Awesome Day

I had the best day Tuesday. As I discovered in America, when I don't have to work or particularly accomplish anything, I am very relaxed and happy!

I took the day (night) off work because we had a meeting for the CO visit. Coincidentally there was a training for work I got to miss because I'd already asked the day off. Score!

In the morning I rode to the hospital in Taichung with Jasmine and another sister, Maggie. This poor girl. She's about my age and Chinese, and she used to live in Taichung. I didn't know her well but she was just the nicest person. Anyways, she was at an instersection on her scooter and- it hurts me to type this- a lady in a car didn't see her and ran over her leg, and then when Maggie screamed she backed up over her leg and ran over it again! She was lucky that it broke evenly. Even so she is in a cast up to her thigh. Her parents live in a small town near DongShi and she's living with them for 6 months (! 3 months with the cast, 3 months while she recovers). It's kind of weird; no one even considers that you could still, you know, go to work and live on your own with a broken leg. And she is still the nicest, most cheerful person. And it turns out her English is pretty good too, so we can actually communicate!

I just helped her get in and out of the car and pushed her wheelchair around- the big joke was that I was her "wai-lao," foreign worker, which is what they call caretakers from Vietnam or Indonesia or whereever. "An American wai-lao! You must be very rich!"

We had lunch together, then I walked around Taichung running errands- stocking up on salt & vinegar chips (which they've stopped selling at 7-11 so I have to go to the gourmet grocery store) and went to the library, where I discovered that there are a lot of English-language books that aren't in the "American Corner." Hmm...

I rode the train back to Fong Yuan, then had a nice, leisurely bike ride along a bike bath near-ish to my apartment. It was meant to be an hour but I got so turned around- I just can't figure out where this path is in relation to places I know, or even where north is when I'm near it. So when I got off I rode 20 minutes away from my apartment instead of 5 minutes towards it... but no harm done. It gave me an excuse to heat up a burrito (which I buy in bulk from Carrefour) for dinner instead of laboring over a veggie stir-fry.

The weather was so nice- it has really warmed up, probably about 72 and sunny. Just such a nice day.