Another Week Another Typhoon

So Taiwan was hit by yet another typhoon this weekend. It actually felt bigger than the last one. Needless to say I didn't do a whole lot this weekend. I did get to catch up on my movie watching. I made it though: The Snow Angel (good but depressing), The Stone Angel (kinda dull but some parts were good), Graduation (eh), Meet Bill (quite good) and Superbad (not quite as bad as I was expecting but not overly good). I also watched the first 3 episodes of a new tv show called Fringe which was well impressive. It's being pegged as a new X-files...you know before it started sucking. The lead woman is an Aussie.

So yeah the week kinda flew by which I guess is good. Sunday was Teacher's Day here, dunno what that really means except that some of my students wrote me little notes etc which was sweet.

Because I spend so much time in the office doing basically nothing I have lots of time to chat with students outside of class. Sometimes we listen to music, sometimes I help them with homework other times we just play games. Two students in particular I spend a lot of time with. One is Sophia, she's in my Oral GEPT class and is one of the smartest and most dedicated students I have. We were discussing her schedule the other day and quite frankly I could never do it. Sometimes they stay at school til like 9.30 at night after starting at 9 in the morning or 8 or something stupid like that.

I will never understand the huge push for education that goes on here. Education is important but it isn't the end all and be all. Teachers like to give homework and tests here as well. A good memory is a prerequisite in all kids here it seems. I would have so failed if I was a student here.

The other student is Winston, he's basically my main source for learning Chinese here. He says I'm a bad student and it's totally true, I always forget the words he tells me. But then he isn't a saint of a student either, he reminds me a lot of myself as a student.

I got taken to a really nice Italian cafe last week. The pasta was the best I've had here. I just wish I weren't allergic to some of the seafood here because it is so stupidly fresh and cheap here. Although they serve mussel like things with green shells which seemed odd to me. After some experimentation I think I'm actually slightly allergic to the prawns here which I don't undersand cause I don't have that issue in Australia. It's quite depressing as I've become quite fond of prawns. Now I only eat seafood when I know I don't have to teach for at least a day that way if I do have an allergic reaction I have a day to get over it.

The weather seems to have calmed down slightly for the time being but it's still raining and slightly windy. The water comes in through the window a bit, I've got towels wrapped up next to the window sill soaking up as much of the wetness as possible. I considered moving the laptop far away from the window but I really dunno where to move it so for now it stays and I just hope the window doesn't break or something and let all the water in.

I managed to do my washing again this weekend. It's becoming a tradition to do my washing in a typhoon. I even bought more coat hangers so now there are no clothes in my suitcase and the only clothes laying around the place are drying after being dragged from the washing machine. I'm quite impressed. Yet it still looks kinda messy here. Eh, it's my weekend.

3 strikes and I'm out

So last night I was all set to hit the hay when my virus protector went kaput so I decided to reboot and then when that didn't work I did the whole turn off thing thinking i would just turn it back on it would be fine and I'd go to bed....err except my laptop had been running for well I dunno how many days straight and I think it may have effected the power switch connection. So I turned it off and pushed the button to turn it back on and nada ARGH. This was 12.30 (still a reasonable hour) so after trying a few more times I decide I just need to let it cool down and then I'll try it again in the morning...but of course I can't sleep so at 1.30 I try it again for like the 13th time and then decide it's time to operate of course I don't have the tools so after a few futile attempts I give up and hit the button again with no real hope only to have it spring to life.

I dunno if it is totally fixed or if the glitch is still there and I'm not keen to find out either. Of course the virus protector was still not working so I then had to repair that so instead of a reasonable hour to sleep I went to sleep just before 3 only to have to wake up again 4 hours later.

So once again I trek into Taichung to attend what I thought was teacher training. err no it's just a talk. So I rock into the room and head straight to the lecturer like a good little student to talk to her about my inability to speak any Chinese. To which I'm informed that as this is a lecture there will be NO English...NONE WTF!?!?!

So I sign and resign myself to the back of the room which is where Aniga said I should go so I could do my inattentive thing. Except Chloe took pity and came to sit with me which I thought was really sweet and much more than the other 'teachers' did. So we moved closer to the front as she is a much better student than I am and I felt bad. When the lecture started Chloe when out of her way to help translate the main points for me so I wasn't totally lost. Of course her English ability isn't great so she could only give me basics but I still really appreciated it.

That being said I was still pretty lost for the most of it. I did get to write a message to my cell...err like my innerself on a balloon (which later became a punching bag for the kids at my school much to the horror of the other teachers who seemed to be much more attached to their balloons.)

Towards the end there was an activity so I thought I'd take the time to go up to the lecturer as Amy had suggested the last time and try and suss out what the hell the talk was about. err yeah no. I really don't think this lecturer had a great grasp on English. So I went up and I'm like 'I don't really get what I'm meant to be doing..." and she takes my hand and pats it and is like 'it's ok it's ok' and then she hugs me and sends me back to my seat....so much for that idea.

But hey I tried. Ok could have probably tried a little harder but really I don't think I care. Yes I would like to be given ideas for improving my teaching but if I can't understand them then what is the use.

Unfortunately Amy wasn't around when I got back and she was actually quite sick when she did rock up so I didn't have the heart to talk to her about pulling out of the training from now on. I guess that talk will wait till tomorrow.

So while I was writing that I saw not 1 but 2 freaking spiders, one was a smallish daddy longlegs one the other was bigger. So after a slight freak out I kill the small one and then go after the big one which is climbing up the curtain, only to have it fall under my freaking laptop. But I killed it so yay me.

I'm so tired.

Today I started introducing English music to the office dunno how well it went but Amy still seems cool with it so I guess it's not a bad thing. I need to work to censor more of the stuff. I did an initial run through with bands that are obviously gonna have swears but I didn't get them all.

I had a kid ask me today what a vagina was talk about awkward. They were my junior high class so I just said that it's a body part and told him to leave it at that.

Oh after the training session we went to 'little italy cafe' in Taichung and had pasta. It was actually quite decent. Unfortunately while many dishes sounded great they also contained mixed seafood and as I've had slight reactions to at least 2 types of seafood here I figured I'd have to stay clear of that considering I had to head back to school and teach. So I had the creamy chicken mushroom spaghetti which was great.

