Make sure to mark your calendars for the 19th Christmas Bazaar at the Taipei European School (TES). This is my second year as the chairwoman of the Parents Support Council. The parents of the TES traditionally create the biggest fundraising event of our school. We support charity projects and student projects with the donated money of the event.

Frequent returns to Taiwan have gradually added up to more than three years of my life, so taking a considerable chunk of my memory and attention.

When I arrived in Taiwan for the first time I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe something glisteningly clean and super high-tech like Japan? Maybe something small-towny like in Southeast Asia? Whatever I was expecting, it was wrong. I walked out the airport and there was concrete and smog — not a nice start.

As a resident of Taipei City and a bike lover I have to commend the city's effort to launch the so-called “U-Bike” rental system, which has been expanded to a wider portion of the city. In the past, I could only get rentals in Xinyi District of the city and ride around Taipei 101 and through all those glamorous department stores in the area.

Liene Cunska came from Latvia to Taiwan five years ago to study and apparently fall in love with the country. After graduating from Ming Chuan University and from graduate school at Tamkang University, she began working at a technology company in Taipei. The following are some of her observations about Taiwan.

The relationship first developed at a distance, when I was thousands of kilometers from Taiwan. Flicking through a magazine it announced itself: “Taipei 101.” This building, an ambassador for the city and the country, would feature on airport billboards, be discussed proudly in documentaries, and pop up in barroom conversation. This feat of engineering became a revered celebrity. One you never quite expect to meet.

Life in Taiwan for me was great! Well actually great doesn't do it justice, it was phenomenal! I arrived in December and right off the bat, the crisp cold air of Taipei filled my lungs and made me feel right at home, I then traveled to Miaoli, to a nice quaint little town called Nanzhuang to stay with my girlfriend's grandparents.

“The greatest consensus in modern society is our traffic systems. The way a flood of strangers can interact, sharing a path, almost all of them traveling without incident. It only takes one dissenting driver to create anarchy.” — Chuck Palahniuk

Staying in Taiwan for one more year, I haven't had a chance to leave Taipei for the southern part of Taiwan. So, with that in mind, I was bitten by the travel bug. I decided to get away from the cold weather in Taipei and leave for Pingtung to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.

“Suicide machines.” That's what Bruce Springsteen called them and in Taiwan the description couldn't be more apt. I refer of to the city's motorcycles and their riders; the folks who think they hold deed and title to Taipei's public streets but actually don't.