Size Does Matter

I was really looking forward to the first language exchange, and even though I was tired after teaching I wanted to get to know the women in my office. We headed off to dinner at this little restaurant for dinner and they proceeded to teach me some Chinese. Being around all these kids, I've been exposed to a million times more germs than normal so I've got a little cold again. After singing three songs and talking for four hours straight, my throat was a little raw. I ordered a hot green tea, and Angel asked what size I wanted. So far most sizes had been quite small, so I thought a large would be enough to warm my throat. Seeing as most small drinks are hardly more than a thimbleful of liquid, this seemed like a wise choice. Next thing I knew the waiter carried out a cup that was about the same size as a 7-11 Big Gulp! I think he actually might have gone to a 7-11 to get this cup! I'd never seen any cups that big in Taiwan, and I'd certainly never seen one filled with hot green tea before! We had to get a smaller cup just so I could drink some if it! It was actually pretty funny and a little embarrassing that this 'cup' of tea bigger than my head was for me! We sat there talking for an hour after we had finished eating just so I could finish drinking this gargantuan beverage I had ordered.

The moral of the story: sometimes 'large drink' means a vat of boiling hot liquid served in a paper cup.

Back to the Grind

Yesterday I didn't quite want to go back to the classroom. I had really enjoyed the vacation and the thought of prep, homework grading, and disciplining kids was pretty far from my mind. Alas, I went and everything went smoothly, but I couldn't muster up the energy to really make class fun. I had prepared a game to play that involved red envelopes with mixed up sentences inside that the students needed to rearrange. Unfortunately we ran out of time and never got to play the game, but it always makes me laugh to see how excited they are to see the red envelopes. Apparently, during Chinese New Year, kids get a bunch of red envelopes from adults that are filled with money, so they always run over to me with sly grins on their faces when they see me carrying four or five envelopes.

Today is my second class with a group of 7-8 year olds who have only had 3 lessons of English prior to this one. On the plus side, they are *adorable* and I only have to teach them three things today: "May I borrow a pencil? Sure, here you are/Sorry, no pencil." The rest is reviewing such difficult phrases as "Hello. What is your name? How are you?" It should be fun. I get to dance and sing in that class and we play tons of games. Whoever would have thought my stint at Joe's Crab Shack would have prepared me for this job!

May I take a moment to note how much I love our apartment building. Last night, Susan, Brian, Brad and I met in the facilities area with a movie and rented out the movie theater to watch The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind! It was great!

Tonight after work, I'm meeting two CTs/office workers to start our language exchange! I'm so excited to start learning more Chinese. I've been trying really hard and I can pick out times when people say them, amounts of money I can do, and I can say "one of" when I'm ordering food (unfortunately, I don't know the names of food so I have to say "one of" and then point, but it gets the point across). I've also been able to recognize a few characters: big, little, Taichung, Taipei, down, up (notice these are all characters you might find on a bus or outside it's window). So I've clearly got lots of work to do, but I'm happy to start. Plus, it will be fun to have some people to clarify all the odd things I see in a day, but don't understand and I get to teach them a little English too. Wish me luck on that one!

ICS Meetings Were Never Like This...

So I just got back from the Kenting trip. I haven't been able to get back to the apartment yet due to a party mix-up that occurred Thursday night and involved my keys being taken to Taipei for the weekend while I went to Kenting. Not a big deal, but now I'm back and my friends aren't home yet...no big whoop, just gives me more time to share all the crazy stories from the weekend.

Our hotel was near the beach and from our balcony we could see the ocean, in fact, it was right across the street. So of course, right away, a bunch of us piled out of the bus, dropped our bags and ran straight to the beach. I was amazed how warm the water was, how different the air smelled, and how beautiful the beach was lined as it was with palm trees and green mountains standing in the distance. That night a bunch of people went downtown to check things out, but I preferred to play it a little more lowkey and I hung out with a few South Africans: twin brothers, Rob and David, David's wife Tracy, Isabelle, and Maggie, an American I was rooming with. We sang karoke for a few hours, had a dance off on the Dance Dance Revolution machine in the arcade, hit the hotel's bowling alley before they turned in and I met some Kiwis and a couple Americans for a couple rounds of cards and some beers.

The next day I took a trip to the National Marine Biology Museum and Aquarium for some good fish watchin'. That was incredibly relaxing and so I was little tired after the five hour visit, but then as I walked back into the hotel lobby, Jackie invited me out to the pool with her pals for some beer and chatting, which I enjoyed until it was time to meet for dinner. We were going downtown to an open-air restaurant for a barbeque and a small surprise party for Jackie's going away. This is where things took a turn for the crazy...