Ok I'm sure there is more but it can wait cause I'm too tired to write more.

Once more into the fray

So there are interesting things afoot at my school. I rocked up on Tuesday to find a new local teacher, Winnie, among the mix. She's actually very nice although her english ability isn't overly great and her pronounciation could be a lot better. I spent 1 hour Tuesday working on pronouciation with her and Chloe.

The reason for the new full time teacher is that Aniga one of the other local teachers is leaving. I'm quite sad about that because I think that given enough time Aniga and I could have been quite good friends. I guess that is just how things go.

So yeah my timetable is changing classes are merging I really have no idea what is going on but I rock up everyday and just teach what I can.

I talked to Amy about the possibility of me playing English music in the office and she was quite enthusiastic about it so starting tomorrow I'm going to educate everyone on the grandness of Australian Music yay and other music....

So Anna told me this afternoon that there is another teacher meeting in Taichung tomorrow and so stupid me I asked Amy about it and she looked surprised and was like "yes, are you coming with us..." which makes me think that I may have got out of it if I'd just kept my stupid mouth closed...of course it may have be meant in a different way but I doubt it. So tomorrow morning I have to be at the school at 7.40 in time to get to Taichung where I'm sure I will sit through 4 hours of English teaching training in Chinese. This time I'm going to make an effort though to get the trainers to talk English. At least if it doesn't work I can say I really really tried. I feel I owe it to Amy to at least do that and tomorrow's lesson is on how to be a better teacher which is something I could stand to learn a few things about.

Unfortunately tomorrow's meeting means I can't go swimming in the morning like I was thinking of doing although honestly the chance of it happening even if I didn't have the meeting was probably only like 30%.

I was going to write a whole thing on the challenges faced by an English teacher teaching in Taiwan but I guess that will wait for another time as I have an early start tomorrow and well yeah my body doesn't do early anymore.

I actually made an effort to clean my apartment today....it looks better than before but it still looks messy I keep forgetting to invest in more coathangers. I have a few but not enough and so I use that as an excuse not to hang anything up heh.

YouTube is fast becoming a favourite site for me. I don't bother with the amatuer stuff that bores me I don't like watching average joes singing my favourite songs off key nor do I like the jackass inspired crap. I do however like finding tv programs that I've not heard of. I've also been using it to watch ESL teaching videos which while not overly helpful aren't too bad.

Solo in Taichung

So today I decided to wander into Taichung and as things turned out I spent the whole day navigating the busy streets of Taichung alone which was actually quite fun. I'm definitely getting a better idea of how to get everywhere. Of course I haven't really mastered the city buses so it involves much walking but I kinda like that because it means I get to visit the little stores I stumble across along the way which is something I wouldn't get to do on a bus.

So I went to Chung Yo a big department store I'd visited once before and gave up on after 6 levels of clothes clothes and more clothes. But this time I'd done my research and went straight to level 10 home of Eslite bookstore a huge bookstore chain in Taiwan and also home to many Vitas Lu singles and also books in English...well ok not that many but still some books in English. The place was pretty cool although it was actually walking to Chung Yo where I made a great discovery.

The discovery being a second hand bookstore on the same street but further up. While many books were in Chinese they had a small section dedicated to english literature. And there were many classics there, I found ithard to walk away empty handed but at that stage I'd yet to see what Eslite held and was wary to buy anything. But the second hand bookstore will be somewhere I will visit again. I think I'll have to limit how much money I bring on trips to Taichung from now on! While eslite had modern literature such as Kite Runner and PS I Love You the SH bookstore had such classics as the portrait of dorian grey and my favourite Little Women as well as not so classics such as Grisham's The Client.

After buying all the Vitas Lu stuff I could find and also exploring the top levels of Chung Yo department store I wandered back and stumbled across a huge market which was packed with heaps of funky little side stalls and food stalls. Having already hit my puffie store I wasn't really interested in food though so I kept wandering.

I also stumbled upon a pet store with cats and dogs. The conditions they are kept in is quite disgusting, at least they weren't crammed in but they have nothing but wire surrounding them even on the bottom of their cages. One puppy was chewing it's water dish. I've been tossing up getting some sort of pet after my paperwork comes through. I'm not talking cat or dog as that would be cruel given the hours I work and the size of my apartment. But a fish or a bird is viable. There are birds for sale everywhere here...how many of them are sold as pets and how many as food I'm not sure. I'd love to get a duck but 1 I don't think my apartment is suited for a duck and 2 I'm pretty sure all ducks sold are designed to be food and I'd hate to pay for one and watch it get slaughted in front of me in some warped translation problem. They do have smaller birds though such as canaries etc I dunno it's just an idea.

I ended up hitting the guitar store again and grabbing some stuff I needed and made some fanboys who saw my label.

After wandering around all day I was tempted to catch a movie however the only movie I was remotely interested in seeing was x-files 2 and that didn't start for another hour so I skipped that and went in search of food. I was going to check out this food court I stumbled across last time however this time it didn't look so appitizing and the fact people were smoking all around turned me off even more so I kept wandering. I ended up at a "pizza" stand where I ordered my 2nd pasta dish since arriving. It actually wasn't horrible although I doubt I'll be rushing back again.

After all the excitement I headed home.

If it is nice tomorrow I will head to the swimming pool and do a few laps. Aside from that I think tomorrow will be a lazy day, I have a heap of movies that are just asking to be watched, not to mention the entire 2nd season of Dexter.

Just another Saturday night

So I had my last two GEPT classes today at least for this round. Next weekend they have their tests. I'm not sure how many of them will succeed.

All in all my classes today weren't bad. My first class Saturday morning is level 6 they are quite bright but being early Saturday morning I'm not at my perkiest nor are the kids so quite often the class suffers from lack of energy and lack of prep on my part (I tend to get the lesson plan late on Friday night just before leaving around 9.30 pm and I have a 9am start Saturday and the class starts at 10 so needless to say that class often isn't as fun as other classes.) Today was the exception. I find different classes like different things. In this case they wanted to try and get the sticky ball to stick to the top most of the whiteboard wall instead of trying to hit the target I'd drawn out. So instead of fighting it I went with it assigning different points to different parts of the wall and the kids loved it. There was probably more participation and learning going on than in past classes.

