home again, home again

Getting my visa was the easiest part of my Chicago/Indianapolis trip. On Monday, I went to the office and turned in the papers, and on Tuesday, I went back and they gave me my passport with my visitor visa in it. Just like that.

View from the Taipei Representative Office on the 57th floor.

This is not to say, however, that the rest of the trip was somehow difficult or trying. It was in fact incredibly liberating and enjoyable. This was the first time I'd gone somewhere where I was totally on my own in everything, from booking places to stay to finding where to park my car, to figuring out where I needed to go and what to bring. I had to do everything on my own (although a shout-out goes to my family who provided me with tips and helpful information during planning stages).


And the really cool thing was, I didn't fail. Like, not at all. I never got lost, I got everywhere on time and without mishaps, I stayed fed and hydrated and didn't lose any of my stuff or have it stolen, and I never got ticketed or towed for parking in the wrong place. It may seem like a small thing, managing your own life competently, but I've done very little of it on a large scale and I'm proud of how well I did it. It makes me feel like I can manage this Taiwan thing, too.


Which, by the way, I kinda have to now, since I booked my plane ticket and will be flying off on July 4th at noon. I need you guys to all enjoy Independence Day for me, okay? :)


Driving away from Chicago, I remember pining for it, wishing I could stay longer. I was sad to leave. I loved the activity, the authenticity, and how despite being such a large city, every corner of it felt open and within reach. Anywhere I wanted to go, I could--just hop on the train and wait for the right stop. A few blocks over, and voila, instant adventure. I love that about cities and crowded suburbs, that when there are so many people living and working in close proximity the streets and roads and railways start to feel like veins, the people like blood cells circulating through a body of bricks and steel and cement and paint. Everywhere I went, there were new people, new foods, new fashions, new perspectives of how to experience and express individual life through dress, speech, food, architecture, music. Every step was an enrichment.


I hope to find this kind of thing in Taiwan, circulating through the streets and railways of Taipei and Hsin Jhuang and anywhere else I go. I want to be an international human blood cell, hopping from geographic body to body and learning from each new ways of saying "I am human and alive!" through personal expression, whether it's dress or food or speech or where we choose to live.


I'm scared of the change, but I can't wait to see what I learn about the human experience from Taiwan.


Chicago Trip: Concluded!

Day 1, Saturday June 23

Drive to Indianapolis. (Check!)

Day 2, Sunday June 24

Play "tourist" in Indianapolis. (Check!)

Drive to Chicago, arrive that evening. (Check!)

Day 3, Monday June 25

Submit visa application at Taipei Representative Office that morning. (Check!)

Play "tourist" the rest of the day. (Check!)

Day 4, Tuesday June 26

Pick up visa. (CHECK!)

Drive home. (Check, and Done!)

mode of transportation

I have noticed that Chicagoans really like biking. And, if they're not biking, they're jogging. Through parks, along streets, down sidewalks, everywhere. The main forms of exercise around here seem to be jogging and biking. Sensible people.


In other news, I love public transportation. I was worried about it when I first got on the train this morning. By noon I was explaining how the Red Line works and which stops went where to a couple of older gentlemen who asked me at the crosswalk. I don't quite use the train like a vet, but I've been on and off five or six times already, used at least two lines (Red and Orange) and I can tell you it is one of my favorite modes of transportation. It's quick, it's efficient, and there's none of this "Was that my turn I just missed? Why are all these streets one-way? Where the heck do I park my car?!" nonsense I run into when driving. Nope. I get on a train, I ride it to my stop, I get off, I walk.

Also, I have not once gotten lost. I've been turned around, as in I find I'm walking down the right street in the wrong direction, but I've not had a single moment of "Okay, where am I?!". I almost can't believe it. I'm notoriously bad with directions, although I'm starting to think that's only in cars, where things move too fast for me to think about where I'm going and notice landmarks. I'm taking to this train/walking thing like a fish in water. It's making me a lot less nervous about adapting to city life and a public transit system in Taiwan--even though all that will be in a completely different language.

