This is displayed year-round outside the local gas station, but it’s finally relevant What I was listening to this month: playlist | graphic
Apologies, I’m gonna keep it brief - we’re still out here! Writing this from Hualien, after another of many long days. We’ve got four days left, and then (God+Mazu willing) the circle will be closed and we’ll return to regular Penghu life. I should be back in seven days with some stories from the first leg of our trip (hopefully more carefully written than this), but until then, here are some things that happened this month.
First pic of my camera roll for 2023. We tried a great new breakfast place, dropped in on some friends’ dropping, then made our way to my personal favorite cafe near Guanyinting Park, Penghu’s most prized public area. Fulbright’s mid-year conference was outside Taipei two weeks later, and we escaped to Tainan for the weekend before. In Tainan especially, city blocks seem to possess infinite detail and density, streets turning into alleys turning into sidewalks turning into living rooms the deeper in you go. I had a full-circle-life-moment when we took a bullet train (a.k.a. just Taiwan’s high-speed rail system) up to Taipei for the week. I’m ultimately pessimistic about our collective future but when I was younger these things represented everything that was good and cool about the future, a future I no longer think much about. The entire experience was designed with such passion and care, it brought back that feeling of wonder for a little bit. A really cool resort stay(?!) for the mid-year conference, deep in the forest behind New Taipei City. I battled off imposter syndrome by coding outside while everyone was in their meetings, haha. Some absolutely outrageous catering etc. - the type of dinner where you try things you’re not sure you’ll ever get to try again! A few more days in Penghu, then back to Taipei for lunar new year, and to prepare for our expedition! We were so lucky to stay with Hsiao and Matt, two exceedingly nice and fun people we connected with in October. We also got to explore new areas of Taipei - pictured is New Taipei Metro Park in Sanchong district, loved it. Watching the fireworks in Luzhou district. Lots of large changes in the new year; mainly, we will deeply miss our close friend and roommate Olivia, who bravely left her post to return home (we miss you already!). Also, this whole bike trip thing and my increasingly desperate need to get something going for myself, career-wise. But lately, things have felt good-hectic instead of bad-hectic. I hope February in Penghu will be solid - I want to get my scooter license, and code like crazy. Stresses aside, though, the vibes in Taiwan are crazy. Really enjoying everything here, and feeling like I am in a place where I can really grow into something more. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° miss you friends..
Glad you're coding, and the travels still look fascinating!
I'm all for learning to code! Hit me up when you get the chance!