Taxes, and other miscellaneous goodies

"goodies" I say. Hahaha.... er, anyway. Why's that funny? Well, moving on...
Yes! I did! My taxes in Taiwan! WOWie was it easy! I got my little wage statement paper thing a few months ago from JacksonFive but you can't file taxes here until May. So Jimmy took me to the tax office the other day, which was seriously about one minute away from my house. When we walked in, soooooo maannnyyyy peeeooopppllllee waiting...waiting...(kind of like everywhere else around here), but when we followed the signs to the place where foreigners are supposed to file their taxes, there was only one other dude and then me! It was groovy. So I filled out a paper, showed my passport, signed a thing, and in ten minutes I was done.
I wish all my tax returns in the US had been that easy. Actually, today, the 27th of May, is my 330th day in Taiwan. Which means, I now pass the "physical presence test" to have my foreign earned income exempted on my US tax return. What a pain. As a US citizen working abroad, I get an automatic 60 day extension on my taxes, so I'm able to file this late. I'm so glad, otherwise I would have had to PAY taxes on my income earned here, which would have been a CRUMMY deal! As it is, I think I'm going to get a big fat refund since I worked in the US half of last year and I can claim all kinds of exemptions for taking a job abroad. This is the only year it will work for me. Yay!! :)
I spend about three hours on the IRS website to figure out just that little bit of information in the previous paragraph. *virtual high five* if you also hate filing taxes. What a pain. But I like the refund thing.
In other news, um.... hm. What other news. Well, my roomates will all be trickling out of our apartment to move on in their lives, starting next week. One roomate is moving in with a Taiwanese girl in my cell group, because she (Katie my roomate) wants to improve her Chinese and be in a Chinese speaking environment. So she's moving next week. Then Stephanie, another roomate, will be going to Bethel college, a ministry school, in July. Then Amanda, the other one, has plans to move to Taipei and work with the Banner church there, in October/November. There are several new female teachers coming this summer, so within a few months I'll have a complete new set of roommates! It's happy, but also sad because my roommates now are great and we get along so well. But I'm happy for them. I will be moving into a much larger room, so that's a plus for me. But it will take some adjustment to get used to all the new people in the house.
I've been drinking a lot of iced yogurt green tea lately. Have I mentioned how wonderful this drink is? I must have the happiest stomach in the world, with all the yogurt I give it every day.
Oh, good news! I'm not sick anymore. For once, I feel fine! WHEW! Let's see how long it lasts. I'd like to be optomistic, but generally I get sick every month. Pooh.
Summer's officially here. It's hot again. I vaguely remember the days of yore when I first got here and rode that bike to school and back in the blistering heat...oh I was a brave soul.
I parked my scooter at the school (kind of on a covered sidewalk area where many people park), as usual, one day last week, and when I came out to go get dinner later, the left bottom bumper thing was half falling off! I think someone swiped it on accident and didn't leave a note. Grr... It still drove so I stuck it loosely back on and drove it for the next couple of days. Then, on my way to work a few days later, SCREAAAPPPPEEe...bump, CRACCKK bump, BANG! and I was startled to look down and find my bottom bumper thing bumping away down the street as I sped away, and scooters behind me made little swerves to miss it.
Bummer. I made a quick decision that it was safer to continue and be embarrased about my ugly scooter, than stop and try to retreive it. It didn't hit anybody.
Jimmy helped me get a new one and it was relatively inexpensive. Whew. Usually I would hit the brakes if something like this happened, but on the streets here, hitting the brakes will probably get you rear ended. Traffic is kind of close together and if you make a sudden move, you could easily have an accident. So I think I reacted well in continuing. Haha, I must be a pro Taiwanese scooter-er now. So, thanks to those of you who pray for my safety. That could have easily been an accident, but turned out ok. Praise the Lord for those guardian angels! :)
Well, it's late now and as I have no pictures or anything else of real interest to write here, I think I'll go to bed. Yes. That's a good plan.
Wan an! (Good night!)

Oops

Um, so I just realized it's been well over a month since my last blog post. Sooo sorry...I guess I assume most of the people who read this blog anyway are on my Facebook which is where I post the majority of my photos and keep updates statuses (sort of). But for those of you not on my Facebook, I apologize for my lack of blogging.

Nothing terribly fantastic or exciting has happend since my last post anyway, so you're not missing a whole lot...

Just work, work, work! The school year is over on June 30th and then I have a month of vacation in July. I'm SO excited about that month! Except, I plan to have my wisdom teeth (yep all of them) surgically removed, but that's ok. It's a good excuse to stay in bed and watch Tv. hee hee....

Also in July I plan to help out with the Banner youth camp again like I did last year. I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I've come to Taiwan. It really flies by...

ITPS is sending three new teachers who will arrive in June. My three roomates are also making plans (some plans not set in stone, but highly probable) that they will be leaving around this summer as well, so things will be changing up around here. Whew...

Otherwise, my schedule is pretty well the same every day..get up, each lunch, go to work, eat dinner, hang out with Jimmy a few nights a week, and other nights hang out at home. Nothing really exciting. I've been sick with a bronchitis-ey sortish of a thing the past couple of weeks so I've been really run down. I miss American TV but found I could buy seasons of the Amazing Race and Survivor pretty cheap on iTunes so I've been coughing away in bed and watching my iPod.

Being sick in Taiwan is so strange. They treat the smallest cough or sniffle as if it was the most terrible of all Terrible diseases. If you have the slightest sniffle or smallest cough or *heaven forbid* a fever (even a really low one), you Must wear a Face Mask. You also must go to the Doctor, get loaded up on questionable medicines, some of which may or may not be antibiotics, you must not drink or eat anything cold, fried, dairy, or sweet. The Doctor will also make you inhale steam, no matter what your ailment is. It's very strange.

But, whatever the concoction of potions I got this time, it actually did the trick and I feel better. I'm not sure if they are antibiotics so I'm going to finish them all even though I'm getting better. Bah.

Today at school one of my co-teachers gave me a drink. It looks like this:

Anyway, it's a quiet and unassuming sort of a drink. But she tells me it's good for girl's skin, she says. Ok..that sounds nice. Then she says, yes in the olden days of Chinese yore, only queens and very rich women could afford this drink. Oh, and also, it's made from swallow spit. Yes..swallows like, the bird. And these dudes climb up to their nests and steal the nests so they can process their saliva and make this drink that's good for girl's skin. I'm doubtful if I will try it or not...everytime I look at the can all I can think is "swallow spit" and makes me want to gag. But it might be good. We'll see....

Also, note the back of my toothbrush packaging. If I'd been more careful when opening the toothbrush, there was even more wonderful advice on the back.

I'm so glad I found a toothbrush to clean all those tooth bacterium speckles and protect my tooth hair. It's quite a relief. ;) Really, though, this toothbrush came in a package attached to a large tube of toothpaste, and in a three pack for about 60 NT (about $2 US). Can't beat that with a stick. The toothpaste, of which I do not have a photo, is appropriately named "Guardian of Tooth" and promises to take care of my "oral teeth". I wonder what I'm supposed to use to take care of all my other sorts of teeth. You know, the non-oral ones.

I'm so tired, I'm becoming sarcastic. Funny though the English is sometimes, I think it's incredibly cute especially when coming from my students.

I'll leave on this note: I gave my students an assignment to write some sentences about their mothers for mother's day. They wrote great things like "Mom you are my honey" "Mom thank for take care me", etc. But my favorite of all:

"Mom, you are so beautiful because you always clean your face." Just like that. Good grammar and spelling and everything.

Oh yes, warms the heart. :)

Ok, Zai jian!