Banciao and Work

Hello again, I finally am posting, after 12 days of not posting. Hm. Anywho. I guess I just have been busy with work and moving in, although Andrew has basically been doing all the cleaning, and I've been sleeping a lot. But I haven't been sick since the last cold, so YAY!!!!!!!

Update on the new home: It's almost completely clean! (Again, thanks Andrew!!) All that's left is the kitchen and one bathroom, and our apt. will be completely moved in. Our living room and the bedrooms are set up, and one of the bathrooms. The other bathroom will just have to wait its turn. I love being only half an hour away from work, it's so nice getting home before 6pm!!!! And leaving the house at 7:55am instead of 6:55am! WOOO! I like sleep. (Thanks again to my Aunt Julia for helping us move, it was really nice of her!)

We have our own mailbox, but it's still sort of shady, so once I get my ARC, I'm gonna go down to the Banciao post office (which is a convenient 5 min walk away) and try and get a P.O. box. Speaking of ARC, I managed to get a one month extension on my visitor visa 2 days before it expired. My ARC was supposed to be ready by the end of the week, but the ministry called and said they needed some more originals, of my diploma translation, and of my health exam. Because stupid placement company that we were with in the beginning only sent me a copy, and when Jenny called them to see if we could get the original, suddenly no one knew who I was, or had a manager that we could talk to. (And that's why I went to Jerry to help me get a job...) So this Saturday morning, I had to take a 1.45hr train ride to HsinChu, where we had our health exam, to get an original copy. The ministry better take it and process my work visa!!!

Update at work: Nothing too exciting, except we will be trick-or-treating this Friday with the kids, up and down the street at different stores. Kate (my kinder helper) and I are slowly figuring out the finishing touches on how to decorate the ball pool area and our kinder room. The school is going to get set up with a party, mini haunted house, and a bobbing for apples station. And Ted is thinking about buying pumpkins! (they're super expensive though)

Sam (ADHD boy from previous post) is better now, I guess his mom talked to him after she talked to Ted and Jenny. He still likes to touch stuff, but the situation is definitely a lot better now. I think it's because he realizes he won't be able to get away with it as much since his mom sort of stopped giving him the benefit of the doubt all the time.

My new method of discipline is taking away their precious break time or Key West points (which they can use to buy toys with), who knew play time had so much power?!? If they start to get out of control during a lesson, I just quietly count down from five, and if they're still talking, I either shorten play time, or they don't get it at all. (Depending on my mood and patience level) Which means the moment one of the kids notice that I'm counting, all of them get really quiet in about 2 seconds. I know, I'm so mean. The Key West points are if they're speaking Chinese, or I want to target individual kids. Don't worry, if they're good, they get points from me too. I'm not THAT cold-hearted.

Update on adventures: Saturday evening was visiting the Shulin night market, with it's multitude of delicious food stands. Delicious! And I got cute socks, wallet, and we now have a small fish tank with cute guppies and neons and sucker fish! Everything was super cheap! WOOO!

We finally saw Todd, Yay Todd and Welcome to Taiwan! It seems like he's adjusting pretty well to the culture shock, although he was getting over a cold when we saw him on Sunday. (I know that feeling.) We went out to lunch, and then MRT'd our way to Taipei 101 so he could experience the tallness and hugeness of it all. We tried to see Dodgeball at Warner Village, a big Warner Brothers complex down the street from Taipei 101, but the next showing wasn't until a couple hours later.

We didn't have work today because a typhoon hit us! It was a little milder than the first one, but big enough to cancel school for today! WOOOHOOO! I like sleeping until 10am on a Monday! The wind and rain were pretty strong, but it's died down significantly, and it doesn't seem like there was too much damage.

That's the excitement from here, I promise to post sooner next time! Promise, and I'll finally e-mail everyone back by the end of this week, I SWEAR!!!!

Some shots of Taiwan (w/pics)

Let the pictures roll! I'm in the zone; the pictures are just waiting to be sent online. I realized that I haven't taken that many; I guess I didn't have a way to send them before, so I didn't take that many. Now, I'll revert back to my happy trigger-finger ways. Here are some pictures of Taiwan; they are broken down by different categories.

