After a quick, bumpy flight from Saigon we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Stepping off the airplane and walking across the tarmac was like walking through an oven. We'll be up and out early to see the sights for the next few days and back at the hotel poolside for the afternoons.

Today was a settle-in day with time at the pool (although the broken arm and rib are a bit of a drag) and a couple of walks through town. Tomorrow we start the temple touring.

Last night's dinner included a death-defying crossing of the street, a delicious vegetarian hot-pot and seaweed salad meal and a running commentary from the owner of the restaurant. His English was very good. He went to France to study cooking after the war so his accent had a lovely Vietnamese/French lilt to it.

We tried to order the pho - we're in Vietnam and that's what I figured was the required, signature dish of the country - but our host really wanted us to order his signature dishes and they didn't disappoint.

Speaking of death-defying, check out the electric lines that run along the streets:

When we planned this vacation we decided to spend our short time in Vietnam touring the Mekong Delta. The original plan had been to spend two days biking but that had to change after my accident so we switched to a walking and boating tour instead. The disadvantage of the tour was the travel time to Can Tho (it took 4 hours to travel back to Saigon today), the advantage was that we didn't spend two extra days in Saigon. (Note: the official name of this city is Ho Chi Minh City but nobody here calls it that.)

When we got up yesterday (Sunday) morning we went for a walk and my first impression of the city was this: hot, humid, frenetic, a bit dirtier and edgier than Kaohsiung. The traffic is truly insane. There don't appear to be any traffic lights at even the busiest intersections and according to our guide there are about 10 million scooters in a city of 11 million people. The people, the businesses, the sidewalks, everything seems more crammed together with accompanying noise.

We found a park and a little cafe to get a cup of coffee, although at first we were a bit stymied on how to drink it.

The little metal pieces on top of the cups hold the grounds and the water slowly seeps through the filter into the cups. The resulting coffee is a delicious, rich brew that set my heart racing.

After our walk we went back to the hotel for a delicious breakfast then off in a taxi to meet up with our tour group. The other folks were two young couples, one from Norway and the other from France. I enjoyed their company for our short time together. Our guide was a young man, aged 25, full of enthusiasm and honest opinions of his home country.

After a couple of hours driving we made a stop at a temple. It's from a relatively new religion, based in Vietnam that combines elements of Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu and Tao religions into one church called Cao Dai.

Next we hopped into one of many boats that we would take on the Mekong River as well as little side rivers in the next 24 hours. We visited a tourist spot where they make puffed rice snacks and coconut milk candy, visited a fruit farm for fresh mangoes, papayas, guava and rose apples, and ate a fabulous lunch of vegetables and fresh caught fish on an island in the river.

Tourist boats at the snack shack

The other half of our group in a second row boat.

Walking to the fruit farm.

Jack fruit

Lee and a banana tree.

For our night out on the Mekong we stayed at a homestay, a rustic set of bungalows that a family runs from their home. It was a lovely setting.

The dining area

The path outside the homestay.

The thatched roof huts are for people that come by boat to have lunch overlooking the river.

In the morning we took yet another boat to visit the floating market. This is our guide, Duong, relaxing in the front of the boat:

The floating market:

Now we're back at the hotel getting ready to face the chaos of the city and find ourselves someplace to eat dinner. Tomorrow we fly to Cambodia.

We have arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Today was filled with good travel karma.

Weeks ago I lost my subway card and finally got a replacement. This morning when I went to put money onto it I discovered that the money on the lost card had been transferred to the new one. It was a happy little moment to start us on the trip.

We are get-there-early travelers and always allow extra travel time. Around here, however, that sometimes means we get places too early. But today the ticket counter opened at 11:25 and we arrived at 11:26. And the ticket counter personnel were friendly and helpful too.

The airport had a very nice display of orchids, always a plus in my opinion.

