1-month checkpoint

Well, I’ve been here for a month now, and there are many milestones to count, both major and minor:

- First trans-Pacific (or trans-oceanic) flight
- First trip to Taiwan/Hong Kong/Asia in general
- First time I’ve ever seen a McDonalds that’s open 24/7
- First visit to one of my parent’s hometowns (and old school!)
- First time teaching an academic, college-level class (I’ve taught academic subjects before and I’ve taught college students before, just never both at the same time!)
- First tastes of Portuguese egg tart, “African Chicken” (a Portuguese dish), Macanese almond cookies, mango Tic-Tacs, melon-flavored gum, and various other foods =D
- First time (in many years) that I’m reading/writing in Chinese on a regular basis
- First (joint) purchase of a washing machine
- First Level 8 typhoon (Koppu)
- First time talking to Mom/Dad/grandparents on Skype…amazing what it takes to get people to adopt new technology =P

This past week has been super-busy because it’s only our second week of teaching, but our first real week of content-based classes, so all of us ETAs are busy drafting and revising lesson plans, making worksheets/quizzes, commiserating with each other, etc. I’ve barely had time to edit photos and get them up on Facebook, much less blog as much as I want, but I’ll try to catch up a bit this weekend, including last weekend’s trip to Coloane, more fireworks, and (of course) more foodie adventures!

Edit: Weekend recap now up!