Driving around Taipei as we initially search for a job throuigh ACC

I like this shot a lot, because it shows a couple of things that I think strongly about when I think of Taipei and Taipei 101. First off, you can barely see Taipei 101 due to the staggering amounts of smog. And second, look how lonely 101 looks!! There's nothing around it!! WHY BUILD SOMETHING SO TALL IF IT LOOKS SO AWKWARD!? (Because it's cool, of course.)
Taipei 101 in the smog.JPG

Here's Mei looking pensive.. thinking to herself, no doubt, "What did I get myself into?!"
Mei looking pensive.JPG

I... think that's a temple... either way, this shot just is reflective that there are lots of both hills and temples in Taiwan.
Hills and Temples.JPG

Neihu (old home)

Here's a really cool lake and park that was near our house. Neihu was nice in that the pollution was much better than the rest of Taipei. Where we're at now isn't that bad pollution wise.. but it's not great, either.
Lake and Bridge.JPG

Taichung

Looks much different than Neihu, no?
Taichung.JPG

And finally, some shots of Taipei from the MRT

There are a few MRT lines that are above ground and offer cool picture opportunities. The red (partly) and the brown. The others are below ground. This is from the brown line.
Taipei with MRT 1.JPG

Here's one that I was lucky to take because my camera has a significant lag time between pressing the button and taking the shot. It took the shot at just the right time as we passed a side street on the MRT. It looks empty... the next large street was bustling like CRAZY.
Side street.JPG

And finally, one more looking along the MRT line from above...
Taipei from MRT.JPG

Up next: either shots of my school/fellow teachers/students, or random pics.

Our hot springs trip (w/pics)

So if you recall, about a month ago Mei and I went to some local hot springs with our recruiter and his girlfriend. His girlfriend's mother owns the place, and she treated us with a hot pot feast. (They have since broken up, so it's not likely that we'll be there any time soon.) So this is what we saw. We took a bus up a mountain with a great view... of smog. It theoretically would have been a great view...

Anyway, we got to soak in one of these:
Our Hot Tub.JPG
It was relaxing indeed, and quite hot. Except for the fact that we were on constant lookout for a water balloon attack...

I suppose if we would have paid the premium rate, we could have soaked in one of these:
Upper Class hot spring.JPG

The mountain with the hot springs is belching sulfer, as you can see here:
Sulfer.JPG
There are apparently hot springs all over Taiwan, so we'll soak again.

And for the exact same sulfer, except with a neato bridge in the picture as well...
Bridge and Sulfer.JPG

The dog is sooooooo cuuuuuute:
Happy Dog.JPG

I thought this sign was pretty cool...:
Sign.JPG

And finally, there was a vista at the top of the mountain. Just photoshop the bottom grass portion and it'd be an ok pic:
Vista1.JPG

More to come soon: some Taiwan scenary and my students/fellow teachers/school!

We have pictures!!

Mei can't eat ice cream: I have proof!

Mei can't eat ice cream.JPG

Haha. So we have pictures!! Yay!! Here are a few shots; more to come!

Here's a shot from above of the main road of Neihu (the place where we USED to live).

Neihu.JPG

And here are a couple of shots of Taipei 101. Notice the LACK of tall buildings nearby!

Taipei 101.JPG

Taipei 101-2.JPG

Remember my 'big ass bowl of soup?'

Big ass soup at 101.JPG

And finally, a shot of my second graders that was taken today. Look at the kids at the top. The guy on the top left (Eric) just looks plain EVIL, and the guy on the top right looks plain STUPID (David). Hilarious.

2C.JPG

Time to head on home; more pictures to come tomorrow, same time same place! :) Take care!

Natural Disasters, etc.