First everything was normal, each table had it's own little barbeque and plates of various meats and vegetables were brought out with a dish/brush of oil and spices. We set into the grub and had a few beers. Soon, people were invited to sing and dance on stage for free beers. We had a few takers and it was pretty entertaining...and then Cecilia, our district director announced the Spicy Girls were performing, invited the men to come to the front of the seating area, and asked us not to take any pictures...uh-oh. Then the 'ountz-ountz' music started and sure enough out came a dancing girl. Wearing quite possibly the shortest skirt I've ever seen, see did some *really* cool tricks on the pole in the middle of the stage, including climbing to the middle, flipping herself upside down and sliding down using only her thighs. Most of the girls cringed because you could hear her skin sticking to the pole and making that squeaky noise. Most of the guys were busy checking out other things...Soon she was in the audience, picked one of the Hess teachers and took off his shirt. We applauded and we're a little surprised, and we laughed when she climbed the pole to stash his shirt in the rafters. It was a little weirder when she brought him to the front of the stage, undid his belt with her teeth and took them off. She was still nearly fully clothed and never took very much off at all, considering what she was wearing to begin with. Eventually she returned his pants and shirt, but the next "woman" did the same thing, bringing Blair up to the stage. She (covering her adam's apple with a cleverly-placed scarf) went a little further. She slipped off the pink fishnet material she as wearing as a dress and traded the teacher his clothes for it. Again they brought him up to the front, one held his hands behind the pole and...down came the undies. So now, this teacher is standing in front of all of us naked, covered only by a tiny pink fishnet skirt, wearing a huge grin and his underwear (that would soon be lodged in the rafters and he would later climb the pole, wearing still the pink fishnet skirt, mind you, to retrieve) on his head. It was the craziest thing I've seen so far! Some of the westerners were a little freaked out, fortunately the naked guy didn't seem to be one of them. I thought it was hilarious and both Matt and I commented that company trips like this are *not* the norm in the U.S.!

After all this, I needed some down time to pause and reflect on the night's activities. Really, I had a great time and I don't think I've laughed that hard in ages! Since last night was Moon Festival's Eve, Kristy and I headed out to the beach to check out the nearly full moon. She brought along her guitar and she played as I watched the moon pop out from behind the clouds to brighten the waves and the little beach. Behind us, small groups of people lit fireworks to celebrate the holiday. We ran out to the water before we left to plunge our feet in one more time, and if possible it was warmer than the day before. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!

Moon Festival

Tommorow morning we are heading to Kenting for a long weekend. It's supposed to beautiful so I'm really looking forward to it! The city is cool and all, but a trip to see some green things would be super cool right now.

This Tuesday is Moon Festival, which is why we have the long weekend. So many people are going on the company trip that our branch is closed for Monday. According to Charlene, the coolest CT ever, Moon Festival is celebrated to honor a woman who long ago was married to an evil king. He got ahold of a potion that would grant him ever-lasting life. In order to save the world from his evil reign, she stole the potion and drank it herself, and then floated to the moon, where she lives to this day. To celebrate, they eat moon cakes (little round pastries filled with meat, vegetables, or sweet stuff), pumellos (I think that's what they are in English-youdza in Chinese), and have something like a barbeque.

The peel of the youdza is really weird. I peeled it with my hands, because we have no knives at the apartment (yet we have a bottle opener...hmmm, our priorities are interesting...) and then started to eat it. The first few bites were good, but then my lips started to go numb. And my tongue did a little bit too...so I put it down and waited for the numbness to go away. I found out later that the peel does that to the lips, and it also can be used for a refrigerator deodorant, *and* when you get the big ones, the peel can be cut a certain way to make a little hat for the kids! SO cool.

It's interesting how my standards for restaurant cleanliness have deteriorated since my arrival in Taiwan. It's not true of all restaurants, but the ones I can afford leave something to be desired in the area of cleanliness. Susan, Brian, and I discussed this the other night over a nice take-away dinner from "Uncle Greasepots'." Uncle Greasepots', as we have lovingly named it, is a little stand/restaurant that opens up at night and serves really good, really cheap food from several, unwashed bubbling cauldrons. The food is really greasy but amazingly tasty! It's possible to obtain a meal with 3-4 sides for 50 NT, or about $1.50 USD. One night as we stood drooling over the concoctions in the cauldrons and steaming bowls, a flying cockroach flew over from the street, landed on the counter dividing the customers from the cauldrons. The man serving the food stopped briefly, frowned at it, checked our reactions, when he saw we weren't freaked, he kept serving the food. The cockroach apparently wasn't interested, so it picked up and flew off. Now, I haven't had much experience with the roaches, but Taiwanese roaches are something altogether different. They are about 3 inches long and pretty fat. I've seen them just walking down the sidewalk, carrying briefcases, and inquiring about each others' families. Apparently Susan and Brian had a similar experience at an outdoor food stand, where as they sat down to eat, three baby cockroaches climbed across their table. In the States, they would have freaked out, but here, they just shrugged, flicked them off the table and dug back into their noodles. No ill effects thus far...