My next class is Level 7 and while they are quite bright their ability to elicit information that isn't read and copy isn't anywhere near as good as it should be. Which I guess shows while there memory is good their comprehension isn't nearly as good.

My GEPT oral class got moved from the usual 4.30-5.30 slot to 1.30-2.30 which was fine by me as it means I could actually leave on time (in theory in practice I actually left later than usual). I've said it before and I'll say it again I really love that class and I'm sorry to see it end. This time round it was just a major review. I feel quite confident in their ability to pass the oral section of their test.

My next class is book 5 and it's not too bad. Their major problem is using things in context, once again while their memory is good their comprehension is borderline. I think that just has to do with the amount of drilling and memorising they are expected to do.

Here it seems as long as a kid can pass the test it doesn't seem overly important whether they actually understand what it is they are doing. Of course it is my job to try and force context on them in the 1 hour a week I spend with each class.

That being said I do like the class, it also contains my boss' son who while he can be slightly rowdy at times he's a decent kid at heart. I've also seen the pressure put on him by his parents to do well so I am always happy to let him use my class to blow off some steam. The same goes for all the kids. Education is stupidly important here. It's not just important to get a good education it is important to be the best. Competition is a way of life here and while I take advantage of it in my classrooms I honestly don't know if I agree with the idea of pushing kids to always be the best.

My final class of the day was my GEPT vocab class. With the huge amount of stuff I have to go through with them I honestly don't get the chance to play games with them which really sucks as they are a bright bunch for the most part.

So that was my Saturday as a teacher.

Away from school the air con in my apartment apparently got damaged in the typhoon so today Alan asked for my keys so the maintainence man could fix it. Of course my apartment was a mess with clothes thrown around the place and various other things but eh I can live with it they can live with seeing it. So anyway that all got done and I got my keys back and everything was good. I finished school got some dinner, went and treated myself to an icecream, got to my apartment and turned my lock only to discover it was still locked. The thing is I have two locks and one of my locks has two mechanisms. One of the mechanisms I've never used as when I was first shown the apartment Alan had trouble unlocking it when he triggered it so I never bothered. Until today. So there I was icecream in hand after a long week fiddling with my lock cursing my luck. After 5 minutes I was fed up and decided to go downstairs to get the security guard to unlock my building. Now while my Lonely Planet phrasebook has served me well it doesn't seem to have the word unlock in it at all. So I rang my boss and asked if she could as the guard in Chinese to go and open my door. The guard looked quite puzzled when I thrust the phone towards him but in the end he came willingly. Even he had difficulty with it and for a few minutes I thought i may have to call Amy back again and tell her she needed to come fix my lock but finally the lock opened. Yay for the security guard. Of course then he tried explaining in Chinese what I needed to do, none of which I understood obviously but still I am extremely grateful to him.

So that was my big adventure. Tonight I think I'll snuggle in and watch a movie or two and tomorrow I'll head to Taichung as I don't think I can stand spending another full weekend in JhuShan (as lovely as it is I need retail therapy).

The highs and lows of friday

So my cold finally broke over night and while it is still around I don't feel quite so lousy. Today was my quiet day, I only had 2 classes. Ironically one is my lowest class and probably one of my favourite to teach. There are only 4 students and they are quite young (6 or 7ish). The class is only 2 weeks old so they are still learning their abcs and everything else. I love making them as active as possible. Being a small class I can have them all participating in a running game without too much carnage. The other class is probably the one I have the most trouble with and also as far as levels go they are one of my highest. Today I actually broke through and got their participation...my methodology however was slightly unorthadox and would probably be frowned upon by the other teachers.

Essentially after throwing a sticky ball at a whiteboard target failed to get their enthusiasm I offered myself up as a target with a very soft ball. Thus any correct answer resulted in a chance to hit me with the ball and get points. This may not be the most responsible teaching method around but after the results I saw today I really don't care. Even battleship failed to get a decent response.

While today was my quietest day tomorrow is my busiest yet again my oral GEPT class is one I really look forward to despite the fact it means I stay at least 30 minutes later than I'm meant to. Once again the class is small only 5 students. There is no prep necessary as the lesson plan is tight but the conversation level is quite high.

Fridays I always visit a certain street vendor for dinner. She is very friendly and while a lot of what we say is lost in translation she tries hard to speak English and I flex my Chinese vocab whenever possible. The food is great although there are things on her stand I've learnt to avoid such as stinky tofu and what I think is a form of kimchi (South Korean dish of spicy cabbage).

Tomorrow night I will hit the resturant near Brian's store and get a seafood noodle soup (seriously good and it's a steal at just under $4AU with unlimited drinks and sauces included. You'd never find that in Australia.)

Now all I need to do is get through tomorrow....and ditch this stupid cold.

Not Leaving on A Jet Plane

So I haven't actually checked my flight since arriving in this crazy country but I'm pretty sure there is a flight in the air now headed for Australia that I was booked to fly on. Needless to say I'm not on it. In all fairness though I never had any intention of being on it it was a throw away ticket so I wouldn't get turned away after I landed in Taiwan.

This kinda means now that everything is invested in getting my ARC in the next month. I got told it would get done in time but I think it will be a close call.

To say there isn't a small part of me that wishes I was on that plane headed home would be a lie, as much as I like it here I know that when my year is up I'm not going to be renewing that contract.

The cold is still lingering. I spent a good portion of this morning with Google translator trying to navigate a chinese bookstore website in order to find some music I want. After about an hour of translating I figured it'd just be easier to do the whole thing with Brian or someone from school next to me as a computer program can only translate so well.

Show me the money

Still sick, although I did find a great drink store that sold fresh drinks and had both an english and chinese menu. They have a great lemon juice and honey drink so I sipped on that during the day.