What a surprise, another typhoon missed us. Oh, what possibilities there were. A chance to stay home and sleep, a chance to be inundated with torrential rains and wind, and a chance to (listen carefully because this is the most important part of all...) MISS WORK because they cancel work when there are typhoons. We went to bed last night looking at the satellite images of the typhoon, seeing it heading directly toward Taiwan... only to wake up with a significant LACK of wind (i,e, NO typhoon) and see the images that show that it instead is going to hit Japan (AGAIN, like the previous four that were on track to hit Taiwan). Those "lucky" bastards. :)

You might have heard of a 7.0 earthquake that "rocked" Taiwan. Or maybe not. Well, considering there were no injuries or buildings that were destroyed, you know it wasn't that bad (because compared to the States, the buildings are much less prepared for an earthquake, etc, except for the ones built post-9/11/99 when a fatty earthquake rocked Taiwan, with many people dying, buildings collapsed, etc.). I was chilling on the computer when I thought to myself, "Hm. Is the floor moving? Yeah.. I guess it is, that's an earthquake." It lasted for a while (maybe 15 seconds?) that I felt, we went outside, and then after 15 seconds, said, "Ok, it's safe." It was harmless. Ho hum ho hum. It turned out to be around a 4 where we were in Taiepi, as the epicenter was in the ocean. (By the way, I predicted it was about a 5. I should be a seismologist.)

Speaking of my Nostradamus-like predictions, before the basebally playoffs I initially said it was going to be the Yankees losing to either the Cards or the Astros. I should have put that in print earlier.

So we finally moved. Todd's here... but I haven't seen him yet. We moved this weekend, but the place was a disaster and so we needed to clean it one day, and the other day we were... oh yeah, we had to clean the Neihu place (old place). So I haven't seen him yet. But he's doing fine and really likes the job, so I hear.

I should have regular access to a computer soon. You know what that means... PICTURES!!! Stay tuned.

I'm a happy camper; things are going well and we are getting settled in our new place. The commute to work was so short. Happy days, happy days. Until next time.. take care all!

Mei finally posts again

Hello!

Yes, I got another cold, right on the heels of getting better after the first one. I didn't think this one was going to be as bad as the first one either, except that my cough and stuffy nose just kept getting worse as the week progressed. I think I scared my mom cuz when she called I guess I sounded horrible, curse that wretched cough!! I'm almost recovered now, just a slight stuffy nose and a once in awhile cough. Except that the kids are going through another round of colds, so who knows if I'll make it through this one. I hope so!!

I got paid 6 days after Andrew, and boy was it glorious! Holding a big wad of $1000 bills is quite a good feeling! I was never paid in cash before for so much money!! :) (sure, $1000 Taiwan dollars is roughly $30 US, but still, a big wad of them is a lot of money) Now I can go shopping and get a nice hair cut and spoil myself and go on trips. I like having money!

And the next great thing is: YAY new place in Banciao!!! I am so excited, because I too, have a bus that goes from right in front of our apt. to right next to my work. Just a quick 25 min bus ride and I'm at work. No more leaving the house at 7am for Mei! I'm not getting up before 7:30 anymore after this week. How happy am I? INCREDIBLY HAPPPPPY!!!!!!!!!! I hate getting up in the mornings, so this is awesome. And I'll be home in half an hour, instead of 2 hours. That means I can actually do things (like eat a sit down dinner) and still get plenty of sleep. GLORIOUS!!!

The kids are good, one of the moms thinks that her child is an angel, and let me tell you, he's one of the biggest booger brats. He can't keep his hands off stuff and is constantly touching things he shouldn't. One day I kept telling him to stop touching stuff, and I told him if I had to talk to him one more time, I would send him to Ted. (which, if you recall, makes kids cry b/c Ted plays the bad guy and is super mean to them and hits their hand with a big green ruler thingy) Anywho, the brat goes and turns a computer on when he was supposed to be getting ready for nap time, so I told him to go see Ted. Of course, he bursts into tears and refuses to go. So I had to force him. The next day I had to have a conference with one of the ladies that works at the school to review what happened, because his mom didn't understand why Ted had to be involved and why Sam was yelled at so harshly. Cuz you kid is a big fat turd, that's why. I'm ranting, because on Tuesday we went on an outing to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall to watch the changing of the guard, and then to downtown taipei to see some art/history exhibits. During the changing of the guard, the kids were told not to talk. What did booger brat do? Talk. Looking at the exhibits, the kids were told not to touch the displays. What did booger brat do? Touch the stuff. We told him at least three times to take his hands off stuff. So I wrote it down in his communication book. Well. Today his mom wrote a big fat response saying Sam gets into stuff he isn't being occupied, the other kids are taller than him and must have been blocking his view, that's why he was getting into trouble. Which wasn't the case at all, Sam was in front of the pack for practically the whole day. So Ted has asked her to come in tomorrow for a parent teacher type conference. She needs to understand that we're not singling Sam out, it's his personality to be constantly sticking his hands in stuff, and the more you tell him not to do something, the more he does it. It's just his turd way. So I'm annoyed. Jenny (the lady who talked to me before) told me I was in the right, that they're going to tell Sam's mom she needs to understand what kind of kid she has and that we're not the ones doing wrong. OK, enough ranting about that.

