郵件地址 － Mailing Address

So for everyone who's been asking about sending mail to Taiwan, here's my address:  

Devin Trezise

No. 9, Lane 90

Sung Chiang Road

Taipei, Taiwan 104

This is the address of the school where I usually teach and any letters or packages go straight to the secretaries' desks where I can pick them up.  Hope that helps!

那就是個很高的樓 － Now THAT'S a Tall Building

(standing at the bottom of one of the tallest buildings on Earth)

It's almost Christmas!  I'm everyone back home is getting ready for some quality time with friends and family, and for all you folks abroad like me, I hope you have an equally happy holiday season.  It's kind of odd here.  There are Christmas decorations up, and there are songs playing in all the stores, but it's still feels like late summer, although the nights have been falling into the upper 50s.  I have to admit, I do get a kick out of all the people here busting out their winter coats and from hearing everyone say, "It's so cold!" in Chinese to their friends as they walk outside.  Clearly they have never experienced anything even close to a Wisconsin winter.  :)  

It's actually been a pretty chill these past two weeks.  Some of my classes are wrapping up, so that means review days and finals for them.  Not a lot of work for me in class, but a ton of grading for me at home.  This has led me to set up a station on my desk in my apartment.  Grading things is actually kind of nice now.  I've got my laptop in front of me, so I can watch movies or listen to music, and today I went back to the tea company I talked about in my last entry to stock up on some more delicious tea and invest in a teapot, so now I've got a steady flow of hot Taiwanese tea ready at my side whenever I need to work through 20 or so papers, tests, or workbooks.  

Unfortunately, I'll be working on Christmas day for nearly 13 hours, but I guess it's extra money, and as a special treat, one of my adult classes surprised me with an invitation to a Karaoke bar this weekend as their Christmas gift to me.  Should be fun to relax a bit and sing a few Christmas songs with my students.  So far, both of my adult classes have been very fun and generous too, bringing me local snacks, chilled tea, and even some small presents (so far I've

 gotten a calendar and a fan).  The kids are pretty good too (for the most part, haha), and I can tell they're getting excited to perform their Christmas carols next week.  I'm going to try my best to bum a video off of another teacher with a better camera since mine doesn't record sound, but no promises.  

(above: a selection of teapots and cups at Lin Hua Tai Tea Co.)

(the statue of Sun Yat-sen inside the memorial building; please salute!)

Now to fill you guys in on my Adventure Thursdays.  Today's was pretty chill, just a visit to the post office to send my first mail home (fingers crossed it arrives safely), a trip to the tea store, and a meeting later on.  I did get a chance to try out a great restaurant and had a big plate of vegetarian curry, the perfect pick-me-up for a rainy day.  However, last week's Adventure Thursday was a different story.  

Last week, I visited the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, which is basically a huge traditional building housing an equally impressive statue of Sun Yat-sen.  Another brief history lesson, Sun Yat-sen was instrumental in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the last remnant of imperial rule in China.  Afterward, he acted as the provisional president of the new republic, and is considered by many Taiwanese to be the "father of the nation."  Anyway, the memorial hall complex is a very nice place to go and relax, even if you're required to do a salute to the statue of Sun Yat-sen upon arrival.  :)  There are several gardens and a large pond surrounding the building itself, and from these, you can see the Taipei 101 building, one of the tallest structures in the world. 

(left: Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall; below right: the Taipei 101 building can be seen from most places in the city)

I headed in the Taipei 101 building's general direction, not too hard to do since it towers over the rest of the city and you can see it from practically anywhere. As I got

 closer, I continued to be amazed by just how tall it actually is.  The tower is 101 stories tall and was designed to resemble a stalk of bamboo growing up out of the city.  It houses a large, very high-end mall on the bottom six floors with stores like Armani, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, and a ton of other brands I've never even heard of.  Needless to say, I did no shopping on my teacher's salary, haha.  Once you get past the stores, you can buy a ticket to ride the express elevator to the observatory decks on the top floors.  It's kind of a tourist trap, and there were a lot of gooney foreigners (probably myself included) who were willing to pay the $12 dollars to make the ascent, but I figured, when in Taipei...  :)  

(approaching the Taipei 101 buliding; it's... so... tall!)

Apparently the elevator is the fastest in the world, and I did experience some g-force factors making the rise and had to try to un-pop my ears a few times.  However, it only took about 20 seconds or so to climb nearly 100 stories.  Better than the stairs right?  Once I got to the top, I walked around the entire area, indoors and out.  The outdoor viewing area actually reminded me a lot of the walk around the top of the state capitol building in Madison, just add a few thousand feet, haha.  One down side of being that high up is that you can really see the smog that shrouds the city.  They say on a clear day you can see all the way to the ocean, but unfortunately I could barely see the mountains around the edge of the city.

  Overall, I'd say it was a cool experience being up that high, but I'd much rather have my feet safely on the ground.  I can imagine it must be one of the weirdest feelings to be on top during one of Taiwan's frequent small earthquakes, yikes!  

(the view from the indoor observation deck at the top of the Taipei 101 buliding)

Alright, that's all for this week.  I'm going to leave you all with a picture of a typical street in Taipei.  This one is right outside of the second school I teach at.  You can see there's not a lot of emphasis put on enforcing building and street airspace codes since the advertizements seem to try and top one another for jutting out above the road.  Happy holidays to everyone back home and overseas!  

