How does a person accumulate this much junk in just a year?

I hate packing.

I managed to get almost all of the clothes I want to keep in one bag along with two pairs of shoes, my documents and a Texas snuggie.

So what's your travel plan again?

I'm moving this week... out of my apartment that is.

Our lease agreement ends while I'm in Thailand on vacation next week so I have to move out now. I'm having trouble getting up the motivation to actually get my stuff together, though, so I'm blogging as procrastination.

Was this your last time teaching our class?

So before Dragon Boat Festival we were having all this terrible weather and my co-teachers and Taiwanese friends all kept saying that once we got passed Dragon Boat Festival it would be super hot out and we would get all the sun we could handle plus some.

They weren't lying. Except I'm a Texas girl, so I can totally handle it.

What's that stinging feeling?

I woke up at 5 a.m. today.

Not because I wanted to. I wanted to wake up at about 5:40 a.m. That would have been plenty of time to get my stuff together. But the sun wanted to have its way, so I gave in.

Don't worry, I had a purpose for getting up so early. I went back to Fulong to finish up my certification.

What do they mean the road is broken?

After my adventure at Jade Mountain I'm not entirely sure where to begin, so I'll just go chronologically. 

Note: This is an exceptionally long post, but I assure you it is worth it.

 The weather looked like this pretty much the whole time.

 

When was the last time you used pen and paper?

I wrote my entire recollection of the "Jade Mountain" adventure with Leila with a pen on paper. It was weird actually writing something again and I think I actually prefer it.

Seems my brain actually processes all the junk I'm thinking and puts out the best possible combination rather than the jumbled mess of strung together incomplete thoughts I tend to get when I write on the computer.

Either way, you can't read it if it's still on paper. I'm being lazy though because I caught a big, fat cold while we spent two days in the rain in the mountains. 

That and because it's really really long. I'll get it up before the end of the week. 

Meanwhile, I'm going to go be a teacher.

What is a monsoon?

So just a quick update.

It's been raining pretty much constantly here in Taiwan. We're in the middle of a pretty heavy monsoon, I guess.

We thought it was going to be terrible weather last Sunday so we canceled our second trip to Fulong for our diving session. Of course, then the weather turned out to be amazing. We didn't know until it was too late to head out there and be productive though.

It's not a volcano is it?

It's funny the little tidbits of information that get home and how. 

When I lived in Austin I didn't see my mom every day even though she only lived 20 minutes away, but I talked to her almost every single day on the phone at least once. Sometimes multiple times per day. 

And despite being halfway around the world, we have the digital era to thank for the almost instantaneous assurance that all is well with our loved ones. We were talking constantly when I first got here, but now we pretty much just e-mail a few times a week.

Here's a little snippet of today's conversation:

When do you feel pressed for time?

I've had my nose in my Southeast Asia on a Shoestring from the Lonely Planet for about a week now. I actually lent it to a friend for the next few days so that I'll stop reading it constantly.

While doing my homework is a good idea, I get kind of obsessive and then really anxious. I don't know how I'm going to survive five weeks out of a backpack if I can't just go with the flow of things.

Can you SCUBA dive in the rain?

Today we went to Fulong to do our first dives of the dive course. 

Initially we intended to do the two pool dives and then one (mayyyybe two) dive in the ocean. 

When are you busy?

So I definitely dropped a big bomb on you guys and then haven't been back since. I apologize, but in my defense, I've been working a lot.

I picked up a lot of extra hours and privates, so I've been working something like 40 hours a week — nearly double my usual schedule.

Do you have any secrets?

OK, I have to admit, I've been keeping a secret from you.

Don't hate me. It was honestly for the protection of my job, but now the cat is out of the bag, so I can tell you.

When does the sun come up?

For the record, the sun comes up ridiculously early.

That's a good thing though. I can't really sleep when it's bright out, so I've been waking up a bit earlier lately. Granted I'll stay in my bed and read or play on the Internet until my stomach starts yelling at me furiously about food, but waking up earlier is better.

Who knows what is going on in this head of mine?

Let's play catch-up first. My birthday was super fun.

I went to Debbie's for breakfast with a few of the girls. Then I went home and researched vacations for about four hours. Then I went to the book store at Taipei 101, Page One, for three hours.

I love book stores and I wish I could go to them more often. Unfortunately, the book store in Taoyuan that I know only has one shelf of English books and they're almost all books that have been made into movies. 

Why are these people paying so much attention to me just because it's my birthday?

This week has been one heck of a roller coaster ride.

I've been happy and the sad and angry and depressed and excited. I've experienced a plethora of emotions and I'm not even sure where all of them came from.

Though I think I have decided that I would suck at living alone. It's nice to have a little alone time, but I don't like having too much alone time. Honestly, that's kind of what I thought would happen.

Do you take your camera everywhere with you?

I do take my camera with me everywhere. At least most of the time. 

Unfortunately, that two months that I went without a battery charger for my camera really killed my habit to automatically shove my camera into whatever bag I'm taking with me when I leave. Now, even when I do have it with me, I often forget. 

This has caused me to miss a million amazing — or at the very least hilarious — pictures. 

That said, here are a few picture from the past month or so. Some are from teaching. Some are just pretty places in Taiwan.

Enjoy.

What do you use chopsticks for?

So I'm at the end of my super busy week and my first week alone in the apartment.

The timing actually couldn't have been more perfect. I worked 40 hours this week and when you add in travel time I basically did nothing at home but sleep, eat and shower. I didn't really have time for anyone (or anything) else. 

Are you a good driver?

OK, I've been trying to get around to writing for a few days now, but I've just been so busy.

The extra work was enough to keep me going all day, but add in having a bunch of extra foreigners around and you can understand why I haven't been able to find much of a free moment.

I'll just give you the basic highlights of the past few days plus a lengthy description of Sunday.

What kind of mood are you in today?

I was super cranky all day.

Well, the first 20 minutes of my day I was pretty aloof... and that's when everything went downhill.

I sort of dawdled when I was getting ready this morning and I ended up not leaving the apartment until 10 minutes before I was supposed to be catching a train.

What would it be like to live alone?

So today began Tess' last week in Taiwan.

It's totally bizarre to think about because not very many people have left since I got here last summer. Which is weird considering this is generally a pretty high turnover job.