The plane was ready and the passengers were all loaded so we left ten minutes early. Who does that? Then, when we arrived in Vietnam we sped through the airport faster than any flight I can remember. From landing to taxi took us 30 minutes, including passport check, luggage retrieval, customs and a stop at the ATM.

To finish the travel day we took a taxi through the most congested, lawless traffic I have ever seen. We were greeted at our little hotel by an incredibly friendly host and shown to our room where there were flower petals strewn across the bed and water on the bedside table dressed up in a coolie hat.

Today was the last day of school in the old buildings that has housed KAS for a number of years. The school is barely more than 25 years old but it's been in a few different locations in that time. But now the brand new campus is (just about) ready for occupancy. The teachers start a three week vacation while the staff and administration finish moving all the boxes and furniture. After a couple of faculty meeting days to get acquainted with the new building we open the school up on April 20 to finish the last quarter of the year and herald in the KAS.

The students were given permission to leave some parting words in the old building, which will be torn down in the summer to make room for the new gym, cafeteria and playing fields. Some of the artwork was heartfelt, some beautiful and some uninspired but the kids had fun.

I had an odd moment standing on a street corner yesterday. I was walking over to a friend's apartment to meet Lee for dinner, waiting for the light to change so I could cross Jhonghua. I had this sudden realization that here I was, middle-aged, suburban-born and raised, boring old me, standing on a city street surrounded by 2 million people on the edge of Asia. How the hell did this happen? I felt like a Far Side cartoon where a fish crawls out of the water for the first time and finds herself on the beach.

There's this whole other world that I've suddenly found myself in. Still figuring out if it's good or bad. It's certainly interesting. I don't know if it's a sudden sense of clarity or maybe that sensation of a truly living in the moment, but every so often I have this thought: I am really here, living nearly 10,000 miles from where I used to live, in a country where I don't speak the language. I've never even lived in a city before.

I've had this sensation before. Sometimes it's accompanied with the thought, wow, I get to live here and see and do this! Times like seeing monkeys on Monkey Mountain for the first time or watching the sunset over the harbor. Other times it's just standing on a street corner where I think, boy, has my life changed.

In four days Lee and I head out for a two week tour of southeast Asia. Specifically, we're going to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. In preparation I've been checking the weather forecasts for our destination spots so we'll know what to pack. Turns out we won't need to pack any layers. On Saturday it's supposed to reach 99 degrees in Ho Chi Minh City, but with the humidity it'll feel like it's well above 100. I think this will make us appreciate the mild late-spring weather here in Kaohsiung. After all, it hasn't gotten much above 85 degrees yet.

I figured I'd need another swimsuit to see me through the trip so Lee and I walked to a nice little shop on Saturday. It turns out that it's really difficult to put on a one-piece bathing suit with a broken arm and rib. The dressing room was no fun, let me tell you! Instead of buying one suit to supplement the one I have, I bought two two-piece suits so I can actually put one on without rebreaking some bone.

Unfortunately, I'll still have my cast on so I won't be doing much swimming. I bought a dry bag to slip onto my arm when we're at the water to keep the cast dry. Hopefully I'll at least be able to cool off. I'm also packing a couple of ace bandages to rewrap the splint if it does get wet. Then the day after we get back I should be getting it off altogether.

Here are a few things I've seen on my walks recently.

There was a long, orderly line of people in conical hats and matching outfits walking along our street. I have no idea who they were, what group they may have been from, where they were going. The last person in line was handing out some literature but we are often overlooked when people are handing out pamphlets. I guess that's just as well since my ability to read Chinese is even worse than my spoken Chinese, which is to say that it's nonexistent. Actually, at Chinese class tonight I learned to recognize the character for pig and for home because they are very similar - home is where your pig is, after all.

Speaking of Chinese class, we experienced an earthquake during class tonight. One of my classmates pointed out that we were experiencing one before I felt it. It lasted for a minute or two and wasn't so much scary as disconcerting and interesting. "Oh, wow, we're having an earthquake. Look how the tea in our cups is vibrating!"

