Denny in Taiwan and Israel

Half Time break, and statistics

2007-05-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a little more than 50 days since I first got sick on April 1st. Although I'm feeling alot better than when I was at my worst, I still dont feel like Im 100 percent healthy. This feeling successfully persuaded me to cancel my two week, free airfare vacation to Israel in favour of returning back home to beautiful, hot, exotic...Toronto. I am home, settled, and hot on the trail of doctors who will hopefully be able to tell me exactly whats going on and treat me accordingly in a timely manner. Time is a key factor here seeing as technically this is a "vacation" and I'm expected to be back at work June 4th. Ive explained to work that I will not return to work unless I feel confident that I am 100 percent healthy. Being the kind, compassionate, caring company that they are, they havent taken to kindly to this idea. Instead they have threatened me with fines if i am unable to return to Taiwan and possible blacklisting if I am unable to sign some tax sheet. The fine thing is most likely an empty threat in attempt to intimidate me to coming back. As for the taxes thing, Ive taken measures to get my name on a stamp (which is as legal as a signature) in case i cant return for a while. That way my roommate (if he feels like being a good guy) can pick up the form for me, stamp my name, and hopefully prevent any major problems from occuring. As usual, I am very disapointed and displeased with my company this time for their lack of compassion and concern towards my circumstances. I am obviously in no hurry to get back to Taiwan, and will stay in Toronto as long as I need to until healthy. I hope they can actually understand that my health is a priority if it gets to that point. Aside from the terrible company I work for, my six months in Taiwan were a great experience and genuinely enjoyed until I had the misfortune of getting ill. I got to see some crazy things and experience first hand a very different way of living on the other side of the world. I rode a scooter around a tropical island, made some lifelong friends, learned alot about myself, and may have found a profession(teaching) which I enjoy and am pretty good at although I am still not 100 percent sure it's what I want to do forever. I would like to return to Taiwan when I get healthy as I was just finding my niche and there are things still left unaccomplished like saving alot of money for school and traveling around Asia. This unexpected trip home has come exactly 6 months to the day of me leaving for my scheduled year long adventure. Here are some half time statistics for my adventure so far.

HALF TIME STATISTICS

Days in Taiwan- 182

Chinese Name- Fay Dan Ray

Kms Driven on Scooter: about 2300

Scooter accidents/wipeouts: 2

Most people seen on a scooter at once- 4

Other countries visited: 0 aside from airports

Biggest musical attraction in 6 monts: Muse

Best single moment: Standing up on a surfboard

Best 7 sylable line in a Heiku- Set up demo do me now

Best Food Eaten in Taiwan- Defineately the dumplings.

Wierdest Food Eaten: Congealed pig's blood or cow intestines, you decide.

Mysterious stomach infections- 1

Trips to the Hospital: 9 (including initial health check) Although the national avg. is supposedly 13 so i guess im still a little behind the curve.

Best Chinese Saying: Ma-Ma Hu-Hu which means horse horse tiger tiger which means so so. This was my frequent answer to the question of how I was feeling for the last 1.5 months.

Interesting Fact: Women use umbrellas to protect themselves from not only the rain but also the sun

Amount of girls I lived with/worked with who got pregnant: 2

Amount of girls I impregnated: 0

I guess thats about it. I will continue to post on this blogg for my friends in Taiwan (ni-how!) to let you know how I am doing, my thoughts on being thrown back into Western culture, and when I intend to return to forumosa.

Cable TV

2007-04-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

As many of you may be aware, I have been sick the last 3 weeks or so with some mysterious stomach infection. Today was actually my first day off the medicine and overall it went pretty good. I have felt a little bit of pain now and then today but for the most part I felt pretty decent.

Having an infected stomach sucks. I couldnt eat much so no going out to eat. I certainly couldnt drink, and I didnt have the energy to jam with Andrew, learn chinese, nor work out or play any sports. So pretty much, this stomach problem has kept me from doing about 85 percent of the things that I would normally do with my free time.

As a result of being a beached whale, I have had the opportnity to watch alot of television, something I havent really taken full advantage of since we got cable about 2 months ago. I have discovered that we get some pretty decent channels in English. We get CNN, Animal planet, about 5 movie channels, maybe four sports channels and even MTV.

The movies arent bad as in the past 3 weeks I have seen some great movies such as Casino, Donnie Brasco, Con Air, Jarhead, The Adams Family, Spiderman, Friday Night Lights, Coach Carter, Collateral Damage, Junior (Arnold Schwartzenager gets pregnant = halarious) Mission Impossible 2, as well as my favorite obscure dose of nostalgia Sunset Park. And I assure you I have seen alot more movies this month than I presently cant remember and list.

The sports channels arent bad either. There is always a healthy dose of NBA basketball and MLB baseball. I even got to see two Blue Jay games and a Raptor game which was quite the treat. No hockey on TV though, most likely becuase there are no Asian players in the NHL unlike the NBA and MLB. If all else fails there is always 9 ball on tv which is exciting for about 5 minutes. Additionally commercials here are quite the laugh. They are extremely overacted and cheesy. When i get my camera back from being fixed (tommorow) I might post some videos of them somewhere for your enjoyment.
There you have it. Just goes to show how dominant of a language it is that we speak. Despite the numerous languages spoken around the world, English is accessable here in Taiwan, on the other side of the world. Not Russian, not German, but English.

Going for my blood test tommorow to see how effective the antibiotics were. Hopefully I get some good news and will be able to give the TV a rest for a while. Ill obviosuly keep you posted.

In Limbo

2007-04-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

So I returned to the hospital on Tuesday, not sure what to hope for in terms of whether they found anything in my blood or not. I went to work the day before. It was hard to get through but I managed.

It was actually really interesting how my coworkers delt with me. Last I checked this illness has caused me to lose about 3-4 KG which is about 6-8 pounds. My face obviosuly looks thinner. Most of my coworkers politly asked me how I was feeling but generally everyone was very respectfull of my privacy, not needing to know all the details of exactly what was wrong. Also no one was oversympathetic making a gigantic deal out of things. At the end of my shift my Manager approached me and asked if it was OK if my boss came with me to the hospital the next day. I felt like they were more concerned about themselves in terms of whether i would be able to work or not as opposed to wanting to help me. These are the kinds of people my bosses are. When I was calling in sick they were always asking me "why" and reminding me i only had 7 sick days as opposed to telling me to feel better or anything. Real nice people. I cant wait to quit. Anyway, after thinking about it I realized it could do no harm. If anything, having a Chinese speaker with me at the hospital would me mutually benefitial, so I agreed.

The next day i went back to the hospital and waited for the big news. Turns out they didnt isolate any bacteria from my blood. So basically they dont know why I had an infection and why there was so much unusual inflamation in my stomach. They gave me 5 more days of antibiotics and told me to come back in a week to do another blood test to see if the antibiotics worked.

