my first post

In typical fashion im gonna be starting this blog a little bit late....
In fact today is the one month mark of my stay in taiwan. Ive wanted to start one of these for a while but laziness, work, and the inability to understand chinese has kept me from doing so. But i look to have it figured out so without further adieu here is a quick update on everything thats happend in the last month

Training in Taipei: The first 10 days were spent training in the capital city of Taiwan. How the hell am i going to teach english when im not even sure i spelled capital correctly. That is essentially what training was for. I now know what past perfect tense is and can kind of explain it. Training also gave me an awsome network of friends which obviously helps when your in a new country and cant communicate with 95 percent of the people who live there. Taipei is also an awsome city. Great nightlife, cool night markets, food on the side of the street and pretty much anything you want to find there can be found (except maybe a cockfight). They even have NFL replays a flag football league and an ice hockey league.

Moving to Taichung: After training i moved down to Taichung which is kinda like the California of Taiwan. Less rain, pollution, warmer weather, except much cheaper than Taipei with a very artsy cultural feel to it. I live in a really nice place for half of what i would have to pay in Taipei. There is no subway here so having a scooter is a must for getting around which brings me to

Scooters: These are ubiquitous here and essential in the city i live in. Seeing as I was gonna need one anyways i decided to buy one maybe the second day i got here from a teacher leaving the place i work. Although i had never been on one i figured now was a good a time to try as any. After learning how to operate the gas and brakes i set out to go for a ride around the block unfortuneately it only took me 10 seconds to hit a car stopped at a light. I was fine but had to pay quite a bit of cash for damages. I also ended up buying the scooter. I now practice at night and have much better balance on them in the meantime i ride a bicycle Simon (the guy whose scooter i bought) gave me to work every day. It takes 35 minutes each way to work and longer in the rain.

My job: Not great. There are good parts. The ciriculum is all set out for you and you can work as many hours as you can handle. The bad parts are the saturday work and all the homework you have to mark for a slightly below avg pay. The job isnt quite worth it. Theres alot better out there, and anyone whose been here a while wouldve told me the same. I wrote an awsome heiku about Hess (the chain school i work for) but it will be lost on anyone who hasnt worked for them. But for anyone reading that has:
Hot CT in class
Set up demo do me now
Wrap pen in hess ink

My Appartment/roommates: My appartment is amazing. Like families with kids live here. Its a huge step up from Durocher and the McGill ghetto. The courtyard has an awsome chinese feel to it, with water bridges and fish and fountains. Ill post pictures soon. Rommates are good too.
Krysta is from Saskatchawan. and Keith is from Toronto. Dont quite live up to you Teitel but I dont forsee any fajita incidents.

Taiwan in general: Wierd. Im happy to be learning little bits of chinese here and there
random thoughts
1) The law barely exists here- Traffic laws are more like suggestions here, taxes are most often not paid, barely any lisences or registation for scooters ect.

2) Every receipt you get from 7/11 (they are everywhere here) or anywhere else counts as a lottery ticket. There is a number on every receipt. Every 2-3 months there is a draw and if you have some winning numbers you win some money. This was done actually to give people incentive to want/keep receipts in order to help keep businesses honest about paying their taxes

3) KFC is huge here for some reason. There is even a KLC imitation though i have no idea what that is/stands for

4) Foreighners (especially men) are treated like royalty here. People just want to talk to you/be your friend. Case in point. Some time last week some random comes up to me at the bar, asks to take my picture and gives me her number.

5) Everything is sooooo cheap. Can of nestea.... 30 cents. Hour at internet cafe 50 cents. Dinner usually somewhere between 2 and 3 bucks.

6) Christmas is huge here even though only 3 percent of the popuation are actually christian

7) Chinese culture is collectivist. For anyone whose taken a psych class you are well aware how north america is individualistic and asia is collectivist. True.
Wierd to see it in action. I had a huge incident with this with the head chinese teacher at my school. After the scooter accident she offered to help me out by paying for damages and offered to let me pay her when i got paid. I thought she was being a good leader by helping me out and accepted the offer. 2 hours later i was scolded by her superior. Apparently it was wrong of me to take the offer. She was thinking of me but i should have done something to be collectivist (i.e. decline or offer to pay some up front as a show of good will). How was i supposed to know that??? Its all smoothed over and ok now but still just a really good example of the wierd way chinese business goes on.

Anyway i think thats a sufficient update
Ill try to do this on a more regular basis
Merry Christmas Happy Chanuka and happy birthday to me