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So in just under two days, I made it from the SCUBA diving at the beach in Southern Taiwan to walking around chilly Boulder, Colorado... No problems at immigration. Wonderfull place to stay here in town. Walked around the hill (university area) last night before bed. Then hit the Dushanbe Tea House for breakfast and then walked around the Pearl St. mall.. Had to goto the Army store for gloves... damn it's cold here! Just wanted to send out an update, to let everyone know that I made it :) I'm heading back to Taiwan on the 13th of Dec, so should have plenty of time to sort out Taxes and visit friends etc here... Yay!!!
Ooops... Apparently I have to be back in the US before Nov 28th... If not, I'll loose my resident alien status (Green Card). I figured this out at 3pm on Nov 25th on the very south end of Taiwan. I'm now set to arrive in Denver on the evening of the 27th. I'm planning on staying in Denver for a bit over a week, then heading to Albuquerque for a few days to visit my mum before heading back to Taiwan. I'll have a week in Taiwan to finish my interrupted tour here, then I'll be going to Bali to spend Christmas with my brother Wade.
So that's the present. I spent my first few weeks in Taiwan with a cold and then looking for teaching work alternatively. I also did lots of exploring the city. There are lots of really cool night markets, great food, good museums, friendly people, excellent local transportation. Taipei is really quite a cool city (dirt and all :) Once I finally found work, I realized that I didn't really want to spend 6 months here so I gave up on teaching and headed out for a tour of the Island.
My first stop was Alishan for some great hiking, some good tea, a really lovely train ride up the mountains, sunrise hike...
From Alishan I headed down the mountains to Kenting (pronounced Kun-ding) which is on the far south of Taiwan. I stayed in a hostel in a Catholic Church... First few days with a couple nice guys (one from Italy, one from Mexico.) Then had a few days on my own in the dorm... Did some diving, lots of reading Gibson in Starbucks :) walking on the beach... was really relaxing until yesterday afternoon, when I happened to check the Department of Homeland Security... I mean immigration website... for Green Card requirements. It used to be that you could stay out for 2 years... still can if you apply for a permit BEFORE leaving the states... Yikes...
BTW, the diving in Taiwan was nice. Not many fish and most of them small, but quite a few I haven't seen before... Cool trumpet fish, puffers, jet black triggers, lots I don't know the name/type of... Mostly it was really nice just being back in the water... Most of the rest of my trip is dedicated to diving, which I'm totally psyched about!
Hope to see some of you soon :)
Loads of Love,
-- Bindu