What the future holds for Ryan

It looks like I'll be staying put in Taiwan for a while.

Those who know me well know that I don't really know what the hell I am doing. I came here to Taiwan in January on a sort of "trial basis", thinking that I'd test out the waters and see how long I intended to stay. Part of the reason for me coming here was to save up money quickly and take off travelling to India for at least 6 months.

That's not gonna happen. At least for a while...

Through my ups and downs in Taiwan these last couple of months, I've wavered back and forth on the idea of leaving for good at the end of June. As I dream up schemes and ideas in my head as to what to do next, I always end up back in Taiwan. Most of this is due to a complete lack of realistic options elsewhere, but as of late, staying put is starting to feel like the right thing to do.

Life is one big question mark. I don't know if other people feel the same, but I am constantly in a state of dissatisfaction in life, gazing towards the future while never really stopping to enjoy the present. This is a problem. At the same time that I know I do this, I never really look back on my past as uneventful or boring, nor do I ever feel that I've wasted any of my years on this earth. So whatever I'm doing with my life must be worth enjoying in the moment instead of looking to the future. With this in mind, I've begun to really consider my situation here in Taiwan.

I have a pretty damn easy life. I work 24 hours a week, only about 10 of which I am teaching students. The money I make is more than enough to get by on, and stll have lots to spend on things like a brand new SLR camera and save money to fund my vacation in July. The only real stress i have to deal with is the way time slows to a stop when I'm waiting for the traffic light to turn green so I can make a right turn (what a stupid law that is).

So, Amanda and I decided to move out of our home in the ghetto, and move up a notch into the upper class projects. We move into our new place in June, and it is a considerable step up in the world of Taiwan's accommodations. We still have five flights of stairs and no elevator, but we now have furniture, a fridge, a washing machine, air conditioning, an extra bedroom for guests, and I have an enormous king size bed that isn't as hard as a rock.

I'm taking one month off work in July, and I'll most likely be back at work at the start of August. I fly in and out of Singapore, and I'm toying with the idea of skipping over to Borneo for some jungle exploration and Mountain Climbing. Details of that trip are still up in the air. Its not 6 months in India, but I can't really complain about a month of vacation after 4 months of part-time work. I think I've got it pretty easy.


This has been the World According to Scurvy.

A fresh new look

You may have noticed if you've checked my blog lately that i've been experimenting with some new designs for the title banner of my blog. You all probably don't care, and in reality, this is a completely useless thing to do, but well, I'm bored.

Check out my latest idea that may be the basis for a finalized version soon to appear on my real blog at www.testingscurvy.blogspot.com

If you are reading this in my facebook notes, you will have to go to my actual blog to see what i am talking about www.scurvysworld.blogspot.com

Let me know what you think if you care.

The Rat Pack

One Rainy Saturday

Woke up Saturday morning with the intention of spending the day in the country with my camera. I got out to the country... just in time for a typhoon like storm to come out of nowhere and well... yada yada yada... I got wet. Shit happens.

I then came home to have Amanda point out the fact that the water level on the roof of our building (which also doubles as our patio and the trash storage area for our entire building) was rising somewhat quickly and coming close to flooding our apartment. Hmm... might be a good time to move before the real typhoons come....

As we were watching the roof flood and dreaming about getting out of the projects, we happened to see a cat dart across our roof with what looked to be a giant white mouse in her mouth. We followed it to find not a cat with fresh prey, but a cat with three tiny, wet, shivering little kittens huddled in a corner behind a block of cement.

Amanda, of course, just couldn't let them stay there, so we managed to get them inside our apartment (I still don't really know how I feel about this idea). After about half an hour, I started thinking about the possibility that the mother cat might have been in the process of moving all her kittens to safety, and perhaps there were more somewhere on our roof. So, I went out searching through all the crap in the rain, and found another one, huddled by itself in the corner of a torn up old recliner chair that had flooded in the storm.

So Yay! Amanda and I are now the caretakers of not only one stray street cat and her four 2-3 week old kittens, but all their flees and bugs that came with them as part of the package deal. Good thing we don't use our kitchen for food preparation.

Basically, our options are to either throw them back outside and let them fend for themselves, take them to a pound or vet (where they will most likely be put down because not many people here like cats), or let them stay with us until they are old enough to leave the mother, and then try and guilt trip people into adopting them. As much as I really don't like the idea of keeping them, I don't exactly think I could go through with the first two options. Looks like Ryan's got some new roommates!

We've named them already. The white one is called 'Mouse' cause I thought he was one. The black one is called 'Panther', cause well, he looks like a panther. The grey and black striped one is 'Tiger', cause he looks like a tiger, he's feisty, and his other siblings have animal names. And the grey and black striped one with white paws is called 'St. Anthony' after the patron saint of lost articles. He doesn't fit the "random animal" theme, but I felt it was fitting because he was left behind in the rain and would have died, had I not gone out searching for more kittens on the roof. Good old St. Anthony has been busy helping Ryan find stuff lately, so I named a kitten after him to show him my appreciation.

I have a feeling they aren't leaving soon, so keep posted for updates.

I haven't really taken any good photos of them yet, for I don't want to use the flash on their young little eyes and I can't get good lighting. But, I'm sure there will be plenty of pics in the weeks to come.