Headed to Taiwan this month!
After two years of global youknowwhat, Maiya’s teaching grant is finally kicking into action. She’ll be teaching English for at least the next ten months somewhere in Penghu County, and I am beyond thrilled to join her!
Kind of a crazy series of surprises to deal with this past month. First, the idea that we could be leaving in as soon as a month (which has now passed, but we should be gone in the next two weeks). Second, the opportunity to switch to Taiwan from Indonesia, which Maiya thought about then went for! We were so excited; I had images of cross-country biking and Taipei nightlife in my head… then came the third surprise, the assignment to Penghu, a Hawaii-esque archipelago six hours’ ferry from the Taiwanese mainland. A far cry from Taipei, but after a few days, we came around. I’m ready for basalt and lots of wind, and on sunny days the sand tail on Jibei Island hopefully???
I quit my Sexy Pizza job in preparation for departure - can no longer call myself a sexy pizza delivery driver - and am now full-time dashing from medical clinic to embassy to office supply store along with Maiya in order to get us on the road! Check out this picture I took at the DMV up in Weld County:
Also been learning a lot of mandarin — no fun new name yet but i’ll keep you posted! :P 我把這個輸入谷歌
Things I’d like to remember
Had many great times this month, a few are:
Celebrating Forest’s birthday / warming up Lydia+Nezzie’s house / embarrassing myself dancing to footwork and having the time of my life doing it
saying farewell to the apartment with a final DJ faceoff - always will cherish Maiya, Grace, and Fletcher’s music! (PS: I’ve had the most amazing time teaching everyone from little sisters to friends to acquaintances the art of the cheap Serato DJ set… to those I missed, it’s just a postponement and not a cancellation!!)
Starting and failing a couch-to-5k, with plenty of beautiful night runs+pics to show for it (2nd try at the 8-week program starts toNIGHT!)
Celebrating my 17th month with Maiya by getting some pho and some drinks and trading sweet cards :)
Danette (Maiya’s coworker) and Brook’s hospitality and amazing company (happy 2nd birthday Vernon!)
Grilling tf out for the first time with Maiya and Marlee and Kathryn and four other beloved grillers - not to be the last!
Ice cream in every neighborhood
New shoes
obligatory Cheesman Park mention
Other stuff
I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to, but I really enjoyed this piece about the Neom project… I love nouveau riche Middle East aesthetics so much. It’s like everything about American culture but louder - all the utopian and dystopian turned to 11. Obv that is an inaccurate/exoticist view of the lived + experienced + “real” Middle East but I think it’s better off to completely divest from any expectation of accuracy anyways! (Always willing to discuss this.) Anyways, 4k dubai screensaver ibiza chill vibes FTW. I think it’s best to not dwell in these feelings, though, as too much opulence is inevitably exhausting.
(Something I think is particularly salient in the article is the expulsion of the nomadic peoples living in the area; they’re an afterthought to MBS, and they’re also an afterthought to this article, and to this utopian fantasy. I think that any speculative scifi work would benefit from being aware of the tendency of scifi to flatten/exoticize before proceeding; basically, you can build a city in the desert, but there might be somebody already living there.)
(I always think of Las Vegas when I get this feeling of exhaustion: when I visited with my family last year I was interrogated by our hotel security because I went up the same escalator twice in a row! Very nauseating experience: I was off an edible and really confused and scared, albeit in no real danger, obviously. The air in Vegas was thick with tar. I happened to be recording audio; I’ll figure out a reason to share it one day…)
Here is a picture and playlist of my July music obsessions. It’s been so hot here in Denver that I’ve been spending a lot of time pumping the A/C inside, all while pursuing some escapist musical idea of trance utopia with my living room soundtracks.
That’s all for now! It’s 5:30pm and I am so stressed - we have possibly just over 24 hours to completely move out!
I’ll miss living in this apartment, and I’m not looking forward to the coming days of weird turbulence and logistical chaos… but on the other end is a crazy, crazy adventure of life tonight.
No idea where I’ll be writing from next, but sending lots of love and promises to keep in touch. Have a good August! Zàijiàn!!!! :)
OK I feel old when I try to sign up for this five times and it takes me that many times to make it work. Anyhow, thank you for the commentary today. It sounds super cool. I agree that transition can be a little rough, but glad that you’re keeping it focused and excited about your new adventure with your sweetheart. I’d love to hear the full story of your Vegas adventure, it sounds… Interesting! Love you
… and keep posting. I want to hear all about your adventures, and Gamma and others too! Xo