Hiccups

My last post didn't work, which has me a little bummed to be sure, but hopefully this one will work.

I finally found a post office today! It only took a month to track one down. I got to send off all the postcards I've been sitting on for the last three weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!

Not much news today, I actually managed to keep embarrassing moments to a minimum today. Well...aside from the embarrasing moments that I orchestrated to get kids excited in the classroom...Dancing like crazy fool in front of 15-20 laughing kids isn't really embarrassing. Especially when one jumps up and starts dancing too, it's actually loads of fun!

I did finally get to take a scooter out for a spin! It was super fun! I'm not ready to take it out onto the streets as I haven't quite conquered the "only pay attention to what's in front of you" driving style yet, but maybe a few more practice runs and I'll have it down. You just have to go, and watch out for the crazy taxis that have no qualms about squashing a poor, little scooter in an effort to get their passenger to their destination a little sooner...

One night in Taipei...

Taipei was fantastic! Even though we met with training group one, we still had a great time! The training wasn't as long or boring as the first go around and we got paid!

The first thing they asked us to do was (in small groups) recount our most memorable moment in Taiwan thus far. Clearly, I had mine picked out in a microsecond. Um...the poop story. Turns out someone else in our group had a very similar story only his involved pooping at the branch, missing, and a student and the student's mother walking in to find him cleaning it up...oops! Later, as we reconvened in the big group, the trainers asked the people from the various groups to get up and tell their favorite stories. Needless to say I was one of the people called up to tell the story. We had a good time and laughed hysterically (they especially enjoyed the "fire of heaven" part) and it made for a great icebreaker for the rest of the time. I met two South Africans and a Californian who live in Taichung, so we have some new people to hang out with. We also had dinner and drinks Friday night with some of the kids from the 1st group who live in Taipei! It was so much fun hearing about all the crazy things that have happened to people in the last few weeks.

Today we're off to Taichung Park, a park with a lake where you can rent canoes and splash about! Maybe later we'll hit the Jade Market or the night market, or if possible the Natural Science Museum...and it's officially one month that I've been in Taiwan today.

Good Morning...Businessmen?

"Ah, it's shaping up to be a wonderful Taichung morning," I thought, as I padded to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. "I think I'll enjoy a bit of air on the balcony before I start prepping." As I stepped onto the balcony I took in the view of the hills and the various neon lights and buildings in the distance. "Taichung is sure is beautiful in the morning," I said as I thoughfully sipped my coffee. Then I looked next door. As I stood there in my jammies, braless, taking in the morning air I thought,"Boy, those flourescent lights are pretty big for an apartment...oh, that's an office building. And that room I'm looking into is a meeting room." Then as I saw the businessmen waving hello, I smiled embarrassedly, waved hello and then crept back inside to reconsider my choice of balcony wear.

I'm back in Taipei this weekend for the follow up training. Normally we wouldn't come back until next weekend, but there was a scheduling snafu so Kristy and I are here to train with group 1 instead of group 2. Our train left Taichung at 6:10 am and I didn't get home from class last night until about 11pm, so with dinner and wind-down time, I managed to sneak in about 3 hours of sleep last night. We'll be heading off to training soon, so it's looking like a relatively long day...Taipei, here I come!!!

Enghisl

There is a lot of English around. Unfortunately, it's usually not enough to actually decipher what type of product, store, or restaurant it is. So far my favorite things I've found are:

Drinks:

• Lactic Drink: a milky looking drink that tastes similar to coconut milk and pineapple juice mixed together
• Pocari Sweat: never has sweat tasted so refreshing. It's similar to gatorade, only whitish and not quite clear.
• Fruit Milk: have yet to taste this wonder...

Various Products:

• Green Man and White Men toothpaste are both brands I encountered. White Men comes in flavors such as orange, strawberry, and cherry and usually includes a small toy in the package.
• Kuda: For Curious Woman --I think this is a clothing store chain...
• Prank Cat School Supplies: "Prank Cat, you are always on my mind."
• High Tide Condoms...The word 'condom' isn't on the package, but given that there is a western couple on the front of the box sucking face...I think 'High Tide' says it all...

And when left to only decipher signs from visuals...watch out! I've seen a sign that has a woman holding a baby, two huge babies crawling, and then in the corner a test tube, with two babies crawling towards the top...fertility clinic? Baby clothes? Maternity wear? This is store is apparently also "for curious woman."