趕上一下 － A Little Catch Up

So again, it's been a while.  I won't make any promises to keep on top of my blog better, because most likely I will not, but be sure to keep checking back once in a while for updates.  

 

(some of the smaller metal barrels of high mountain oolong tea at the Lin Hua Tai Tea Company)

1)  Lin Hua Tai Tea Company - This was a particularly fun

 excursion for me since I am pretty much a tea addict.  Turns out that one of my friends from high school cross country has been studying here for the last semester, but unfortunately he is leaving today.  However, we did manage to meet up one last time to obtain some high quality Taiwanese tea for him to bring back home with him.  There is certainly no lack of tea stores around here, but a lot of them have become very commercialized with high prices and fancy displays.  This is all fine and good if you're looking for a pretty picture, but I'm all about quality, so I asked some of the native Taipei residents at my school where the best place to buy tea was.  After a few mins on google maps, my friend and I were off to Lin Hua Tai Tea Company.  Essentially, it was the bare basics.  Huge metal barrels filled to the brim with different grades and different kinds of tea.  One thing that was notable was the smell of the place.  Never have I been to nor do I expect to visit again a factory so fragrant.  The people who worked there were very friendly and helpful, and we ended up buying a decent amount of tea leaves.  I'm definitely planning a return visit sometime in the near future.  

2)  National Palace Museum - If you all remember, I left my last Adventure Thursday up to a vote on the facebook between Longshan Temple and the National Palace Museum.  Well, luckily enough, I ended up going to both, just on different days.  I met up with a friend and headed to this famed museum in Taipei.  There's actually kind of an interesting controversy surrounding the treasures inside it's walls.  Quick East Asian History 101 course for those of you who aren't familiar.  :)  China's last emperor was dethroned at the beginning of the 1900s, 

after which the new republican government took over.  This regime persisted through the war with Japan several decades later but was finally driven out by the communist forces toward the middle of the century, at which point in time they fled to the island of Taiwan (Formosa).  However, the republican nationalist forces managed to round up many of China's finest cultural artifacts and bring them along to their new home.  Then, during the 60s, mainland China experienced what is called the Cultural Revolution, in which nearly everything old was wiped out in an effort to rid the country of any decadent influences and help it embrace the new communist utopia.  This meant that the majority of the treasures that had remained in China were destroyed.  Anyway, the big issue now is that China wants everything back from Taiwan, 

claiming that it belongs to the motherland.  This is true, but many people say that the objects were saved from the Cultural Revolution and wouldn't even exist if they hadn't been taken to Taiwan.  Regardless, it was amazing to see that many priceless things in one place.  The two most famous items on display are actually the smallest.  There is a cabbage made out of jade and a small rock that looks like a piece of meat.  These are treated like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre with people crowded around taking pictures and talking in amazement.  They were ok I guess...  :)

(top: the park nearest to my school; bottom: the entrance to Kojen English School 2 where I teach)

3)  Life at school - Some of you have been asking for updates about my classes.  For the most part, they're great!  We're entering the Christmas season here in Taipei, and the next few weeks will be devoted not only to teaching the normal English curriculum, but also to Christmas songs.  Most of the kids really have fun with this, and I'm currently teaching them Brenda Lee's "Jingle Bell Rock" and Bobby Helms' "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus."  I'm gonna try to have the TAs take some pictures of me with my classes so you all can see them.  I'm also starting to settle into life at Kojen, and I no longer have to spend as much time preparing for classes, which has left me with time to try out different places to eat in the area.  There's a killer vegetarian buffet just two blocks away that I'd never noticed before, so my diet has improved a lot.  I usually have tofu, squash, lima beans, steamed greens, peppers, dumplings, and curried potatoes all served on top of brown or white rice.  It even comes with a free side of soup, and all for about three or four

dollars.  Delicious!  I also spend a lot of my free time between classes walking around the parks in the area.  I've included two pictures of the parks by my school.  It's really relaxing, and I'm definitely enjoying the 70 degree weather (sorry to all you folks back home in snow-bound Wisconsin.)  

(Another park where I walk between classes)

(The Red House Theater at night, about a 10 minute walk from my place)

4)  Life at home - In addition to getting accustomed to my job and my students, I'm also starting to get used to my neighborhood.  While my place isn't perfect (all I'm gonna say is a story involving a rat rooting around in my trash at 2:30 am), it's the place where I call home, and will be for the next 10 months.  The area around it is pretty lively, with weekly religious parades and fireworks.  It's also located close to a place called the Red Theater, a building built by the Japanese in 1908 as a marketplace, and later converted into a theater for the arts.  Now, it plays host to Taipei's teenage crowd and the city's gay and lesbian population.  The area around it is studded with movie theaters, restaurants, bars, and trendy stores.  Basically, Ximending (the name of the area) is a place to come to have a good time, which is convenient since that's what I plan on doing here.  :)