So now i am kind of in limbo or purgatory. I am taking my antibiotics and I feel decent enough. I can work, I can run errands, but i still dont feel like going out and having fun. I am probably not going to go on the white water rafting trip I was going to do this weekend. All i can really do is wait these 5 days and then see what happens. Either i get better, or the pain will return. If i get better that'll be great. If not then it poses some very serious questions about what I will do next. Keep your fingers crossed....

Stomach pain

2007-04-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the hospital! As you may have guessed this stomach pain has not subsided. After i finished my third round of pills the pain came back. I went to see the doctor who gave me more pills. Additionally Polina's dad who is a doctor was in town visiting. He paid me a special visit and was very thourough. His prognosis was that if the hospital origingally didnt find anything in the blood or urine that it should clear itself out. If no success in 3-4 days go back to the hospital. As you may have been able to guess, it didnt go away and the pills are no longer as effective as they once were.

One would think that going to a hospital that was operational in Chinese would be a nightmare. To be honest its really not that bad. The doctors and even nurses speak English fairly well, and the receptionests/other people who work here are very friendly in helping me find my way around to the various places i have to go for testing.

To top it off i had an ultrasound of my kidneys, a blood test, an x ray, and a urine test done with results given to me within an hour. I didnt even have time to figure out the Sudoku puzzle i brought with me.

The prognoses in the kidney was good. No problems there. But the blood test showed a high white cell count which means there is probably some infection going on somewhere. I am currently waiting for a gastrologist to check me out. He starts in 10 minutes and I am number 22 in line. Hopefully he can figure out whats wrong with me so I can get back to work and get on with my life. At least ill have more than enough time to figure out this sudoku puzzle. Hopefully an update with a good bill of health is on the way soon

Madame Cleo is full of shit...right?

2007-04-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

First off a continuation to the last post. The very day after I talked about how you get so much attention here, I had no less than three people approach me trying to be my friend. One of these relationships may actually be quite useful, as the man runs a restaurant and has sworn to feed me for free so long as I speak english with him while I eat. Not a bad deal at all. Last weekend we watched baseball on TV and i took the opportunity to teach him the names of the bases. Its a friendship I might get used to. He has also asked if I want to be his friend and go see a baseball game with him in Taiwan. We'll see about that one.

Anyway one of my favorite people here Tammy has a roommate. One friday night we were hanging out and drinking some wine when I discovered that her roommate is into terrot cards. Smelling the bullshit and an opportunity to ammuse myself I asked her if she would kindly read my fortunes. I had her look at the time I would be spending in Taiwan month by month.
Nothing too intense, this is my FUTURE im messing around with.

Overall the cards looked good, but for the month of April she warned me of "great anxiety and worries that were out of my control" I didnt think twice about any of it, but April sure made a fool of me. It was a Saturday. I had to work at 10 O clock until noon. Usually I need a good 25 minutes to get to work by scooter. I WOKE UP (not left my house but woke up) 20 minutes before I had to be there. I simply accepted the fact that I would be late, and stuffed everything i could into my pockets including two pieces of bread to eat at red lights. I managed to get to work one minute early and was all excited to write a short post about it. I even had a name. It would be called "The miracle on concrete." Unfortuneately, my good spririts were extinguished when i realized I had lost my Ipod. It wasnt in my house nor at my work. The conclusion that I have reached is that it must have fallen out of the pockets of the new pants I had purchased earlier that week while I was eating my breakfast (the two pieces of bread) at a red light.

Before i had a chance to get upset about my Ipod my stomach started to hurt. I cursed my new friend, the beef noodle man, whose restaurant I had eaten at for free earlier that day in exchange for english conversation. The pain worsened and worsened throughout the night. It got so bad that i couldnt sleep and went to the hospital the next day fearing an appendicitus. I got blood tests urine tests and x rays done within 30 minutes. After waiting maybe another hour and a half tops, the doctors came to see me. Thankfully i did not have an appendicitus. They did however say that the x-rays showed a heavy inflamation of the intestines. The supposed culprit? Gas. They gave me some pills and I went home although I didnt feel much better. I had no appetite and anything I tried to eat would be thrown up 2 hours later. I was so uncomfortable, that I couldnt sit still nor lie down. The only place that was somewhat ok was lying down in the shower. I think I took 5 showers that night.

On a side note, the hospitals here are extremely quick and efficient. I was being x rayed and having blood taken within a half hour of arrival, and was in the hospital no longer than 2 and a half total hours.

As I took the pills my stomach got better but when they ran out the pain came back. I went to see a doctor. His medical exam consisted of him pressing down on different parts of my stomach. He finally found one that made me yell out in pain. His prognoses: "It seems to be some kind of stomach infection." No tests or anything. He claimed that stomach infections are complicated and poorly understood. He gave me some pills including an antibacterial one and they seemed to be working. Unfortuneately I felt bad enough to cancel the surfing plans I had for the special 4 day weekend of tomb sweeping. I took the time off, laid low, and now actually feel better enough to eat. I just finished the medicine so hopefully this wierd stomach ailment will not return.

Things have gotten slightly better since then as the sopranos is back, I may have a new private student, and I am substitute teaching at many differet schools in the morning and afternoon to make extra tax-free money, and hopefully land a job at a better school. I also am getting better at teaching and have tamed my biggest asshole class of 13 year olds. They are actually becoming my favorites as they take every chance to chirp at each other. For example the studnets may be given four pictures and told to write a story about them. To my amusement the smartest kids make fun of each other and the content usually involves other kids being poor. smelling like garbage, their houses burning down, and love triangles between the kids in the class. They are great.

Well thankfully the anxieties and worries of April seem to be over (knock on wood). I cant wait untill May, the month in which the cards have promised me LUST!

Naked Dude in the Sauna

2007-03-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Fun economic fact for the day: Many things are cheap in Taiwan. Food is no exception. However Western foods cost about the same as they would back home. Thus in Taiwan, ketchup is about $3 Can whereas a pack of cigarettes would only cost you a loonie (one dollar for the americans out there). There you have it. Ketchup is officially more expensive than cigarettes. Welcome to the other side of the world.

