I decided to start with the title, but I couldn't quite decide what to name my blog at first. I rarely follow blogs, but when I occasionally find myself reading one, the writers usually title their blogs with something catchy or a witty pun. The only thing I could think of was to use some phrase including the word "island" in it. For some reason, I've been drawn to islands while traveling. While other Spanish students chose Spain as their country of study, I chose the less traveled path of the Dominican Republic. On my Europe trip, I felt most at home on the island of Ireland. Now, for some reason, I'm being pulled to Taiwan. I'm not a beach bum by any means, but living most my life within walking distance of Lake Michigan beaches has given me a strong desire to have beach and water nearby. Plus, islands just have this connotation behind them of relaxing, enjoying life, and taking it easy. Call me lazy or unmotivated, but I have no desire to become the stereotypical workaholic that so many Americans strive to be. I want to enjoy the little time I have in this life and if that means working less and playing more, so be it. I prefer the island lifestyle to the work and money-driven lifestyle that is thrust upon us Americans. Islands just fit me.
Thus, I decided my blog name needed something island themed. And yes, I actually googled "island" to find a name. My search brought me to this quote from John Donne from Meditation XVII:
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the ball tolls; it tolls for thee"I think I like it, but in a typical college-student fashion, I read it quickly without letting anything sink in. With some help from my dear-old-friend Wikipedia, the sparknotes version of this quote is about human beings defendant on one another for survival. We can't manage life by ourselves. This idea is based on Buddhist philosophy. I'm not an expert on Buddhist philosophies; wikipedia told me that and I felt like I sounded smart including this fact.
For my title, I like it. It's got the literal "island" and the metaphor behind it. While traveling, even alone, this theme of needing others is commonly woven into my tales, as I'm sure it will in my Taiwan travels.
I promise not to include Buddhist philosophicalish quotes from a dead guy in my next blog entry. Pinkie swear. I will, however, include made-up words such as philosophicalish.
Right. So I have the blog title down. Only took me 87 paragraphs to explain it.
Next on the list - the back story. As I mentioned above briefly, I am going to Taiwan for a year. This is mainly what my blog is going to be about.
But let's go back farther and I'll explain myself a bit more.
My passion for traveling started when through my high school, I randomly signed up for a month-long foreign exchange program in Spain when I was 16. Though it became the catalyst for the explosion of the need to explore the world, the experience ironically kind of sucked. My host family was downright weird and I was still in my awkward, shy phase so I didn't enjoy the experience as much as I could have.
I continued studying Spanish after I graduated high school because I was sort of good at it, and because I wanted to study abroad once I started college. Really badly. I'll be truthful, there wasn't really another reason to study Spanish. College Spanish courses aren't fun or easy, especially once you get past learning new vocabulary words and playing games and move into analyzing Spanish literature. Ew. But, I love being able to speak another language.
I got the opportunity to put my Spanish major to use in 2008 (age 19), when I spent 4 months studying abroad in Santiago, Dominican Republic. I LOVED IT. It was unpredictable, unstable, and nothing like I had imagined; it was even better. Yes, the D.R. isn't probably on your list of top places to travel. There are some touristy rich parts that you might travel to, but Santiago? No. You'll be lucky if you find someone who speaks English well there. You can see poverty's effects almost everywhere you go - from the run down conchos (broken down cars that work as taxis that fit 7 people into tiny cars) to the barefoot 5 year olds that follow you until you buy one of their pirated DVDs they are peddling. But the beauty exists talking within the people, learning to dance the merengue and bachata at the local discotecas, savoring the food, finding hidden adventures that should be tourist attractions (like 21 charcos, where I jumped off a 25 foot waterfall), and of course, the beautiful dominicano men. You can't forget them.After living there and experiencing the culture I definitely caught the travel bug and planned on discovering the world, one city at a time.
Once I returned from the D.R., west Michigan just seemed dull. Though my university is pretty big, it's surrounded by corn fields. Bor-ing. Even the nearest Taco Bell is 10 minutes away. I'm serious. It's a crime. A crime of depriving drunken college students (and sober college students) of the cheap awful deliciousness that is Taco Bell </not-having-a-tacobell-rant>.