龍山寺和火鍋 － Dragon Mountain Temple and Hot Pot

Well, another Thursday, another adventure!  This week, I let you, the readers, decide what my next destination would be via my facebook status.  You voted, and I went to Longshan "Dragon Mountain" Temple.  Let me clear up one minor misleading point about the name:  there is no mountain in sight of the temple;  it's just a name.  However, it was still really cool.  I walked there from my place after a much needed morning of sleeping in.  The temple is surrounded by streets filled with shops selling jade pendants, red braided good luck charms, wooden animal carvings, and other traditional trinkets.  Opposite the main gate is a large plaza filled with snack vendors, the most popular of which, I'm sorry to say, were sellers of stinky tofu (this is actually what they call it, I'm not making it up).  This Taiwanese food is said to be delicious, but so far I've been too intimidated by the disgusting smell.  It's kind of like a combination of really smelly feet, rancid oil, and dog poop.  Why it smells so awful, I haven't a clue.  I have made it one of my goals to try it before I leave though, so rest assured, you will be getting the critique from me sometime in the near (or maybe not too near) future...

(the waterfall just inside the Longshan temple gates)

Anyway, I got to the temple, and was greeted with the smell of incense and the sound of falling water.  One of the coolest things about the temple was the waterfall to the right of it as you enter.  It's beautiful and it covers any observers in a fine mist which is cool and a relief if you've been walking for a while.  I continued into the

main part of the complex, and spent the next hour or so wandering around.  

(coy swimming in the pools underneath the waterfall)

It's not a big building by any means, but the intricate carvings, gold leaf, offerings of food and flowers, and beautiful calligraphy carved right into the stone held my attention for a long time.  Throughout my visit,hundreds of worshipers passed me carrying burning sticks of incense on their way around the central building.  It's set up so that there are seven distinct stops.  At each stop, 

there lies a huge urn carved with dragons where people can deposit a stick of incense.  The collective smoke from each of these vessels rises above the temple and provides a

 spiritual air about the entire area.  In front of each urn there is a statue of a traditional Chinese god.  If I'm right, Longshan temple's main focus of prayer is Kuanyin, the goddess of mercy, but there are six other gods that reside within the temple walls.  I was very tempted to buy some incense and make the rounds myself, but it seemed like there was a different protocol for each station, and in the interest of not being an offensive tourist, I offered up my silent well wishes to everyone back home instead.  

(left: the interior of Longshan temple; above right: the view of the temple from the street outside)

After leaving the temple, I spent some time browsing in the stores in the surrounding area.  Interesting stuff, but I'll probably have to wait until I have a little more money.  I didn't hang around too long though because I had a meeting with some of my adult class students.  What?  Work on an Adventure Thursday you say?!  Nope, my students were nice enough to invite me to a Taiwanese "hot pot" meal.  Basically, this involves a table with a heating element in the middle on which a large pot is placed, divided down the middle.  One side is spicy soup, the other mild.  The waitstaff bring a menu of different raw dishes you can order, then wheel them over on a cart.  You put the uncooked meats, veggies, and other goodies into one of the two sides of the pot and let them cook.  In a few minutes, you take them out, dip them in a delicious sauce, and you've got hot pot!  I've got to say, it was one of the most delicious meals I've had here so far, and the company was great too.  I really enjoyed getting to know my students outside of class, and they were all so friendly.  They even treated me, I didn't have to pay a cent!  Of course, I promised that if any of them had the chance to come over to America, I'd treat them to a killer dinner there too.  :)  

All in all, it was a pretty fun day, but now I've gotta hit the hay and get ready for two more days of back to back classes.  I'm subbing for one of my co-teachers next week, so unfortunately, this is going to be the last Adventure Thursday update for a while, but this weekend is showing promise, so keep your eyes open for that.  Keep the e-mails, facebook messages, and instant messages coming too!  I miss everyone and I promise to answer once I get the chance.  

(enjoying some genuine Taiwanese hot pot with some of my adult class students)

一些好笑的事 － Some Funny Things

So I just woke up around 11:30 here, and I've got about an hour-and-a-half before I make my trip into the immigration office to pick up some official documents for my stay, so I figured I'd write a more informal blog entry.  The beginning of the week is pretty low key for me and most of my classes are in the evening, so my sleep schedule gets kinda messed up.  If you're teaching until 10 PM and you don't get home until 10:45, you're gonna want to sleep late, guaranteed.  Unfortunately, this also contributes to the misery that is Friday and Saturday mornings when I have to change my sleep habits to wake up at 6:30 AM.  But enough about that.  On to the meat of this post!  

Amid the classes I'm teaching, the adventures I'm having, and generally my figuring out life in Taiwan, I've run across quite a few funny things that I wish I had someone else around to appreciate with me.  It's kind of embarrassing to randomly crack up on the crowded subway or while waiting at the intersection and have people look at you like, "what is this foreigner doing?"  

Most of these amusing thing have to do with the English translations for places and products.  They're usually great direct translations, not at all like the ones on mainland China which were incomprehensible, but they still could've used a native English speaker to go over them.  Some of the phrases are just plain hilarious.  Some of the things below are kind of, er, inappropriate, but that's why I got a kick out of them.  Can't say I didn't warn you!