I really like Chicago. It's like Squirrel Hill in Pennsylvania, but with attitude. I like how many different people you encounter on an hourly basis, whether it's walking by them on the street or sitting by them on the train. I see people in business suits and street clothes, high heels and sandals, people with backpacks and books and purses and shopping bags. (Sidenote: Chicagoans are really well-read. I saw one person reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and another reading "Crime and Punishment.") I've only been here one day, but I like the city a lot, and I kinda wish Groupon had picked me up for that job so I could live here.

I had tons of plans for things to do, and only did two: turn in my visa application materials and visit the aquarium. The first was easier than expected, and the second was incredibly fun. There were so many crazy kinds of fish, and a tank of sharks, and an entire exhibit about jellyfish called "Jellies." :3 The whole experience made me laugh and giggle like a kid. Even though there are things in the ocean that can bite, sting, poison, and generally injure me, I really love it and just watching fish swim around in a giant tank makes me grin. I want to jump in with them and swim!

In front of the Caribbean tank.

 Seahorses! Napping.

Clownfish wiggling around in a sea anemone. 

Sea lion! 

Jellyfish. 

Upsidedown jellyfish. And a snail.

Tomorrow I pick up my visa and head home. Six hour drive, ugh. I'm going to try to swing by the American Girl store before hitting the road. I need an "American Girl: Chicago" doll shirt to go with the "American Girl: New York" one I got eight years ago!

Day 1, Saturday June 23

Drive to Indianapolis. (Check!)

Day 2, Sunday June 24

Play "tourist" in Indianapolis. (Check!)

Drive to Chicago, arrive that evening. (Check!)

Day 3, Monday June 25

Submit visa application at Taipei Representative Office that morning. (Check!)

Play "tourist" the rest of the day. (Check!)

Day 4, Tuesday June 26

Pick up visa (hopefully!).

Drive home.

chicago

I have arrived! Chicago traffic is not fun, but the city is lovely (what I've seen of it) and well worth the wait to get in.

Indy Hostel and interior.

I left Indy Hostel at around 10am, heading for Planet Fitness to get in a 2mile run and some weightlifting. Exercise always makes me feel better, and it was nice to be in a place I'm familiar with. I showered, packed, and went to get something to eat. Fortunately there were restaurants in the same plaza, although the Greek restaurant I went into first was disappointing, and I left quickly after. Nobody greeted me, and I got the feeling I'd be waiting on my food for a while. Instead I went to the nearby coffee and bake shop, which was AWESOME. I got ham and swiss quiche and two giant scones that were soft, bread-y, and full of nuts and craisins. Yum!

Next I went to CVS and got my passport/visa photos taken. One less thing to do!My next stop was the Children's Museum, which was recommended to me by a girl at the Indy Hostel. It was pretty cool! I was only there for an hour, but I got to see some neat stuff.
I went through the dinosaur exhibit first, and watched a bit of a presentation for kids on different kinds of dinosaurs and how to identify what they ate by their teeth. It was so cute, the kids were very excited!

Dinosaurs under a dome sky with realistic clouds.

Next was an exhibit about lost treasures of the world, like the Chinese Terracotta soldiers and Egyptian mummies. My favorite by far was the part about Captain Kidd's lost ship, which was apparently discovered only recently in 2007. There were real sunken ship finds displayed in fresh-water aquariums, which were being preserved in water because they were so saturated with salt and minerals that drying them out would damage them. There was also an actual cannon from the ship that's supposedly that of Captain Kidd. It was being treated to fresh water and electricity to break down the mineral and salt damage.

