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.