Nature

I was in a pretty grumpy mood for the past few weeks- just tired of teaching, grading homework, etc, or so I thought. I thought maybe it was a 6-month slump, if there is such a thing? I also thought I needed to read some books so I got ahold of a few English books but they were pretty stupid.

Tuesday I was teaching Kindergarten in the morning, and instead of going back home I decided to check out a "Mountaineering Path" I had seen signs for, in the hopes that it was actually a hiking trail. It was a beautiful drive out to the place- all of a sudden you were in the country and it was so quiet- birds chirping, locusts buzzing. I stopped at a little pavilion and then I found the hiking trail(s). The Taiwan approach to trails seems to pick a point at the bottom of the mountain and another at the top, and make a trail that goes straight up. And then pave it.

There were a few that split off from each other but they were all very steep. I saw a biiiig snake, and a bird that looked like a quail running around with its babies, and some parakeet-looking birds. I did sweat more than I think I ever have in my life- just dripping off of me. It was pretty hot but just so so humid.

Afterwards I felt like a new person- I'm not tired of teaching or discouraged about never learning Chinese- I just needed to take a hike!