On to todays post. One particular incident this week has inspired me to write about being exotic in a very homogenuis society. When something is different it often gets special treatment which can be nice but also unwelcoming

So at one point in our lives we've probably all felt like a minority. In high school I used to wonder how the six or seven black kids felt being constantly surrounded by a sea of white faces. Sticking out like a sour thumb is something I get to experience here on the daily. While Canada and America are made up of people of all different skin colours, races, and religions, Taiwan is 99.99% made up of Taiwanese people. I can not stress this enough. Everyone Is Taiwanese! Rarely is there any variation in hair, skin, or eye colour among the people. In the beginning it was really wierd for me. To look everywhere and see nothing but Taiwanese people everywhere. This casued my dear friend Avi to burst out laughing while at a bar during the first ten days or so we were here. I dont blame him at all. A totaly appropiate reaction to an absurd change in situations. What's wierd is how I have addapted. I dont even notice that everyone is taiwanese anymore. I can see their facial features and tell them apart. More importantly, I dont even think about the fact that the person i am talking to or teaching is taiwanese. I dont feel as ostrasized as I did in the beginning. I feel fairly comfortable. I hope this is something I can take home with me and preserve the rest of my life.

When it comes to how others perceive me that is a different story. Coming from such a homogenius society, its rare that they see something that looks so different. When i asked some of my older kids if they have every seen a black person their response was "yes teecha one time on TV". In addition to this, my hairy arms are a huge source of wonderment for my kids. I can see the temptation in their eyes to touch my arms when i am casually sitting in the back trying to mark their homework. So you get the point. I stick out. Because of this I am often privy to alot of special attention.

Sometimes the attention can be harmless. Like when your walking down the street and you have people shouting "HELLO!" at you. Sometimes the attention can be flattering when girls go out of their ways to approach you when your riding on a bus, or when you go into a bakery and all the girls giggle at the one who is brave enough to try to speak English with you. Sometimes the attention is welcome. This weekend I went to play pickup basketball at the local university. Being the only foreigner there, everyone was extremely friendly, made sure my shit didnt get stolen, made sure i didnt die of dehydration (there are few water fountains here as the tap water is undrinkable), and were very interested in where i was coming from and what i was doing here.

Unfortuneately there are instances, where the attention is inappropiate and unwanted. This last Monday, I was bone tired from having subbed kindy (kindergarten) at a different school (which was much better than mine) for the morning. With some time to kill in the afternoon, I headed for the gym for some R & R in the hot tub just to relax. Soon i was approached by a Taiwanese guy my age who was overly friendly and just wanted to talk. He wouldnt leave me alone, and eventually started to talk about how beautiful he thought my body was. After informing him that I was married, I excused myself and went into the sauna to try to get some time to myself to take a nap. After waiting five minutes, the guy followed me and continued to talk about how much he loved my body and what excersices i have done to get it that way. I indulged him for a little while until he asked me if he can touch my chest. "No you cant." I left the sauna 2 minutes later and went to take a shower, the only place i was guarenteed refuge from this guy who wouldnt give me my space.

So there you have it, being a foreigner in Taiwan is kinda like being a celebrerty or really attractive girl. People are constantly approaching you interested in who you are and what your deal is. I think most of us would agree that attention can be quite nice, but theres defineately a fine line that seperates it from being welcome and obnoxious. Its a fine line thats well worth understanding.

Paper Scissors Stone!

2007-03-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most important differences In Taiwan that I have somehow neglected to tell my readership about is the way people play rock paper scissors. Just about everything is decided from playing this game including; who gets to do things first, who has to do things they would dislike to do, and who gets to be the home team in baseball. Ok im lying about the baseball part but its still a very popular game probably more so than back home. People of all ages can play for hours upon hours and seemingly not get bored.

Lets start with the basics. Being Chinese, everything is backwards. Even the number for the police/ambulence is 119 (this im not joking about). It may not surprise you then, that the first of the three said objects of the game is paper. Back home as many of you probably know, we would normally say the rock first. Already an interesting cultural comparison. Back home we value ROCK. It represents sheer stregnth and for that reason many of us have trouble beleiving rock can beaten by anything, yet alone paper. The Chinese apparently see the virue in paper, and have adopted it as their own and possibly favorite of the three as indicated by its order, well ahead of scissors and rock. Scissors procedes paper and is fairly similar in its action as back home. Scissors then is not followed not by rock...but by stone. Somehow stone just sounds so much more composed and less brash than rock. Its like comparing Ryu to Ken in streetfighter.

When you put it together it sounds something like Paper, Scissors, Stone! Except in English this usually sounds more like: Pay-pah, Scee-sus, STONE! Everyone gets really excited as they discover who the victor is and kids will usually inact the result of the match quite enthusiasticly. The results are still the same, As paper covers stone, scissors cut paper, and stone crushes scissors.

One noteable difference is that there is no "Shoot!" I fucken hate shoot. Whoever invented it is probably the biggest cheater in the history of the world. I mean who EVER learned to play the game with shoot? Whoever started this ridiculousness, was probably some asshole who was pissed off that his rock, which he relied on way too much, kept getting beaten by paper, and thus made up the excuse that both parties werent supposed to act until shoot and that rock wasnt his real move. Yeah right. The game as we know it in north america is no longer quite the same as no one knows whether they are supposed to play with a shoot or not. This has probably caused countless miscommunications, tainted results, and has managed to give even more strength to an already overrated rock. The shoot is useless and im glad it doesnt exist over here.

I know your probably all thinkging that this sounds wierd and Chinese. At first I would have agreed with you, but now I have to admit that I kinda like it. I uesd to say "paper scissors stone" only in class to avoid the confusion amongst kids as to what this rock thing is and why it comes before everything else while secretly laughing to myself over their ignorance. Now I see my own ignorance, and choose to say paper scissors stone, out of respect for the culture I am living in and also out of respect for what is probably a better "shootless" version of the game. I know that I will probably get made fun of by everyone except for maybe Shaggy when I get home, when unconciously I say paper scissors stone, but its ok I can accept that. It takes time to realize that things arent always done exactly the same all over the world. Sometimes they may surprise you by being a little bit better.

March Madness

2007-03-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Rather than do long infrequent updates I think it would be a better idea to do smaller more frequent ones. That way i can relay a more accurate picture of life, without forgeting the details, cause life here is clearly all about the details. Id say 9/10 of the time im pretty busy and the other 1/10 of my time im pretty lazy. With my busy time it seems i am either teaching or learning.

The teaching I am still enjoying. The kids are amazing. The chinese teachers (with a few exceptions) are amazing. The company still sucks but oh well. Fairy is still my private student. It is even better then ever becasue lately she has taken it upon herself to feed me. I can always count on a fresh plate of bear apples (wierd apple like taiwan fruit) guavas, or some odd banana apple hybrid fruit to eat while im explaining the wierd subtlties of the English language. She even made me sweet potatos last week...some of which are purple on the inside! To pay her back I am starting to buy books for her such as yurtle the turtle and The little prince (but ntot before i read the little prince). I hope she will like them. I almost had another private student, but it dint pan out. I drove 30 minutes into the boonies in the rain, Gave a free two hour lesson, and was almost late to work. You should know that driving a roofless, sideless vehicle in the rain is not a pleasant experience, especially when you have no idea where you are and how to get back to work/ civilization. Anyways bottom line is they were too cheap. The audacity.

