We are here, or there, depending

Ha ha! Peace Corps failed to stop us! We're sitting in our dorm in Taipei on our second day here. We weren't going to write anything in this journal until we actually got here, thinking that we started the blog for Armenia too early and we cursed ourselves. But we've fed ourselves, and taken the subway for the heck of it. We've shaken off most of the jet lag from yesterday and we're learning about Taipei very quickly.

First off, this place is staggeringly hard to be outside in. The locals make it look easy, but it's like 90 degrees and supposedly 50% humidity. I don't think it's that low. I'm always sweating outside, even in the shade, but it doesn't look like any Taiwanese are, ever. Oh, when we landed, at 4:30 a.m. local, they announced the temp. as 81 degrees. We knew we were in trouble. We do have air conditioning and it's comfy in our little dorm room. We even have our own little half bath, but it's right in the sun all day, so we keep the door closed and don't stand in there while we're brushing our teeth.

We met one other person here to teach, named Ed. He's from Tennessee about two days ago and must've just shaken off his jet lag. Our dorm for a few days is just over one of the school's classrooms, but it's really quiet here, even at night.

The thing I'll mention is the scooters. Holy cow, it's like they breed when they're parked. And they travel in packs, 'cause they can slide between cars at stop lights to the front of the line, so when the light turns green, it's like the start of a motocross race, but wimpier. I've seen a couple of scooter packs in Seattle, but they have no idea.

So, that's the highlights from our first day-and-a-half overseas. We're supposed to report on Monday morning, so we're on a cheap vacation for now. At least the food's cheap. But I'll get into that later. We're safe, we have all our luggage; we're kinda wondering what we've gotten ourselves into, sweating a lot, but pretty pleased so far.

And if you're wondering, I did not publish this at 4 a.m. It's about a quarter after seven in the evening in this part of the world.