Fun & Games At the Night Market!

Hello Everyone -

My apologies for not posting post-recent typhoon. Everything here was OK - only 1 typhoon-related death, as opposed to Kalmaegi's 20. We also have had several earthquakes since the last one, too. The most recent was 5.4 on the Richter. I'm becoming less and less phased by Mother Nature's displays, I guess. This week's weather will be clear blue skies, warm and humid - pre-typhoon weather, they say. Taiwan normally has about 24 typhoons per year, but experts are predicting that this year we'll have 29 (we've already had 4 this year), and July through the end of September are commonly known as the typhoon-months; thus, with the warm, clear, wet weather we're going to have this week, I predict that next week we'll have another typhoon. Let's see if I'm right!

I finally got out and did something other than watch a movie and go to bed Friday night after work: I went with the other teachers/roomies to the Night Market. Night Markets are big in Taiwan, and nearly every city has one, apparently. We went to the one here in Chunghua. They are similar to street festivals in the States where people set up booths and sell their wares - clothing, food, jewelry, art, and all kinds of other things. There is plenty of music and rides for the kids, too. Everybody goes to these, not just the tourists. We saw lots of families with their kids and babies, as well as old people, and couples. It was quite a bike-ride to get there from which I am still recovering today - my bum (finally got a gel-seat, so that should help on future rides). I have posted pics from that night at the bottom of this page so you can get a sense of what the Night Markets are like.

We got one more new teacher to add to the three of us, and that should help with the hours and work-load at school. Another one from Utah, and LDS - extremely young, but seems nice. I don't know why I even bother mentioning that people are young anymore since living and working with them have become the norm in my life for the last 6 years. I should be getting used to being the old-bag by now.

Oh, by-the-way: Here's an update on my on-going battle with the bulginess - still losing. Been here barely one month and I've lost 10 more lbs. Yippee! I was a little worried for a while because I was in the US for the month of June and I seemed to have plateaued. So it's encouraging to me that maybe I have found an eating-lifestyle that will work here - I have not been able to find the same food in Taiwan that I used to eat in Israel which helped me to lose so much. I have really been worried about where to find food that is healthy that would help me to continue to lose, as well as work with my crazy schedule. I know some of you must be thinking: she's in Taiwan and they eat Chinese food, so how hard would it be to eat healthy? Well, I assure you, it has not been easy. You would not believe all the deep-fried this & that everywhere. They don't use olive oil, either - which is really hard to find here and when you do, it's outrageously expensive. There is a lot of scary food here, too, i.e., chicken-feet & hearts, snake, octopus, and fish with the heads still attached. Veggies? Plenty of them, but they are ones I have never seen before and they look like something aliens would eat - I don't know what to do with them! So here's what I do: I eat almonds and dried fruit with a glass of any juice that's real, 100% juice for breakfast (I'm usually on-the-fly in the mornings), then I have a bowl of rice with veggies, and tofu with some mystery-meat on it at school for lunch (school provides), then for dinner something I can barely pronounce that is like pasta with finely-ground chicken & onions and mystery-vegetables that I pick up at a little place on the way home (costs only 2$ usd). I would LOVE to cook for myself at the apartment, but that isn't practical here (that's a whole other story). On the weekends I eat fresh pineapple chunks, mangos, and a few nuts - and it goes without saying, lots and lots of water. Right now this method is working for me, so I'm going to continue eating this way. How energized I feel and my digital scale will determine if I need to change things up again, so we'll see.

Ok, gotta run. More soon!