Things I am learning/things going on in my life.

Jiu Jit su - Still into it. Last week got into ankle locks and escapes. This stuff is awsome. I also met a wicked guy from Calgary who is actually in Taiwan to persue a career in mixed martial arts. If anyone is interested in starting to fight professionally apparently Guam is the best place to get started....Lots of sailers there or something.

Guitar. with my freebie guitar and ringo amp, me and Andrew have decided to start a band. We had a jam session just guitar and bass and it went pretty well. We have some good covers like man who sold the world, pride and joy, babe im gonna leave you, and may even come up with some songs of our own.

Tv- We got cable last week and Taiwanese TV is pretty good, particularly the commercials. I think i just saw a commercial for Chinese viagra, there were rockets launching, missles being fired off helicopters, really cheesy sets and older Taiwanese men in bed with younger Taiwanese girls. Interesting. We get espn too. Im glad the jays are in the yanks division because there seems to be a plethora of yank games being broadcast due to the fact that Wang (A now Taiwanese legend) pitches for them. We also get a couple movie channels. Not too shabby for 5 bucks a month.

Chinese- I seem to be stumbling across several Chinese words while teaching English to my kids. I will be in the middle of teaching a lesson or introducing a word and suddenly the kids will burst out with laughter. I guess its not surprising that some english words sound like Chinese. For anyone interested, sunny when pronounced Sah-ni means kill you. My kids personal favorite is side, which when prounounced very sharply with a quieter "d" means poo-poo in Taiwanese. Although everyone in Taiwan speaks Manderin, something like 5% of people speak Taiwanese which is somehow slightly different from Manderin. I have been informed that comparing Taiwanese to Mandarin is somewhat similar when comparing Newfoundland to the rest of Canada. I guess for the States the best comparison would be north to south. Different accent and some different words. I also had a fluent conversation with a guy at the grocery strore. Here is a rough translation:
Me "Excuse me sir how much do these cost" pointing to the frosties (frosted flakes).
Him "109 dollars"
Me "Thank you very much."
Him "your welcome"
Impressed? I know i was

Made in Taiwan- I'm also learning the meaning of Made in Taiwan. Let me explain. In the previously mentioned rainstorm i had the forsght to go out and buy a pair of what i thought would be waterproof gloves. They claimed they were upto -20 degrees. Needless to say my hands were soaking within 10 minutes. The gloves were returned soaking wet later that evening.

Example 2- After a night at freedom (my favorite Taiwanese bar) i decide to turn on the air conditioner. I wake up to find the bottom of my sheets and floor soaked in air conditioner fluid. I have yet to solve this mystery

Example 3- My phone which i bought 3 months ago already has a slightly cracked LCD. Fucken synnex.

New thought- I hate proud people. Pride is a trait that barely exists Taiwan, and it is very refreshing. No one trying to prove anything to anyone. Is there really a greater mark of insecurity? Modesty and harmony in realtionships seem to be much more important here and i think Its great. I simply dont want to be around argumentative people who always need to prove something to you or themselves. Its a great revelation im very happy with.

Last week was lantern festival. Lantern festival is a festival that happens 15 days after Chinese New Year. There are fireworks and everyone has these red helium lanters. People go to the park and all let them go at the same time. Suposed to be quite the visual simulus but unfortuneately i missed it because i was called into action to do some wine tasting. At least i got to experience "Le Grand Jean", some shitty vintage wine. Some good did come out of it as i may have found a link to a good squash court and learned where I could purchase some good cheese, and purchase it I did.

This last weekend was Wes's and Kats one year Taiwanaversery so me and the roommates showed up as three mexicans. I was Tito te mexican wrestler. More imprortantly it gave me an opportunity to finally wear the suspenders i purchased for Halloween. The night was amazing and was capped at freedom (obviosuly enough). Possibly more details to follow at a later time...

This week is March Madness and i think it will be the first time in eight years i havent skipped school to watch the games. At least there is a palce i know that is showing the games. I have my pick to win but am unable to make it public as some people in my pool may be reading this. The year is moving by fast and i have to decide whether I'm going to go to Thailand in 3 weeks or not. Whereever I am I will be sure to do some surfing. Next update coming soon.
DG

Beach, Surf, and Snoopy Land

2007-02-28T01:10:00.000-08:00

So I've just returned from my week's long vacation in the south of Taiwan. Although the weather here is nice its even hotter and better when you travel 3 hours south. To put things in perspective its almost like travelling from Miami to the Dominican. Anyways the vast majority of my vacation was spent on the beautiful beaches of a small beach/surf town known as Kenting. Kenting is truely an amazing place filled with mountains, beautiful scenery, secluded beaches, and of course Snoopy Land, a popular arcade. During Chinese New Year, people flock to Kenting turning it into a bustling town lined with food vendors, carnival games, and of course fireworks going off everywhere. I had an amazing time and will attempt to recap the highlights of the trip day by day.

Sunday- The plan was to meet up with friends who were coming down from Taipei (the capital of Taiwan) in a city in the south called Kaoshung, and to all stay at friends house we had met during training over night. Unfortuneately my bus got into town 3 hours before the train from Taipei was due to arrive so i had some time to kill. To make matters slightly worse the bus dropped me off on the side of the road leaving me no idea where I was. I decided to explore and came across a small videopoker/arcade spot called Happy Land (not to be confused with Snoopy Land). Taiwan has many such seedy places desguised with cute English names. With some time to kill and no idea where I was, I decided happy land it would have to be.
I ended up playing video poker. I got bored quickly and tried to cash out my 3 dollars only to discover that i was only allowed to use the tokens i had bought in with to redeem prizes ala Chuckie Cheese. I opted for some toothpaste and facewash. Finally the Taipei crew arrived ad we all met up with our friends who we were staying with.

Monday- Our vacation begins! The distance between Kaoshung and Kenting is really only about a 1.5 hour drive but with the traffic would probably take about 5. Rather then wasting time rotting on a bus we decided to rent scooters and drive there. Much of Taiwan is made of concrete, but this trip allowed us to see its beauty. To the left of me were green mountains, and to the right of me was the blue ocean. Also the air was crisp and clean. It was truely a fabulous drive. We ended up doing it in about 4 hours total with stops at 7/11. We arrived in Kenting and found our campsite where we would be spending the first couple days dirt cheap. We set up tents, ate some dinner, and checked out the town which was booming with maddness. We ended up staying on the beach enjoying some beers while watching the firecrackers and setting off some of our own.