1)  Racist Toothpaste:  This has more to do with the actual Chinese characters written on this particular brand of toothpaste.  There are two different kinds the company puts out, one reading "white people toothpaste" and one reading "black people toothpaste".  Not even kidding.  The "black people toothpaste" has a picture of one of those old timey minstrels with a blacked out face and a top hat.  The English translation of the stuff is now "Darlie" but I've been told that not too long ago it was called "Darkie" toothpaste until people (rightly) got pissed off and made the company change it.  Just wow...

2)  D-cup Café:  I very quaint corner cafe on my way home from work, complete with scones, croissants, and tea cups and saucers.  Had they only known what D-cup really means in English.

3)  Cock soup:  This is an instant chicken soup product.  You buy the bowl, add boiling water, and voila, you have chicken soup with noodles!  This is another case however where a quick proofing with a native speaker would've avoided this unfortunate product name.  

4)  Semen spa and massages:  In this case, the owners bypassed the English translation of the name in the first part in favor of the sound transliteration of the Chinese characters: "se" and "men".  This was no doubt in an effort to avoid any potential English puns.  Alas, how wrong they were...

Hopefully I'll run across a few more inappropriate/humorous signs, places, and products.  To be fair to the Taiwanese though, I have an equally funny/inappropriate story of my own.  I was talking to one of my adult classes and we were discussing what we like to eat.  I told them that I was a vegetarian and that Taiwan has a lot of great vegetable dishes.  "I like to eat tofu," I told the class, which proceeded to burst out laughing.  Apparently "eating tofu" in Chinese has the slang meaning of "performing oral sex on women".  So in the end, I end up looking just as silly when the language barrier is involved.  Fortunately enough, I wasn't in charge of a company mass producing a million products with the quote "I like to eat tofu" written in Chinese characters.  :)

在台灣下雨的一天 － A Rainy Day In Taiwan

(a view of Taipei at dusk from Maokong in the surrounding mountains)

Hello everyone back home!  It's been a while since my last entry, and I've got a lot to fill you all in on.  

First and foremost, now that my schedule is getting more concrete and I've got regular classes I'm teaching (not just subbing for), I find that I have a free day in the middle of the week, so I'm introducing "Adventure Thursdays" to the blog.  The basic concept is that every Thursday, I'm going to try to do one excursion to a must see site in Taipei or the surrounding area.  I've already had two Adventure Thursdays, so I'll start from last week's.  

If any of you know me well, you won't be surprised at my first choice: the teahouses of Maokong.  Maokong is a mountain town overlooking Taipei City (the view is the first picture at the top of the blog).  Two of the area's specialties are their "high mountain" oolong tea (高山烏龍) and their love of cooking tea right into any food.  I took the bus up the mountain, through bamboo groves and past tea plantations, and got off about half way up at the Maokong stop.  I guess I had been expecting an actual town, but it's more just a bunch of buldings (mainly teahouses and restaurants) scattered around the sides of the mountains.  I started hiking down the road to a promising looking teahouse built with no walls, just a roof over two stories open to the air and red wooden pillars propping up the structure on the steep slope.  It looked a little rustic, but it'd been a long trip and I was in the mood for some hardcore relaxation.  The folks there promptly seated me at a table overlooking the valley and Taipei City and handed me a menu of tea and tea dishes.  Each table came with it's own gas burner in the middle and a sturdy kettle filled with water.  Basically, you order which tea you want and any accompanying food, they turn on the burner, and bring out a bunch of tea supplies (teapot, cups, utensils, a tray to catch any spilled water).  I ordered the high mountain oolong and tea fried rice with potatoes.  I took a picture of the setup and it's posted here at the side.  

(from top to bottom:  a temple on the walk to the teahouse;  my meal and tea;  the teahouse at night with glowing lanterns and a view of the city lights)

After the water boiled and I had a cup of hot tea in one hand and chopsticks in the other, I sat back and took in the mountain atmosphere.  I'm not really a city boy, and any time in the 

outdoors when you're surrounded by trees and a fresh cool breeze is a treat when those things are usually substituted for scooter exhaust and concrete.  I spent a few hours up there just thinking and drinking tea, then took the bus back down the mountain. As I descended, I noticed a network of lantern lit trails crisscrossing the mountain and valley.  Apparently the area is also famous for it's scenic hiking trails and relaxing pavilions, so I'll have to take a trip there again so experience that side of Maokong.  

The week since has been filled with the daily grind of classes, including a particularly tiring one from 7:00-9:50 PM every Friday.  Most of the class is in high school, and they've been up since probably 6:00 AM and at school all day, so I can understand why they don't want to be in an English review course late at night right before their weekend.  For the most part, they're unmotivated and only talkative with each other in Chinese.  Like I said, I can sympathize with them, especially since a lot of them are only there because their parents think it's a good idea, but Fridays are pretty much the same story for me with 13 hours of work and early classes to teach the next day, and my patience is wearing thin, especially when they don't bother to do their homework.  It's kind of disappointing, but I'm hoping that I can work up the energy a little bit in the next few weeks seeing as I just got this class from another teacher.  

On a more positive note though, my younger classes are going well, and I'm getting more settled into the routine of their course books and trying to balance them with games and activities of my own.  A new development in my schedule is that I now have two adult classes three times a week.  I've found them to be a ton of fun because a) the adults are there because they want to be, not because someone is making them, b) they're really curious about western culture, and c) I don't have to spend half of the class trying to get them to behave (a lot of my time with the kids' classes goes out the window trying to make them stay in their seats during a quiz, not hit each other, and use their inside voices when it's not break, haha).  

