Second Week continued

As I've had trouble getting that wifi hotspot I have been keeping an offline journal. If you are interested here was the rest of the week in review.

Wednesday 27th August 2008
I taught 5 lessons today each at 1 hour a pop. I’ve never taught 5 hours in one day. Fortunately the classes kinda wrote themselves and I was given a basic lesson outline by the other native teacher for each class so lesson planning wasn’t too bad. My voice however was another story. I tend to shout a lot in class not as in get angry just shout to be heard. So by the start of lesson 5 my voice was faltering, but the middle I was spluttering out words and by the end my throat was raw. I also discovered today that Amy and her family have actually gone to Taipei….this was never mentioned to me, not that it matters much but it is nice to know.

So far I have one class tomorrow. Whether I will get more later I dunno, I can totally live with 1 class.

Thursday 28th August 2008
I borrowed a bike from work yesterday. So today I left for work an hour early and rode around exploring more of the town. It really is a lot bigger than I imagined. I stumbled across the visitor centre and thought it would be a great opportunity to learn what is around…I figured they should be able to speak a little English. I figured wrong. Once again I spent a good couple of minutes trying to explain that I was just interested in a map of the town. I pulled out the phrasebook and just pointed at various words. In the end I got a few maps and some brochures about places of interest. Very little of it is in English.

I ended up teaching 3 classes, they were pretty easy for the most part some actually too easy I got through the material too fast. I’m still not really sure what I’m meant to be doing in the office when I’m not teaching or preparing lessons. The other teachers and always doing stuff and I just sort of sit around, occasionally I’ll help an individual student with their work but mostly I just sit around doodling and waiting for the next class. I’m sure there is more I’m meant to do but as I still don’t think I’m getting paid for office hours I’m not about to create more work for myself. So instead I sit around using the teaching books in reverse to teach myself how to write Chinese characters.

After work today I went back to the music store to try and get some more music. I got to talking with the owner, Brian who is just a wealth of information. He’s also a wealth of language as he speaks Mandarin, Taiwanese, Japanese, French and English. I also met one of his daughters. One of his friends came along and he invited me to go eat with them. I wasn’t really hungry as I’ve yet to really experience much Taiwanese food (as I don’t know what to order) I decided to tag. The food was delicious. As I couldn’t read the menu Brian ordered for me and I ended up with a kind of seafood soup. Very tasty but very filling. Brian told me that there is a Canadian girl around this area who also teaches English. I’ll have to keep an eye out for her as I would love to know how another foreign teacher deals with the huge language barrier.

After all that Brian didn’t have the cd I was after however we exchanged numbers. He told me I should take some kind of tour this weekend. The brochures have some great places that look really interesting so maybe I will have to try and check at least 1 out. I have between today and Saturday to try and decipher the map and figure out which attraction to go see. Unfortunately while there are times when my wifi connects in the apartment there is also a lot of down time. So once again I’m writing this not know when it will actually be posted.

Oh I found another temple today. Actually I stumbled upon it the other day and didn’t have a camera so today while I was riding around I found it again and this time managed to photograph it. Apparently it is quite historical. It even has signs in English. I also stumbled upon what looked like a Christian church. At least if I ever want to save my soul I’ll have lots of choice as to where to start.

Friday 29th August
Not much to report. I had 3 classes today, one was preparation for the GPAs or something along that line it is a major English test composed of reading writing and oral. I was helping with the oral component. Essentially there are 3 parts of this component. Firstly they need to listen and repeat. Then they have 1 minute to read about 7 sentences before saying them aloud. Then they have 7 or 8 questions they need to hear and answer orally. There were 5 students in the class all teenagers.

The other classes were pretty easy although one got a bit out of control. It’s hard because I need to keep the kids energized and excited but I can’t let them get out of control. I know there is a balance just sometimes I am damned if I can find it.

I have a 9am start tomorrow after a 10 pm finish tonight. Needless to say the most I’m doing tonight is going to the supermarket to stock up on bread and milk. Not the most exciting but eh.

The wifi connection I used in my house seems to have gone poof, at least for the most part the signal is too weak to hold if it manages to find it at all so once again I’m back to square one until my paperwork comes through. I have Sunday and Monday off and no idea what to do. I’m going to try and borrow a bike so at least I can explore more of the town. One teacher lives nearby so maybe I could meet up with her on Sunday but we’ll see. I don’t like imposing myself on others although when I get desperate I do.