Tuesday- Our first full day in Kenting. We are awakened by the sun blaring on our tents around 8am. No biggie, we'll just sleep on the beach. We get to the beach by midmorning, and spend the whole morning lying around and swimming in the Taiwan straight. One of our friends was possibly stung by a jelly fish. This caused some concern but we get managed to get over it quickly. We enjoyed some drinks by the bar, and are at some mexican restuarant. In the afternoon we took another beautiful drive to a beach a couple towns over. This beach had some decent waves and was probably the best spot to go surfing. Unfortuneately it was almost dark at this point so we vowed to return another day. At night, most people were exhausted so me and Avi ventured off on our own, cruising up and down the strip stopping at 7/11 for drinks while setting off some fireworks. Eventually, we got tired, found a chicken wing vendor and headed back to the campsite for bed.

Wednesday- I wake up. My tent is hotter than Bagdad. It must be morning. Yep, its 8 am, the sun is scorching, time to start my day. This morning my skin hurts. Good old sunburn. One of the more interesting ones ive ever had. Sunburn splotches in random places, including my arm pits, due to my failure to apply the sunscrean thoroughly. Oh well not gonna let that ruin my vacation. We got dan-bing for breakfast for the third day in a row which literraly translated means egg biscuit. Best Chinese breakfast ever. I buy probably the greatest towel ever in an attempt to better enjoy the beach. It is meant for 12 year old girls and is amazing. Never have i seen something so fob-ish. It was an instantanious hit. It has about three different shades of pink on it, aswell as an anime girl on it named love-teen. We spend all day and afternoon on the beach, tanning, swimming and sipping on pina coladas. By the way, watching Chinese people attempt to play volleyball is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen. I wish i had a camera. I swear this would have been a you-tube hit. They couldnt get the ball over the net and everyone would get so excited when there was almost a ralley. There was also an overweight guy who was a very enthusiastic scorekeeper. Outrageous unintended comedy. The night was spend once more walking up and down the strip, stopping at 7/11s for cheap beers. Somehow the nightlife in this city wasnt overly great, but the days more than made up for it.

Thursday- We somehoe manage to sleep until 9. The schedule is getting draining, but what can i expect for 5 bucks canadian for 3 nights of camping? We got our morning dan-bing, then Avi Brian Callie and Dave and I decide were ready for a hotel. We check into a decent one and relax the morning away. In the afternoon, Me and Avi head to the surf beach to give surfing a try. We rented boards and headed into the ocean, without a clue as to what we were doing. Being an avid snowboarder, Avi actually managed to stand up on his first try. I guess the two sports are very similar. Although i didnt share his success I did manage to stand up twice in the afternoon which was an absolutely amazing feeling. In my opionion there is almost nothing better than being in the ocean, this coming from a guy who can barely swim, and took 10 years to get his marroon swimming badge. Surfing is infact both tranquil and exciting. You spend a good amount of the time sitting on your board enjoying the calmness of the ocean and then, when you are ready, you can catch a powerful wave that can take you all the way back to shore. Truely amazing. I can not think of a better way to spend a day. I am already planning more surfing trips for weekends for the rest of the year.

The night time was spent travelling up and down the strip again, except this time our final destination would be Snoopy Land, a vidoe arcade dedicated to... well Snoopy . For some reason, Snoopy Is still a legend here, people just cant seem to get enough of him. Other notable characters who havent lost poplarity here: Astroboy, Felix the cat, and Doremon.
We challenged each other to various competitions of strength and skill such as a machine that measured how strong you could punch and basketball, only to be outdone by Taiwanese people who seemed to have spent alot of their time in Snoopy Land mastering the games we were trying out. Watching these guys play these games coulda been a you tube video aswell. We returned to our hotel and actually slept until midmorning which seemed like the longest sleep of my life compared to the camping world.

Friday- Avi, Brian, Callie and David were leaving today so i decided to spend the day with my roommates from Taichung. We went to some hot springs which were alright. One of the pools was so hot that after i got out i felt dizzy, i presume my body being in a state of shock due to the quick vast temperature change . Not to worry mom I am fine. After the hot springs we went to an aquaruim which had some cool stuff in it like exotic colourful fish, a sunken ship, and huge sharks.

For night time we paid a cover and went to the one spot that was supposed to be best in Kenting. It wasnt. In fact it may have been a gay bar...Im still not entirely sure. I also got to hear the pussycat dolls for about the 50th time this trip. Man they are blowing up here. We still ended up staying until they kicked us out. That night I stayed at Polina's (from collage) hotel and the next day we all bussed it back home.

All and all a great trip, and great Chinese New Year

Shay Mein Qui Le

2007-02-17T00:04:00.000-08:00

For those of you who may be a little weak in Mandarin, the title of this post is simly happy new year! Tonight is Chinese New Years Eve which kicks off a week long celebration of holiday and festitivities. To put this in a North American perspective, now is the time when you would recieve those calenders when you dine out at Mandarin or your local chinese buffet. This year is the year of the pig which is actually the same year I was born (1983). This is the greatest time of celebration for the Chinese as they go shopping, travel to be with their families, clean their houses (interestingly i found out last week that if you dont recycle in Taiwan you can get fined fairly severly by the government.....not a bad idea), and exchange red envelopes. This practice of exchanging red envelopes is an interesting one.

The envelopes are always red, as the chinese beleive this is a lucky colour. Ive heard that some people make a point to wear as much red as they can, including underware, if they are going to gamble. The red envelopes always contain a certain amount of money. Being a Confuciest and Taoist society, there is an interesting way in which gifts are given. Confuciest and Taoist society place great emphasis on respecting elders. Everything is the same as back home until children begin to work.
Once kids start to work (so pretty much everyone our age back home) they will no longer recieve gifts from their parents but are instead required to start paying back their parents out of gratitude for everything they have done to bring them up. So pretty much red envelope giving only goes one way. Children (if they are working) give money to their parents. If not parents give money to their kids. Grandparents receive money from parents and give it to grandkids. Interestingly enough, for relatives who have passed away, family members make firepits on the side of the road and burn fake money in a belief that this wll help them be looked after in the after world.

When i first heard about this practice I thought about it for some time. I started thinking about how different people/religions treat death and rememberance of their loved ones. I think it is interesting that the Chinese primary concern seems to be that their deseaced relatives will have enough money in the afterlife. Compare this to Judiasm where our primary concern is simply to make sure our deceased relatives are remembered once a year on the anniversery of their death. One could argue that the Chinese are remembering their relatives through the money burning, but I like how the Jewish one cuts out the materialism. Just an interesting thought.

