A Great Day - Sun, Money, and Cookies

Today the sun shone. That alone felt like a miracle, after several weeks of rain and cloudy skies. Mind you, I've enjoyed those cloudy days that cover the 70 degree air like a thermas...they hold in the perfectness of an autumn day. But today was no ordinary day. Rumor had it that this Wednesday, we would finally be paid for the first time since arriving in Taiwan. Initially after getting out of bed I was feeling a bit pessimistic, however my tone changed with the clear blue skies.

Scott was the first to head to the Shenkeng post office to get his debit card and find out if anything had been deposited in our accounts. Yes, it is a little peculiar to think that a post office is the place to do finances, but that is one of the special quirks of Taiwan. Well to my delight I got a call from Scott. He was getting ready to pay our rent at one of the 7/11s (another quirk of Taiwan, you learn to love the quirks...paying bills at a convenience store, how convenient), of course if he was paying the rent that meant he had discovered money somewhere - it just happened that somewhere was in the post office! So a couple hours later I went down and got my debit card and checked my balance (yep, it was up...by a lot!).

I celebrated and went grocery shopping.

Later in the day Scott came home from doing some celebrating himself. He had a couple bags of groceries too. But then he handed me a package. It was not just any package, but the one I had been expecting from the states. I knew from my talking with my mother, that something exceptional was inside. I opened it up and there was a mountain of cookies inside! Cookies, especially really good ones, are not common in Taiwan. Matter of fact, I have not witnessed any yet - well until the mountain of them fell out of the package. Also tucked away was my iPod touch that I had ordered/requested.

My senses were overwhelmed. I took a nap.