This cat is alive.

As of the last 2 days, a dog, which seems to have some kind of intestinal dilemma, has wandered to the front entry of my school and has decided to start its slow trudge to death. It's weak, but it's alert to our movements. It sits in a ball and watches us beneath its down-turned dog eyebrows. It, every so often, howls and coughs in agony and we're left without much to do for it, except give it water and food. We've called the authorities, but there are no authorities. So it is that we have a stage for which all the children at school can watch this dog slowly slip away. They gather in a small crowd and peep through our front windows. Some kids laugh, some kids just stare blankly, some of the smallest kids need us grown-ups to whisper in their ear what is happening to it, and that even though they want to they shouldn't touch him, as even the youngest minds know there is something not right.

Another day following our whims in paradise

Michael and I spend a fair amount of time getting off our bicycles and sitting in places; typical places, like on park benches, steps on the river embankment, on small chairs outside of country stores. Usually a dog saunters into view. We talk about the dog, we watch the dog go about his duty of following its whims. An old man shows up with a funny way about him, and old lady comes around smiling at the sight of us. We're handed juice boxes, we're given snacks. We sit and listen to birds, swat a few flies, we watch random convoys of temple-bound tour buses go by, each with its own clamoring oriental soundtrack, blowing through the small village, past bare-foot, hunched over old persons, past middle aged women riding slowly on bicycles like they were kids riding circles in the driveway, past kids actually riding in circles with play swords and play guns.

We get back on our bikes and in another 10 minutes of meandering through tunnels of orange groves, on narrow scooter roads through rice fields, we find an abandoned something or other to explore, we find forlorn treasures inside which we selfishly pillage.





We pillage our way through the countryside, pillaging smells and views, rampaging directionless on currents of whimsy, toward a cluster of funny trees, toward a what's-that-over-there, toward the possibility that the next village might have ice-cream. What is there to say really about our paradise; other than, we've come to know this little green county quite well. My motto is "deep not far" when it comes to exploring. Following no maps, no signs, but only whims I think we end up coming to know so much more about a place.

I missed a picture.

Michael and I were rounding the corner on this grove near the mountains in Gukeng when 5-6 of these farm ladies started calling to us. I turned and saw the lot of them in this nook of the orange grove, arranged like a family portrait, like a bouquet of sunflowers, each whose face was bonnet-ed by their floral scarf wrapped hats and smiling, all them holding big sized 7-11 Slurpees under a diffuse and sparkling tropical light.

They held the Slurpees up to me and said that they tasted good. I bet they did in this humidity and under those layers of flower prints, and with those fumaroles of respiration rolling off those fragrant groves. But as I got off my bike and fumbled for my camera, trying to chat with them at my back, trying to keep them in their positions, I turned around and they bashfully didn't want their picture taken. They wanted to take ours. Of course. We were their sight for sore eyes as much as they were ours.

We found this boat near a cemetary.

Three Sequential translations from English to Chinese, back to English, again to Chinese

Third Translation back to English

This week, the Lunar New Year, we do not work, the weather has been our experience, because most have not yet transferred to Taiwan. We have to hide in our apartment, it is not our usual. We usually need time to ride a bike trip. We are really beginning to see the number of installments exasperatingly loss. Our own surprise, in their beliefs, pause TV is still fresh in my memory, but only one season in the twists and turns. You know, this is not good.

I think I need an excuse not to spend lazy, stay at home. In the past few months, both with each other's feelings have emerged. One is, we look forward to leaving Taiwan. Another reason is that we have just started to make friends, solve the unit. This is very interesting. We hope that the results of an agent. He said that usually, people spend a few months to close the pop-up an interesting point, but then at the end of this period, they become the wait to save money to leave their daily settlement. This is us. We have our ideas of China. But I am equally, I have this huge overseas organizations, including access to thank all of Taiwan in the diplomatic ambiguity tributaries view.

Silly me, I will not lose an island, and we do the same.


Second Translation back to English

This week, the Lunar New Year, we do not work, the weather has been our experience, because most have not yet transferred to Taiwan. We have to hide in our apartment, it is not our usual. We usually take the time to ride a bike trip. We are really beginning to see the number of installments exasperatingly loss. Our own surprise, in their beliefs to suspend television was still fresh in my memory, but only one season in the twists and turns. You know, it is not good.

I think I need an excuse not to spend money, lazy, stay at home. In the past few months, the two converge feelings have surfaced. One is, we look forward to leaving Taiwan. Another is that we just started making friends, solving unit. This is very interesting. We hope that the results of the agent. He said that usually, people spend a few months to close the pop-up an interesting point, but then at the end of this period, they become a wait and save money to leave their daily settlement. This is us. We have our thoughts China. But I am equally, I have this huge overseas organizations, including the tributaries of the insights obtained to thank all of Taiwan in the diplomatic ambiguity.

Silly me, I will not lose an island, we do too.


First Translation back to English

This week, the Lunar New Year, we have no work, the weather has been our experience since most have not yet transferred to Taiwan. We have to hide in our apartment, it is not our usual. We usually spend their time cycling tour. We have really started to see a number of installments exasperatingly loss. Our own surprise to pause in their beliefs TV still fresh, but only one season in its twists and turns. You know, it has not been good.

I think I need an excuse, lazy, stay at home, at no cost. In the past few months, two convergent feelings have surfaced. One is, we look forward to leaving Taiwan. The other is that we are only just beginning to make friends, solve the unit. This is very interesting. Our agents expect this outcome. He said that typically, people spend a few months to close the pop-up a variety of interesting points, but then after the end of this period, they become a wait and save the money necessary to leave the routine of their settlement. This is us. We have our minds China. But I am equally, I have this huge overseas Chinese, including one of the tributaries of the insights gained from across the island thanked diplomatic ambiguity.

I was silly, I will not do for that lost on an island, we are too.

Original Post

This week, Chinese New Year, we haven't had to work and the weather has been the worst we've yet to experience since moving to Taiwan. We've holed up in our apartment, which is not usual for us. We typically spend the day biking around. We've actually started watching the exasperatingly numerous installments of Lost. Our surprise in ourselves for giving in to its TV suspension of belief is still fresh, being only one season in to its twists and turns. And you know, it's not been bad at all.

I think I needed an excuse to be lazy, to stay home, and to not spend money. In the past few months two convergent feelings have surfaced. One is that we look forward to leaving Taiwan. The other is that we are now just starting to make friends and settle in. It's funny. Our agent predicted this very denouement. He said it's typical that people spend the first several months popping off to various fun spots, but then, after this period ends, they settle into a routine of hunkering down and saving money for their inevitable departure. That's us. We've got China on our minds again. But I am no less thankful for the insights that I've gained about this vast Chinese diaspora, one of whose tributaries cut across this small diplomatically ambiguous island.

I'm silly for relishing that LOST is on an island and so are we.