Tonight, My roomamte Keith and I have been invited to one of our co-workers houses to partake in a true chinese new year's eve feast with her family. I am very excited to get a real life taste of what goes on during this time of year. Apperently her cousins are fluent so hopefully the language barrier wont be too bad with her parents. Then tommorow i am boarding a bus to the south of Taiwan to the tropical area known as Kenting. Its about a three hour drive (might be longer depending on the traffic) so i made sure to get a seat on one of those luxury buses. Kenting is supposed to be a great place with a beach where you can surf, mountains to hike on, and hot springs to relax in. The weatherman has predicted temperatures could reach 30 degrees celcius. There should be about 15 of us down there so it should be an amazing time. It will be nice to take a break from teaching and the politics of this company i work for. I keep meaning to put some pictures up, but unfortuneately i dont have time to figure out how to do it right now, seeing as i have to get ready to go to my chinese new year celebration.
So on that note a Shay Mein Qui Le to all. Im outta here

Freedom

2007-02-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

I am sitting in my living room taking giant swigs of H2O brand water. It wont be long before i finish the entire one and a half litres. My voice is gone, my stomach feels like its corroding, the room feels slightly different this morning, probably because its spinning. Its 2 o clock, and I just woke up. Although that isnt unusual the fact that i feel unrested is. I drink more water and hate myself a little more after every sip. Its Sunday - my only real full day off - half of it is already gone, and it will be a couple more hours until i feel good enough to leave my house. I curse the morning and ask myself if it was realy worth it then i remember it was. The venue is called freedom and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite places of all time passing the likes of the linebacker, cafe campus, zolies, any fredonia bar, and arguably even biftek. More alarming is that it is finding a place in my regular weekly routine. I have tried going to other places the past two weekends for variety's sake but they dont even come close to Freedom. For 500 NT (New Taiwanese Dollars) divide by 30 to get canadian dollars, its all you can drink. Beer. Mixed drinks. Shots. As good as a deal as that is, they also have a free bbq on Saturdays, which consists of chicken, corn, tofu, peppers, and pork. This place closes when you leave and the bbq tends to fizzle around 5am. I dont know what time i stopped drinking and left but the sun was defineately up. Throw in some free foozeball, and you have the disney land of bars. This place obviously turns into a shit show, and its not unusual to find yourself, or your boss, dancing shirtless or pantsless on a bench getting spanked with a fly swatter by some tiny sexy Taiwanese girl. Its also a great opportunity to learn chinese when playing drinking games with the locals who love getting shitfaced with you. I think im gonna try to arrange a century club there for my best friensd birthday. Im sure theyd be happy to cater to that. Man this place is great. So great it deserves its own post. I think im one episode of 24 away from starting my day. Heres to freedom

My Fairy Godmother

2007-02-10T02:56:00.000-08:00

Well friends, it's February 10th which means summer is here...well by north american standards anyway. I think it was about 25 or 26 degrees a couple days this week. Yep after two long months it looks like the shorts are just about ready to come out of retirement. Gotta love it. On to an update...

This week i picked up my first private student. Private students are the sweetest deals a foreign English teacher can find. This is because the going rate for one-on-one tutoring is about 30 bucks canadian an hour. In Taiwan this is an outrageous amount of money to spend in an hour. Seriously i feel kinda like a prostitute working for this kind of money except... well I teach English. Turns out her name is Fairy (Hence the title of this post). Now might be a good time to mention that girls here have English names that you'd normally only find at the Brass Rail, Supersex, or your local gentleman's club back home. I teach many young female scholars with names such as: Candy, Angel, Cherry, Chocolate, and CoCo. Oh and I teach a guy named wood. Anyways Fairy is a middle-aged-mom who runs a business out of her home and can afford the luxury of private tutoring up to 5 days a week for an hour and a half at a time. Clearly i am VERY happy about this. As for the actual tutoring session well its pretty great. I show up and she has a magazine article ready to go. I read through it with her a couple of times, helping her with her pronounciation. I explain to her the subtle differences pronounciation can have on a word's meaning. She now understands the difference between celery and salary. I have done a good job. Then we drink tea and talk freely. When she uses bad grammar I write down her sentence and show her how to correct it. She tells me I am a great teacher and I agree. She might even tell her friends about me. I hope this can continue for as long as possible.

I aquired this private through a friend of mine named Joey. She teaches adults and one of her students just happend to be Fairy. Joey is a lady i met who does far more for me then she should. Some western guys ive met have confirmed that Taiwanese women will practically bend over backwards for a man. If a guy calls a girl and tells her to meet him somewhere 90% chance the girl will drop whatever it is she's doing and show up. I have even seen an ugly occurance while shrimp fishing, where a guy got really angry at his girlfriend, threw a tantrum and broke a chair against the wall. He stormed off and like a dog the girl went chasing after him. Shit like that is just fucked up. I think that may be one of the reasons why the locals are so attracted to western guys. We just expect less. We dont expect them to drop everything for us. Someone I met dated a Taiwnaese guy who was always overly concerned about her being on her own. Just an interesting cultural difference i thought I'd point out. I guess I should do something nice for Joey since she has hooked me up huge with this private tutoring gig.

Next week is Chinese New Year which means a 9 day vacation. One of my chinese co teachers has graciously invited me to her house to partake in the festivities. I am very excited about that. The next day, Ill be headed down to the south of Taiwan to a tropical resort called Kenting (providing i can still get a bus.train ticket). There is a beach where i am hoping to learn how to surf a bit. There are also some gorgeous montains and hot springs. There are at least 13 of us going down so it should be a great time. I am very excited about the whole thing. Life is good, and it only gets better by the day

Im staying

2007-01-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

What a crazy last couple of days it's been. Every day presents a new set of challenges which must be solved mostly through charades or an interpreter since my chinese is hi-how (so-so). Well lets be honest its not even hi-how its probably more like boo-how (not good). Under the advice of Jessie I have decided to write using paragraphs to ease the reading. I guess since im an english teacher it wont kill me to play the part.

Well i figured out who i was and i certainly know where im staying, and its with my current job. I had actually told my supervisor that i had found another job but hadnt made a decision. I felt so bad doing that. After some long chats and some soul searching i realized that 1) I felt horrible leaving my job (which is probably almost reason enough not to) and 2) If I can really make this job work why should I go? I've already asked for more hours and almost guarenteed got them. There are also the perks of being able to sleep in till at least noon every day, being able to sub teach for people going on vacation and also the vacations themselves. Since my current job has a plethora of workers finding a sub is never hard thus i am able to have more vacation time. My current job also has the power to send me to Singapore for a week for english camps in the summer. That would be a sweet deal. So thats that. Even if i didnt really have another job, i suppose bluffing about it and then deciding to stay woulda been a good move in allowing me to get what i want.