I got paid for my first 2 weeks training today, not a lot but to be honest that figure was never really discussed anyway so it was more than I could have got. Plus it was cash in hand so I don't have to worry bout setting up a bank account yet....not that I could anyway as I have no paperwork

Classes were pretty good today. I played battleship in like 3 of my 4 classes lol I keep expecting someone to get sick of it but so far it's holding strong.

I found my little man who makes puffie like things in JhuShan tonight. Not as good as those in Taichung but still it's a minute bike ride versus a 60 minute bus ride heh

Their version of 2 minute noodles here is much better than the Maggi variety back home although I miss the other kind...and I'm totally blanking on the name. Amazingly enough I can't seem to find the oriental flavour though lol

Still tossing up whether to stay in JhuShan or go to Taichung this weekend. If this cold clears up I think I'll head to Taichung for a day, I really want to see if I can find more Vitas Lu albums.

Part of one of my classes tomorrow involves getting the kids to fill in a workbook which has both English and Chinese...of course in order for me to make sure they do it correctly I need to know the answers which means I need to at least recognise the chinese translation so guess what I'm doing tonight lol It's only level 2 so it's not too bad. I will have one of the chinese teachers look over my book tomorrow to make sure I've answered it correctly before I go to class though.

Anyway I have noodles to cook and homework to do.

Another week begins

In two days time my return ticket home will be forfeited, in a way it feels I've been here longer than a month. I think I've got a cold my nose won't stop running and my head feels slightly congested. I'm not overly surprised one of the girls at work had a cold last week, add to that the dramatic change in climate due to the typhoon and well it's a perfect mix for a cold.

Saying that I couldn't sleep last night so around midnight I said to hell with it and went for a jog. Now I've not jogged in Taiwan and before that well lets just say it's been a while since I was capable of running 10km. Still the school near me has a proper running track and the weather was perfect for jogging so I felt confident I could do a couple of laps...er no. Just over half way round I had to slow to a walk and get my breath back. It was only my 5th time round that I managed to make it through an entire lap without walking part of the way. Talk about out of shape. Although now I think about it it may have been the cold affecting my breathing....at least I'm willing to put part of the blame on that.

Either way I will have to start getting into a jogging routine as there is no gym here and while there is a pool I'm too lazy to go in the mornings and it's too late when I finish work. So I will have to satisfy myself with the running track.

I'm tossing up extending my travel insurance for the duration of my stay. It is set to expire in a few days and while I won't sign with the same company there are other companies out there that have decent deals for reasonable prices. While the health insurance is said to be excellent and cheap over here as soon as the health card comes through I still think travel insurance may not be a bad idea.

Today I have 3 classes one of which will take some time preparing just to try and make it fun, the other 2 basically write themselves.

I don't know whether to head into Taichung next weekend or not, I guess I will play it by ear...after all that's a whole working week away.

Oh last night I managed to find the Monday Night Markets all by myself, I was so proud (it wasn't hard I just followed the fireworks and then the mass of people). After walking around for a bit I bumped into my boss and her family and some other people I work with. The polite thing to do would have been to hang around with them but I didn't really feel like it so I kept doing my own thing. I found a stand that made great lemonade. Unfortunately I couldn't find any puffies though.

I still can't find the musical instrument store here in JhuShan and I managed to break my capo the other day. I really need another one, but more importantly I need to get a tuner. I think I'm going to have to ask someone again where the hell it is as 'near the school' just doesn't cut it. There are like 6 schools in JhuShan, not counting language schools.

Typhoon 1 Jade 0

So it seems I underestimated the typhoon my last post or at least I had figured it was over when really it was yet to start. Sunday it pelted with rain all day...I mean all day. I decided to do laundry as my internet went down quite early and I was housebound due to the typhoon. Unfortunately my washing machine is on the balcony...still can't complain at least I have one and don't have to use a laundromat. So I had to put a raincoat on just to open the balcony door and quickly try and stuff my clothes into the washing machine. It was actually quite amusing, I'm glad there was no one on the street to see me.

The rain and wind persisted last night as well and while there seems to be a slight break now I don't think it's going to last (in fact as we speak the rain has started up again). I guess I may be housebound again today.

I did catch up on my movie watching yesterday. I ended up watching "The life before here eyes' which I really enjoyed, sure it was actually easy to see where it was going and it got tedious in some parts but I loved the way they told it. It's about a woman who was in a Columbine like massacre which killed her best friend. 15 years on she's happily married with a kid but her past still haunts her. It's apparently based on a book which I think I will have to hunt down.

I then watched The Last King of Scotland, the first part was actually a lot lighter than I expected, it was nice to see Gillian Anderson in something other than X-Files. The second half was the serious part I was actually expecting the whole movie to be. All in all it was ok, the fact the main character had trouble keeping his thing in his pants got a bit tedious though.

Lastly I watched Freedom Writers, yet another based on a true story inspirational teaching movie but I actually really liked it, it was much better than Dangerous Minds and I'm a fan of Hilary Swank anyway.

So that was my Sunday. Sitting around watching the rain pelt the windows and trying to fill in the hours. I have a feeling if the rain doesn't stop that is how today will be as well. I think the novelty of these typhoons will get old very fast. In fact it may already have.

Anyway that's pretty much all I have for now. I don't feel like doing any teaching stuff today, it's my weekend there will be no work done on my weekend! Well at least until tonight.

Jade 1 Typhoon 0

So the typhoon didn't really hit JhuShan, I mean there was rain and a lot of it but that was the extent of it, the wind really more than a breeze. Although I saw on the news that in other places the damage was a lot more severe.

Today's classes were pretty easy, one of them got cancelled as none of the students wanted to go out in the 'typhoon'. I think my GEPT classes are coming to an end at the end of this month which is a shame as I'm actually kinda liking them....well the oral one at least the vocab one there is just too much stuff to get through that I really can't play games it's straight drill then cd work which kinda sucks but it's easy for me to prepare.

After work Amy invited me to her husband's parents place for a barbecue which I jumped at the opportunity for as they are so revered here. It was actually pretty cool the food was great although it seems maybe I'm allergic to more than clams as I once again had a slight swelling of the lip this time I think maybe from the shrimp.

