Mark has returned to Taipei and I stayed in Dallas for the duration. (At least until after Sarah's wedding) I guess we both have too much work to do. Already I am longing for the ordered peacefulness that living half way around the world while being functionally illiterate can bring. It is nice to not listen to the constant chatter around you. Since there is only one English radio station in Taipei, it doesn't try very hard to be appealing so I don't listen. Yesterday in the car I looked for a radio station to listen to and after about 5 minutes, gave up in frustration. Yes, they all spoke English but I wanted music, not talk. Commercials in a foreign language are really much easier to ignore.

So I am on a healthy living kick while I am here. Okay, so I walk 5 to 8 miles each day when in Taipei and bike and hike in the mountains all the time. This isn't about exercise, it is about avoiding all the American foods that I miss, not to mention the relatively inexpensive domestic wines. I hired a personal trainer to help me with getting the exercise done and also to help me design an exercise routine that I can do in Taipei with a minimum of equipment. I made it through day 1 with only a few glitches but honestly those Sweettart candies did have my name on them.