A day for the soul - a day at the zoo

I'm pleased to say that we have great news... We have jobs! Yesterday we found out that we are now both employees of one of the largest chain of English schools in Taiwan. Both are fantastic positions, as we'll be teaching adult conversational English classes in the evenings, to small groups of 6-12 students. The school is well-known here, with over 20 branches in Taiwan (half a dozen or so in Taipei) and with a good calibre of over 45 foreign teachers. We're now in the process of organising our resident visas, which means that we won't have to risk deportation by overstaying, nor will we have to travel in and out of the country. Last night we attended 'observational classes' just to ensure that it was what we're after, and we were both seriously impressed. All in all, fantastic news! We start next week.

So we decided to celebrate Anzac Day in style by heading out to the National Taiwan Zoo! The zoo itself is an absolute marvel. It's on a sprawling estate (hectares and hectares!) on the outskirts of the city, close to the mountains. It's so big that at one stage, we had to catch the "zoo train" (which was a truck with carriages on wheels!) just to get around. Most importantly though, there's plenty of room for all the animals (ourselves included). The zoo itself attracts over five million visitors a year, so we were lucky to be there on a quiet weekday. Most of the time we felt that we had the wilderness all to ourselves.

Mostly, it was great to run around like little kids, squealing "look! look!" Sim got to play wilderness photographer, which he loves, and I'm sure you'll agree, he's certainly got a gift for. (His enthusiasm for the 'insectorium' couldn't have reminded me more of Mark!)

We're still feeling a little woozy from this strange weather (32 degrees yesterday, 16 degrees today). That said, hearts and minds definitely appreciated being back in nature. Tomorrow, we go house-hunting and enjoy the last few days of unemployed bliss!