So Thursday was lottery day and turns out i won the Taiwanese lottery! Let me explain....Since the law basically doesnt exist with regards to lisences (business, building, drivers) and taxes most businesses simply wouldnt pay tax. In order to get their tax money, the government instituted a great plan where on every reciept printed there was a lottery number and every 2 months there would be a draw. Their logic being that people would then ask for reciepts (since they would want to play the lottery) forcing businesses to keep on the books. Well after mizing tickets for two months it paid off and i won 200 NT which is the equivilent of 7 canadian dollars. I was actually pretty close to winning 1000 (about 30 can) but i was off by 3 numbers, which means three customers before be won...bastard.)

Speaking of lotteries here is an example of how my school company sucks. This weekend was the end of the year banquet before chinese new year. Typical banquet, everyone gets dressed up ect. I never got a ticket though. Was just told to show up. I found out reason I didnt get a ticket was becasue they dont let people who have been working less then three months play the raffle. Like what the fuck is that. Someone made the brilliant analogy that a move like that is like inviting a bunch of kids to your son/daughters birthday party and only giving the kids who have known your son/daughter for a year lootbags. I think im gonna write a letter about it. They also make you pay a fine if you dont show up (the event takes place at 11 am on a sunday) which was almost a problem since i had been up late partying with my friend from Taipei, who was in town the night before. I made it though. No way was i gonna cough up more money to them.

Now for the good.

Here is a list of things that have improved my life in the past couple days.
1) A squash raquet...now i just need a place to play
2) My hookah came in the mail (thanks mom)...now i need to find nargila and charcoal
3) My work permit....now i am actually working leagally...ya! Not only that but it allowed me to transfer the scooter into my name so i dont have to bike 8 km (40 minutes) to work twice a day anymore....double ya! Riding the scooter is tons of fun as it is gorgeous almost everyday in this subtropical setting where palm trees are ubiquitous. (Stole your word bear)

Speaking of my scooter it actually broke down yesterday....dead battery and leaking fluid or something but i found a mechanic who spoke english and fixed it....not so cheap but had to be done.

4) My health card....Now i can see a doctor. On an aside for anyone interested, Taiwan's healthcare system is the most abused in the world. Chinese medicines and I think foot reflexology are covered by national health insureance. Where the avg. number of visits to the doctor per year back home is 4, I heard in Taiwan its 13.

5) A new burger at the londoner which is as big as my head and rivals wimpys. You have to understand that getting beef here is tough so a good burger/steak that isnt oober expensive is a HUGE deal.
Pictures of the burger to come soon.

6) Internet in the house...Now im able to download any tv shows or movies and watch them on our new TV (Thanks Joe). We also have a password that lets us download hockey games so we might start having hockey nights in Taiwan on Saturdays (They will just be of Thursday or Fridays games). i will also be able to figure out how to post pictures on this site since the buttons are no longer in chinese.

7) Dick in a box. I cant believe i just heard about this last week. You (my friends) have dropped the ball on this. I am disapointed no one passed this onto me keeping it unheard by me for so long. Seriously, shame on you all.

8) Jiu Jit Su. I started going last night and will keep going every Wednesday for as long as i can. Its awsome. Pure ghetto. All there is, is a mat in a cluttered room. Its also a minimum commitment in every way. You show up when you can, bring your own cloths, and even pay whatever you can whenever you can afford it. There is no set rate...kinda like a museum.
Reminds me of my days with Mr. Kim except theres only one punching bag and its downstaris in a differnet part of the building). Keeping true to my promise to moses, I will come back more dangerous than Bruce Lee. Some guy who kicked my ass last night is entering a MMA tourney in two weeks (mixed martial arts) I look forward to many more terrible beatings from him.

Off to my favorite spot for lunch. Well to be honest its only my favorite becasue someone was kind enough to translate the whole menu into English for me. So I actually know exactly what im ordering. But here that aint half bad. Happy February friends.

who am i and where am i going

2007-01-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

who am i and where am i going? Man i love the sopranos. Not long ago Tony was asking himeself this question as he was conflicted between his morality and the duties that come with his job. 2 Months into Taiwan i find myself asking the same question as i debate which job i should take. Let me better explain myself. The job i have now is far from perfect. But its not all bad either. I work for the biggest chain school in Taiwan and working for them in many ways is like working for the mob. They treat you well cause you are one of their own. They helped me find a sweet appartment, got me a cell phone (probably illeagally) offer cheap chinese language classes, order me cheap dinners and helped me out of trouble when i hit that guys car on a scooter without a lisence or ownership of the bike. On top of that i like my job. I love my kids. Im starting to learn little tricks to make the homework go by faster, and i have an amazing network of people who have connections in all sorts of odd obscure things that one might need (such as a cheap room in a tropical resort in Taiwan during Chinese new Year when everything is overbooked and overpriced.) That being said...The other job i have on the table can only be described as cushy. I do very little and get paid pretty well for it. I dont have to mark homework. I dont have to work on Saturday. And to top it off they;ve given me the oppoortuniy to supplement my income by teaching a group of old women who call themselves the english club for about 27 bucks an hour 1.5 hours a week. So its a pretty sweet deal. Typical 9-5 job. Plus i would obviously keep all the networks of people i have met through my current job. In terms of salary i would make the same at my current school if i worked more hours which is fully possible after chinese new year. I would however have to work at night which is prime time for english toutering for kids since are available in the night. So the money would probably work out slighly in favour of job number two. So here i am battling myself. I know most at home are probably screaming at me to take the cushy job but i feel pretty bad leaving my job and my kids. Teaching them and doing a good job gives me gret satisfaction that i might not have in my new job. But then again who knows. Im sure the kids are great there too. Lastly but almost in a way most importantly, karma is a bitch and i cant help but think quitinng for slightly greener pastures wil probably end up biting me in the ass. I can fully make this job work. I can get more hours and maybe find some private students who have some available time in the afternoon. Its just not as sure a thing. Plus theres still that work on saturday and the homework at my curret school which is a real pooper. So should i be an opportunistic machavelian or a loyal flexable employee? Who am I and where am i going? Supposed to let school number 2 know tommorow...

last two weeks

2007-01-16T09:07:00.000-08:00

so i guess its been about two weeks since ive update my blogg...alot has happend since then so without further adieu here is the highlight reel...

Teaching...
My teaching skills seem to be progressing. One of my chinese teachers even commented on it today. Another key thing seems to be gambling games. They love them. Any game of chance involving dice, cards, or fake money gets these kids speaking english. One side of me even feels bad for possibly instiling a dangerous habit in these kids. Another part of me enjoys how easy it makes my job.
Speaking of jobs, it looks like i will be moving into a new one in the end of february After a nice week holiday for chinese new year.
Last week i applied at two schools and did a small demonstration of how i teach. At the second school there were 3 other people who were competing for the job. they each claimed to have 2-3 years experience up against me a rookie straight out of college with one month experience. I can't immagine how much the other guys would hate me if they knew that i was offered the job on the spot. Some of the best parts of this school are the following:
-I get Saturdays off which will allow me to do some travelling on the island
-i get to assign homework...which means little to no homework.
-I work a normal 9-6 schedule with a 2.5 hour lunch break where i can eat and work or excersise
-The school offers a free lunch
-Sip from McGill works there which is unreal. Also the boss graduated from McGill so she obviously loves me.

they will probably also allow me to take some time off in May to go to Israel for Chens wedding. Oh yeah the pay is much better too.