Other than that, the Kinders and bushiban are good.

You did done good

We have a new place!!

But first the gory details. Yesterday, as Mei was recovering from her cold/making lesson plans for her work, I decided to go to Banciao to go apartment hunting. Banciao is a suburb of Taipei, about 8 minutes by train to our work and 10 minutes by MRT to the main station, maybe 20 to Taipei 101. More on that later.

So I get off the train station, and immediately set out looking for a realtor. It was pretty funny; thanks to Mei's previous assistance, I was able to sketch the rough idea of what I was looking for. I was looking to rent, not buy, a one or two bedroom apartment, with a kitchen, near the train station. The first place I went to I had immediate success; I was able to convey that I wanted an apartment, he said ok, we have some, and Mei was able to finish it off. Kind of like the closer in baseball. Except she's more than that.. me, the starting pitcher, I get rocked in the first inning, and Mei finishes off the whole game. So I guess she's a super-closer.

This place didn't have anything to show us immediately, so I kept looking and Mei went back to her work. She told me she was going to shower, yet here I was, anxious to keep looking, so I keep banging on doors, seeing what people had... I think I called and interrupted Mei four times, including once where she was even in the shower. Sigh...

Anyway, finally I found something that caught my eye. It's on the '5th' floor, but really it's on the 6th. It's literally a 7 minute walk (by my walking speed) to the Banciao train station (where it's a 7 minute train to Shulin, the town where we work). It has two bedrooms, a kitchen, etc etc and has a really big balcony where we hope to put lots of plants. For the price, I think it's a really good deal.

And the best part is... as I'm waiting for Mei to trek out to Banciao herself so we can meet the landlord/sign the contract (poor Mei, is really sick and was suppsoed to do lesson plans... but she braved the 3 hour 30 minute trek (total) to go see it.. woo!) I wander around... I notice that there is an MRT station ahead, so I keep walking... and, WOAH SHIT!! It's the Xinpu MRT!!! We're smack dab inbetween the Xinpu MRT (roughly 10 minutes away) and the Banciao train station! We're close to EVERYWHERE now! The MRT can take us throughout Taipei and the train station can take us anywhere in Taiwan! I was so exicted because the bus that I take to work goes along that route (near the Xinpu train station, AND along the main road that we live on)!!! I can now literally roll out of bed, walk one minute to my bus stop, and take a twenty minute bus ride to work! Wahoooooooooooooooooo!!!

AND the Banciao train station is set to open it's own adjacent MRT station by early next year, i think (currently Xinpu is the terminal stop of the line, meaning we're at the edge of the MRT's boundaries). Who knows, maybe the MRT will also go right by our work?

Needless to say, life is about to get MUCH, MUCH better. Getting to and from work will be much, much quicker (30 minutes instead of 1:45) and now we're WELL within striking distance of Taipei. I personally think it's a perfect balacne; a short trek to work where I can read the paper, and it's close to the MRT if we want to go exploring on the weekends. And if I don't want to spend the time waiting for my bus that doesn't come that often, or worry about missing it, I may just get my own scooter. So yay for that!

NOW WE CAN SETTLE DOWN!! And the best part... the mailbox is clutter free!! Soon we'll have an ACTUAL address!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Hello everyone!