The thing that interested me the most though was the size of the barbeque they were cooking on. I'm used to the barbies in OZ which is the bigger the better, here though the bbqs were well nothing more than like portable grills. Itsy bitsy little things that we might take camping...actually some people take bigger things camping than these bbqs.

I had a moon cake...a proper one which was a little like mince pies except I'm pretty sure there was some actual meat in it...still it wasn't horrible, although I prefer the other festive desserts better.

So now I have experienced a typhoon and a moon festival bbq..quite an achievement I think.

Typhoon

So I've heard there's a good possibility of a typhoon hitting today. For some reason David who is about 40 minutes away gets the day off because of it while I still have to go to work meh. Still it doesn't look too bad outside I mean it just looks like a normal dreary day, hell the trees are barely moving.

I'm quite excited at the prospect of experiencing a typhoon. At least the sun won't blind me today.

I don't get though how Nantou and Taichung can have the same risk probability of getting hit and yet I still have to go to work and David gets to well...actually if I weren't going to work 1 I wouldn't get paid and 2 I wouldn't have anything to do. So maybe going to work is a good idea.

Anyway I need to go get ready.

1 step forwards 2 steps backwards

Today I had to get up at 7 am to go attend teacher training in Taichung. I thought it was going to be better than the last time 1 because there
was another foreign teacher there and 2 because a lot more of the
booklet was in English unfortunately the booklet was pretty much the
majority of the English there.

After getting up at stupid o'clock to attend this stupid thing I
was totally frustrated and so just tuned out actually I started
drawing and making paper aeroplanes and generally being a bad student
lol towards the end I was playing tetris on my phone :/

Afterwards my boss accused me of not concentrating...which is true and
I just told her it was mostly in Chinese. I know this makes me sound
whingy and whatever but seriously I don't think she gets how freaking
frustrating it is. She asked me why I didn't ask the lecturer
afterwards about the lesson and to be honest I just hadn't thought of
it...well that's the first thing the reason I gave her was that the
class was over 3 hours long and there is no way I could get in 5
minutes anything close to what the lecturer was talking about, my
other reason is that they are teaching freaking english teachers to
teach English I really don't get why it has to be taught in Chinese.

My boss was unhappy which I felt bad for. She made the point that she
pays for the training and we don't have to pay anything so I should
make more of an effort which I guess is a fair point. It's
frustrating though cause I have a feeling if I knew everything that
was being said it would actually help me be a better
teacher....unfortunately for that to happen I'd need a class that
actually spoke English and I don't think that will happen.

I know I should have made more of an effort but seriously you try sitting still for over 3 hours while people yammer on in a language you totally don't know and then see just how willing you are to go and ask questions about the lesson.

I didn't get to talk to the other foreign teacher which was
disappointing, I really wanted to go up and say thank god you are here
now I'm not the only one who has no clue what I'm doing. But I guess
I got shy. Plus the teachers he came with were much better at
explaining things to him than the teachers at my school who basically
didn't help me with jack and then expected me to help them with the
activities when I had no clue what was going on. Please don't get the wrong idea the people I work with are really nice people, they are just reserved I guess. The foreign guy probably would have been confused anyway if I'd gone up to him as I still look like I belong. Maybe that's why everyone just expects me to understand. At least one of the test papers was in English so I answered that the other was in chinese so I wrote my name with a giant capitalised I DON'T READ CHINESE! under it, obnoxious yes but as I said I was frustrated...and cold the room was extremely airconditioned and I only had a tshirt on.

All in all today could have gone better. Still my classes went ok today and Battleship is going down a treat. I went to a store and bought some soft balls and speakers for tomorrows Level 9 class in hopes of turning around from last weeks nightmare class. While I was there I saw the motherload of fireworks. They are all so cheap. I'm going back tomorrow to stock up...it's totally legal here!

This weekend is a big holiday and I have nothing planned. I did get given moon cakes today though which are meant to be well nice so I guess I will be eating cake.

I found more Vitas Lu albums unfortunately the site is in Chinese and the stores are all in Taipei. I can google translate but it doesn't let me sign up or check out when it is translated and amazingly enough I don't read chinese so I can't navigate it without translating it with google...talk about catch 22. I'm still determined to get the cds though. I may have to go bother Brian.

Oh I watched street kings..not really impressed. It actually would have worked as a spoof cop movie ala scream unfortunately it was totally serious...oh well.

The internet has been sketchy lately, hopefully it will be here in the morning.

Almost Legal

So my health check came through and apart from having abnormal skin (tattoos) I got a full pass. Thus the mammoth mound of paperwork began. Now I understand why Amy was hesitant to start anything before hand. Firstly we are both inexperienced with the forms. The office girl started only 2 weeks before me so she had never done the paperwork needed thus Amy and I had to slog through it. Actually any part that wasn't in Chinese I had to do.

Tonight I actually saw my contract for the first time and it was in English so no need for a hissy fit there. Everything seems above board which is a relief. The only thing that could have been better is she considered my employment started from Sep 1 so my contract doesn't end until August 31. meh but still a few extra days won't hurt me and hopefully my arc will be for a year so I will still have time afterwards to do a little bit of travelling in Taiwan before moving on.

During the conversation Amy asked what my plans were after the year...I told her I had trouble knowing what tomorrow holds let alone a year from now...which isn't really a lie. The fact I'm almost certain it doesn't involve Melody School is something I kept to myself.

I have to attend a meeting in Taichung tomorrow morning at 9 am which means a 7am start here MEH. Of course once again I got told late this afternoon and actually it was by a fellow teacher not Amy.

Yesterday I was dragged out of my class to interview a potential new part time teacher. Why I was interviewing I have no idea, I guess to test fluency. As far as I was concerned her fluency was good. It probably could have been better but I was impressed, although I think I marked her too leniently (I gave her a 9/10...she was standing right behind me when Amy was asking).

I had some strange Chinese guy knock on my door today and he was saying stuff in Chinese to me. Eventually he left but he did keep trying to see into my room. I wish I knew what he wanted.

My pilfered internet has been down for a couple of days hence the nonposting. It sucks when it is down but I'm coping better now than I would have before.