At this stage I see myself spending every other weekend in Taichung just because at least there I know someone who wants to hang out with me. Also apparently people in JhuShan speak mostly Taiwanese which is different to Mandarin where as in Taichung the majority of people speak Mandarin or at least more than in JhuShan so if I want to learn Mandarin it’s probably better I spend some time in Taichung.

I got told today that I need to smile more in class and not be so serious. I also need to slow down even more. Honestly if I slowed down even more I think I’d be a tortoise but eh. I told them my concerns or my limitations and they seemed to accept them as valid, unfortunately I forgot to mention my severe lack of access to new teaching material due to the fact I’m not allowed to access the internet which honestly was always my saving grace when doing my practice teaching back home. There’s only so much I can get from the few books I brought with me. Next time I’ll have to bring that up.

Other than that everything is fine. I’m much better at navigating around town (although I’m still careful to note different landmarks in case I need to retrace my footsteps). I even have a map of the town…..of course it is all in Chinese but eh it’s a start.

Anyway I need to go shower before indulging in my new fascination….Grey’s Anatomy (in all fairness it’s the only English speaking show I know that broadcasts here free to air apart from the English teaching shows which I can only watch so many of).

Saturday 30th August
Today I got told my 'training' was about to finish and come next week I would have my own schedule. It doesn't seem much different to my past schedule only this time I at least know in advance when I'm teaching which is a nice change. Hopefully that also means I can have more time to prepare my classes. In theory at least that is how it will work.
I taught 4 classes today with the teachers Taiwanese teachers sitting in for some parts. They went ok, not brilliant but ok. One of the classes was GEPT prep again although this time it was vocab and listening. The class was also a lot bigger with about 20 students in total.
I have now claimed a bicycle as my own. Amy wanted me to borrow the scooter for the weekend instead but I'm still not confident enough on the roads to use a scooter.
After finding a wifi hotspot earlier in the week and losing it I've been sulking so today after work I wandered around the room with the laptop trying to find the hotspot again. It turns out it is on the window ledge so that is where I sit now. I actually really like this spot it is a perfect reading spot as I can look out onto the street below, and now it is a perfect computer spot heh. Hopefully this time it won't disappear.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with myself for 2 days in Jhushan but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Oh if you are interested my teaching schedule from now on looks like this: (although it may alter depending on how everything works)

Tuesday: (Office hours 2-9.30pm) Teaching hours: 5.30pm - 6.30 pm; 7pm-8pm; 8pm-9pm
Wednesday (Office hours 1-9pm) Teaching hours: 2-3pm, 4-5pm, 6.30-7.30pm; 8-9pm
Thursday (OH 2-9.30pm) TH: 4-5; 5.30-6.30; 7-8pm
Friday (OH 2-9.30pm) TH: 5-6pm, 6.10-7.10pm
Saturday (OH 9am-5pm) TH 10-11; 11-12.30; 1.30-2.30; 2.30-3.30; 3.30-4.30pm

I think I’m likely to die after Saturday.

Saturday mornings are the hardest as I have a late finish the night before and an early start.

Taichung Continued and JhuShan town

So after scouring JhuShan with my little eeepc to find an internet connection I discovered that my big laptop could jump onto someone's wifi from the comfort of my own apartment (with a little tweaking) yay. So I type this for the first time in my apartment. So much nicer.

So anyway I have a heap of stuff I wrote during the last few days. Warning: it is long, read at your own peril! There are also a bunch more photos here.

Monday: So I met with Bryan (who is younger than I thought and a hell of a lot cuter than I expected) and we headed to Taichung Hospital where I was poked and prodded and x-rayed. It was all very painless and easy though he then dropped me back at the bus stop I would need to go to in order to get back to JhuShan. After getting my bus ticket (with some help from the Visitor centre and my phrase book) I boarded the bus back to JhuShan and sat happily eating my puffies (dunno if that is what they are called here but I know stores in Australia use that name) and being snap happy with the scenery. Before boarding the bus I took a careful gander at people's tickets to see where they were going thinking I would be smart and just find someone with the same destination as me and then get off when they get off.....works in theory. In practice I got confused as to who I was meant to follow and followed the wrong people...fortunately we weren't too far from my destination so with some common sense and a lot of blind luck I made it into familiar territory without too much hassle. The down side is I still don't know where I'm actually meant to catch the bus to Taichung from in JhuShan.

