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.