It's clearly spring around here. There are quite a few different kinds of trees with huge blossoms - pink, purple, white, yellow. I have no idea what kind of trees they are but they're beautiful and people love taking their pictures.

Last sight for this post:

I can't ride my bike for another month or so but I can still notice other people's bikes. This is a three-seater. Mom or Dad pedals while the toddler sits behind them and the baby rides in front. Chances are none of them will be wearing helmets.

I got another happy delivery from New England - This time a couple of cards from the wonderful staff at the Children's Center. That's my "old" family of fabulous women (and many of their children) that I left behind in Simsbury. Thank you to all of you for your kind words. It's those little spots of sunshine that remind me how close we really are, even halfway around the globe.

Just when you think you're moving steadily forward in recovering...

This morning on the way to school Lee and I got to relive my accident. We were sitting in a taxi waiting for a train to pass by and the light to turn green A kid on a side street to our right figured he could cut across all the stopped traffic on his bike. Just as he finished threading his way through the cars a scooter came speeding up the road in the wrong lane of traffic and smashed into the bike. Both drivers flew off their vehicles but they both jumped back up. Good thing too, because the train had just passed and the light turned green.

All off a sudden all the impatient traffic on the far side of the tracks came streaming over to where the accident had just happened. Fortunately they hadn't picked up much speed so they could gently swerve around the boy, his bike, the man, his scooter, plus all of their book bags, cups of tea, bento boxes of breakfast, and whatever else they were carrying that was now strewn across the road. The boy and man moved themselves off the road pretty quickly and started having a discussion about who was at fault. By then we started moving and I started crying. I'm not really much of a crier but this concussion has taken its toll.

Once we arrived at school I was fine again and we went to breakfast in the cafeteria. One very nice tradition at KAS is the monthly faculty breakfast. Different people bring food to share on one Friday of each month and we get a little social time before school starts.

I was enjoying my fruit and sweet potato when all of a sudden I couldn't stand to be there any more. It was as though my brain said, "Enough!" and the noise and commotion were more than I could handle. I fled up to my room for some solitude but never completely recovered. I did okay with my three elementary school classes but I was really ready to come home.

The bright part of my day? My fabulous sister sent me a care package. I got crackers and peanut butter, the kinds you can get in the US but not here so I miss them a lot. There were games to play to get my brain working properly, sunglasses and eye pillows for when there's too much info going in. She sent along cards that made me cry (again), and little gummy brains, which is how my brain feels sometimes. There was also an owl pillow stuffed with lavender, ready to be warmed in the microwave and placed gently on my sore parts. How cool is that?

Sometimes Taiwan feels very far away from friends and family and then a package arrives and the world feels small and cozy. Thanks Jenner, and Leslie, Cady, Dad, Barbara, and all the four-legged family members.

This morning on my taxi ride to school the driver turned left through a red light from the right lane. It's a miracle that it took over seven months to be in a traffic accident.

March 17 was remarkable for me, first because it was the first day that I turned on the A/C since last fall, and second because I could once again see the mountains that border the east side of the city. In all those years living in New England I got used to the seasonal weather patterns that bring crisp, clear winter days followed by hot, steamy summer days. But the air quality here is the opposite. When winter arrives the wind drops and the pollution settles in. Come summer the humidity starts to soar but the smog lifts.

Today's smog level in Kaohsiung is moderate, "Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution." That's a big jump from the months-long readings of "unhealthy for sensitive groups" and, even worse, "unhealthy for everyone." You'll be happy to know that the US levels rarely go above moderate and are nearly always in the "good" range. I have to admit, the pollution was less of an issue for me day-to-day, but it remains one of my major dislikes of living in Taiwan. (The other major dislike is how far we are from friends and family but that's a topic for a different post.)

