some more walking around in the afternoon. The skyline of Hong Kong is amazing. The city is full of skyscrapers, but mountains jut up right behind the enormous buildings (I have pictures). It's very cool. Monday night we made our way to the mainland area called "Kowloon" to do some sightseeing and check out some of the Mid-Autumn Festival goings on. We had some of the best gelato I've ever had and walked along the piers. On Tuesday we picked up Nick's visa, did a whole bunch more shopping (in a BIT less pricey mall, but still stinking expensive), then caught our flight out. I think we'll plan to go back to Hong Kong at some point, although next time hopefully armed with a travel guide and a plan!
After we got back, it was a lot of catching up on sleep and work at school.
Yesterday (Friday) was my 26th (I'm old) birthday. My friend at work gave me the best desert ever (a HUGE bowl of fresh cut-up mangoes, pineapples, bananas, and strawberries with a small scoop of chocolate ice cream on top), my boss bought me a cake (the cakes here are really elaborate and wonderful), the people Nick and I are staying with also got me a much smaller cake and sang me "Happy Birthday" in English and Chinese, and Nick gave me some speakers for my iPod. Aside from the fact that I had to meet my 11pm curfew (yes, I am 26 years old and have an 11:00 curfew - needless to say, I'm looking for my own apartment!), it was a pretty good day.
Today (Saturday) I successfully rode my new scooter into town and got a smoothie and didn't fall off or run into anything!!! : ) I was super excited! I'll be taking over the scooter and riding it full time in a few days (once I have a little more practice). Not much else to report on, except that I will start to go apartment hunting next week and hope to find a solution QUICKLY! Those of you that know me at all know that I am not handling the "curfew" thing well and that a wild animal just can't be caged! : ) I'm totally kidding about that last part.
Anyway, thanks for all of the bday wishes I've already received. I hope to be posting ALL of my Taiwan/Hong Kong pictures soon, and I hope to continue to hear from everyone! Love you all!

Scooter fun!!!

Quite a great day to report! I met my new friend Jennifer for a mini-tour of the town and a scooter lesson. The first great thing of the day was lunch! I had spaghetti with meat sauce, just like back home! (Although, no spaghetti will ever be as good as my mom's.) The simple idea that a specific food is rare makes it taste all that much better. I ate it all, even though I was full.
After lunch, we walked down Jung-Shan Road (one of the main roads in town) and she pointed out several good stores to shop in. There is actually a "Body Shop" here! We went in some clothing stores and a candy shop : ) (The big thing here with candy is to make it in the shape of poop! Quite hillarious!) We also went to a grocery store near my school where they sell some American products (think Nature Valley granola bars, Frosted Flakes, etc.)
When we were done shopping, we went to a large parking lot for my first scooter lesson. I consider it a HUGE success because I neither fell off, nor ran into anything or anyone. Apparently, that's kind of a right of passage for all foreigners at some point : ) The scooters (while can be dangerous) are lots of fun. I'm excited to really get comfortable on one so I can have my own (which I will drive very, very slowly, probably for the entire year - don't worry mom).
So, all in all, a great day! Now just going to have some dinner, head home, and maybe catch a shower after my long day of sweating (it seems if I do nothing else here, I sweat!). I feel like I should also mention the fact that I used my first Chinese word in class yesterday. I don't know how to spell it (or even if I pronounced it correctly) but it means: understand? Very exciting moment for me!
I hope all is well with everyone and look forward to hearing from you!

Mailing address

Anyone who needs to mail me anything (as you all know, my birthday is coming up!) can send it to the following address:

Katie Starkweather
c/o Universe American School
219 Minguo Road
Chiayi, Taiwan
R.O.C.

There will always be someone there to sign for all mail!

Keep the comments and emails coming - I miss you all (and I miss the very bland food)!!! : )

Side Note

I forgot to mention that I apparently slept through an earthquake my first night here! It measured 6.5 and I didn't even know it happened until the next day!!! : )

Ok, probably another short one... So, I've been here almost a full 5 days, and things are QUITE different! I'm slowly starting to learn my way around and just got a brand new Giant bike to get to and from school on. Hopefully a scooter will be next, as it takes me about 25 minutes one way and by the time I get there I am literally DRENCHED in sweat! The bike is awesome, though. I paid about $100 US for what would have cost $1000-1500US back home!!! Can't beat that!
I've been at my school for two days now, mostly observing, although I got thrown into teaching a class today. It went fine, but my goodness - I am going to be so exhausted from all of the disciplining by the end of every day!!! Some of the kids are very naughty! The school is a very good one - very organized and professional. One major positive is that I've made friends with one of the teachers, Jennifer. She's from Toronto, has been here four years and unfortunately will be leaving in about a month. She's great, though, because she's offered to show Nick and I around the city and teach us how to ride scooters. She even has a couple of scooters we may buy from her when she leaves. Very nice to have someone who knows the ropes and can give me all the important inside info!
So, the most interesting thing so far has been all of the "food"... My first night here we went for some fast food (Chinese fast food) and in with the raw beef and pork were cow stomach and intestines!!! Lesson #1 Only order things that I know (like beef, pork, chicken...) Then at the grocery store, not only did they have live swimming fish in tanks (some of you know how I enjoyed that), they also had pig stomach and a bowl full of cold water and raw HEARTS in the meat counter! WOW! It gives a whole new meaning to Chinese food, yes?
Well, this has turned out longer than I thought it would (mostly because I've been waiting for someone to come guide me home - I don't know the way yet). Anyway, thanks so much for all of the nice emails and notes! I miss you all and hope to hear from you soon!

I'm here!

Well, I've made it safe and sound. While it was a LONG trip (24 hours total) and I've had about 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, I'm happy to be here and get started with everything. So far, I've been on my first scooter ride, tried several new foods that I still have no clue as to what they actually were, and have been almost all around the city (although, most of that was on the scooter, holding on for dear life, so I didn't absorb much of what I saw). I will have to write more later when I've had some sleep. I look forward to hearing from everyone!