yi yang

my life has been totally transformed; i was paired with my co-teacher, i moved in to a new apartment with new roommates, and i burned my mouth tonight on pork sausage/eggroll/dogpoops at a beergardenstlye restaurant in luodong. also, in less than two hours i'll be a pallindromic age for only the second time in my life. it all started on wednesday, or long before, when the pairings for teachers were announced. each of the 12 fulbrighters had to list their top six choices for local teachers, and the 12 local teachers did the same for fulbrighters. that pairing strategy still had some holes, so everyone had to rank all 12. then, the final pairings were announced in front of everyone and somehow i came out with sue b. as my partner, who hasn't exactly been my top choice for working with. i won't go into it all here, but suffice it so say i was pretty surprised. right afterwards, we drew papers to see who would live where, and i'm living with joel, julian, and andrea on the top floor of a big new apartment building in yilan city, from which you can see the mountains and turtle island, a mystical vision on the horizon i WILL go to someday soon. it is a last animalian stronghold between my line of sight and the mighty pacific; great peace, after all, needs a buffer in order to appear to a humble soul like me. friday we moved into our new places, and thanks to joel switching everything while i was gone, i got the big room with the balcony...i also bought a scooter on friday, a white yamaha "turword" model that's kind of old but has good steering and tight acceleration controls, which i like. i got my drivers license on thursday, making me one of the licensed, helmeted ranks of scooter drivers in the country with the world's largest scooter population per person. here are some new pictures from the roof of my new apartment, where i plan to spend a lot of time over the next 10 months.