Four days in Taiwan!

Nihao Everybody!
We are landed. We are manic. And we are loving every minute of Taipei! We arrived at about 630am on Wedenesday here, that would be 330pm on Tuesday for most of you. We were short a bag (Melanie's clothes,AGGHHH!!) but it was returned to us the next day by the airport, phew! After landing we were checked into a hotel called the Hotel Longlife which is what the Taiwanese call a "Love Hotel." Yes, that means mirrors and red pleather, small but relatively comfortable. However, Mel and I are excited to get an apartment with our new friend from Leighton Buzzard named Simon. We have been exploring Taipei with Simon, his Taiwanese girlfriend Su, another new teacher named Debbie from Manchester and our Welfare liason Kitty Shao (a Taipei local who works at Shane Language School). Just last night we went to the Lehua night market with Su, her friends, Simon and Debbie. Su bought us "famous traditional" items such as barbequed squid, and stinky tofu (a lot like a dirty gym sock). There were vendors selling anything you could ever not need, and so many wonderful sights and smells to take in, it was great. The food has been absolutely amazing and the people even better. This city feels so clean, patient and friendly. I mean people just leave their scooters and bicycles unlocked on the sidewalks. Speaking of scooters, there are tons of scooters that whiz around every street and sidewalk in Taipei. You have to be on your toes at all times, but people will wait and maybe cough a bit if you are oblivious to their motorized presence. As far as the job goes, we have been filling out a lot of paperwork, setting up bank accounts and getting a health check at the National Taiwan Hospital (chest x-rays, needles, and other fun things). We begin a week long training on Monday and then start into teaching the following week! Mel and I are getting very excited to begin this part of the adventure as it will surely be a rewarding challenge. We miss you all and wish that you could be out here in the midst of this brilliant city! Please e-mail us and let us know how you are doing. We'll post again soon. Love you all.
John and Melanie

A message to the people

Hey!
I would like to echo Melanie's sentiment of giddiness and terror by saying HoorayAGGHHHH! Yes, there is much that is uncertain in our future yet we can't wait to be in the thick of it all. We will truly miss all of our friends and family and hope that some of you can get out here to visit us, except Gomez (haha!). Good luck to all of you in everything that you encounter. Please keep in touch, and we'll see you when the fates allow! Auf Wiedersehen (damn, wrong language).

gettin ready to go

So we have our job, we have our tickets, and in a week and a half we'll be on a plane. I can't speak for John, but I know I'm feeling a combination of giddy excitement and pure terror. It was sad to have Japan slip out of our fingers, but the more I learn about Taiwan, the more excited I get. The city looks amazing and the tropical landscape beautiful. The food looks incredible, too. I know we're both excited for that. There's this dish I've heard you can get there called "stinky tofu" and it sounds quite interesting. Apparently you can smell it from a block away and it tastes even worse. I think I'll have to work my way up to it, but I guess we'll just have to see....