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.

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.