I watched Speed Racer the other night and was actually kinda impressed. Yes it got bad reviews but really I think for what it is it's pretty awesome and honestly I don't think anyone could have done it better. Yes it was predictable and yes the visual was quite odd but it was based on an anime tv show so the visuals were quite apt (imho).

I also watched Harold and Kumar 2 that I was less than thrilled with, it had it's moments but really if I had to choose between the 2 movies Speed Racer would win hands down. Next on my viewing list is Street Kings.

Ok like I said early start tomorrow so I must go try and get some sleep.

Taichung again

So once again I headed to Taichung this weekend. I was in the mood for some retail therapy. I was also in the mood for buffalo wings. I experienced my first shopping mall after arriving early in Taichung. It was stupidly crowded and reminded me more of a market than a shopping centre. There were also movies playing, so at least I know where to go when I want to see a movie. David and I met up and ended up taking the long way to Taichung Park home of a huge goat family (statue). The park was nice despite being within walking distance of Central Taichung the park was very serene. There was a huge bunch of kids doing something I'm still not sure what there was much screaming, jumping and laughing. After that we dawdled around and found a huge shopping mall. All it sold was clothes, jewellry and more clothes. Very disappointing. We did manage to find a music store on the way to TGI Fridays and I found the cd of the chinese singer I like (although I already had that cd but still).

TGI Friday's was a great experience. David says they were American prices and admittedly it was the first meal I'd payed over $500 nt for but really that wasn't much considering the amount of food I had. I ordered a full plate of buffalo wings and a bowl of fries and a milkshake. The waiting staff there was awesome most spoke English and spent alot of time around our table teaching us (well mostly David) various Chinese words. When we left every single waitress there came to say goodbye and one came running and asked when we were coming back and said that if we came at certain times she would be able to help us with our Chinese which was really friendly of her.

We then dawdled back towards the train station finding King Wang's Bakery on the way.

This morning I was meant to meet up with a social worker (YiChen) from my old home to take me on a visit. Unfortunately I decided to first go get some travellers cheques cashed which was fine and then proceeded to walk away in the wrong direction. After a while of walking I asked in my broken way which way the train station was and got pointed in the direction I was walking...so I kept going. It was about 20 minutes later that I realised my mistake. By then I was due to meet YiChen so I called her up and she managed to come find me and take me to the home.

Daniel A Poling's Babies Home is a lot bigger than I first imagined. The staff there was amazing, all very friendly. Many of the kids I saw today were special needs and unable to go to school. I also saw some of the little babies (1-2 years old) who were adorable. One girl loved playing with my watch. Cameras weren't allowed in with the babies but they were welcomed everywhere else.

One volunteer there studied in America and has travelled a lot of the world. She lives in Taipei and comes and volunteers a few days a week. She offered to be my guide in Taipei whenever I make it there. Everyone was very accomodating and said I was welcome to come back any time.

They gave me lunch and we discussed my family and what I'm doing in Taiwan I showed them the old photos I had of the Home and they told me my chinese name meant "beautiful piano". All in all it was a very special few hours and I look forward to visiting again soon.

I then got dropped back at the bus stop and decided that I wanted to explore more. I wandered around places I'd not yet been to and stumbled upon a musical instrument store. The guy spoke English and gave me a decent deal on a basic guitar so I took it.

While I was waiting for my bus two people came around with key rings trying to raise money. I gave the 100 NT and they were so grateful it was embarrassing. I think they spent a good minutes saying thankyou. Today I got off the bus in an area I actually knew which was nice.

I missed the garbage trucks and was slightly peeved as I haven't thrown out any rubbish since being here so I was going to go try and follow the trucks and dump the stuff when I stumbled upon a load of rubbish in the stairwell. I honestly don't know if it's allowed to be there but as I don't know where the main rubbish bin in for my apartment building I followed suite and dumped my rubbish there.

All in all I think this weekened went well and apparently my health check is back so the paperwork can commence tomorrow hopefully. yay I will eventually be legal.

Yay for the weekend

So after a late finish last night I wandered in at 9am today feeling well tired. My schedule was still up in the air and quite frankly I was just ready for the weekend to start. I wasn't sure how my first class would go as I kinda sucked last week (although in all fairness I didn't know I was going to teach it until literally 5 minutes before it began). This week I got the response I was after so I was well happy. My list of games is ever expanding and I'm worried at how fast I go through them. I went straight from that into another class which was also not too bad. Technically this class wasn't on my scedule but it was given to me anyway so I did it. I was meant to do a 1 on 1 for 1.5 hours but that never happened thankfully. I then had another relatively straightforward class then I had my two GEPT classes. The second GEPT class is challenging in that I'm often a walking theasurus trying to explain words they don't know using words they do. The first is just challenging because it is big and we have a lot to go through so very few games get played.

I decided to try again at ordering food. This time I slightly cheated and went to the same place Brian took me to so I knew what I wanted I just wasn't sure how to say it. I ordered the seafood noodle hot pot. For around $3AUD I get this great hot meal with a fair bit of seafood in it plus drinks are included. Honestly I think I'm going to have to go there more often. This time I avoided the clams.

This weekend will be spent in Taichung. I'm looking forward to hanging out in Taichung and I'm really hoping to find a decent music store. I'm even considering finding a musical instrument store. David wants to check out the art museum. There is a TGI Fridays in Taichung too so I may have to check that out (Buffalo wings here I come bwhahaha).

I've been expanding my Chinese music collection thanks to the generous person supplying my internet and a great LJ site dedicated to Taiwanese music.

My favourite Taiwanese performer so far has to be Vitas Lu or 盧廣仲 (Lu Guang Zhong). He has a very acoustic pop feel.

For those who are interested here is one of his video clips.

My goal now is to see him play live during my stay here. He's so geeky but I love it.

I need sleep. I was so tired before and now I'm totally re-energised.

I can now count in Chinese heh I made my students teach me and I'm also learning one handed juggling (with two balls).

And now I have two days of r'n'r. Yay for weekends. Sucks to be a native teacher as all the other teachers at my school have only 1 day off. I couldn't live with only 1 day off. I could really go for 3 days off but I guess that's pushing it.