Day two back at work was much better than day one. I went in for my three elementary classes in the morning and recovered afterwards with just a couple of hours on the couch, unlike the six hours or so yesterday. With another couple of half days I may be ready to go full time next week. We'll see.

I spent about 3 hours at school today, about an hour too long. I would have left a little earlier but when I went to ask the guards to call me a taxi the government was having a city-wide "air drill," whatever that is. All it meant for me was that taxi service was suspended so I went to the office and napped on the couch for a half hour until 2:00 when the city came back to life.

This morning's taxi ride to school was the first time I'd been by the site of my accident. It was a lot harder than I expected to drive by the area where I got hit, not so much the actual spot but the approach along the road. I keep being surprised by my fits and starts towards recovery. This journey keeps being different than I expect.

Here's my new cast:

It's actually a splint because it's only hard on the underside. The top is just layers of gauze, which is much more comfortable than a whole cast. It's hard to tell in the photo but my fingers are a lovely shade of yellowish-green, as is my whole arm underneath the bandaging. I've moved out of the black and blue stage into chartreuse.

At the hospital today the doctor cut off the original splint then directed me to the sink to wash my arm before he put on the new splint. It was not what I think would have happened in a US hospital, the patient being in charge of cleaning her own broken arm, unassisted by any medical personnel. The whole experience was much more informal than I expected.

But the good news is my stitches are now out and I'm cleared to go back to school tomorrow, at least part time. It's been getting a bit dull around here so I'm happy to have a plan for tomorrow. There's a substitute assigned to my classroom through the rest of the week so if I can't handle the whole day I can leave early and she'll be able to step in to finish my classes. The school has been incredibly supportive throughout this whole ordeal, for which I am very grateful.

Today was the first serious venture out of the house post-accident. We took a cab to Escape 41, a little pizza joint perched along a cliff on the coast. Lee and I have biked to the area a couple of times and it's breathtakingly beautiful.

Lunch was fine but you go there for the location, not the food. We had pizza and fries, the recommended food for optimal recovery.

I did fine there, only a little wobbly, but it tuckered me out. When we got back I tottered over to the couch and instantly fell asleep. Tomorrow I get my cast redone and the stitches in my head taken out. I think I'll need a nap after that excursion too.

Happy pi day. I meant to take note of it at 9:26 this morning but the momentous occasion passed my by. I blame it on the concussion.

Since I've been home, waking up in a familiar place, I've noticed my non-linear progress to recovery. Wednesday morning I woke up and my arm was really sore. Yesterday morning it was my rib cage that was giving me trouble. Now on Friday it's my head. Not the physical part. I have a minor headache and no pain from the thirty-odd stitches. It's my brain that hurts. I skyped with my sister and after a half hour conversation my head was spinning.

I've written this blog post the old fashioned way first - paper and pencil, remember those?! - figuring less computer time is better. But it's really about dealing with written language that's the toughest part. Getting back to work may take longer than I thought. I feel like my own science experiment.

The hospital I was at was the Kaohsiung Municipal Hospital. It's the closest hospital to the school (and therefore, to the scene of my accident). It is not, however, the top-notch facility in the city. KAS has a lot of ties to the medical community because it started 25 years ago as a school for children of the doctors at Kaohsiung University Hospital. On Friday, therefore, there were quite a few discussions about where I should be admitted after I was cleared from the emergency department. The head of the school and the president of the board would have liked to see me sent to the university hospital but because I vomited any time I was moved it made sense to stay where I was. If it looked like I needed surgery I think they would've insisted on moving me. It was very odd being the center of all those conversations but not being a part of them.

The road to recovery is not always smooth. Yesterday was two steps forward but last night was a step back. When I woke up this morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Bummer.

I was sent home from the hospital with a large handful of medications. I know one is tylenol but the other four I had no idea, so, of course, I went online to learn something about them. The information I found was less than reassuring. I think I'd rather deal with a bit of dizziness than worry about some of the side effects.

The good news is I'm getting better. The bad news is it's going to take awhile to fully recover. Bummer, again.

