the offWhites

I’ve been promising everyone a post and somehow not getting around to it, so here’s a quick breakdown of what’s up with us.

Taipei is gorgeous.  The city is great, there’s a seemingly infinite supply of stuff to do, and when you just need some comfortably familiar surroundings, walk a ways, that’s here, too.   BB, Naomi, Jez, Rosalind, Lisbeth and I went to Outback steakhouse a couple of nights ago after class let out early for the first time.  We’d been to Ikea to ogle furniture and other flat-packed sundries, and a mall so half of us could drool over computers and such-like while the other half were trying on shoes.  We’d had out final demos that day, so we had a couple of drinks at the Outback, which had a surprisingly cosmopolitan selection of beers.  It was also happy hour, in which drinks are two for the price of one, so I had two Boddingtons and Lisbeth had two margaritas.  Funny thing, after a couple weeks of eating far less than we’re accustomed to, and nearly no fiber or protein, two drinks behaves a bit more like four.  Fortunately we have no vehicles, and taxi drivers don’t care what shape you’re in if you have cash.

Today we’re packing up our hotel room to go to the town we’ll be settling in for the next year.  It’s a pretty small place, and very different from Taipei, so there’s more culture shock in store for us if we understand correctly.  Well, in addition to the big one that’s supposed to set in about three months after you move to a new country.  Also today, after joking around last night about all the Brits we’ve been hanging around and absorbing each others’ phrases and manners of speaking, we were mistaken at breakfast for Canadians by a couple of American guys who “just assumed, because of how you sounded, ya know?”  I was tempted not to correct them, but I was afraid then we’d have to figure out how to celebrate Boxing Day, and Lisbeth would feel pressured to try to like Red Green.  Meh, it’s just too much effort to maintain the “I’m not really American” facade.