(The entrance to the Taipei Botanical Gardens.  I've always wanted to live somewhere with palm trees!)

Well, enough about work for now.  Today was my second Adventure Thursday, and I chose to explore the Taipei Botanical Gardens and the neighboring museum of art history.  Again, the gardens were a nice break from the city life.  They're pretty big, and since Taiwan is on the border between the tropical and sub-tropical climate zones, they're filled with all sorts of cool trees, grasses, and flowers.  My favorites were the avenue of towering palm trees at the gate, the bamboo garden, and the lotus pond (even though they're starting to die now that it's almost winter here).  Best of all, it's only a 15 minute trip from my place so I can go there whenever I need to chill out for a while.  

(from top to bottom:  part of the botanical gardens; a kingfisher (maybe?) hunting for some lunch in the lotus pond;  the art history museum overlooking the now fading lotus pond)

The art history museum borders the botanical gardens, and unfortunately three of the four floors were closed for renovations, but on the bright side, they said I could use my ticket again next time once the renovations are done for no extra charge.  :)  The third floor was the only part that was open, and it would've been the one I would've headed to right off the bat anyway.

They had a huge collection of Chinese artifacts, some dating back to 9,000 years ago.  I got tosee ancient oracle bones, Tibetan paintings, classical calligraphy, jade carvings, huge bronze ceremonial castings, and ceramics and pottery in every shape, color, and form.  It was a fascinating visit and they had English translations of all the Chinese notes and explanations so I was able to follow along very easily.  

(another beautiful bird fishing in front of the museum)

Now I'm back home listening to the rain on my balcony and admiring the sheets I finally found for my bed (never have I been so excited to have a sheet over my mattress, haha).  If I'm in the mood, I might extend my adventures tonight and go see "Julie and Julia" at a movie theater around the corner.  :)  This was a big entry just because so much happened.  I had to gloss over a lot of the details of my work, but I'm going to try to keep on top of my entries better from now on so I can actually fill you guys in on the little stories that happen.  Hope to hear from everyone back home!  Every e-mail and facebook message I get makes me really happy.  Miss you all!  

我回來了！－ I'm back!

(the dining room/kitchen area (stove not visible) of my new place)

Hello everyone!  It's been about two weeks since my last entry, and a LOT has happened since then, but for your sakes, I'll try to keep it relatively short.  And the best news you ask?  This entry comes with the first pictures from 

Taiwan!  

First off, I moved into my new apartment.  After two or so weeks of searching the city, sifting through Taiwanese advertisements, and stumbling through phone calls in Chinese with various landlords, I found a place and set up a meeting with the guy who owns it.  In order to meet with him, I had to take the local subway a few stops, so I got a chance to try out my new "easy card", the device by which most everyone here gets around town, good on the MRT (transit by electric train, both above ground and subway) and the extensive bus system.  My friend Chris was nice

 enough to give me his old card so I didn't have to pay the 100 yuan activation fee (about $3.20).  

   (my bedroom/study area)

My first impression of the place was decent.  It was a little dirty, and kind of a ways away from the school where I work, but on the plus side, it had a balcony, a working kitchen, it was furnished, and it was bigger than any other place I'd looked at so far.  I was used to looking at single room apartments with a closet sized bathroom.  If you want to get an idea of size, think college dorm room (and I'm not talking about the fancy ones they just built in Madison).  This place had a large bedroom with living room furniture, a kitchen with a separate cabinet and dining room table, and a bathroom.  As an added bonus, there's a small entry way to put your shoes and coat in, and it's located a few minutes away from a police station and a hospital (meaning it's a very safe neighborhood, and there shouldn't be any emergencies that can't be handled immediately).  

I set up another meeting with the landlord a few days later, met him at the subway station, and (reluctantly, it's my first time on my own remember) signed the lease, which was of course all in traditional Chinese characters...  After a night spent with some sponges, a broom, bleach, and a mop and bucket, I now have a clean place, and have discovered a few nice things.  For instance, the landlord had bought a piece of embroidered silk to use a tablecloth, but when I removed it to clean, I found that the table is actually made out of carved dark wood with drawers on two sides containing some cool things I hadn't anticipated like a large Taiwanese flag and many sticks of incense.  The same went for the traditional Chinese cabinet in the kitchen, which hid a bunch of old Chinese dishes and several beautiful vases.  My apartment is now a great place to relax after a long day of work, and one of my favorite things to do is sit out on the balcony, turn on some music on my laptop, and enjoy the cool night air (and maybe a Tsingtao beer too).  

(the "living room", right at the foot of my bed)

But moving on, I'll fill you guys in on my job so far.  This last week was in a single word, grueling.  I've been assigned several permanent classes since my last update, and I took over for a teacher on vacation the past 8 days.  This meant a lot of 13 hour days, more grading of finals, homework, and quizzes when I got home, and a lot of sleep deprivation for me.  But on the bright 

side, I made a lot more money that I would have otherwise, and I got to celebrate Halloween with a class I was subbing for.  

