Thursday, February 7, 2008

Starting off again

I knew, from the second that I was granted this Fulbright, that I would be coming back to the U.S. for a visit over Chinese New Year. I have so many people that I love at home that I knew I would have to visit. At the time, I didn't know I would also have a long list of things I would want to eat (pizza, bagels, gnocchi, Mexican food, and blueberries) and little daily experiences I would be desperate for (electric dryers, flushing toilet paper, indoor heating, and trashy TV) And United Airlines made it even more tempting to stay through some really miserable ground services.

But eventually, I landed in Taiwan again. I feel a little, tiny bit wiser about what I'm getting into. I'm also in a better position now to see how much Chinese I've learned, even if there is a lot more to learn. And I feel like I'm going to be making more of a push to cross off personal goals while I'm here for the second semester. I'm going to travel around Taiwan (and even to Japan!) and otherwise just try to do more for ME. So I'll keep you posted on that and I'll also continue my countdown to the end of my scholarship without shame...144 days and counting.

1 comment:

nutttshell said...

Yay! On multiple counts. I'm sorry that I didn't get to see you while you were home, so I'm glad to return to regularly scheduled programming. I'm glad that you are at least returning wiser and with realistic expectations of what it will be like. And I hope that this semester is easier, faster, and less stressful.

Also, I can't believe you ate SHARK! That makes you officially badass.