And a Happy New Year

I'm not entirely certain how it happened, but the year is now 2013.  Don't get me wrong, I understand how the progression of days works, what I don't understand is at what age you stop thinking "I wish time would move faster!" and start thinking "slow down! I don't want to miss a thing!".
This New Year's celebration was one for the books!  Several of my friends and I caught a bus to Taipei on Monday morning, and spent our day in the hot springs of Xinbeitou (a mountainous district of Taipei City).  Taiwan is very well known for its hot springs, which are pools of clean, clear water that are formed by the collision zone of the Yangtze and Philippine tectonic plates and heated to varying temperatures (ranging from cold to very hot) by a volcanic system.  The hot spring we went to was a 5-pool public spring, which was around 112 degrees Fahrenheit during our visit.  After our warm-up in the springs, and a brief night market dinner, we were off to the main event: fireworks at Taipei 101.  Around the world there are many iconic ways to countdown the new year, and in Taiwan that is through watching the ignition of fireworks off of the former tallest building in the world: Taipei 101.  Words can't describe how amazing it was to watch fireworks coming off of different tiers of a building which is approximately 1,670 feet tall.  With each ignition there was the illusion that the building itself was exploding.  The holiday didn't end there, we continued on for several hours longer in Ximen awaiting our bus back to Changhua (instead of booking a hotel room, we booked tickets for the first available bus and pulled one of my first all-nighters in a long time).  The entire experience was amazing (and the nap after it was over wasn't too bad either).

The New Years crew in Ximen

Taipei 101: reminding us all what year it is via fireworks

One of the nicest things about this week (holidays aside, of course) was the fact that it was only a 3-day work week.  It made my time at the school pass very quickly and brought me to an enjoyable weekend of group dinners and Filipino discos.

In honor of embracing Taiwanese culture, I have made it a tradition to visit a local night market every Friday night after work.  The trip is brief, but it gives me a chance to peruse the clothing and trinkets, and a chance to try new foods (speaking of food, though it was not at a night market, I feel it should be documented that I finally ate one of the delicacies of Asia: chicken feet, and I would review it as being good, but not filling enough for the effort required to eat it).  This week at the night market, I decided to learn one of the local gambling games as well.  While it was essentially a game of bingo played on a three-numbered card, it was an excellent chance for me to practice my Chinese comprehension (which still doesn't extend far beyond numbers), as well as entertain the other vendors and guests of the night market (mainly because the booth owner kept announcing that I was his "good, American friend: Marie").

Wondering why he called me "Marie"? My Chinese name (though I have never seen it Romanized in Pinyin, so I may be spelling it wrong) is Katamari (Kata coming from the beginning of 'Kaitlin' and Mari coming from my middle name 'Marie') so the main nicknames are 'Kat' and 'Mari' (though most people are kind enough to refer to me by my English name).  For anyone who doesn't know, a Katamari is a sticky ball which picks up everything from people to mountains (and eventually turns into a star) in the video game Katamari Damacy.  Considering I had no choice in the selection of my name, I really enjoy the fact that it shares reference with pop-culture.  

This is a Katamari

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but I'm still sick.  I know it is just a cold, one of those common illnesses most people get annually (especially when the temperature starts dropping), so I haven't thought much of it, but illness makes people very uncomfortable here.  In Taiwan (and most of Asia), it is customary for you to wear a face mask, even for something as small as a cough, so they are fairly common to see in public and in the classroom (however, they don't accommodate western noses well, so they are very uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time).  I finally went to the doctor (well, actually it was a hospital, because it was a guarantee that I could find an English speaker there) and got some medicine, so I should be better soon!  Everything about the medical field is far more intense when you don't understand the language around you, and I was led like a lost puppy through a series of medical exams, x-rays (unlike American hospitals, x-rays appear to be commonplace and inexpensive in Taiwan), and people asking if I speak Chinese.   In the end I was diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection (cold) and given a ridiculous amount of medication.  Pharmacists in western hospitals have consolidated pills so that the necessary antibiotics and vitamins are in very few pills (usually only one), but pharmacists in Taiwan hand patients separate pills for each symptom (as well as vitamins and preventative medications), so something like a cold is treated with six different medications (totaling over 50 pills/powders).  I have to give it to the Taiwanese medical system in terms of prices, however.  Including an x-ray, tests, analysis, and my prescriptions I paid about $80 US, without any insurance (and when I receive my insurance card I get the majority of that refunded to me).  I've got my fingers crossed that this will be the last week I will be reporting on this illness.