Staying put

So I've made the decision to stay in Taiwan to relearn Mandarin and get a job during the time I'll be here, as opposed to continuing on to Shanghai. I have a good support system already in place, and if I move to Shanghai, I won't have that to fall back on. As it is, I'm already getting a pretty sweet deal with housing, and I got set up with a wireless broadband card for my Macbook, so my monthly expenses are very, very low, allowing me to save most of what I already did have saved up for the travels. I move in to my new place tomorrow, which is pretty much in the heart of Taipei, about a 10-15 minute walk from the Taipei Main Station, with the rest of the city no more than a 40 minute MRT ride away. So for all my friends who wanted to visit me in Shanghai, sorry, you'll have to settle for visiting me in Taiwan.

I met a German expat that has been in Taiwan 30 years while doing laundry today, and we had a nice little chat on the shoddy state of the Taiwan Air Force and what's being done to correct it. How we got this discussion? He came here 30 years ago as part of a German military unit to train Taiwanese pilots and never left. He eventually left the military and has had odd jobs selling various mechanical hardware for use in the military. I liked this random meeting, as I've only had a few discussions in English, other than the few skype calls I've had with friends. Somehow, it felt strange, since I've been trying hard to just use Mandarin, to just bust out English. The easiest way to describe it was as if I were using a different part of my brain I hadn't used in the while.

In other news, the weather has gotten warmer, to a balmy range of 70-75 degrees. Now if only we can get rid of the humidity, it would be perfect! I'll be happy to cruise around in shorts and a tshirt in this weather, but everyone else here will still be wearing heavy coats. I guess the natives really are that afraid of the cold, since they almost never have cold water from the fridge either. All water is either room temperature or hot, which are the bane of my existence. Ok, that's a bit much, but I don't like it when I'm already warm.

I'm about to leave for dinner with my dad, his g/f, my ex coworker, and his g/f, since my dad wants to meet this "mystery ex coworker" who might be able to help me out with my job search. Dinner will be at a very well known xiao long bao (small dragon bun) restaurant. Adios!