She's BACK!!

Hello everyone. I know it's been a good long while, but I'm back in business. YESSSS!

Have the internet connected and my Sunday's to myself. Life is a little less-stress and more-sure. I have a lot of catching up to do, and want to do it all justice.. oh the pressure

So i moved in to my new place on the first of August. That night we had a black-out. No electricity meant no fans, meant sweaty sweat and no water to shower it off. Doesn't a bad start generally mean a clear future? I hope so because it doesn't end there. Let me list the problems we endured over the first week.

1. Black out on first night
2. No water on first night
3. Typhoon flooding in room-mates room on third night
4. Cockroaches the size of credit cards in swarms
5. Dodgey toilet seat that flings up with a BANG - obviously designed by men for men
6. No water pressure in bathroom basin
7. No internet or phone
8. Noise polution despite being on a quiet street
9. Early sun rise hitting directly between eyes and the need for sunglasses in kitchen

..ok, i don't think i need to add any more. 10 would be pushing it.

Since then things have gotten better. Of course, not including the typhoon last week, which only flooded my room, the living room/kitchen (it's one room) and as i was trying to prevent the fridge cord from frying us all, i only electrocuted myself. Wow, never want to try that one again. But we're (obviously) connected, have a nice new phone, are used to the toilet seat, invested in a lot of poisons so have scared away the flying credit cards and it's amazing what a bit of greenery can do to a place too. Now my room-mate and i are a little worried we're going to get too settled. We don't plan on staying in Taipei forever so...

On less-domestic fronts: I've been getting myself out of the city on more regular basis'. We went to Hualien two weekends ago, and celebrated the harvest moon with the local aborginal people. I don't have any pics of myself (yet) but just to get an idea of the color and vibrancy..

We stayed with my bosses friend, and her mother had outfits for us all too! And we looked GOOD! hehe. We also visited Taroko Gorge, or i should say Tai Lu Ke, I don't know why it's been anglicised, it just alienates us from Chinese speakers because it makes no sense to them. The gorge is beautiful, i will have to go back with more time to see more of it.

I think the most amazing thing about it, is the road all the way to Taichung pretty much on the edge of a cliff.

I've also been swimming a lot (actually i was busy during summer so not as much as i'd have liked) to prepare for a non-competitive swim across Sun Moon Lake (Re Yue Tan) which will take place on October 2nd. It was scheduled for September 11, yesterday, so i went down with my friend on friday after class (which means a 9am departure) and we camped by the lake. Here's the view we had. To.Die.For.

Sorry, my video camera doesn't take very clear pictures, but i guess the visibility was in preparation for a typhoon too, so multiple faults at play. We discovered that the swim had been postponed but decided to stay and get a nights lung-full of fresh air. In Taiwan you never know when the oportunity will arise again, so we made the most of it. The typhoon was forecast for saturday afternoon, so we packed up our tents, hitched a ride to the bus stop and then split up in a town called Puli. That town is famous for being severely damaged in the big earthquake 5 or so years ago, and ever since, the government has been pumping money into the area to attract tourists.. My friend went on to Taichung, but i headed back to Taipei because a friend from Korea was coming to town, so i wanted to catch up with him.

The typhoon ended up going north to Japan, and it was only a tropical storm in the end, Taipei had a few showers, nothing worth taking a day off work for, but i guess it all turned out because i could see my friend and not miss the swim.

I can't wait to go back to the lake in October.

In international news: my sister Cat is coming to visit at the end of October and I'm taking my vacation in Novemeber, so there's a lot to look forward to. I guess i'm allowed to announce too, that Cat is going to be a mother come February, which means, Amanda's gonna be an Aunt!! OOh, i feel faint... That's very exciting, and I plan to go the the Torres Straight Islands for the birth.

I have gone cross-eyed. Time to end todays update. Appropriate to say it's HOT! so stay cool.