Tomorrow's gonna suck

Today should have been easy, I only had 2 classes, unfortunately 1 of them I crashed and burned in. It's a level 9 class so tehy are older and more advanced than most of my classes. For level 7 up I try and get them to speak English only. I figure by that stage they have a basic grasp on English.

This class I just could not get to stop speaking Chinese. They basically just wanted to throw the sticky balls as hard as they can at one another.

It's frustrating because at that level they have a decent understanding so the possibilities of what I could do with them are endless but if I can't get them to at least respect me I'm dead in the water.

I was talking to one of the students after class an tried to find out what I need to do to get the kids involved. I got some ideas but whether they are practical or not is a whole other matter.

Tomorrow my schedule is still up in the air. All I know is I have a hell of a lot of classes as it stands. I also have two things scheduled at the same time..how that works I dunno. I tried to get information from Amy about what my timeline was but she gave me some info about one of my classes and then said she'd have to find out about the other thing and then left not to be seen again before I headed home.

This is something that really, really bugs me. As a teacher they expect me to give these mindblowing classes yet Amy in particular doesn't really give me any prep information unless I pry it from her. Maybe if I had more experience I could do a great class without prep but I'm still new and so it helps if I can have time to design games or think of new fun ways of teaching the material. Meh screw it.

One more day and then I have two days off, yay.

You can totally buy fireworks in the supermarket here. Bwhahahaha You can also buy air pellet guns in quite a few random stores, they are shaped like various popular guns there are even ones shaped like semi machine guns, it's bizarre.

I dig the fireworks thing though. It explains why I hear so many fireworks. They are also stupidly cheap heh.

JhuShan Night market

Tonight after work Amy took all the teachers to the JhuShan night market which is literally minutes away. It wasn't as busy as the Taichung Night Markets but it was still really interesting to watch.

There she ordered many seafood dishes for us to eat and she also tried to get us to drink the Taiwanese beer (which she didn't consider alcoholic). The beer was served in Foster mugs. I don't know if it was Fosters and I honestly can't remember what that tastes like. This beer did taste slightly sweeter than the stuff back home. I had a few sips to be polite.

The food was great although my lip decided to swell up, I'm guessing it was the clams as most of the other stuff I've had before whereas I honestly can't remember the last time I had clams...if I have ever had clams.

It's finally starting to go back down now, hopefully it will be ok for tomorrow.

Today I had a lot of fun teaching. I try and keep the classroom energised which means often making a fool of myself (something I'm quite good at doing). Sometimes I get them a bit too energised. I got told at least one of todays classes may have been too noisy. While it's ok with Amy if the student goes home and says to the parent it was too noisy we could have problems. So I guess once again I'm going to need to tone it down.

Today one of my students almost got her head stuck in her desk. Amazingly enough not the class I got told was too noisy. Needless to say my classroom management skills could do with some improvement.

I went to the bank today to see if I could cash some travellers cheques. I tried this particular bank because it had 'foreign exchange' signs out front. That to me suggests they change foreign currency...such as travellers cheques. Err no, apparently I will need to go to Nantou to do that. It's not really important I still have enough money and my 2 visas which I've yet to use I just thought while I had the time I'd give it a shot. Maybe I'll cash some in Taichung on Monday.

This weekend will be spent in Taichung. Sunday I'm gonna meet up with David and I guess we'll just wander around. I still want to find some chinese music and I think he's interested in finding a Chinese school. Monday I've arranged a visit with the Taichung orphanage I once called home. I'm really looking forward to that.

The weather has actually been mild the past 2 days. We've even had thunderstorms. It still doesn't get below 18 but still it's nice to not be dying in the heat. Whether this 'cool' change stays is another story.

Anyway I need to go get some sleep and read my book.

Bypass

Apart from my teaching books I bought only one English book with me. It wasn't a desert island book it wasn't even one I'd read even a line from. It was a book I bought for a few bucks at a used book sale. The book was called Bypass:The story of a road by Michael McGirr. I was meant to use it for reading material on the plane but never did in fact it has been sitting unused for the past 2 weeks until Monday night I happened to notice it and started reading.

I think bringing that book was one of the best decisions I made. It's an Australian book not just about Australia but written in a very Australian way. Most of the humour would be lost on a non-Aussie. It is a story about the Hume Highway. It's techincally non-fiction however it's not the dry nonfiction you mostly get. It follows the decision of an overweight, 40 something to cycle the entire hume highway (from Sydney to Melbourne) on a cheap bike. But it also weaves in the development of the road and many little stories about people and places that have been affected by this road.

Each chapter starts with a bumper sticker slogan.

I'm rationing my reading so I can savour it as much as possible. Afterwards I think I'm going to force it upon various people here just because it is so great.

I've been re-engergised and today I walk into my classes with a heap of new game options thanks to the WWW.

I tried VoIP busters today and loved it. Free calls to landlines in Australia nothing better! I can also call American landline and mobiles and a heap of other places for free so yeah I may just start calling random people for the hell of it. At least then my English won't get rusty!

Ok gotta go eat and then teach.....bring on the weekend. Only 3 more days and the rest of today til my next weekend heh

Ｃｏｉｎｃｉｄｅｎｃｅｓ？

Monday 1st SeptemberSo I was doing my first lot of washing which seems to have gone quite well when I hear my phone telling me I’ve got a message. It was from an unknown Taiwanese number saying good luck for the first day (a new term started today). I knew it was probably for the teacher before me but I decided to respond anyway and long story short it was from a South African couple who have been teaching English here for almost 6 years and they offered to take me out for lunch and to show me the town.

Obviously I jumped at the chance. Corbi and Druce (I think that’s what the guy’s name was) were awesome. They were ultra friendly and picked me up out front of the apartment and took me to a restaurant that served Western style food. I had spaghetti carbonara which wasn’t bad. As you can imagine after 6 years here they were a wealth of information. I didn’t focus on teaching although hopefully I will see them around and ask them then a bit about it. They told me about Rachel the old foreign teacher for the school I’m at as I was really curious about her. From conversations I’ve had with Amy I’ve had my suspicions that all wasn’t well between the two and I wasn’t far off. I won’t go into details but from Corbi I discovered that Rachel is still kicking around JhuShan with her boyfriend except she’s working at a different school in Dali (close by town).