(a pumpkin and two fairy princesses)

(me and another English teacher 

in our Halloween getups)

They sure made a big deal out of Halloween at the school, and to tell you the truth, I was kind of glad about it, even though it was extra work for the teachers.  All the kids wore costumes and there was a catwalk costume show in the basement for an hour in the afternoon (think Taiwan's Next Top Model).  Of course, the kids were ridiculously cute in their Halloween outfits, and I was very impressed with how into it some of them got.  My personal favorite was a girl who made a papier maché mask with her parents at home and came to class as Jack Skellington from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (Brock, hopefully you'll appreciate this one.  I'm including a picture).  I was the MC for the costume

 show, and since I'm down to my last few hundred New Taiwan Dollars here until my next paycheck (under 30 bucks), I decided to bum a cowboy hat from the main office and play that part for the show.  I have a picture

of my costume next to a teacher who went all out and rented an English guard outfit from a store.  I think it turned out ok, and I finally fulfilled my dream to be a cowboy for Halloween (if any of you remember that time I was really sick and couldn't put together my "Woody the Cowboy" costume sophomore year).  

(the best costume ever!)

I'm still loving Taiwan and look forward to getting to know Taipei better.  Tomorrow I don't have any classes until 6:00 PM so I think I'm going to try to go on an excursion to one of the city's many sights.  I'm debating between the botanical gardens, an old tea village in the mountains, and the Danshui river.  More pictures and posts to come soon now that I have internet!  

一些觀察 － Some Observations

Tonight might be my last night with in-home internet for a while. If everything goes as planned, I'll be moving to my new apartment tomorrow night, and they're having work done on the internet cables, so it's no internet, or Starbucks for me for a while.

I thought I'd leave you guys with a few more observations from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

1) Scooters: Everybody and their uncle (along with the rest of their extended family) seems to own a scooter. This has led to a few problems which the Taiwanese people, for better or for worse, have solved with what they have available. For instance, left turns. If they went along like normal traffic, cars would have to wait for an endless stream of scooters cutting across the road. The solution: make a special area in the crosswalk next to cars that are currently stopped on the intersecting road. This way, scooters can just go straight (thereby completing their left turn in two steps) when the light changes and never have to cut across oncoming traffic. Kind of confusing, yeah. Another problem, where should everyone park their scooters? The sidewalk of course. Surely the pedestrians won't mind struggling through a maze of scooters scattered across every walkway. (This is quickly becoming one of my least favorite things about walking around here, especially since sidewalks are also open game for riding your scooter...)

2) Face Masks: It's pretty common to see about ten out of a hundred people wearing surgical masks at any given time in class, on the street, in restaurants, etc. Whenever you get sick, it's considered polite (as well as sanitary) to put on a face mask for the duration of your illness. I've already had to wear one once, not because I was sick, but because so many kids in my school were. It makes teaching a class highly focused on oral communication very difficult. Who knows how effective these masks are since the number of people wearing them always seems pretty high.

3) Walking, Lining Up, and Personal Space: Another thing I've learned to be aware of is watching for people, scooters, and cars when I'm walking anywhere. Since traffic rules are really more like guidelines and suggestions here, it's not surprising to see people run red lights, cut across a sidewalk corner to make a turn, or honk at you while you're in the crosswalk. However, I always find myself watching out for other pedestrians just as often as traffic in the streets. Someone is always stepping out in front of you, stopping to light a cigarette, veering across your path, or walking veeeeerrryyy slowly in a narrow area (lined with scooters, naturally). So far, lining up has been much better than on mainland China, but a lot of the time I'll find myself at the local 7-11 in a big group at the counter, everyone up in my business. It's more up to the cashier to call out who's next rather than when you got there, and good luck getting your stuff off the counter and grabbing your receipt before someone deposits their purchases in front of you and nudges you aside.

I've gotta go over my contract for my new place now and hopefully get it fully translated tomorrow before I sign it. Any guesses as to where my contract was drafted? You got it, 7-11, your all around everything store. Oh Taiwan...

教課 － Teaching

The end of a long week brings another blog entry to you all, fresh off the presses! I say long week because it was, in fact, a looooonnnggg week, chock full of teaching. That's right, after observing the class I took over on Friday last week, the director decided that more training wasn't really in the works for me, and I got thrown in the mix.

Mostly, I'm happy about this. It means I'll get paid a lot more than if I were only observing classes, and I get to meet a lot of the students I'll be teaching in the near future, but I'm not gonna lie, it was stressful. They say the best way to learn something is to dive right in, but I've always found that I do better with thorough instruction to go off of, then I can make changes where I feel necessary down the road. No such luck this time. But on the plus side, I do know what's going on now, and most of the classes I taught were review classes to prepare for quizzes and tests coming up.

For the most part, all the students I've taught have been very well behaved and bright. However, there are a few troublemakers who've had me cringing by the end of a two or three hour session. Apparently, ADD and ADHD is a very common problem among students here, particularly the boys, and it tends to manifest itself during classroom hours with shouting, jumping around, hitting, and mouthing off. It'd been a little difficult to maintain a good classroom environment and keep those few kids under control at the same time. The funny thing is though, a lot of the time these students are actually quite smart. Once you get them in their seats and under control, they tend to be very good readers, and they know the answers to questions. It's just a matter of getting them to participate without just taking the easy way out: "I don't know."

