I have been living in Taipei for almost two and a half weeks now and there are some things that are extremely different. Living here is helping me realize that I take for granted simple things like...
1) A garbage disposal - I have to keep all the food scraps in a bag and then dump them in a designated area on campus (yuk is right). I also have to sort my other garbage for recycling. Trying to figure out what goes where is a bit tricky.

2) The ability to read, write, and communicate. I feel like a toddler when I go anywhere or try to talk to the students. It's funny because a lot of them just start spatting off in Chinese and I just say I don't speak Chinese and I need to figure out how to say this in Chinese not just in English! And trying to live here is even harder than in other places like Europe or Africa where although I would not know the language I could at least try and read the alphabet because they use romanized letters. In Taiwan there are the lovely Chinese characters which I have no idea how to decipher.

Those are just two of many things that I realize that I have been taking for granted. Living here as helped me to see that I need to thank the Lord for the simple things.