It turns out Corbi and Druce are interested in migrating to Australia in a couple of years time so I was as much a wealth of information for them on Australia as they were for me. All in all it was great. They took me home via the main street where they pointed out various places that have people who can speak English including a doctor and a food store. It was all very cool and they told me how to get to the swimming pool which is slightly out of the town centre but very easy to find.
After our meeting I decided to go and try and find the pool which was easy to find. I didn’t end up going swimming but it is nice to know where it is.
Apparently there is a big night market tonight although I forgot to find out where. There is also one on Thursday nights however Monday is bigger.

While out I went to check out the internet café which wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined although people are allowed to smoke in there which isn’t great but it is well air conditioned and whatever so it’s not too bad. While wandering home from the café I stumbled across a store that sold things that looked similar to puffies so I ordered some and they were great. Slightly less batter and different fillings but still I’ll have to try and find that guy again cause I managed to finish them before I’d made it home. He even gave me extra ones I think. So it seems I’ve had quite a productive weekend. Now if only I could find the motivation to go listen to my Chinese language tape or go plan lessons…oh well I don’t start til 2 tomorrow heaps of time for both things.

I have another load of washing on I should probably go invest in an iron but I’ll see if I can make do without first. At least the clothes dry quickly.

Sunday 31 August
Last night I was in internet heaven unfortunately it was not to last and while I can still get wifi signals in my room I’m unable to attain an IP address and thus it seems once again it is back to wandering JhuShan with my little eee trying to find something that will let me connect.

It wasn’t all in vain though as David rang last night while I still had a working connection and we decided he should come visit JhuShan for a day so we could do the tourist thing together. So with the internet going I was able to email him the characters of the town and landmarks he should watch out for while on the bus as he’s never been to JhuShan.

We decided Sun Moon Lake was the place to be and David decided to flex his Mandarin skills by asking the local cop shop for directions. Unfortunately we had no idea what the cops were saying and so with our tails between our legs we wandered off to see Brian in the hopes he could direct us to a bus there. He did better than that and soon we were in his car with him and his daughter navigating us to Sun Moon Lake. The spot was beautiful although a lot further away than I initially thought. After taking in the place by foot and saying farewell and thanks to Brian and his daughter who headed back to JhuShan we put on our sea legs and hoped a boat for a tour around the lake.

The tour was amazing and there were many a picture taken. My favourite place was this street market which sold some awesome taro ice cream (at least I’m assuming it was taro). David over indulged in some local crackers and got a huge stomach ache. They reminded me of prawn crackers at least the texture, he had no idea what prawn crackers were which fascinated me more. They were more peppery apparently but I only had a nibble.

There was also this temple at the top of a hill which was awesome.

We spent time discussing everything from music to poetry. He started singing Waltzing Matilda and I told him that song creeped me out because ultimately it is extremely dark. He looked puzzled so I told him that essentially it’s about a vagrant that chooses to drown himself rather than get arrested for stealing a sheep. He agreed and stopped singing it; however it did spark a huge conversation about various accents and slangs etc.

Once the boat ride was over we decided it was time to start heading for home. Thus beginning an rather interesting task of trying to figure out how to do that. Initially we were planning to head back to JhuShan however after finding someone who spoke English we discovered that wouldn’t be as straightforward as I’d imagined and would include getting off in a place neither of us knew and trying to find a connecting bus/train whatever to get us back to JhuShan. We did however manage to find the bus stop easily and sitting there was a bus that went directly to Taichung. We decided the less risky way was for both of us to hop a bus to Taichung and from there I would hop a bus to JhuShan and David would make his way back to Taiping.

This time I stayed on the bus til we made it to Central JhuShan although I still got off in an unfamiliar spot and thus am still not sure where to hop a bus should I want to go to Taichung but eh I’m getting much better in navigating JhuShan and it wasn’t long before I was back on familiar territory. Aimed with the knowledge of how to say noodle I was going to brave ordering from one of the many food stores however I ended up chickening out and instead headed to the supermarket where I got a ready to heat meal which wasn’t bad. Tomorrow I will try my hand at ordering from a store.

Photos of today will be uploaded once I have resized them etc. All in all I feel like today was a mild success unfortunately the puffy store was closed by the time my bus stopped in Taichung…I guess I’ll have to get twice as many next time. Mmmm puffies.

Tomorrow I have to do washing….the washing machine is all in Chinese so that is going to be interesting. I also need to prepare my lessons for Tuesday and try and find another wifi hotspot. I can’t wait for the day that my paperwork comes through so I can finally go get an internet connection all for my own.

I really need to learn Mandarin and while I have a lot of resources at the end of a teaching day the last thing I feel like doing is sitting down and listening to cds with Mandarin on them….unless it’s music orientated, maybe someone should make a learn Mandarin in song cd, I may almost have a chance there. If only Sugarland would start singing songs in Mandarin.

I realised talking to David today that I’ve not really heard any News since leaving Australia. I mean the only newspaper in English here is the Taipei Times which focuses obviously on Taiwan and even then I always forget to go grab one….not that I’m overly concerned with the going ons in Taipei.

I go on a lot about internet and there is a very good reason for it…and not just because I’m a junkie although that does factor in a bit….essentially the internet allows me to feel connected to the world, it pulls me out of the isolation that comes from living in a place where almost no-one speaks English. If I were to do this all over again I’d have learnt a hell of a lot more Mandarin before heading here or I would have sacrificed the total immersion experience and found a job in a major city ie Taipei or Taichung. I can’t help wondering if my English ability will suffer from lack of use here. I’m tempted to go to the senior school near by and try to find people interested in improving their English by helping me navigate this weird little town but then I think that would just make me look creepy and desperate….and no one wants to befriend a creepy desperate person. Too bad I can’t just stumble upon the other foreign teachers here I’m sure they’d be a wealth of information. Maybe someday.

EDIT that was written last night today I got contacted by another foreign teacher based in JhuShan and we're meeting for lunch....I'll explain more later but talk about freaky.