"She's Only Happy in the Sun"

As I set here in our little piece of heaven, in Liuzhangli, Da-an District, Taipei City, Taiwan... I think, god I love this city.

Today I experienced the first afternoon off that I've had since beginning full-time at the school, due to a couple of cancellations. I can't say enough how strange it feels to be given a blissful reprieve after the hectic schedules we've undertaken over the course of the past two-three months. (Feels like so much longer.)

In the afternoon sun, a light breeze and little humidity, it was absolutely blissful to travel from northern Taipei City, with the majestic Yang Min Mountains in the backdrop... total serenity. Copy of Slaughterhouse 5 and Chinese books in hand... it's just a priceless, totally unique feeling.

Taipei just harbors this beauty that haven't yet really objectified - something totally unlike my experiences in mainland China, though closest to our time in Dalian, back in 2004. I felt then - and most certainly agree now - that Dalian is one of the most beautiful cities that mainland China has on offer. Perhaps a virtue of its distance from Beijing and other surrounding states, Dalian always felt like it held a beauty in itself, unreplicable, a city formed around its natural geographical features, thereby allowing its people to always maintain a sliver of sanity in their hectic working lives.

So too does Taipei harbor this beauty. A field of cosmopolitanism with a natural backdrop that never fails to render me a little speechless. Just as Carlton's trees, wide streets and overwhelming availability of lazy lattes reminded me to get out and about with my life, so too does Taipei City encourage this, when I head out daily in the direction of the mountain valley, on the way to our Shilin branch.

Perhaps its this closeness to nature that encourages a focus of liveability within the general populace. Without fail, the mountains remind me to live a life that is sustainable, in both the individual and greater sense.

And here, in a south-western corner of the bustling capital of "the beautiful isle," I can't help but smile.