"I'm so happy you came to Yuanlin"

I wish I knew why I am so tired today, apparently my relaxing weekend has taken "taking it easy" one step too far and completely drained me of energy.
A few things happened this week that helped establish the fact that I live in Taiwan (yes, it did take almost 3 months for this, but that is a normal time-frame).  I received my Alien Resident Card (ARC) which is an identification card issued to foreigners to verify that our presence in the country is acknowledged and legal (so, unlike the horror stories I have heard, particularly relating to Taiwanese Kindergartens, I can not be spontaneously deported now).  Having an ARC means that I don't need to rely on my passport and travel visa as my sole means of identification here (it also means that I have been issued a Chinese name which I can't read).  Along with my alien residency being established, I have also been able to open a bank account this week, which will make saving money a lot easier.
As I mentioned, after the hectic weekend we had in Taipei last week, we decided to have a low-key weekend.  A few of us visited the biggest town in Taiwan: Yuanlin which is home to one of the four schools owned by my manager.  Yuanlin is still within Changhua County, but looks significantly nicer than Changhua City.  We enjoyed an afternoon of KTV (which is a completely different experience when there are only four people, there is a lot more freedom with song selection, and a lot more "singing time" rather than waiting around for the microphone to get back to you).  I discovered, in an unfortunate but comical way, that singing Don McLean's 'Vincent' is not my forte.  Afterwards we went to a wonderful steakhouse (which I was not expecting to find in Taiwan, but while this was the first steakhouse I have been to here, I have noticed they are not a rarity), and finished the night in a local bar.

Finishing the night at HiRelax

Sometimes I come across concepts here, and I wonder why they have not been popularized in the states.  This thought comes to my mind most often when I order a drink from any of the street vendors, and receive a cup with a firm plastic seal across the top.  I'm not talking about a flimsy plastic lid, like you would get on any fast food drink cup, I am talking about a spill-proof plastic firmly pressed to the top of your cup, which must be pierced with a plastic straw to access the cup's contents (I admit, that makes things sound more intense than they are, but I really like the idea so the intensity is warranted). The benefit of serving drinks like this is that the cup can be transported without worrying that half of the liquid will be unintentionally spilled.

GeorgPeck pearl milk tea (yum!).  The 'lid' is the aforementioned plastic wrap 

Speaking of drinks, another interesting difference between American and Asian food cultures involves the presence of drinks in restaurant settings.  It is likely caused by the popularity of street vendor restaurants in Taiwan which specialize in only one thing, but it is common to need to buy your food and drinks from separate locations if you wish to consume both during the same meal.  For some of the restaurants that do provide drinks, rather than providing a full drink menu they may have a communal tea "bucket" which contains a cold, sweet tea which customers may help themselves to for free (personally I am a fan on the free teas, but I know some people don't enjoy them much).  
Hope everyone back home remembered to set their clock back for daylight savings time.  Here in Taiwan (and all of Asia, I believe), daylight savings is no longer observed.  The practice of setting the clocks forward and backward to adjust daylight hours has been practiced in many countries at some point in history, but is now practiced in a relatively small number of countries.  This time change now means there is a 14-hour time difference between Taiwan and mid-west time.