Daily downpours and the daily grind

Main street soaking wet during a downpour.

Life hasn't brought too much different since my last update but I thought I would make a short update on daily life. Lately my life is still Mandarin, Mandarin and more Mandarin. When I am not working on Mandarin I am trying to stay active in other activities. I will be heading to a girls high school to present American Culture to them this week. The topic I chose (mind you it has to keep 75, 17 year old Taiwanese girls attention for an hour) is pop music and the philanthropic work they do on the side. My main focus will be Lady Gaga (who is loved here) and her work she does to help stomp out bullying. The students may know her music but I don't think they will know some of her side projects. I hope it will work just fine. Life hasn't changed too much, but the weather sure has. This week has been the wettest week I have seen since being here. Everyday you wake up and see that it is very nice outside, so why bring an umbrella. Well, after Monday and Tuesday's 3pm downpours, and getting stuck outside with no umbrella I finally learned that in Taiwan you won't look like a fool carrying an umbrella in the nicest of conditions.

Life has been very quiet otherwise, the semester is more than halfway over so everyone has more and more obligations to classes and different university activities. Next week I am planning on getting away from this wretched weather and head south to visit some friends in Kaohsiung, another little get away spot in Taiwan, warm weather, beaches and monkeys! I am also planning on participating in the Model UN that is happening on campus, it is not the official one but it is the one that is run by Taiwan. This will bring me back into my main focus, politics.

But another update will come after my trip to Kaohsiung, with many more pictures too!