Have you ever seen the "Miss the 90's?" show and thought, gee, you know, I do miss the nineties? Well, now's your chance to relive that decade of fun. Why? Because the year in Taiwan is 1993 (different calender).

Speaking of oddities, I got a real kick out of this one: In Mandarin, person is 'ren' and difficult is 'nan.' What is man in Mandarin? Man is 'nanren.' Hahhahaha. The accents and pronounciations are the same, that is, the 'nan' and the 'ren' are the same. Ha. I liked that. (Although I think 'nan' may actually be 'qunan' or something, I'm not sure. Regardless, I got a kick out of it.)

So today is a wonderful day. Today is payday! That's the good news. The bad news is that I won't be seeing any of it.. we owe are landlord money for October, so it's likely that most of it will have to go to him. Ha! But maybe not.. we'll have a dinner with him on Wednesday (tomorrow) to discuss our housing situation). But, things are progressing on the housing front... I have talked to my boss, and our boss' bos owns something near a railway station, so we're going to explore that as well. Exciting. The thought of not having to commute 1:45 one way is almost unbearable. Computer is crapping out, going to just post this now and edit it later... hopefully... (might I mention that I only get paid for part of the month, which is why most of my paycheck will be going to our landlord... ok, take care...)

Klutsville and other not that exciting? stuff

Hello all!

I have been doing good, fully recovered from my cold, working with the kids and having fun. (although they were big little pains this week, i don't know if it's the change in the weather, i'm not so scary anymore.... hmmmmm.....) Anywho, I'm going to pseudo-copy Andrew's style of posting because my stories are pretty random as well.

Mei's an Uber-Klutz: So my first knee bruising was a while ago, when I slipped stepping out of Ted's office. Nothing major, just a mis-step and bruising my left knee. Then a few weeks ago I was rushing from the bus to the train station, and slipped in a puddle because I'm retarded and wasn't paying attention to where I was going, that and I had flip flops on that really didn't have much traction. So that was the bruise on my right knee.

And here comes the uber klutz part: So on Thursday, I was behind schedule again with the kinder kids, so I was in a hurry to get their afternoon snack from the back kitchen so they wouldn't be late to get picked up by their parents. So I have a big pot of rice soup in my hands, and the Auntie who cooks the food was yelling at me to be careful because she just mopped the floor. Of course she was saying this right as I stepped out of the kitchen, onto the floor, and... WHOMP! My leg goes out from under me, and I go falling to the floor. The pot broke the fall for my upper body, however my left leg came out a loser. Ripped off some big toe toe-nail, bruised the pointer toe, bruised/scraped ankle and left knee. And the worst part? I got soup all over one of my nice, cute skirts. And one of my-coworkers was looking for the hair dryer to help dry my skirt, so I got up to help her look, and caught my left pinky toe on a wood slat and ripped some of that nail. Ow. It was just a bad day for my left leg. I'm sure I must have looked pretty bad. My coworker Maggie fussed over me, got bandaids and iodine for me and made me sit down everytime I would try to stand. I'm done limping around now, I just have some cuts and bruises healing. And my toe nail needs to grow back. Yay clumsy!

On the moving possibility: One of the Chinese teachers at the school might have a hook up on an apartment that's near the Shulin train station, or ten minutes from where I work. Her brother is in the process of remodeling some apartments, and not all of them are rented out yet since he's still working on them. The scoop: 3 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, two balconies. AND the best part: CHEAPER than what we are paying now. That's right, CHEAPER. And lots of money would be saved because the long bus ride and train ride would be cut out from the commute, which costs money and time! That would be great to not have to leave until 8:15am!! Right now I have to leave at 7am! The Chinese teacher said she would call her brother this weekend, and see when the apts would be available/see what kind of rent we could negotiate/when we could go check out the apt. Hopefully I'll hear something good tomorrow. :)

(Oh, and Shulin is in the SouthEast corner of Taipei county, for those keeping tab on geography)

Other than that, I don't have too much exciting stuff. For Halloween we will be taking the school kids trick-or-treating, so I have to submit a costume design, anyone got any good, cheap, easy ideas? And we have to decorate the school. Curse me not being creative!!! Luckily my kindergarten helper, Kate, is creative and already came up with ideas for decorating our room and the ball pool. Woo!

