Holiday in Flowerwall

The holiday is over: I’m back home in Taipei, and god, I feel wretched. Such peace from a week with an endlessly generous family, a family who kept telling us to stay longer. After savouring the tranquility of the countryside, I’ve had to revise many of my opinions of Taiwan – and also of how [...]

Overstaying in paradise

I’m staying in a gorgeous house-hotel in the countryside of Yilan at the moment, and am experiencing the full force of Taiwanese generosity. We’ve eaten great food and visited some of the largest Daoist temples in the country. More details and photos as soon as I’ve got a good internet connection; now I’m off to [...]

Three things; unequal importance

I have an article posted on a living abroad website: “The virtues of silence“. Like with many of these “cultural insight” pieces I write, during composition, I feel so sure of my sense of Taiwanese life. When I read them again in print, I wonder… Have a look.
I have started a Spanish language blog: “Las [...]

Dreary days of the pig

Taipei has turned quite dead these last days. The sky is cold and miserable, and everyone is at home or gone from the city. Just now I walked out of my house, through the zig zag alleyway towards the MRT station, and two little kids were walking hand in mitten. The air above our heads [...]

Studying Spanish in Mexico and Taiwan

I’ve now finished six days of an intensive Spanish course in Taipei (Monday to Friday, three hours each morning). Three years ago, I did three weeks of an intensive Spanish course of the Mexican city of Guanajuato – how do the two compare?
The prices of the classes, by hour, were pretty similar, but the Taipei [...]