bad blogger

yeah. i know that i am bad bad bad at this. but i promise, the new year comes with many resolutions.

and i am really excited about korea at the moment. i ordered some books online from a store in seoul (whatthebook.com) on tuesday. then on wednesday, i paid for them at an atm. today (thursday) they arrived by courier at 2:25. koreans are too efficient for words.

it should be noted that i have been excited about korea everyday. for 6 months now. still. i learn new things every day and i cant get enough of this place. i will definitely be doing at least another year. i love it here so much, i could easily see myself living here indefinitely. that means you should be saving up to come and visit if you want to see me again. i will be visiting the states at the end of my contract though. but itll be less than a month. then a month or 2 traveling. then i will be back in the land of the morning calm!

for my christmas vacation, i went to taiwan! i stayed with my friend, liz, in her mini house on the top of a 15 story building in taipei. it was an amazing trip! we were able to see loads in just the week we were there. she has a great view of the taipei 101 building – which was at the time the tallest building in the world. if you keep up with architectural news, you would know that the record was beat the monday after i came home. we went to the 101, wulai hot springs, yehliu geopark, and tons of other stuff.

i even ate cobra soup! this was of course after i drank shots of cobra blood, bile, venom, and semen. other regional fare included stinky tofu, pearl milk tea !!!, and these delicious custard apple things.

we had a lovely time. our hosts were so so so gracious. celebrating new years in taipei was nuts. but all good things come to an end, and i had to return to a literally freezing apartment. its not so bad though, as i mentioned. i am still loving the crap out of korea!