I just got back from an all you can eat buffet hot pot restaurant. For my NT$400 (about US$15) I had fish, beef and pork, sashimi, tons of vegetables, tiny clams, mochi, Taiwan custard. After a meal like that I figured I better do better than just waddle home so I meandered down the streets of Kaohsiung for awhile.

Sometimes I have these moments of clarity, like an out-of-body experience, where I suddenly realize I am not in Kansas any more. I was walking down these busy streets with all these different smells, with the heat and humidity, a cacophony of noise, all of it unrecognizable and I'm suddenly aware of how foreign everything is. An in-your-face reminder that I really did follow through with the decision to throw caution to the wind and move half-way around the world.

In my every day life I get caught up in the teaching, getting to meetings, going shopping, packing lunches, doing laundry - the regular stuff of living. It's not like I really forget that I'm in Taiwan it's just that the daily routine becomes routine pretty quickly.

Then I have one of those moments where every one of my senses is experiencing a new sensation and I get what people mean when they say living in the moment. It's pretty powerful.