 

They also had on display the real whip and hat used in the Indiana Jones movies. I also went to a display of glass by Chihuly, for which they had a central sitting place that slowly rotated so you could look at the designs sitting behind glass on the ceiling. It was really cool. There was also a Chihuly display that reached (I kid you not) from the bottom floor to the third story.
Pictures of these will be included when I get to some internet that works better. :(


After that I got on the road to Chicago. Here's where roadtrips get tricky for me: I am not a huge fan of driving for long distances. Two hours is my limit for enjoying a drive, at which point I get bored and start worrying about things like how much gas I'm burning into the atmosphere, or whether I'm going to get there before my leg starts hurting pushing the gas peddle. (I have no cruise control, which means I get muscle cramps in the unlucky leg doing the driving.)


By the time I got into Chicago, I was starving, so before I even got to the hostel I stopped at the first restaurant I could make a right turn into, the Olive Greek restaurant. I got some eggplant hummus stuff that is now my most favorite thing in the world.

Chicago Getaway Hostel is very different from Indy Hostel in Indianapolis, but both are pretty nice, although the internet at Indy was decidedly better. I'm in the bottom bunk of one of four bunk beds in my women's dorm room as I type. There's air conditioning, clean sheets, and lockers in the room to store anything valuable.
There is, however, only one bathroom. We'll see how this plays out.


Day 1, Saturday June 23

Drive to Indianapolis. (Check!)

Day 2, Sunday June 24

Play "tourist" in Indianapolis. (Check!)

Drive to Chicago, arrive that evening. (Check!)

Day 3, Monday June 25

Submit visa application at Taipei Representative Office that morning.

Play "tourist" the rest of the day.

Day 4, Tuesday June 26

Pick up visa (hopefully!).

Drive home.

PS. I may or may not go out to do something tonight. I'm a bit too tired to go out into a strange city, although I may resort to doing so out of hunger. I require FOOD.

hostel territory

Just arrived at Indy Hostel in Indianapolis, IN. It's stop #1 on a three-day road trip to Chicago to get my Visitor's Visa from the Taipei Representative Office. 

When preparing to get my visa, I saw that there was no way I could mail the forms in and receive the visa in time. Therefore, I knew I'd have to drive or fly to Chicago. (Imagine my huge, enormous, intense disappointment about this development, which I was totally not psyched about at all.) In planning this trip, I saw that going through Indy instead of Toledo would take about the same amount of time, so I added another day and a detour to my itinerary. Here's how it lays out:

Day 1, Saturday June 23

Drive to Indianapolis. (Check!)

Day 2, Sunday June 24

Play "tourist" in Indianapolis.

Drive to Chicago, arrive that evening.

Day 3, Monday June 25

Submit visa application at Taipei Representative Office that morning.

Play "tourist" the rest of the day.

Day 4, Tuesday June 26

Pick up visa (hopefully!).

Drive home.

And there you have it! It's midnight and I got into Indianapolis about a half hour ago. Thankfully the GPS on my dashboard lead me right here without trouble, and the multitude of CDs I got from the library kept me awake. (Popular CDs included the soundtracks from Chicago, Spirited Away, and Hairspray.) I've arrived at the Indy Hostel and it's just as advertised. I love it already! There's a common room, a small den, and two bathrooms upstairs with showers. I'll be in a room with four bunkbeds, one of which is already occupied by another girl staying here. I can't believe I'm getting this great place to stay for only $30.

I was really nervous about staying in a hostel, but so far, with a total of ten minutes spent here, I think I've changed my mind. If I can find a Planet Fitness tomorrow and all goes well tonight, this stay will be an official success.

 

drugs

Today I got a flu shot in one arm and a hepatitus A shot in the other. Both arms are sore, and came with free exhaustion, hormonal-esque bouts of tears, and a migraine. I think the last may be unrelated, but times like these make me think it's just as well I'm not actively allergic to any drugs if this is what happens to me when I just take too much.

My doctor recommended taking a supply of my own over-the-counter drugs (ibuprofen, Dayquil/NyQuil, indigestion pills, etc.) and I think that is a brilliant idea.

excited

Hey, I just got this job in Taiwan.
And this is crazy.
But am I excited?
Definitely! (Maybe.)


