Ok we’re a little late here, it’s already January 9th where I’m writing from, but I want to remind myself of all that went right in 2023 and how I expect 2024 to be better in basically every way.
I’ve had four opportunities to watch the fireworks at Taipei 101, and I’ve missed every single one of them- I started 2023 drinking cheap Japanese beer alone and writing in my journal as the snow gathered outside the hostel living room window in Sapporo.
Sadly, the only picture I have of the living room of Ino’s Place (name of the hostel) is obscured by my chiseled mug.
My trip to Hokkaido in hindsight was mostly type-II fun. Type I fun is fun while it’s going on, and type-II is more fun after the fact. For most of my life, I’ve been a fan of select Japanese art, music, movies, and video games. I thought my first trip in the land of the rising sun would be a rainbow collage of nonstop sushi and weird Tokyo cafes. From my limited experience, Hokkaido, especially in the winter time, is something else entirely. Looking out the windows of the rail as you ride through the landscape, perfect neighborhoods of European style architecture coated in thick layers of snow reflect bright sunlight, while everything somehow manages to sit at right angles to everything else. All is quiet. The highlight of a day can be a huge bowl of curry soup or a plate of sashimi.
I feel like I can’t say enough good about Otaru, Hakodate, Noboribetsu, Sapporo, and the other places I visited in my trip to Japan; I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a winter getaway. I had just undergone ACL surgery, but many of the foreigners I ran into there were traveling to ski or snowboard, so it must be even better if you’re into that. It would be easy to go on about the food, scenery, or people that I met, but that’s not the point of the essay.
Some schools in Taiwan observe both Christmas holiday and Chinese New Year holiday. I’ve been fortunate enough to teach and attend schools that do that, so at this time of year, I often have two whole months of break. In 2023, this two month break was broken up into two pieces by a single week of teaching. The Friday of that week, my bags were already packed again this time to go to Vietnam. I would fly straight to Hanoi, stay for a week, then go south to Ho Chi Minh City and to Cantho, where my girlfriend (at the time) comes from to meet her family.
This would be only the first of three trips to Vietnam I would take in 2023. Each time I would be frustrated in one way or another by applying for a visa, getting it approved on time, opening it up and showing it to the ticket counter at the airport, etc. I am being sparse describing my time in Vietnam now, because I kept a journal my first trip there, and I’d rather just write it up at another time. I can sum it up by saying: while I’ve only been to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Cantho, I absolutely love Vietnam.
Chinese New Year (or Tet Holiday, as it’s called in Vietnam) ended, and I returned to work, and took ping pong classes twice a week which I absolutely loved. I’ve played ping pong ever since I was a kid, and in 2023, I got better at it than I’ve ever been before. I applied for graduate school (and spoiler alert: was admitted), and all was good.
By the time school had wrapped up, my rental lease was coming to an end, as was my girlfriend’s, and I was looking to relocate to Taipei where university would begin some months later. She and I had been together for a while by then, and decided to move in together at a cozy place at the end of the red subway line. It’s got no elevator, so every time we go home there is a mountain of stairs to climb, but downstairs is a sprawling fresh market and good public transit options, so we can’t complain.
I returned home to America to see my family in June. In my three years in Taiwan, by brother and his wife have brought a child into the world, and so this was my first time meeting this little human. Further, my dog had three years of lap sitting and fetch playing to make up for, so we got to that in short order. Things have changed there, but the things that are important are as I left them. The food was delicious, my family was loving, and the weather was hot. I returned to Taiwan with something special: an engagement ring for my girlfriend. I put it on her hand not long after returning (I’m bad at surprises and keeping secrets), and we began to plan our marriage soon after.
There was still a short period of time before my new work began, which my girlfriend and I mostly spent traveling. First, we returned to Vietnam and began the process of becoming married. We returned to Taiwan for only a couple weeks before going to Chiangmai Thailand on a big trip with her company.
I’m supporting my time as a grad student by teaching night classes at a local high school in engineering math and physics. Those classes began just as we returned home from Thailand, and my university began not long after that. We did have to take a four day trip to Vietnam to finalize our marriage somewhere along the way, but that leaves us where we are now. My first semester of grad school is done, and I have a 4.12 GPA. I’ve just begun research, though I have a long way to go before working on a thesis. Christmas and New Year came and went, and I’m training for a marathon.
December 2023 was the best month of running I’ve ever put together at approximately 130km. It’s more than a half marathon longer than my previous longest month, June 2022 at 98km. January 2024 is shaping up to be a new personal best.
I’ve found that I can learn physics from books just as fast and effectively as taking a class, so I’m making blistering pace through a book now on general relativity, and beginning to peek into another on quantum field theory. When I finish up the GR book, I can start getting into perturbation theory of black holes, so my real research can start to take form.
Going home was a highlight of my year in 2023, but I had to go home alone. I’m going again in just two weeks, and this time bringing my new wife. It will be her first time meeting my family and going to the U.S. I’m confident we will have a great time (though I’m going spend around half the time marathon training o_o).
Traveling, moving house, and changing jobs made 2023 tight on money for my wife and I, but 2024 should be easier in that regard. We don’t have to move, I’ll be making some money from my university, and I won’t take all summer off like I did this year.
In short, for every good thing there was about 2023, 2024 promises to beat that in some way and I’m all here for it.
I hope the new year goes well for anyone reading this also.
Stuff Cam Wrote 