The End of 100

By Taiwan’s reckoning, we will be ushering in the year 101 tonight. We’ll be having a night in, though I’m still going to get dressed up and drink a little too much wine. There will be plenty of time for eating festive treats and tipsy contemplation of the awesome year we’ve had, and the good things we’re looking forward to in 2012. 

This year has obviously brought about a lot of change for us. After Boje sold his condo, everything happened so fast, and before we knew it we were in Beijing standing on the Great Wall of China in the rain thinking, “Holy smokes, it’s windy.” We experienced a lot of firsts in April - our first international trip together, our first time eating tripe for breakfast, and our first time putting our Rosetta Stone Chinese lessons into practice. Our first week in Taiwan - spent in Taipei - brought even more; our first night market meals, our first ESL job interviews, and our first time showering with a washing machine in the bathroom.

The summer in Kaohsiung was a time I’ll never forget, made even more memorable by the time we spent there with our new friends; Jenny, Milton, Stanley, and Vicky. We also visited Little Liuqiu where we ate the most delicious food, and where I got the most sizzling sunburn of my life. Then there was our visa run to Singapore, where our landlord and his family had us over for dinner, and where we ate a whole lot of seafood and chili sauce with Brett’s Singaporean friend and his family.

Starting our new jobs in August was touch and go at first, but we have now fallen into routines at jobs we’ve come to love. Our Mandarin lessons are going very well, and though I doubt I’ll be penning any Chinese poetry anytime soon, we’re at least able to write our names and pronounce our favourite tea drinks correctly!

I’m so looking forward to 2012 (or 101) and all the fun we’ll have. We miss our families and friends so much, and we’ll be glad to see them next fall. In the nearer future, we’re going to get out of Taichung over Chinese New Year, then we’ll have a visit from my mom to look forward to! See you in the new year! 

Written & posted by Amanda on December 31st.
Reposted by Brett on January 6th due to technical issues.