Everyone keeps asking if I'm excited, and there are two answers to that. Someone recently asked me if I was scared, and there are two answers to that, too.


The first answer to "Are you excited?" is yes. I am so incredibly pumped that I got this job and that I'll be traveling abroad, which is something I have dreamed about for so long, and I don't even care it's not Japan. (Well, sort of. I may have a 1hr layover in Tokyo during my flight to Taiwan and the very thought makes me want to start dancing. Because holy cow, you guys, Tokyo.)


The second answer to "Are you excited?" is "Yeah," with an expression of either perplexity at my own response or moroseness. Because I am excited, but the feeling has been compartmentalized and stored somewhere that it won't get in the way of making "To Do" lists, remembering to call the Taipei Representative Office, scheduling doctor appointments, figuring out who has the legal rights to sell my car, closing the door on my would-be summer apartment, and a whole lot of other stuff.


On the flip side, the first answer to "Are you scared?" is yes, I am. I don't speak a word of Mandarin. I know next to nothing about the food, the culture, the people, any of it. I have never taught English in my life, and I am not a person who deals well with her own mistakes. I'll be fine in the end, I know, but the learning curve period? Hate it. I don't like that months-long period it takes to get your footing and finally, finally, feel absolutely sure you know what you're doing. So I'm not looking forward to that at all.


The second answer to "Are you scared?" is, yes, but it's not a bad thing. It's a smart kind of fear, the kind that keeps me making "To Do" lists and calling my insurance provider with questions and doing everything I can to ensure this goes smoothly, which is the best thing I can be doing right now. Plus, getting so much accomplished makes me feel competent and capable in the long run.


So there are many answers, and they melt together. I was excited when I first got the job. Then I was terrified because I realized I was going away for a whole year and had a million things to accomplish in three weeks. Now I'm zen about the whole thing, having digested the notion, gotten used to it, and accepted it as a fact of life. I am going to Taiwan. Over three weeks' time I will prepare everything I need to in order to make this transition as successful as possible. Once I'm there I'll be scared and excited, and in some weeks or months I'll have excruciating homesickness, but I'll stick it out, and work hard, and it'll all be okay.


So yes, I am excited, and yes, I am scared, but since I am not in Taiwan quite yet, for now I'm just focused on getting there, and worrying or rejoicing about it all when it comes.

vicarious

I have talked to so many American Express cardmembers who tell me about places they've been, places they live. Sometimes I think I should have been a historian of people's lives, because there are few things as rich as the personal experiences of people. Here are some  things I've learned from talking to cardmemebers at American Express:

• The food in Las Vegas is excellent. Not just the buffets, but food in the restaurants in the city. They have seafood buffets in Las Vegas; I had no idea. The best time to visit is late September and early October, when the weather is mild.
• There's a golf course by Lake Mead (by the Hoover Dam) and people will live there in campers all winter enjoying the cooler weather and playing golf.
• Different regions of Italy specialize in different foods, like cheese, mushrooms, and wine. (Mushrooms, right?) So you really do have to go all over Italy to get a true "taste of Italy."
• The weather in Hawaii is just perfect all the time. I have not yet talked to someone in Hawaii who said, "Yeah, it was just cloudy and horrible all through last week and today."
• A woman my age from Pennsylvania moved to South Carolina to escape the weather. She and I agreed that PA and OH are good places to grow up, but they're black holes; if you don't get out, you never will. Apparently the feeling about that region of the USA is mutual throughout. (I think that people either stay in Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York because they're good places to settle down and raise a family, or they leave because they don't like the weather and want to spend some time exploring the world.)
• Also, I now have a second person telling me I have to go to a place called Sheetz, a food joint in Pittsburgh.
• Musicthatisntbad.org. Visit it.

There are many other things, but I forget them now. I try to write down as much as I can. People are like living books. They are founts of endless knowledge and insight. They are living biographies, an embodiment of collected experiences. Find a random person and ask them about what they're doing right now; what they've accomplished, what they've recently discovered, where they've been, where they live.