After drudging through my junior year, I looked up more excuses to spend time traveling. I didn't have a set summer job so I thought, hey, why not be an Au Pair in Spain? I found a job online and flew out to Madrid with a friend I had met in the Dominican Republic. My roommate at the time was studying abroad in Málaga, and she met up with us also. We didn't have much of a plan or a budget, but we had a blast. We spent a month traveling together - couch surfing in Barcelona and Salamanca, staying with family in Paris and Groix Island, and couch surfing / staying in hostels in Florence and Rome. Amazing.
After I got back from Italy, I started the job from hell as a nanny in Tarragona (Spain). The two girls were sooo spoiled and the family thought their children could do no wrong. I was a slave to two brats straight out of the SuperNanny tv show. I ended up leaving early and found myself with another family who was much better, though equally weird. Like, I lived with this family + Julius, who I referred in my head to as Lover Julius. Lover Julius was a 50 year old Czech with a long, white, handle-bar mustache, awful BO, and a strong love for Daisy Duke cut-off shorts, which he frequently wore with his tucked-in wife beaters. Yeah. Not pleasant.
In between the switch, I met up with another friend who happened to be studying abroad in France. He and I met up in London, couch surfed there, flew to Dublin, where we also couch surfed, and flew back to where we were staying. Again, the experiences were simply amazing.
I returned to finish up my last year of college. Although education is a five-year program, I was going to graduate in four, which meant my last year was student teaching. I taught Spanish at two different high schools. At some points I really liked it, but most of the time it was just too stressful and not what I really wanted to do with my life. Teachers work their asses off and get so little back. That's a whole different rant...Anyway, the teaching job market is terrible in Michigan right now. Even if I wanted to be a Spanish teacher (which I don't) it'd be difficult to find a job. But who says I need to settle down? I just turned 22 years old. Last time I checked, that's still pretty young. Just because I'm graduated doesn't mean I have to go straight to a boring cubicle job, or in my case, an under appreciated, overworked teaching job. Why can't I go travel the world and go party all night while I still can? It's something I love to do. I'm too free spirited to be held down now.
I then decided what any Spanish/Education major would do - go to Taiwan. Yeah, it's pretty random. No, I don't know Chinese. But, it's going to be an adventure for sure. I'm going to be teaching English to little Taiwanese kids through a company called Hess. Most people think I'm crazy for jumping on a plane to go across the world for a year. I'm honestly not very nervous at all though.
I have been starting to dream about going there, which is probably a sign that I'm subconsciously slightly nervous. I can't take my dreams too seriously though - they are random as hell. One time I had a dream I was a saltine cracker and I met the queen. Another time I had a soda can named Amanda who bought me a watch. Common dream themes: Voldemort, zombie apocalypses (apparently I'm quite nice when I'm a zombie), and being on the TV show LOST. Heck, my dreams are probably more interesting than my real life.Though my life can get pretty interesting because it is SO random and I have awful luck sometimes. REALLY awful luck. A few days ago, for instance, I popped my tire and was stranded at work - the day after I got my tires checked. Did I mention this was the third tire I have popped in a month? Did I also mention I work about 40 minutes from home and have no clue how to change a tire?
And today? Went on a boat. I was wearing a dress and didn't have any pockets so I stuck my phone in my cleavage (bad idea, I know). My phone fell out into the water. Fail.
When my bad luck doesn't leave me stranded with a popped tire or phoneless because of my boobs, my bad luck is okay, and almost kind of awesome, because I love to tell interesting stories about myself and my friends. I seem to attract such weirdness. Really, I don't know if I've met anyone who has such randomness follow me wherever I go. Like, anyone who goes to Rome sees the Colloseum. Big fricken' deal. But how many of you Rome travelers have met hot Roman guys, convinced them to bring you to a local discoteca, get in to the club and start dancing, only to find out it's transvestite night and on stage, there is a group guys dancing in neon green speedos, feather boas, and high heels? Probably about 0 people. Well, it happened to me. Note to self: check discotecas ahead of time to ensure non-transvestiteness next time in Rome.
Now, the point of that story was not to talk about awkward transvestite Italians, but to show you how I travel and what I remember. I like the little weird things. I don't want this blog to be a wikipedia page that tells you what language Taiwanese speak, the weather, the tallest building, etc. I'm going to tell stories about funny and interesting things that happen to me that probably wouldn't happen to other people.
So there you go. My blog is this - my weird adventures in Taiwan with a little bit of life views thrown in between. Maybe you are reading this because you are interested in Taiwan, or traveling. Maybe you just want to keep tabs on me and make sure I don't die, or something. Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy.
