An Overview

First, let me apologize for the long time between updates. I am sure you all understand, and if your obscene and angry emails indicate anything, it is that you don’t. Just kidding… savages!

I am going to try and do a better job from here on out.

Alright, I am going to give you a sweeping update…

Things are going very well, so far. We have moved three times already, but we have finally found a place that we like. Our first place was an apartment that our company owns, they actually own about three of them. We were allowed to live there rent free for a week (which seemed reasonable… it is not like we were in a different country where we spoke very little of the language… of course we can find a good place to live by then.) We found a place on a website called TEALIT (teaching English and living in Taiwan) actually this website is a life saver and a mainline for anything an expat might need in Taiwan. We found a place in a great location, next to two universities and two night markets. Night markets are exactly what you might think they are, great places to shop and get good, cheap and quick street-food. However the street-food here is a little different than back home, more on that later. Night markets get packed, and you end up walking shoulder to shoulder sometimes.

Our place was in a great location, but it was old and pretty dirty. We lived with three other people in a four bedroom flat, a married couple and a very sweet Thai girl named Grace. We lived there for about 3 months until everyone moved out and this new dude came in. I will spare you all the stories… well, until a later date, but I have never, in my life, seen a guy like this. I want to meet his father. I don’t understand how you would allow your son to turn into this kind of looser. He had no social skills, and I have never seen anyone suck at sports so badly, and I use to be a camp counselor for mentally and physically challenged kids. I kid you not!!! So, we found a new place in an era called Yong Hua. It is out of the main Taipei city, but it is really nice.

Work…. Work is going well. We work for the largest and most well respected school in Taiwan. I have eight classes ranging in ages from four to fifteen. The kids are really cute, well most of them. I actually really enjoy teaching, but I can’t say the same thing for the grading of homework. Talbot is a pre-school teacher, and the running joke about him is that he is not a teacher, but a toy. His kids love him, and he is doing a really good job with them. We have conversations sometimes about our days, and they could not be more different. Me: “So, I taught gerunds and superlative adjectives today to one class, and I worked on plural and singular with another. They did a pretty good job.” Talbot: “I played in the ball-pool three times, and I taught them that water is clear and wet.”

Travel… I have made a few trips sense I have been here. I have been all over the Island, and even went to a place called Green Island. Green island is a small (17 kilometer circumference) island of the south-east of Taiwan. This trip was a blast. We went down there with Grace, the Thai girl we were living with, and her friend Loew who was visiting from Japan. This place was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We hung-out in one of the only three natural hot-springs in the world that are found on the beach and not further out in the ocean. We dove in what is considered one of the top five diving locations in the world, plus Grace and I got chased by a crazy dog. This thing came out of nowhere and was trying to bite us as we were driving away, as fast as we could, on our scooter. That’s right, I have a scooter.

Made a weeklong trip to Thailand, and met a friend there. We went to Bangkok and Phukett. Grace and Loew were both living back in Thailand at this time, so it was great to see them again, and they did a great job showing us around. We sat first-row ringside at a Muay Thai fight. That was awesome! We rode an elephant through the Jungles of Thailand, fed monkeys, swam with sharks, had a rat run over our feet in Bangkok, went to a club that had a live band in the girls bathroom and computers with internet access (you know.. for any quick web-surfing you might need to do when you are out drinking) and got about fifteen Thai massages (the legitimate kind, you scumbags).

Life… Life is good, my stress level is so far down compared to life as a sales-rep. I no longer grind my teeth in my sleep, so that’s a good sign. I have scooter, and so does Talbot. Driving here is terrifying, these people have no idea what they are doing. No one stays in the lanes and you do whatever you want whenever you want. Taxis are a-holes and busses are no better. I think they hire ex-taxi drivers to be bus drivers. I have seen a fourteen ton bus make a right hand turn from the left lane and cross four lanes of traffic without ever braking. It is not uncommon to see anywhere from three to five people on one scooter.

The food is good, but different. I love some of it, but some of it tastes like feet. I will write a whole entry about the food later, it would take too long to describe it all, so be looking for that in about four months (I kid..I kid…maybe).

My Chinese is getting pretty respectable. Talbot has learned a lot, and is doing really well with it. I am nowhere near ready to say I am fluent, but I can get around day to day, usually.

Speaking of food, I am going to get some now…