snapshots: lost + found

yesterday marked one month since our arrival in Taiwan.  it feels like we have been here both longer and less than that. this week is also the start of school - teachers went back monday and students show up on thursday. we haven't quite settled into a routine yet, but we're getting close.

today was the first day that I've gone out on my own. well, other than running up the street to the drug store or to 7-11. today I went out in search of a craft supply store. I didn't actually know where one was, just a general direction I heard there might be one, and so I walked over that way.

 

walking alone on the streets of Hsinchu isn't dangerous [other than the usual hazards or traffic] but it is a little unnerving. everyone stares at me. not always open-mouthed gaping or obvious, but they all look. it doesn't matter if I'm wearing cut-off jean shorts and a tank top or a maxi skirt down to my ankles. they stare. 

the staring is just something to get used to, like the stares and cat-calls I used to get walking the streets of New York. though it's not quite the same. in New York, it was vaguely sexual when someone would stare or leer at you as you walked by. but not really personal. I think the men there just do it to everyone. [one day I got called at while I was wearing a long winter coat buttoned all the way up, with scarf and hat and sunglasses. I either have a really attractive nose... or they holler at everyone.] you learned to not take it personally, and ignore it as best as you could.

but here it's a little different. no one yells at me [Asian men would never be so rude] but they all stare, both men and women. and especially children. they stare. because... I'm white.

those of you who know me [or have seen pictures] know that even though I am technically "white" or Caucasian, I am usually some shade of golden brown tan. I think what gives me away is my hair. I'm not as blond as I've been, but no one of the Asian persuasion would have my hair color naturally. so they see the hair first, then notice the skin. and they stare because, honestly, there just aren't that many white girls here.

there are girls who try to be white. it seems that in Taiwan [if not all Asian cultures] that the whiter your skin is, the more beautiful you are. [my new friend Jackie gets ooh-ed and ahh-ed over wherever she goes because she lived in Seattle and never saw much sun] the drug stores here sell whitening lotions and treatments - some of which include bleach and other really scary chemicals. so I guess there are white girls here. but they are white in the way that some American girls are freaky orange spray-tan. different strokes for different folks, I guess.

anyway. I set out this afternoon in search of a craft store that I wasn't even sure existed. the first store I stopped in looked promising, but was more of a stationary store that happened to carry a few crafting items. so I checked out the next road over, and the next one... I wandered pretty far off the roads I know, and maybe got myself just a little bit lost.

did I have a brief moment of panic? the oh-crap-I'm-lost-and-I-don't-speak-Chinese-what-the-heck-was-I-thinking moment? of course. but then I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I had set out prepared. not with a map, but with the school address and enough money for a cab home. [not to mention our pre-pay cell phone, hand sanitizer, my epi-pen, and chapstick] I stopped for a minute to think where I had gone in relation to where I wanted to go and decided to take a change and go with my gut and turn down the road that might take me home.

and it did. 40 minutes later, I made it back home. sweaty, sore-foot, and slightly damp from the rain that decided to start [thankfully] right as I turned onto a familiar road. my heart gave a leap when I saw it, because I knew it was the road that leads to home. 

yeah, home. because somehow over the past month... this has started to feel like home. it's happened in a hundred small ways I could try to explain, but this is the story I have to write today. how I got lost, and how I got found.

[unrelated iPhone photos edited with instagram and shakeit photo apps]

snapshots : family vacation

we are back from vacation and in the land of internet access again! I've been going through the 400+ photos I took last week [and trying to edit the last month's photos as well] so for now I will share some pictures taken on my phone. these were all taken with the instagram app - if you have an iPhone or Android you can follow me @jamiethewalker or view my feed online]

our first stop was Mackinac Island, with Husband's family. we hiked, we biked, and we ate molasses-hickory bacon for breakfast every morning at the Seabiscuit Cafe.

we tried to keep our activities low-key since the weather was a lot warmer than expected. [I know the heat wave was all over the country, but for Mackinac to be in the 90s is ridiculous.] we wandered through the air conditioned shops downtown, picked up souvenirs and sent fudge to family and friends, and played bananagrams in the lobby.

on Thursday Husband and I packed up and took the ferry back to the lower peninsula. we drove down to the tiny town of Lake, MI. [no, it's not on Lake Michigan. yes, many people get very confused when I try to explain this] my family has had a cabin on 8 point lake for the past 40ish years. this year we actually stayed a rental cabin on the other end of the lake... having an extra bathroom made it worth the hike!

life on the lake consists of: waking up, working out, hanging out, lunching, heading to the sandbar for conversations + frisbee [with beverages and the occasional jello shot], family dinner, sunset boat cruise, fireworks watching and maybe a campfire.

rinse, repeat.

as far as family vacations go, it was pretty great. I'm glad we had a chance to see everyone and catch up before we head out [in 2 weeks!]. I'll be back soon with more photos and the recipe for Luke's Mexican casserole.

life in snapshots

this past week has been a complete blur of packing, painting, errands and cleaning. but I think it's important to stay in the habit of writing, so here I am.

the final papers for our visa applications arrived last week, so Husband and I headed into the city. submitting our paperwork turned out to be a little more complicated than we had been led to believe, but no where near as bad as the 6 hour line horror stories I've heard. thanks to the New York Public Library and the CVS on 3rd and 42nd we were able to get all our forms and photos in order. less than a week later everything was ready for pickup... that's right, we officially have our resident visas for Taiwan!

other than that we've been preparing to move this coming Sunday. special thanks to Dave and Bill for coming up and helping Husband paint the apartment back to its boring beige. you guys did an awesome job! I also would like to state for the record that high coverage primer is totally worth every penny. that room up there used to be a deep dark "Joker's jacket" purple [took I think 4 coats to apply] and with 1 coat of primer and 1.5 of paint it was done.

today we sold most of our furniture [bed, coffee table, tv stand, endtables, bookshelves] and we've been trying to do triage on the rest of our possessions. some to keep, some to give away. it helps to know things like my sprinkle collection and donut pan, heavy winter sweaters and crochet needles will be used and well-loved by friends. though some things- like my bottle cap collection -just needed to be pitched.

in just today I threw out SEVEN bags of junk. sometimes it's difficult to let stuff go, but mostly it feels freeing to be rid of all the unnecessary excess. it might be a little wasteful to pitch the motherlode of bobby pins I picked off the bedroom floor. but I still have a hundred pins not tangled in carpet fuzz and cat fur. I figure if it's been lost or unused for a while then I probably don't need it anyway.

in the flurry of productivity, we've still been trying to take some time to enjoy our last days here. dinners and lunches with friends, backyard camping trips, boutique shopping for going-away BBQ outfits, hitting my favorite running trails, midnight games of bananagrams, and my first crossfit class ever [thanks Bryan!] I also played a small supporting role in assisting my best friend's boyfriend surprise her at work and propose! obviously a celebratory margarita was in order. congrats Erika + Mike, so happy for you guys!

this week is closing out with the last of the packing and cleaning, and a final farewell to our east coast friends. Sunday we head out for the mitten. we will miss a lot of things about our life out here, but are definitely ready to head home to relax for a few months before taking off for Taiwan. I hope to have a little more spare time to keep up with the blog and document all our activities before we go... stay tuned!