Alright, now for a recap of my week outside of class. Last Saturday, I spent the day with Chris and Debby, two of my friends from the UW. After a delicious dinner, we headed out with a group of other Kojen teachers to a KTV or karaoke bar. We got a private room for a group, and spent the next few hours singing and rocking out to the greatest songs of the nineties and early 2000s (which were the only ones they had to offer in English). I also got a chance to figure out the local metro system, which is amazing (I'm sure all you WISPIRGers who are following will appreciate my love of public transit, haha), and the busses are pretty good too, although a little confusing at first.

I spent the rest of the week working during the day, and grading papers and tests at night. I've only had a chance to look at one apartment so far, which was basically a small room with a bed and an adjoining bathroom. I'm gonna hold out for something a little better I think...

I'll leave you all with a list of a few things I didn't expect to find over here in Taiwan:

1) 7-11 Convenience Stores: There is at least one 7-11 every other block here (I pass three of them on my walk to work, which only takes about 10 minutes). They're basically the everything mart of Taiwan. You can buy food, booze, toiletries, and phone cards. You can take money out of your bank account, pick up labeled trash bags for the daily garbage, recycling, and compost pickup, and buy phone cards. Strangest of all, this is where you pay all of your utility bills, anything from gas and electric to cable and internet. The 7-11 company must be making a mint off of this island.

2) Recycling and Composting: Like I said, there's a daily garbage service in Taipei. Trucks come along at roughly the same time every day playing Beethoven's "Fur Elise", sort of like an ice cream truck. They stop briefly in each neighborhood and you have a few minutes to bring out your labeled trash bags (which you bought from your local 7-11) and load them on the truck. There are different sections for actual trash, plastic/metal/glass, and cardboard and paper products. There are even restaurants on the street that have separate sections for cardboard trays, wooden chopsticks, and any food waste to compost. In a lot of ways, Taiwan has some distance to go environmentally, but sounds like they've got us beat for trash pickup so far.

3) Cockroaches in my room: Ok, not the most pleasant note to finish on, but there ya go. The other night I was going to sleep, and I hear a rustling sound in the corner of my room. At first I ignored it, then it got louder so I flipped on the lights. Two gigantic cockroaches scuttled away from one of my plastic zip-lock bags on the floor and started running all over the room, looking for the way out. FInally, one chose to hide out under my bed, the other under my dresser. I was sicked out. I have decided that I am not a fan of cockroaches. In fact, I've never even seen one before now, and that's with three years as a janitor in the dorms under my belt. I finally figured out they were burrowing their way up from a drain in the kitchen. I need to find a new place ASAP!

Alright, that's all folks! Look for more to come soon. Highlights may include: a) my new apartment, b) pictures if I get a camera, and c) figuring out a Taiwanese cell phone.

雙十節快樂！－ Happy Double Ten Day!

Today is Taiwan's National Day (read more if you're interested at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_10_day).  For me, this means I get today off.  Normally I'll be working at Kojen Schools Monday through Saturday with only Sundays off, a little different than my schedule in the States.  I've made the most of my free time by a) sleeping in, b) watching Star Wars Episode V on my computer, and c) having dinner with my two good friends here Chris and Debby (you'll notice this is the only actually productive or exciting thing I've done today).  I know them from the UW, and they've already been living here for a year, so they know their way around pretty well.  They've been extremely helpful to me so far, and I'm looking forward to meeting some of their friends and co-workers tonight at a birthday party.  

My week had a slight change of plans from my last entry.  I believe I left you guys off saying that I would be observing classes for another week at my home school and then actually start teaching next Friday.  This is for the most part true, but I had the chance to sub for an instructor yesterday in one of her classes and got to teach for two hours.  The lesson plans look like they'll be pretty straightforward.  Kojen provides its teachers with books, workbooks, and basic supplies to make classes fun for children from elementary school to junior high.  But anyway, the basic story goes like this:  I'm sitting in the back of my second observation class of the day when the director of the school knocks on the door and asks if he can borrow me for a minute outside.  Once I'm out there, he says, "One of our teachers wasn't able to make it to her class starting at 8:00.  Would you like to take over for her and put your observations to good use?"  Frankly, at this point I'm thinking in my head, "No way in heck am I going to go in front of a bunch of kids I don't know without a lesson plan I've worked out well in advance," but he looks kind of desperate for a solution, so I say sure, I'll give it a shot.  I get about half an hour to look over their workbook and listen to the rest of my observation of the class, then after briefly meeting with a senior teacher who recommends some games, I go to the classroom and start teaching...

Surprisingly, I had a blast!  The way the books are set up, it's very easy to transition from one subject to another, and the games I tried out with the kids were a hit.  I think it's going to be a lot of fun figuring out new games and creative ways to make the lessons more interesting, and apparently you get a lot of free reign with what you can do during class.  I think the tricky part will be striking a balance between having fun with the kids, and maintaining an atmosphere where I'm the boss and there's no misbehaving.  On the bright side though, I still have another week of observation and I'll get to takeover for the same class on Friday and give them their final written exam.  

