Taiwan: Where People Do Kung Fu on the Street

Dear all,
Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Turns out moving to another country, starting a new job, and waiting for the Internet man to fix our connection at home limited my blogging time. Life in Taiwan is good. The title comes from my roommate Audra, who was joking about the apparent popularity of kung fu movies. (There's a all kung fu channel here. It's something else.) We live in a nice, very safe building on the west(?) side of town, just two blocks from the University. Living near the University is good because it means 7-11s are extra frequent (one at each end of the street--really) and there's an entire street devoted to food stalls/restaurants. Most of the food is cheap (35-40 kuai or $1-1.30)and, since they cater to the university, open late. Paul and I particularly enjoy patronizing the "Orange," an iced tea and juice place. After a long day of teaching/bureaucracy, nothing is more refreshing than iced passionfruit juice, especially if it's only 9 kuai for 10 oz. For unclear reasons, the Taiwanese don't have cold beverages. You can buy refridgerated juices, milk or water, but tap water and water coolers (like at the school or church) only have warm and hot options. Ice is also non-existent outside of McDonalds and the iced tea/juice stalls.

Yesterday we took the physical exam for our work visas. It was pretty painless. They verified we a)aren't blind, b)have no serious heart conditions or c)TB or d)abnormally high blood pressure. (I had to do that twice because the blood pressure station was next to the blood drawing station, a source of considerable anxiety) The also drew blood, to test for HIV/AIDS, I think. I was quite scared, but the technician assured me (in very good English) that his technique was "very good." It was. I barely felt a thing and what I did feel was very mild. It only took one try and maybe 30 secs. Less than ten hours later, you would have never known I had some blood drawn. No bruising, no hole, nothing. If I wasn't married, I would have married him on the spot. I am still in awe of his "very good" technique. I have to go to bed, but I'll try to write more and post pictures of our street at night, the Buddhist temple/convent (Sorry to those who I told it was a Daoist temple. I had only seen the building from the side and when I finally saw it from the front, I realized there's a giant swastika on the top, which is a Buddhist symbol. It also explains why I had been seeing Buddhist nuns about town.) and the building we attend church in on Tuesday evening.