Monday night I took a walk around the shops in JhuShan just to see what was around. I found another English school a couple of blocks away and I was tempted to go talk to their foreign teacher but decided that being from a rival school that may be frowned upon. The central area itself is quite busy and a lot bigger than my initial impression. I found lots of great little food stores dotted around some time. Then on my way home I went into the supermarket and saw they had fans on sale so I lugged one of them home with my daily groceries and assembled it first thing. I have a spare part and the switch to make the fan stationary doesn't seem to work but aside from that it is perfect. With both that and my air con going I no longer wake up dying in the heat at night.


Some interesting differences:

- the Taiwanese just don't seem to walk everything is scooter, bike, bus or car....a 10 minute walk is considered a long way away.

- I kept hearing this cool music reminiscent of a Chinese version of Mr. whippy and at first I thought it was like something festive it was only today that I realised the music is played by garbage trucks as a way to signal people they are in the area so everyone can run down and throw out their garbage.

- Red lights seem to mean stop if you feel like it.

- No one locks up their bike.


Wednesday: It occurred to me the other day that there could possibly be a great view of the countryside at the back of my apartment block (it is only apparent during the day for obvious reasons) so I wandered down and low and behold I have a great view of the countryside just outside my door.


I was watching tv the other night and stumbled across a music program which was showcasing well known Taiwanese musicians. Of course I hate music and turned it straight off…..actually I was riveted, I brought out my trusty camera and took photos of the artists I liked the sound of. Now being somewhat of an expert at navigating JhuShan the next day I wandered into a music store and started doing my little mime routine only to discover the owner spoke English. I was actually a bit disappointed because music is one of the only words I know in Mandarin and I didn’t get a chance to use it. I did however have a nice conversation with the owner who grew up in JhuShan and knows the area well (unlike most of the people I’ve met so far) and he told me I could come ask him about anything if I was unsure which I thought was well nice of him. He was astonished that I would want to 1 listen to music in a language I still don’t know and 2 would actually buy the music. In fact he suggested I just download it as it was cheaper….how he makes a living I have NO idea. I told him I was still in the process of getting the internet and I like to support artists. So in the end I walked away with 2 cds and a dvd from a Taiwanese singer called Elva. I listened to it last night and decided that I like it but I think it is more because I have no idea what is being said. She reminds me of a Taiwanese version of J Lo.


Tuesday I only taught 2 classes as we are in the transition between summer school and regular school (the new term starts Sep 1). Today I have 5 classes however most of these classes write themselves which isn’t too bad. I should probably prepare more but to be honest I just don’t feel like it.

I found a wifi hotspot Tuesday however before I could do much I lost the signal. Actually there are a lot of unlocked signals floating around but most of them won’t let me connect.


I’m developing quite a nice routine now.

8.30am wake up

9 go for a wander

11 go back to apartment and make lunch

12.45 wander off to work

9.30 get home from work, watch tv, look over next day’s lessons

12.30 go to bed


Making lunch is not an easy task if I want it hot. It takes over an hour to boil water in my little oven. Hot lunch made by me consists of noodles and a curry from a packet. I also eat a lot of fruit, bread and jam. I love the soy milk here. Occasionally I pick up something hot at the supermarket to munch on at night but most of the time I’m just not that hungry. My Mandarin still isn’t good enough to go around ordering food from the many cafes and stalls around town.


I now know my address and will post it here soon.


Quite often I seem to get mixed messages from my boss at school, maybe it’s a translation thing but it can sometimes make things really frustrating. Here’s an example

My first day of teaching I rocked up in shorts and a top and my boss made a passing remark that made me think that maybe I wasn’t dressed appropriately so I brought this up with her and she said that formal is definitely better ie pants over shorts and shirts over tshirts. Fine. So then I started wearing pants and a shirt each day. Almost all my formal wear is black (because it is easier to wash). I then got told in a round about fashion that I was wearing too much black…..I’m now compromising and wearing tshirts and pants. No one has said anything about this yet.


