Welcome home

I slept my first night at my new home for the next few months. I had arrived in Hsinchu around 19:30, and dropped off my laptop and my mini-pack at my brother's, hung out and then lugged my little suitcase across the street after an hour.

And then without realising it, I spent 4 hours mopping and rearranging the sparse furniture, dousing everything with citronella, and then assembling the simple clothes racks. When I finally emerged from my room, all was quiet in the house.

Today, after hanging up some clothes to dewrinkle, I headed to my brother's to reclaim my laptop ... and steal a shower. What can I say, the shower at my place leaves much to be desired. In a few minutes, I will borrow his bike and (after mopping it down) go off to explore the neighbourhood and figure out my route to work.

I report to work tomorrow morning at 08:30 sharp.

Imprisoned!

Today is my first real day off. I've packed everything I can pack for my move, and I've fulfilled all my obligations. Mom is off for a few days, so today is my first day of freedom, to wander about Taipei as I please.

Today is also the first day of a typhoon. It is raining buckets, and the wind is howling. While it's nowhere like a hurricane, it's still dangerous to be outside in this weather. Work has been cancelled in 9 cities of northern Taiwan, declared a typhoon holiday.

I can see rain being blown almost horizontal and several tv antennae being toppled on the lowrise buildings around us. The wind and rain are tremendous, but being situated in a basin surrounded by mountains, this is about as exciting as it gets for a typhoon here (except for flooding). Out in the countryside, where there is no shield, incredible things can happen.

And so on my first day of complete freedom, I am imprisoned in the apartment. :( The morning was spent cleaning the kitchen, where rain had dripped through the fumehood like a leaky condo. *sigh*

Thar she blows!

Being across the Pond, this came as quite the surprise to me: Mount St. Helens has apparently been huffing and puffing lately!

You can see a "live" picture (updated every 5 minutes) of Mount St. Helens, provided by the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. This image on the left is from the Cascades Volcano Observatory.

While the geek within does think that's pretty cool, I hope that everyone in the Pacific NW is safe. Otherwise you'll know exactly what I mean when you blow your nose.

Spot of tea?

They fooooound me!! :( Some nights ago, a vicious mosquito attacked me over and over and over, while I lay asleep in my bed. The result was 9 bites on my left arm, a couple on my right, ... my earlobe, my eyelid, and even my tailbone! The next morning, my mother thwacked a mosquito, splattering blood all over the washroom wall. Very likely my blood. >:(

I've been eating lots of pomelo, because - well, it's in season, but especially because of Mid-Autumn Festival - yummy. But I've also discovered some other fruits that don't agree with my digestive system. Lovely.

Other than mosquito bites and unfriendly fruit, I'm getting used to living in Taiwan. There's been a cool breeze the last couple of days, which is a huge help.

On Wed, I had the opportunity to check out the Ten Ren Tea Company (did you know that Ten Ren is a Taiwanese company?). My uncle is a frequent customer there, so before sitting down for tea, we got a tour of the factory. The county line happens to lie between the store front and factory, so they are actually in 2 completely different cities! We saw the tasters - who actually taste, smell, look at, ... the tea leaf batches. Then was all the machinery for processing the tea leaves: cooking, deleaving (? separating the leaves from the stem), sorting and packaging. Quite interesting.

And of course, there's the tasting part. My uncle's "account rep" brought out 3 different teas for us to try. These are some *good* quality teas. The aroma is soothing and the flavour clean, with no bitter aftertaste. And after you swallow, your mouth continues to water and water and water, bringing a lovely sweetness to your mouth. My mouth was still watering about 2.5 hours later (and after lunch!) on the way home. Unfortunately, I can't really afford these teas: they cost about 120.00CAD/lb (250.00CAD/kg)!

Other than that, not too much. Interviews are going well, and I've started to get offers. Still have interview requests coming in, too.

K comes into Taipei tonight, yay! Tomorrow we are going to Yinggo, which is a city famous for its pottery and ceramics.