Every week, we have two days off….Sunday and Tuesday. However, due to some morning commitments on Sunday, it doesn’t feel as much like a “day off” as Tuesday does.

On this particular Tuesday morning, I….

-slept in until I couldn’t sleep any longer! :D :D :D

- had a wonderful cup of “Ghirardelli Chocolate Coffee”…courtesy of one of Joel’s grandmothers when we visited Canada this summer. We saved it, Grandma…and now we’re enjoying it even more!!! (Thank you!)

- went for a nice long walk around the park. It’s about a mile around, and I try to go around 3-4 times. It’s always interesting…there are so many people to watch and so many different things to see! Among the things I saw today were 1) one of my students. As I was walking, I heard “Hello, Mrs. Loose!” from across the street. It was one of my little students, Linda…and boy did she ever look excited to see her english teacher outside of school!!! 2) I also saw a number of people wearing winter coats, scarves, and even touques! How cold is it, you might be wondering….a nice brisk 72 degrees (22 for you metric people). The breeze is cool, the humidity is low…and it’s beautiful. We’re certainly not thinking about touques or scarves yet…but I think when it gets below 80 around here, a lot of the Taiwanese start to feel cold. That’s because it’s SO stinking hot the rest of the year! 3) Apparently, the pets are also starting to feel cold, because they are putting on more clothes too. Today, I saw dogs wearing baseball uniforms, sweaters, and jackets.

- I followed up my walk with a visit to the local wet market. Every Tuesday, I try to drop in and stock us up with fruit and veggies for the week. I love, love, love shopping at the wet market. It’s so much fun, and the vendors are always really nice to me. I get to try and use some of my “shopping Chinese” and they get to laugh at my terrible accent and pronunciation. It’s a pretty good swap. Today, I bought oranges, plums, green peppers, pea pods, mushrooms, onions, and carrots. All for less than $8 US.

- I also stopped by the local “baking supply” shop today. I hardly ever go in there, because there’s just no reason to – our apartment has no oven. However, in two weeks, we’re going to make a huge Thanksgiving feast for our students and their families…so I wanted to see what they have. Aside from being a baking supply shop, they also have a limited supply of some specialty import items (at pretty decent prices, for imported stuff). Today, I noticed that they have a few of the essentials for our feast – cranberry sauce, pumpkin, frozen pie shells, and whipped cream. So, at least we’ll have traditional thanksgiving pumpkin pie! Our boss is working on locating all the rest of the goods, but at least I can tell him where to find a few things. This shop also has christmas cookie cutters…which is great news, because sometime around Christmas, we’re going to have a Christmas party where we make and paint sugar cookies with our students. Yeah for some holiday festivities!!!!

- Now I’m home, savoring my second cup of the chocolate coffee, eating breakfast and getting ready to start working on homework. Tuesdays when we don’t have homework are even more exciting, because then we get to go hiking, visit the National Palace Museum, or find other exotic things to see/do. But even with the homework, Tuesday is still pretty relaxing…and a nice break from the crazy pace of the rest of the week.