Probably the most rewarding part of my week was yesterday night when I was leaving the school, and one of the students from a class I had observed earlier waved at me and said, "Teacher Devin, Teacher Devin!"  Then she turned to her mom and said, "Look, that's Teacher Devin."  For some reason, just being recognized and greeted by one of the students I'll be teaching was an awesome feeling.  I think I'm going to like teaching these kids a lot (stand by though for more posts after I actually start working, haha).  

Ok, it's about time for me to head out with Chris and Debby.  Miss everyone and hope to hear from you all!  I really like opening my e-mail or facebook and seeing messages from friends and family back home.  Plus, now I have a reliable internet connection in the temporary housing facility, so I might even be able to catch people on skype or AIM.  :)

台灣你好 － Hello Taiwan

Hey everyone!  To start off with, I made it to Taiwan in one piece and so far I'm loving it here.  The food is delicious, the people are friendly, and the weather is great.  I was lucky enough to come right as it started to cool off, and aside from a little rain here and there, it's been really nice.  But before I get ahead of myself, here's a short recap of my trip.  

After saying goodbye to everyone in Wisconsin (and the cats at home), my parents and I drove down to Chicago where my extended family threw me a party complete with a cake decorated with a Taiwanese dragon.  I was up way too early for my liking the next morning, and after my last American breakfast, we headed to O'Hare International Airport.  

Saying goodbye to my parents was the hardest part, and I was a little choked up going through the security checkpoints.  After emptying my pockets, taking off my shoes, giving them my belt, and going through the metal detector three times, I staked out a spot at my gate and boarded the plane soon after.  My nerves were starting to get to me once the plane began to taxi to the runway, but they quickly settled down during the two hour delay and refueling back at the gate.  

Once we were actually in the air, we were treated two two lunches (guess they were going by the local time, not our biological clocks), a snack, and three movies including "Night at the Museum:  Pointless Sequel", "Ice Age 3:  the Suck Age", and "The Proposal" which was actually pretty good.  

I arrived in Tokyo to transfer 12 hours later, then finally flew into Taiwan.  There, I was met by a driver sent from Kojen Schools (a very nice service, and the first time I've ever seen my name on a sign waiting at the airport - ritzy).  He drove me to the temporary housing facilities, and I met one of my roommates for the time being, and my second roommate arrived the next night.  Their names are Josh and Daniel, both from the East Coast, and they're really nice.  Josh has already been here for a month, so he was especially helpful in getting me acquainted with the area and setting me up.  

On to the work portion of my trip.  Yesterday was my first day of classroom observation.  I'll do this until next Friday, when I'll actually start teaching young children at my school.  Basically, I sat with the students and watched two teachers instruct them in pronunciation, grammar, reading, and writing through a bunch of games, workbook exercises, crafts, and quizzes.  It looks straightforward enough (apparently they provide you with all the materials you'll need) and I'm excited to get going and meet my students.  

As for the city life, Taipei is a huge metropolis, and I've only just begun to explore.  I've tried out my Chinese at ordering some vegetarian foods, and hit on a really good restaurant that lets you pick out every ingredient from a case up front, and they cook it all in a spicy soup right in front of you.  Everything is fresh, and it's one of my favorite meals here.  There are also a ton of parks and open spaces everywhere here, and the trees on the streets have had enough time to grow that walking down the lanes is really enjoyable.  There was definitely a lack of vegetation in mainland China, so that's what I was expecting here, but I'm pretty sure there are more outdoor houseplants than there are people in the city, and since it's a sub-tropical environment, it's this way year round.  Every window, balcony, and courtyard is filled with lucky bamboo, orchids, and leafy green plants, and every park and road is lined with palm trees.  

In the interest of keeping this relatively short, I'm gonna cut it off here.  There's a lot more that's happened and that's going to happen since the first month is extremely busy, so I'll try to break that up in several installments over the next few days.  There's no internet at the Kojen housing facilities, so I've been bumming it off of friends in the area and parks with wireless access.  When I get an apartment (I'm off to look right now) I should have more stable access to the internet, and I'll be able to e-mail, skype, instant message, and all that other good stuff that'll keep me in touch with you folks.  Hope everyone's having a great year so far too!  

P.S.  Pictures to come once I either find a cord that goes with my camera, or buy a new one here.  

美國再見 － Goodbye America

 Left:  I don't know WHAT to expect from Taiwan!  Hopefully no road closings due to eruptions though.  

It's 3:00 AM on the day before I fly out of the United States and I'm currently packing up a year's worth of everything I'm guessing I'll need in Taiwan (emphasis on guessing).  I don't think I've ever been as well prepared to face whatever awaits me on the other end of my 20 hour journey, and that's mostly thanks to my parents.  I've got documents and copies of documents, American medications not available overseas, new clothes to wear in an entirely new climate, and a few treats and books from my friends to entertain me during my flight.  

I'm really glad I got to see the people I did these past two weeks, and for those of you I didn't get a chance to see, know that I'll miss you just the same.  As soon as I get adequate internet access (and who knows how long that'll take), I'll try to make a second post about my first impressions and experiences.  In the mean time though, feel free to send me a message on the facebook, a tweet on twitter, or an e-mail so I'll have something to look forward to opening once I get established.  And of course, good luck to everyone on your years in school, work, or abroad until I get back home and can have a happy reunion (with lots of sweet souvenirs from Taiwan of course).  :)