Last night we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. It was both convenient to get to and delicious. It's a restaurant that a lot of our fellow KAS teachers go to and apparently other expats as well. We saw more westerners there than anywhere in Kaohsiung outside of the school.

It's unusual to hear English being spoken when we're out and about but what was interesting about last night was one table in particular. They were a group of Chinese and Indian men and their common language was English. It's amazing to think that people from such disparate countries as India and Taiwan can communicate with each other in a language with roots so far from here.

There are a couple of things worth noting about this morning's ride to work. First, the weather changed pretty dramatically last night and the clear, crisp sky we'd enjoyed the last couple days was replaced with what the weather channel euphemistically calls haze. There's a new neon billboard near our apartment and the haze made the light around the billboard shimmer in the predawn light. Who knew that neon and smog could look so magical.

The second interesting sight was the man on the street corner playing his recorder. He was all by himself playing some melody and when the light turned green he stopped playing and crossed the street. I think that's a tad unusual for 6 in the morning.

Today was another beautiful day. The sunrise was absolutely stunning.

Days like this are wasted by having to spend them inside. Ah, well.

I get to be outside every time I leave my classroom since the hallways are really more like balconies, so I got to enjoy part of the parade that went by the school this afternoon. There were firecrackers, deities being carried on litters, drummers, women dressed in fancy costumes carrying flowers. It was very loud and distracting if you were trying to teach a class but kind of cool to watch for awhile. None of the people I asked had any idea what it was for. And these kinds of parades are commonplace enough to hardly warrant much interest, especially among my students. Another ah, well.

Today was one of the most beautiful days we've had here. We spent the morning biking over the mountain and down to the beach. We didn't stop at the ocean, just admired the view and enjoyed the breeze. We ran into a large pack of people running a road race. They too went over the mountain and looked none too happy doing it!

I don't know if all this sunshine is a contributing factor, but I am adjusting to the jetlag here way better than I did in Massachusetts. Everyone I've talked to says it's much easier coming to Taiwan than it is going to the States and I certainly agree. This is only our third day back and I'm still awake at 8:30 pm. Pretty good, especially since I have to be ready to face my classes in less than twelve hours, including seven new students. Lee and I both spent most of the afternoon getting schoolwork done (plus watching some football) so I think we'll be ready.

This morning we dusted off our biking muscles and went for a ride down to the ocean and this is what we saw:

Pier 2 is an outdoor sculpture park and art gallery space next to the harbor. It's one of the places we visited on our first day in Kaohsiung, over five months ago. A new set of sculptures is being installed, including our new friend, the motorcycle samurai.

My favorite sculpture is still there, The Monk and the Beast.

After the art park we headed to the water's edge. Next to the ferry to Cijin Island, one of our favorite haunts, is this beautiful pedestrian bridge.

The harbor entrance was busy, as usual, with ships coming and going and Chinese tourists watching the action. It was a gorgeous morning, despite the smog, just right for a photo opportunity.

Even though we'd been planning this move for a long time, I don't think at my last birthday I really imagined that on this birthday I'd be standing in short sleeves, half a world away, living the adventure.

Part of the adventure is the job, too, so we finished the ride with a stop at school to pick up some work. Across the street from KAS there was a make-shift stage set up with some kind of performance going on. It included a pretty impressive array of incredibly loud firecrackers.

There were tables of food, a brazier for burning ghost money and people with burning incense sticks bowing towards the performers. It's times like this that I wish I had a local guide to tell me what's going on.

This evening we had friends over for dinner and it was really nice. Getting together a few days before school starts up again was a good way to get back in the right mindset for work and we've made some good friends whose company I really enjoy. All in all, this has been a wonderful birthday.

Back in Taiwan, back to the routine. First order of business was shopping. Stop one was at the produce market. Nothing exotic, just the basics for salads and fresh fruit - bananas, oranges, kumquats, persimmons. The kitchen counter is now a riot of color.

Stop two was Costco. We could have gotten fish heads,

or black or white chicken pieces,

but we got the regular Costco staples instead - coffee, granola and almond milk. We also scoped out possibilities for tomorrow night's birthday dinner. We have a dozen or so friends coming over, including a fellow teacher who shares my birth date, and we need to feed them something. Probably chicken parts, the regular ones, not the black ones. (There's a variety of chicken that is completely black, from feathers to flesh. It looks kind of weird but apparently tastes the same as what I'm used to.)

Stop three was the plastics store. I'm sure it has another name but that's what it sells, so that's what we call it. It's open 24 hours so it's also referred to as The 24. Either way, it's the go-to place for all those odds and ends like paper plates, a new shower head and dish rags so the cleaning lady has something to scrub the balcony floor with besides my hand woven towels.

After all that shopping we rewarded ourselves with cups of coffee and a park bench. We watched the sparrows, pigeons and unidentifiable black and white birds squabble over bread crumbs while the heron and duck foraged along the edge of the pond.

All-in-all a pretty productive day. The goal now is to stay awake until 9:00 so we can get our body clocks reset before we head back to work on Monday.

We left Simsbury early in the morning of the 31st and arrived in Kaohsiung late on the 1st. No long delays, no lost luggage, no screaming babies, just about all you can ask for on a 30 hour trip halfway around the world. Now it's off to bed with plans to go to the big melon market in the morning and stalk up on fruit and vegetables. It's good to be home!