My Life here in NanKan

I have been in Taiwan for over two months now and in Nankan about a month and a half. So far I have really been enjoying my time here. the only thing that I majorly complain about is the heat and humidity. I don't know why I didn't expect to sweat as much as I do. 

Back home my family and friends have been asking me about my adventures and all honestly I haven't really been on overly many adventures besides just living here. For the most part I don't have overly much time during the week. I have 6 classes all with 10 to 18 students ages 3-10 years old and I have to commute between two branches. Although my company is awesome and basically has everything planned out for me there is still a lot that goes into teaching. I usually get home from work at night around 9pm and am too tired to really do anything but lounge around my apartment but I do have the weekends off though.

Oh, that reminds me I haven't posted really anything about my apartment. It is pretty big.We have three bedrooms, 2 living rooms, a dinning room and it came with laundry. If this was America there would be no way that I could afford it. I live on the top floor of my building that is located on one of the main streets in Nankan. It is in between my branches. Also in the bottom floor of my building is a supermarket, a couple clothing stores, and two restaurants  Oh there is also a Toys-R-Us which has some awesome well priced tokusatsu merchandise. We live down the street from the McDonald's and several cheap Taiwanese
restaurants. Even though I've been living here for over a month I don't really have any pictures yet because I haven't quite gotten it to they way I want yet... and I need to clean. On to the pictures!

View from my apartment

Second view from my apartment

I bought cute hippo slippers ^-^

As mentioned before I live above a Toys-R-Us. It has tokusatsu merch and as a fan it is very hard not to spend all of my money buying stuff. Although I did decide that I will buy one or two things every pay check... If I leave after a year I'll probably have to buy another suitcase just to fit all the stuff that I've bought. 

yep I'm totally an adult

So in general I really like living here in Taiwan. I'll have a separate post on food and stuff so you all can see the stuff that I've been eating but till next time. 

Climbing the Mountain

To get into Nankan from Taipei you have to climb over a mountain. There is several trails on the mountain that you can go hiking. My first weekend in NanKan two of my new co-workers and I decided to go and hike the mountain... which was not the smartest move on our part. 

I like hiking and going on short day hikes but hiking in the summer in Taiwan is nothing like hiking in the summer in Pennsylvania. Our mistake was that we didn't get out until 9 or 10ish in the morning and by then it was already super hot. It was so hot and humid that you didn't even have to move to get drenched in sweat. Despite the heat we decided to go hiking anyway. On the mountain is a giant shrine that is about half way up. There are also tons of stairs that you climb before you even get to the hiking trail.

Supposedly there is a KTV (karaoke)set up at the top of.the mountain where to locals go to sing on on the weekend. We did not make it that far. We only made it to the look out. It had amazing views of the city.

Yeah after the overlook we headed down the mountain. Unlike going up where the path was paved this was more of a mountain trail. I have to say that I was exhausted and it wasn't even that long a trail. 

Overall it was a nice mountain and I would love to try climbing the mountain again when it is less hot and humid... so I might try again in October.