Well wishes from Priscilla, my yoga teacher.

I'm being taken very good care of, mostly by Lee but also by the KAS community. Lee has been my rock. He watches out for me being stupid and makes sure I have everything I need close at hand. Our friends at school have been bringing us food and well wishes. Plus, all the comments, notes, emails, etc. from back in the States. Thank you all so much.

I'm back home now, which is a huge step in the recovery process. My head hurts some, I'm prone to a bit of dizziness every now and then, my left arm and left rib cage hurt off and on all day, depending on when I last took my medication, but it's all getting better. I have to keep my posts kind of short because my brain can't handle too much screen time but even that is improving.

I have some tales to tell about the Taiwan healthcare system, but the'll have to wait.

The Christian church ladies came by my hospital room to offer their prayers.

I only understood two words, mei guo ren (American) and amen.

Food choices have slipped from unidentifiable tofu product to whole fish.

Clearly it's time to get out of here. After four long days they're discharging me with orders to take it easy for awhile. The worst of the concussion symptoms should start to subside in a couple of weeks, my stitches come out in a week, my cast my be off in 4-5 weeks and I can be back on my bike at the beginning of May. It's all good.

Bad news, this has been my view for three days. Good news is that I am getting better. As many of you already know, I was in a bike vs scooter accident on Friday morning while commuting to work. I'll spare you the bloody details but the upshot is concussion, broken rib, broken arm, and a bunch of stitches. Lee has been taking excellent care of me, the school community has been incredibly supportive, and I hope to be out of the hospital in a few days. There is a commonality among hospital food world wide, pretty inedible.

I'll be back to blogging as soon as I can. (dictated to Lee Zalinger)

What a difference a day makes. On Tuesday evening the sky was as clear as I'd seen it since the winter pollution rolled in. On Wednesday morning the PE teacher had to send an email out to parents to say that the school was monitoring the air quality and may suspend heavy breathing during sports practice. This morning isn't quite as bad but it's back to the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" category.

There's a great website, http://aqicn.org/, that gives you a real-time map of the world's air pollution levels. I look at it every day but I think I'm mostly torturing myself. My consolation is that at least Taiwan isn't as bad as China.

Lee had a fabulous idea to pick up some picnic food after school today and have dinner down by the sea. So that's what we did. First stop, the photo store to get our passport photos because in less than four weeks we're taking a trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and we need to finish getting our paperwork done for our visas.

Second stop, the market. I recently learned that the afternoon markets we like to go to for produce and street food are called wet markets. That name differentiates them from produce markets that only sell fruit and vegetables, and night markets that are more like fairs, with lots of deep-fried food and games. At the wet market we picked up some fruit, salad and a sandwich from the grill:

Third stop, the harbor, where there's a very nice spot to watch the sunset. We got there just before the sun disappeared into the China Sea.

The air quality has really started to improve as we move out of the winter season and it was a beautiful evening. The moon is nearly full, with Jupiter hanging out nearby, and we saw Venus blink as the sky started to darken. The Kaohsiung skyline was quite lovely.

I start my afternoon club next week. Each teacher is expected to sponsor an activity for the students for one quarter. Clubs run once a week from 3-4:30 and can be anything that the teacher chooses. There's the Chinese fan dance club, math club, personal fitness plus various sports teams. I am offering weaving for the upper elementary kids. I already have my middle school weaving club during the school day on Wednesdays so this will be more of the same. One difference is that all of the students will have chosen the club, as opposed to middle school, where some students get assigned to me because they were too lazy to make a selection when asked.

When we were on the train going to Taipei I met a little girl sitting across the aisle from me. I had brought my little inkle loom to work on during the trip and she spent the hour watching very intently. She practiced her English with me, much to her parents' delight and drew a picture of me weaving.

I think I look a little like Tina Fey, don't you?

Here's the project I finished. I think it's a pot holder.