another new mouth

Sepal met someone from South Africa. His name is Adrian Brink. The mug didn't know how he felt about this...he was full of Pepsi, though, which tasted nice.

Teaching English

These are the first English students the Sepal Mug has every experienced! Welcome to life as an English teacher in Taiwan!

What's up, yi sheng? (doc)

The traveling sepal mug has been busy...for the last month, to be exact. But then, on October 2, after perhaps the busiest month of his life of teaching English, learning Chinese, and trying to juggle a new lifestyle in a different country, he paid a visit to the emergency room. The condition was serious, however; so after a week of pain and fevers and taking off work, the sepal mug found himself in a Taiwanese hospital room.

Here's the timeline of events:

Friday, Oct 2: Unexplainable swelling in the knee caused intense pain. Sepal left school and instead of teaching went to the emergency room. In ER: two x-rays, an MRI, urine samples, blood test, and a knee drain (a needle being stuck in the knee, extracting liquid that was causing all the swelling).

Monday, Oct 5: After teaching one class, Sepal returned to Out Patience Care, where more liquid, this time yellow ooze, indicative of a possible infection, was extracted from the knee, more drugs were prescribed, and another appointment was made for Thursday. The doctors also left instructions to return to the ER right away if fevers or chills were experienced.

Thursday, Oct 7: After a feverish night of sleep, the morning was greeted with another fever. Off to the ER, followed by submission into the hospital in preparation for surgery.

Friday, Oct 8: Knee surgery at 11am. Haven't left the hospital since.

American vacation: PARTY TIME!

After spending almost an entire month away from the Western way of life, Sepal THANKED GOD IT WAS FRIDAY! Not in the literal sense, however, but it was good enough.

"In here, it's always Friday!

The peeps at the Ximen Loft hit up TGIF right down the street for Rachel's birthday dinner. Thank God for birthdays AND for Fridays!

It was delicious. EVERY BITE.

And, as usual, the Sepal mug got around.

九份 (Jioufen)

The rainy weather wasn't about to stop Sepal from taking the train to 九份, either, and walk around a mountainside town, peruse shops, eat Taiwan-famous taro, and experience another sizable cup of milk tea - this time, caramel milk tea. The view was gorgeous, the bus driver was crazy, but it was a fun and wet Sunday of friends, food, and tea.

The view was fantastic, and the taro tasted awesome.

And of course, the day ended with caramel milk tea and green tea red bean cake.

The traveling sepal mug has officially traversed outside the borders of Taipei.

eating new fruits

This post is being parenthetically inserted to introduce the readers of this blog to some of the new fruits the traveling sepal mug is experiencing.

These are called "dragon eyes" in English. Can you see why? Sepal felt really white next the interior of the brown fruit.

Typhoon weekend, part one: getting out of Taipei

Taiwan is a beautiful country (I think it's even beautiful when it rains) and its land has much to offer to nature lovers all around, included, and not limited to, the traveling sepal mug. Sepal experienced some of this beauty this last weekend, as the rain continued to splash against the umbrellas that protected the people from too much moisture. The rain didn't stop the mug from getting on the train to Yinnge.

Sepal's first train experience is officially in another country, on the Taiwan Rail. Yinnge was the first train destination and also happens to be the city famous for making mugs! That is, pottery. The people there don't exactly specialize in making traveling mugs, Sepal was still able to see many Taiwanese cousins.

Now whenever, mugs and Taiwan are involved, the aroma of tea follows close behind. Along with meeting all kinds of mugs and teacups and the streets of Yinnge, Sepal also experienced a lot of tea that day. This was not just any tea experience. This was tea Taiwanese style.

At the first end of the day, he made a special friend that came home to Ximen with him.

These mugs are kindred spirits. One's a travel mug, the other's a house mug; but they both have lids.

The SECOND end of the day was spent playing cards at a teahouse near the Shilin Night Market. Sepal got a little overwhelmed, and possibly a little jealous, of the huge cups of Mint Milk Tea.