Wednesday 27th August 2008

I taught 5 lessons today each at 1 hour a pop. I’ve never taught 5 hours in one day. Fortunately the classes kinda wrote themselves and I was given a basic lesson outline by the other native teacher for each class so lesson planning wasn’t too bad. My voice however was another story. I tend to shout a lot in class not as in get angry just shout to be heard. So by the start of lesson 5 my voice was faltering, but the middle I was spluttering out words and by the end my throat was raw. I also discovered today that Amy and her family have actually gone to Taipei….this was never mentioned to me, not that it matters much but it is nice to know.

So far I have one class tomorrow. Whether I will get more later I dunno, I can totally live with 1 class.


Next entry will be shorter.

A night in Taichung

So it is Monday morning and I'm due to meet up with my agent in about 30 minutes but i just wanted to jump on and write a bit more (the internet addict in me needs its feed). So after writing that essay last night I wandered back into the hotel and bumped into David again thus sparking a major conversation from two Englsh starved individuals. Not having to work the next day we chatted happily in the lobby for hours just about random stuff, I talked about my limited teaching experiences and he talked about his dreadful job hunt. Unlike me he can speak a little Mandarin which came in handy when we decided to ditch the lobby in search of a night market. Asking directions was interesting as David would ask something in his broken Mandarin while I stood behind with a map. The locals would automatically turn to me and start spouting directions in Mandarin to which I would stare back with a bewildered look and point back to David.

We eventually found the nightmarket and were overwhelmed by the sights and smells. i smelt stinky tofu for the first time and was automatically disgusted, we saw pig liver and intestines and loads of other local delights. The adventurer in me was done for the night so we settled on grabbing some chicken (although I think mine may hav been duck).

There are photos but i haven't uploaded them yet.

In David I think I've found a twin soul in this crazy place.

We stumbled home around 3 full with food and good conversation. We also discovered lemons are for the most part green here...they still make for good lemonade though.

Ok time to go get poked and prodded by a doctor and then try and find my way back to Jhushan for another round of teaching madness.

In coming posts I will talk more about the school and my teaching adventures but I'm wary to do so now as my circumstances are still quite up in the air.

Til next my wifi connects.

First Taiwan post

Come tomorrow I will have been in this crazy place a week. In many ways it feels like longer. I spent a sleepless flight watching movies and various tv channels trying to drown out a crying baby. I then got off the plane and breezed through customs, although I got stopped so someone could poke a thermometer in my ear (at least it looked like a thermometer) and also so the sniffer dogs could do their thing (fortunately they didn't find the ton of coke in my bags.... j/k please don't come and arrest me Mr policeman if you are reading this....). It was just before 3pm when I met my airport pickup bus and startd the journey to Jhushan (Nantou county) which is meant to be just ovr 2 hours away. My fellow Englis h speaker on the ride was an expat American now living in Kuala Lumpa. We got lost trying to find his hotel (I don't know how hard it is to find ' Nantou Hotel' in Nantou City but this guy made hard work of it. After finally finding the hotel it was just the driver and I. Obviously I had quite justified reserves about his ability to find the school, he didn't disappoint. We finally arrived at around 6.30-7pm.

I almost got put to work the night I got there but thnkfully I just had to observe some classes and then I was driven to my apartment about 10 minutes away. At some point during the drive I got told to remember the way so I could find it the next day.....

The apartment is small but clean...or at least it was when I arrived (not quite so clean now). I had an electric pot thing I could boil water in for about 2 days and then that just stopped working. So now my only cooking tool is a small microwave sized oven.

Despite not having had any sleep in about 36 hours my body refused to sleep past 6am. Possiblybecause of the heat (which I was not prepared for). So I went walking around. I decided as I don't read English and very few people in Jhushan my best bet for wandering was to take photos at every corner I got to thus giving myself a trail of photos to follow back to the apartment and amazingly enough it worked.

Not surprisingly though I couldn't for the life of me find the school so I walked into one of the few stores that had English on their sign and managed to find someone who could at least understand me. After much armwaving and discussion in Chinese (obviously I wasn't the one doing the later) they ended up ringing the school and managed to give me an idea of where to go.

On a side note I was also given Taiwanese sim card for my phone however it had no money on it and my boss didn't really know how to recharge it. So I ended up walking into a phone store and waving my phone around saying 'Engliish. recharge. phone. money'. That didn't work so I pulled my phone apart and showed them my sim card and waved my wallet around. That worked however i was in the wrong store so after getting directions to another store I repeated with success.

My Taiwanese number (and only phone number at present) is +886987564892. I don't know my address yet (keep forgetting to ask).