This post is going to be random, random, random!

Hello from wet (surprise) Taiwan. It's raining again, and me and Mei just got back from splurging at Swenson's. I had a verrrry yummy Bacon Cheeseburger (which, as Mei said, "It actually tastes like a cheeseburger!") while Mei got a nice Taco salad with guac and cheese and even some sour cream. We topped it off with a banana split. Mmmmmmm. Let's see which will erupt first, my stomach or Mt. St. Helens. On to the random stuff!

RANDOM FACT #1: My job hours are from 12:30 - 6:30 (which will move to 1:00 to 6:30 once I move closer to work).

RANDOM OPINION #1: I love my hours. I mean... even despite my 1 hour and 45 minute commute to and from work, I still don't have to leave my house until 10:45! It's great. And THAT means... I can watch 2/3 of sunday night football games, 2/3 of monday night football games, and... the first Presidential debate! It was awesome!

RANDOM ADMISSION #1: Many of you know my stance on this Presidential election. I have been firmly convinced that a Democrat will win, simply beacuse of the 'Anyone but Bush' phenomenon that has been sweeping our nation. Therefore, while not overly confident, I have nevertheless been sufficiently confident that Kerry is going to pull out a victory. Then... I started hearing things in the Taipei Times (from writers in America) saying things such as 'Bush doesn't need to do better than Kerry, he just needs to meet expectations.'... basically saying people know Bush is an idiot.. he just needs to meet the status quo and not reveal that he's a complete idiot. And then... and then, in the first minutes of the debate, the rug was swept out from under me. Kerry was looking very shaky. "KERRY, YOU'RE GOING TO BLOW IT!!" I yelled... but as the debate went on, my confidence regrew and blossomed again. (I think he did really well.. how about you? I want to hear what people like CNN said about it after I post this.) But I admit it.. for awhile there, my confidence dissapeared.

RANDOM SMILE, LAUGH, OR TIME WHERE I YELLED "ZING!" DURING THE DEBATE #1: It was when Bush was talking about the war on terror and trying to relate Saddam to it. And Kerry said, "What my opponent said is striking. Saddam did not attack us. Osama bin Laden did." ZING!!

RANDOM SMILE, LAUGH, OR TIME WHERE I YELLED "ZING!" DURING THE DEBATE #2: This is probably for the younger generation. Anyone else have a smile when Bush was talking about consoling the wife of a soldier who died in Iraq, and he talked about how he had a hard time "loving her"? It was probably me reaching for a Bushism, but I immediately got the wrong picture in my head the way he said that...

RANDOM NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE NOT INVOLVING A SCOOTER #1: The day AFTER my scooter ride, I was waiting for the bus after work. I'm standing there... when BAM!!!!!! This water bottle filled with dirt and a plant smacks the ground four feet from me, originating anywhere from 6 stories to 12 stories up. (It made a LOUD sound, and it scared the crap out of me.) I didn't see anyone... it must have just rolled off the balcony.

RANDOM 'CRITICISM' OF TAIWAN #1: Public urinals. In the US, they flush AFTER you do your business. But here, they flush BEFORE you do your business. It's messing with the order! it's messing with the 'flow!' It's like a batter swinging before the pitcher even throws the ball, it's like a race car driver accelerating and THEN shifting! The order's all messed up. You don't know which way is up, which way is down, and the next thing you know, there's chaos everywhere. (It's worse when it keeps flushing WHILE you're doing your business.)

RANDOM NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE NOT INVOLVING A SCOOTER #2: I'm getting over a cold. I have an orange tounge. ORANGE. Well, parts of it are, anyway, near the middle next to the typical white growth in the back.

RANDOM OPINION #2: I think it's pretty cool that I can say "My tounge is orange." in Mandarin.

RANDOM OPINION #3: Great season, A's. But to end it like that is so, so sad.

RANDOM OPINION #4: We might move soon to a place that is only 10 MINUTES from both of our jobs! THAT WOULD BE SO AWEEEEEEEEEEEESOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!

Off to go web surfing...