Two months to go

Life in Taipei since my return from Thailand has been pretty busy. My first weekend back was Dragon Boat Festival. It's a really big deal here. If it hadn't fallen on a Sunday I would have gotten the day off and there are races throughout Taiwan. People attend whether or not they know anyone racing. There are teams of people from different organizations, neighborhoods and city government offices,etc. One of my old co-workers/friend's boyfriend was racing. He has been practicing every week day at 5:30 a.m. for several months with a group of Taiwanese men. So it was cool to see his final race and also to see some of the activities going on for the festival. There are tons of booths set up kind of like a fair. They were selling and showing different products, etc. My favorite part was seeing the egg laying race/game which is a tradition for the little kids on the weekend of the festival.

Two weekends ago I went to a water park north of the city, "Formosa Fun Coast." I didn't know quite what the expect and I'm not really a water park type of person, but it was actually really fun. I'd say it was pretty much equivalent to water parks in the U.S., complete with the "lazy river." We didn't have to wait in any lines because the kids weren't out of school yet. But it's already SO hot and humid here, so it was a good thing to do to be outside but stay cool!

I've been continuing to go to Fulong beach a lot on Sundays with a bunch of friends. When we were getting up to leave this past Sunday this group of Taiwanese photographers with their huge cameras came up to my one friend and I and asked us to be their "models." This is not something I'd probably ever do at home, but for some reason I thought why not, so we did it. I don't think they're actually doing anything with the pictures except for practicing their photography, as they are a photographers association/club. Anyway, they had us do a few different poses and it was pretty fun. They sent us a few pictures and I have posted them on my photo site.

I now have less than two months before I come home. It has really flown by, but I'm really ready to come home. Summer session classes will be starting next week, but I am still not sure what I'm going to be teaching yet. I've been applying for jobs in Richmond like crazy. If I don't have anything by the time I get back I will do some volunteer campaign work while continuing the search. I'm also continuing with yoga class and my language exchange. I'm always putting more photos up under my "Out & About in Taipei- The Second Half. The photos from events in this post start here. Enjoy! I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone when I get back!