My first day teaching (and also technically my first full day in Taiwan) I taught 2 classes and sucked in at least 1 of them. Amy is my boss and the head English teacher. Alan is her husband and the owner of the English school even though he himself can't speak it. My fellow teachers are Aniga and Anna then there is Lisa who comes to teach kindergarten occasionally and Chloe who just graduated University (majoring in Education) and she sort of mans the front desk. The kids range from about 5-14 and for the most part they are great. They are however not the angels I pictured in my head, far from it.

My second day teaching I got given about 4 hours of teaching and so it has been for the rest of the week (including Saturday). On Friday afternoon I got told that instead of having Sunday off I was to go to Taichung for teacher training. As I had no idea how to get there and Chloe was going also it was arranged that I would stay with Chloe Saturday night and then we would go to Taichung together Sunday. So much for my weekend. Also I need to get a medical so Monday I'm meeting my agent in Taichung to go to a hospital.

Oh I also got to experience riding a scooter which was cool although as I'm still unfamiliar with Taiwan's roads I'm demoting myself to bicycle til I have a better idea of how everything works.

Anyway after school Saturday Amy took everyone our for a banquet dinner and then Chloe scootered me back to her family's home which is borderline rural (they grow tea). Her family are great, I had a blast. Her mum insisted I talk as much as possible with her son and other daughter to help them work on their English. I would love to spend more time with the family as they were so warm and welcoming.

Today Chloe and I made it into Taichung to attend the teacher training....unfortunately it was 95% chinese needless to say I learnt very little and quite frankly I'm sliightly peeved I had to attend at all (as obviously teaching English in Chinese is NOT going to work for me) but anyway. So after that Chloe boarded the train back home and I stayed and tried to find a hotel for the night. After getting majorly confused I was standing outside what is apparently a 'love hotel' when I encounter a Westerner who also happens to be an English teacher (from the UK). So he directed me to a hotel which is actually quite nice Simple but friendly. And that is where this story ends for now.

I don't have the internet in my apartment and I'm not allowed to use it at work so I won't be on as much as I'd like but these things happen. I do now know of an internet cafe near the school so that's a plus...of course I need time to go there which is something I just haven't found much of lately but eh. Til next time my wifi activates.

I was gonna cut photos in here but my battery is low so check them out here (I think if not I'll fix it next time)

On My Way

Here I sit at Kuala Lumpur on a 3 hour layover before jumping the connecting flight to Taiwan. The plan was to sleep on the plane but after seeing the array of movies on offer that soon died, plus there was a screaming child a few rows back which didn't bother me when I was listening to the onflight entertainment but would have made it hard to sleep. So the plan then was to sleep now during the layover but the departure lounge isn't open and if I fall asleep where I am I'm likely to fall off the seat, so there goes that plan, I guess I'll have to sleep on the bus to Nantou (although from what I've heard of those buses I have a bad feeling that won't happen.)

So now I kill time surfing around on my little eeepc (not designed for people with long nails).

Next post will be from Taiwan.

Calm before the storm?

So for those who know me I've been tossing up teaching overseas for a while now. Early this year I started the ball rolling by enrolling in a TESOL course with Teach International. After quite a few months and much assistance I managed to receive my Certificate III in TESOL late last week. After about 3 months of job hunting I've decided the only thing for it is to just go to a country and find one when I'm on the ground. My destination choice: Taiwan. So yesterday I walked into a flight centre to discuss airfare options and walked out about 30 minutes later having arranged it all. I fly out just after Midnight on the 18th which gives me about a week and a half to get everything ready....doable...right.

So between now and flight time here is just a little taste of what I need to do:
Get all my certificates noterised by the Taiwanese Embassy
Go to the doctors and get all my immunisations
Go to Queen Victoria Market and other dodgy Australian Tourist shops and pick up lots of little aussie knick knacks I can give to students and other things
Organise a Taiwanese bank account...which will also mean changing my Australian back accounts
Get all my teaching stuff in gear
Learn as much as I can about Taiwan
Really Really Really try and get a handle of basic tourist Mandarin

As far as what comes after landing well I have an agent in Taiwan giving me a hand. He's organised a bus to Taichung and a hotel room for me while I job search and he'll take me to a few schools....so I'm not totally flying blind, half blind but not totally blind!

Too easy.
11 days to take off.