Every person has something to teach everyone else.

I want to be like the 50-year-old man I talked to last month who, upon retirement, has taken up cooking, joined an online recipe website, and is using Youtube to learn new cooking techniques. He marveled at the changes in technology in his lifetime, but he was jumping into the 21st Century head first. Things may change, but you're never too old to learn!

I want to be like the 60-year-old man calling to activate his card, who did so while watching the river wash away all his hard work mulching his backyard. He said to me, "It's the circle of life." When the rain dried up and the river went down, he said, he'd go out and put it all back to rights. He didn't sound the least bit upset. You can spend your day upset about the things you can't change, or you can take it with a grain of salt and go get something else done.

I want to be like the 80-year-old man retired in Hawaii who said, when I asked if I could put him on hold while I called Delta about something, "Sure. I'll just go out back and sit in the sun with my beer." One person's wasted time "on hold" with Customer Service is another person's free time to enjoy the Hawaii sun and a cold drink. :)

i just realized there's tea

A moment ago I was really nervous about this whole thing, and prepared to write about it. And then I got distracted by something that lead me to a website about tea, and I realized that Taiwan is ALL ABOUT TEA, and I totally forgot what I was worried about. As long as I have delicious food to enjoy, I will be fine.

a girl and a plane

我到台灣去。
Wo dao Taiwan qu.
I am going to Taiwan.


No, this isn't a joke. About a month ago I applied for a position as an English teacher in a Japanese school, and they emailed me back to say they were only looking for British teachers for their Japanese school, but did I have any interest in Taiwan?


So I applied, and I interviewed, and this week they offered me a job. Just now, I signed the contract and sent it, along with my acceptance email. By the 4th of July, I'll be in Taiwan, drinking in the heat and humidity and getting ready to start a week-long training class to teach English at the Shane English Schools in Taiwan.


I'll be located in Hsin Jhuang (or Hsin Juan, or Hsin Chuang, or Xinzhuang, or Google Maps' Sinjhuang, depending on how you feel like spelling it), which is about 40 minutes south-west of Taipei. 
(On the map below, "A" is Taipei, and "B" is Sinjhuang/Hsin Jhuang.)

My contract is for a year. After that year I can either renew, go home, or possibly (depending on how well I do and what's open) transfer to one of their schools in Japan.


This is an incredible opportunity, and I can't quite believe I landed it. I've been waiting to travel--to just get moving--for so long, I can't believe I'm finally going to. And so SOON. I'll be giving my two weeks' notice at my day job either tomorrow or Sunday, and leaving by July 4th or sooner. There are so many things I have to do: find out about my visa, get my visa, possibly change the lease on my car, BREAK the lease on the apartment I was planning to sublet this summer, order makeup and facial products to last me a year, buy a new computer, get a year's supply of contacts, visit my doctor... and find shoes, because apparently a size 6.5 is considered "big" in Taiwan. I'll have no issue (I think) with clothes my size, but shoes I'm going to have to stock up on ahead of time. How about that?


I'll be keeping this blog as a way of chronicling my adventures and letting my family and friends know I'm not dead. <3


That's all outta me tonight. Now I just have to find a way to fall asleep!


PS - Please don't text me all at once, emails and FB messages are preferred! <3 <3 <3

derelict house

Photos circa spring 2012


There's something about old houses that I love. Maybe it's the mystery: who lived there? When was it built? Maybe it's the possibility: what would it look like fixed up, with someone living there? Whatever it is, old and abandoned houses always draw my attention and make me want to photograph them. Here are some pictures of a house that's off 23 North High St., past 270 going toward Delaware.

Some beautiful trees, flowering in spring, that are along the driveway leading up to the house. Beside the house is a large field, bordered by a white fence. 

The house is nearly hidden behind an enormous pine tree and several other trees and bushes. 

Vines grow along the sides, and the grass is over a foot high. 

A view of the back.