So I survived the 4am washroom wakeup and forced myself to stay in bed until 6:30 this morning. It feels like a slight victory! I have been trying my best to stay up late but it is impossible. Around 9:30ish I start slurring my speech because I'm so tired and have to give up and go to bed. Last night I was especially disappointed with my bodyclock since I missed dinner with Louise and couldn't bring myself to go out on the town with friends she made last month at her hostel. Can anyone imagine me saying no to going out??!! I haven't seen the city after 8pm yet! What kind of adventurous 22 year old am I?
As I write this I'm eating my breakfast of yogurt and cereal... just like home! Except here the yoplait I bought is called "Beauty Yogurt" (who wouldn't want to eat that?) and has these interesting jello-ish cubes in it that remind me of something you would find in a buffett dessert bar...gewww. When I picked up the cereal I noticed they had the cereal, "Oh's", there too... Gina, apparently Taipei is more Americanized than Montreal!
Yesterday was my first of hopefully little to no more visits to the hospital. I had someone from the company meet me to help translate during the medical exam process. The hospital had a whole seperate area for foreigners and I moved around this circle of different stations that checked all the basics like height, weight, eyes, blood pressure, chest X-ray and blood test. The nurse and my aide were astonished with my eyesight and kept asking whether or not I had had corrective eye surgery... Eagle Eyes might have to be my new nickname because having two Kathleens in the apartment is becoming confusing, and seeing as I arrived later, I have to give up rights to the name. Anyone with any suggestions feel free to pass them on.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on an excursion to the National Palace Museum with Louise. The place was absolutely gorgeous outside and some of the best stuff inside included the jade collections and a Buddhism exhibition. On our way home we stopped at a vegetarian soup and noodle shop that was awesome but no Lola Rosa's like on Lorne! I spotted a few small cockroaches dangerously close to us and tried to eat the remainder of the soup without looking up.
On the walk back from the MRT (metro) we saw a man wipe out on his scooter. Louise immediate ran out into the road to help him yelling "poor dear" in her cute Australian accent, while I was terrified that SHE would be run over seeing the hundreds of scooters rounding the corner. I, of course, was racked with guilt for not following her out into the road and knowing that I must have appeared to be an uncaring American compared to her. Still I reasoned that 2 flattened ESL teachers might be hard to explain and that the business man already probably felt enough embarrasment falling that 2 foreign females helping him might be far too damaging to his ego.
My boss is supposed to be getting back from vacation in Canada tomorrow so I'm hoping to know what my schedule for August will look like soon. My friend Felicia from McGill is in Shanghai and gave me a call last night to suggest a rendezvous in Hong Kong in the next few weeks. Hopefully when I know what I have on my plate this month I can see how feasible a trip might be.


I'd also like if any of you could send me your addresses so that I can send treats from here. Really, if you are reading these long entries you deserve something for your time! So don't be shy.... send them along, please!!