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.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, September 5, 2008
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, September 1, 2008
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.
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.
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