YenShui Fireworks

Moving blog site

I am moving my blog site to travelpod. It has some cool features to track our travels. Please let me know what you think and which one you prefer.

Cheers,

Matt

Sorry for the long delay in posts (Danielle). Saturday morning here now and Angela is at work - she goes in every other Saturday; against her will.

Heading out for sushi tonight with our neighbor, Carrey. She's from South Africa too and she's heading back to SA soon for xmas. I asked her to bring back some SA goodies when she gets back to Taiwan. She is dating one of the Taiwanese teachers I work with so we see them all quite a lot.

Still havent got a scooter but I am actually enjoying the walking to school. I have several "usuals" that I pass eveyday. All I can do is nod and say Ni Hao (hello). That is soon to change (hopefully). I have arranged Chinese lessons for Angela and myself. We are going to be doing a language exchage with a Taiwanese woman, Bridget. She will come to our apartment twice a week and we'll share English/Chinese lessons. She lived in the States for almost 10 years so her English is quite good. She wants to keep practicing and wants to have a better conversational English.

A funny thing I just thought of. Children here are super curious about body hair - especially arm hair. If anyone has seen my arms, they are quite impressively covered with hair. On several occasions now, while I've been writing on the white-board, children have come up to me and started to rub my arm very gently. At first it freaked me out. Now I just let them get their fill.

I have the opportunity to buy a motorbike; if a 150cc can be called a motorbike. I have been working on Angela for the last few days but I dont think she is budging. In all honesty, a scooter is more practicle in this city - place for groceries under the seat, a place for beer on the foot board. I'm sure I've blogged about this before but it's not unusual to see an entire family, 4 people, on a 90cc scooter; sometimes even with a small dog on the foot board. I will try to take a picture of this. This is even pushing it for South African standards.

Settling Down

Well the typhoon was a bust to say the least. It rained (softly) for about 2 days and there wasn't even any wind! I expect more for the next one, Taiwan!

I am sitting in a train station at the moment; waiting for Angela to come out from her interview. It is in the south part of town but the MRT (metro) only took about 10 minutes to get here. Holding thumbs for her.

We had a small flood in our new apartment today. Apparently the water purifier sprung a leak when both of us were out. It made for slippery tiles and Angela almost wiped out on her back-side when she walked in. No damage though - to Angela or the apartment.

I am only working a few hours a day as I am still waiting for my ARC to be processed. My contract officially begins November 2. Tuesday night I am teaching a full hour class. It is on the numbers (not ordinal) one - five, in front, behind, and a few grammar points relating to those. I.e. There is one tiger in front of the car. Should be interesting. Most of my lessons so far have been 20 - 30 minutes so we'll see how this ones goes. The school I work for, Joy English, stresses that children under 10 should be taught through games. Hence, I spend half my time trying to remember (invent) games from my past: telephone game, throw the sticky ball at a question, playing cards etc. Although the material isn't complicated the hardest part is incorporating learning into the games. I will post some of the games in a future post.

Well my battery is about to die and I need to send off a few emails.

Ciao!

Landed a Job & Also A Typhoon

I went for an interview yesterday, Friday, and got the job. I had to do a demo that didnt go so well. I had to teach them new vocab; mosquito, bug, cockroach, insect, etc. Unfortunately, they knew all the words and could spell them backwards. So my lesson plan went out the window and I ended up improvising with three teachers watching. There was also very loud childrens music being pumped from the ceiling so I ended up having to shout over it.
Anyways, I got the job. Now the process for the ARC (Alien Resident Card) begins. I am going for a medical Monday.

A typhoon is scheduled to hit us on Monday. We are tracking its progress. To be honest, I am kinda of excited to experience one. There are a few brave souls who organize Typhoons Parties. Basically they just stand around and hang out until they cant take it anymore. I think i will give that a miss for my first one. Hopefully its not as powerful as the one that hit last month.

Its Moon festival today and the fireworks began last night. Its like Thanksgiving in that most people go home tonight for a big supper and to be with family. There are a ton of BBQs tonight that we will most likely check out.

Going to check out a few apts now. Cheers!

Engrish, sweat, & cuttlefish.

I havent been reading Angela's blog so I dont know if I'm duplicating. Well, we arrived in Kasohsiung Tuesday morning. We have been staying in a hostel (Moon Lake Hotel) where the concierge cannot speak a word of English. I spent 45 minutes trying to explain that I have a reservation. I had to spell reservation; R-E-S-E-R-V-A-T-I-O-N, only for him to tell me that I spelled breakfast and he insisted that breakfast will be served at 10am each morning. He didnt lie. There is a sandwhich hanging from our door handle each morning; egg, ham (I think), and cucumber.

Kaohsiung is a beautiful city that truly shines at night. The Love river is illuminated and you can take 30 minute tours for around NT40 ($1.30CAD). Tonight we had steamed lemon cuttlefish (bloody delicious!), gon-bao chicken, and steamed dumplings. We honestly at like kings for around $10CAD each. It was the most expensive meal were had so far. An average breakfast costs around NT85 ($2.80CAD).

Althought Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan it is relatively quiet & tame compared to Taipei. The metro (KMRT) is only a year old and trains run every 10 minutes. I must admit the KMRT is a luxury coming from KW; really looking fwd to when KW gets onboard - yes the pun is intended.

One last note; the humidity here is intense. I was expecting it to be heavy but this truly is brutal. 15 seconds of walking and I am dripping from head to toe. I made the god-awful mistake of wearnig jeans tonight. I regretted that decision about 15 steps from the door. I didnt want to seem like a wimp so I kept walking. Man, did I pay for that. To make things worse it started raining on the way home; it felt like a tumble dryer.

I may have an ESL job lined up. Will post more when I hear.

Cheers!

Photos

Check out some photos from our first day in Taipei city. Going to find some breakfast and then off to a hot spring. Ciao.