Although i feel kinda guilty about it and the decision will probably keep me in Taiwan another 2 months it seems well worth it. I do feel kinda guilty about leaving my school since they helped me get settled and got my work card for me. Turns out my chinese name is Fe Dan Lei Which is kinda like Feldman Daniel Israel translated to chinese

In terms of the city i am adjusting nicely. I know where i can play squash, and i know where to go if i want to watch football and eat a burger. Joey my taiwanese friend has even offered me some free passes at some nice places. Taiwanese people are probably some of the most selfless generous people i have met.

Joe our new roomie is working out nicely. apparently he used to manage the lone star cafe in Kingston. We are happy to have him aboard.

Also, this week Polina from Mcgill arrived with her fiance Andrew. Polina is sweet and is teaching me about Russia. andrew is also a good guy who i will watch football and hopefully get beligerantly drunk with.

im never one to complain about air quality but i will have to make an exception here. It is terrible. I think its the reason i cant seem to get healthy. My next big purchase (im still broke) will be a mask to keep all that shit outta my lungs. All it takes to develop bronchitus is to breath.
I think thats about it. I found a sweet spot in my house where my mac picks up internet so i will be posting pictures of stuff as soon as i figure out how
DG

A Taipei (101) New Year

2007-01-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

A happy new year to everyone! It is kinda wierd to think that most of 2007 will be spent here but im sure it will fly by quickly I still remember sitting in Ashley LeLees basement ushering in the 2006. Anyway on with the update.
To celebrate New Years i went to Taipei which is somewhat of a minor league version of New York. Taipei is the busiest, biggest, most expensive, city with the most to do making it an obvious new years choice. The first thing worth commenting on is the bus that took me there. Buses in Taiwan are nothing like the greyhounds back home. They are luxurious. You sit in a lazy boy chair that offers you all the leg room a guy taller than me could ever want. Not only is the chair a lazy boy but it is also
a massage chair with at least 15 different settings. If that werent enough every seat comes equipt with a flat screen tv which you can either watch tv on, look at the view infront of the bus, or play video games on. They have the old nintendo
classic 100 games in 1 built into the Tvs. The bus also gives you blankets, hot towels, snacks and a beverage. All so cheap. Unreal. The whole weekend was a blast and i think i spent more that weekend then id spent in almost 3 weeks back home.
Saturday night was such a great celebration that it made New Years a tough one to get up for but ol Denny gave her like only he knows how to do. We started celebrating
New years eve on a patio bar (yes thats right i said patio bar for new years eve)
at a place that serves up beers for less than 2 dollars canadian. It was great to see some people from training. Contratry to the rumour i think i started, New Zealand idol castaway Sam Inder did not quit. Brian and Calley were out in full force and its nice to know that Brian has Calley practicing driving the scooter in circles down in the parking garage. We also discussed the possiblity of Thailand in April which is certainly enticing. We swaped some first month stories and then walked to Taipei 101 which is billed as the tallest building in the world though i am still convinved the CN tower is taller. In case you didnt know, chinese people are very reserved and shy thus we were easily the rowdiest ones there. Our attempts at starting the wave didnt work, though our efforts were applauded. There were fireworks at midnight. We lit our sparklers and yelled some more. After a while we left but not before fighting our way through the biggest crowd of people i have ever seen. We all had some late night food. The next day was a casual new years day. Me and avi threw the frisbee around the park and then went to the shilin night market, which is basically a mixture of a flea market and the ex back home. Tons of games, food, and anything youd want to buy dirt cheap. Then we met Kathleen had a subpar burger and watched Brett Favre take care of the bears. Its wierd how much football changes in 6 weeks. How are the Broncos out and Cheifs in? Im sure bear could explain it. My superbowl prediction Chargers vs Saints. After a nice ride home to cure the aches and pains from a fun weekend i walked home from the bus station stopping at every school i saw on the way to work (about 5). One interviewed me on the spot and might have a couple hours i can work in the afternoon before my current job starts. Another may pass on some adults who want to learn guitar. Its just that easy to find work here. We also have a new roommate named Joe. He seems like a good guy and just so happens to be working at a school I have my eye on. Krysta leaves this weekend so we'll have to see her off. I hope everyone had a great new years. Ill certainly be expecting a big one next year.

taiwanese birthday party

2006-12-27T00:40:00.000-08:00

thank you everybody for the birthday wishes. Yesterday was not a bad birthday by any means though it was a little lacking without the company of my best friends from back home. It started with a huge win in monopoly at midnight. Then the next day a little bit of brunch and a nice ride in the moutains/country on the scooter, then work, and then the bar. The scooter ride was awsome. A couple days before i went to Darken which are mountains with hiking trails and hot springs. It was the coolest thing ive done yet in Taiwan. Open roads, fresh air, moutains, and plenty of places to relax and have some tea in a very traditional chinese setting. Im getting better on the scooter and riding to work is alot like playing paperboy. You have to dodge crazy cars, stray dogs, and firepits (im not joking). Good thing i wasted so many hours of my life on that game back home. The job still sucks thought im getting better at it and dealing with it. The bar was a great deal. It was 8 bucks for all you could eat off the menu plus i got a free bar tab the whole night. They even put on a replay of an NFL game on TV for me. Its too bad alot of people had to work early the next day but it was still fun nontheless. Turns out the islad of Taiwan had a gift for me as i got to experience my first ever earthquake. I was right about to teach an inspired grammar lesson. I alwasy introduce grammar by saying stop grammar time as a tribute to MC hammer. I think im the only one who thinks its funny as the kids just stare but i do it nontheless. As I was asking the kids if they knew who MC Hammer was they started screaming earthquake. I thought I had stumbled on the chinese word for earthquake but sure enough it was actually happening. The ground was moving. It wasnt too bad it was kinda a nice ride actually and nothing really fell or got broken. In other news looks like one of my roommates has to move out for personal reasons. Were not sure how its gonna play out but it could have a bit of an impact on me pending on if we can find another roommate ect. Gonna head to Taipei for new years to hang out with Avi (Mitchs brother) Kathleen and some other people i havent seen in a good month. Should be a good time. Happy new years to everyone and thanks again for the birthday wishes

my first post

2006-12-20T07:44:00.000-08:00

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