Everyone had said, wait til next year, it'll be so much easier your second year. How true! This time last year I was so overwhelmed by what I had to do at school. Getting used to living in Taiwan was secondary to getting used to teaching as KAS but I was still often blown away by the newness of it all. Now it's comfortable, even when it's complicated. Lee and I have dentist appointments in a couple of weeks and it was complicated to set them up because I don't know any dentists nor do I speak their language, but on the other hand, of course we have dentist appointments. Everyone goes to see the dentist. Last August I might have burst into tears if someone told me I had to set up a dentist appointment.

On the flip side, you may be asking, isn't it getting less interesting to live here, not as thrilling now that it's not so new? I feel like I'm getting the best of both sides right now. I've got the comfort of the routine with the still-novel-to-me city living in a foreign country. It may be our second year but it's still different than the previous 50 or so years of my life.