Anxious?

After yesterday's teaching implosion, I decided to grade my homework the night I get it. I arrived at work about an hour early to do some final preparation and just generally chill before class. The night before, as I was leaving, I had noticed that I couldn't find the teacher's book for my PG class (Post-Graduation: the oldest students at Hess). I wasn't too worried as I was sure it would be at home. Oops...not there. Neither were the stack of tests I was to have graded for the following day. Oops again. So as I get there, I realize that I have to spend the hour tracking down my tests, finishing the grading and preparing games for games day in the same class. The other teachers weren't much help, they didn't have any game ideas for a PG class. Maybe I could try to make a crossword online...nope, printer malfunction. Oops again. So as I have half the staff rummaging through the garbage trying to find the exams, we check one of the other teacher's lockers only to find the teacher's book with the tests nestled safely inside. Phew. So I used the last twenty minutes to grade the tests, when I realized that I also needed to calculate the student's final grades *and* invent some games for the students to play. Doh.

As I was telling myself not to panic, a Chinese teacher walked up to me and kindly asked if I had the homework graded for her class. I told her that I had completely forgotten, but that I would do it right away. So, since my PG class wasn't the 1st of the day, I moved swiftly on to grading and recording the grades for her class. 'Round about the time the second CT asked if I had finished the homework for her class (which I had not only forgotten to grade, but hadn't even brought to school with me), I knew I was in for it. Let's just say I learned a valuable lesson that day: if one doesn't meticulously plan for games day, one winds up with something strikingly similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger's first day in Kindergarten Cop...Luckily, I was able to regain control of the classroom by making them write essays using vocab from their lessons. I was even intimidated by me...

In an effort to stick to my newfound goal of finishing HW as soon as I get it, I graded all morning and stayed after work to continue grading. After grading the assignments for 6 classes (the 4 from this week + the 2 I didn't have done yesterday), I only have the two more sets of books I got today to grade before going to bed tonight! With an average of 20 kids per class, looks like it'll be a long night...

Scavenger

I took my first spin on a scooter the other day. Susan and Brian managed to scam one for only 3,000 NT ($90 USD) and they took my out to pick up some loot. We found some garbage sitting by the side of the road. Since Ghost Month is coming to a close, people are cleaning out their houses and making new purchases so the streets are lined with gently used furniture, pictures in frames, and what not. I've never picked through "garbage" before, but the people seem happy we're taking it. When we ask, they smile and gesture to go ahead. So far Susan and Brian have found the best things: a wooden screen, a huge frame, some hanging pots, and this really great mirror with a lamp attached.

Yesterday was the last day of Ghost Month so the streets were again lined with huge garbage cans burning ghost money, (the afterlife requires cold hard cash) and tables filled with offerings to the "good brothers" (they are the ghosts that will haunt you if you don't appease them). The streets were heavy with incense and humidity, but it smelled nice and the red lanterns are lovely!

I Thought I Told You...

That We Don't Stop.

Last night was my first experience with the nightlife in Taichung. I'd heard it was good, but I had *no* idea. If last night was representative of every weekend...watch out! Brian, Susan, Brad and I went to a party at an expat hangout called fM. It was right around the corner from the hotel we stayed at when we first got to Taichung. It was hosted by some of the teachers from my branch and was so much fun. The theme was Charlie's Angels and Miami Vice with costumes, trivia games, bar-top dancing, drinking games, and prizes. Team Marshmallow (our team) went to town and totally dominated all categories to win the grand prize! We had to mix drinks, guess what was in shots, fill shot glasses with water from across the room with our squirt guns, invent the most "creative" body shot, and discover who the secret "Charlie" was.

Afterwards the party headed to a couple afterhours places called the Pig Pen and Sound Garden. Sound Garden was amazing! The whole thing was just a small garden with tall tropical plants and wooden walkways, with a small sheltered wooden bar area and a DJ spinning down tempo! Pig Pen was a little shadier but still a good time! We hung out and danced, but ended up taking off early at 4 am. :) It was crazy! Good times.

Yep, It's Yop!

I've made some exciting culinary discoveries this week. I had tried bubble tea in Canada and I enjoyed it. Bubble tea is a sweetened (fruit, green, or otherwise) tea with big, black tapioca "bubbles" in it. The Sub Station across the street from me carries Pearl Milk Tea, which also has the "bubbles" but in a sweet milk tea! Yum! Sometimes, I get tired of chewing my tea, but it's still pretty fun.

I also picked up what I thought was a container of milk from the bakery yesterday. It was white plastic with blue writing. Normally I wouldn't assume it was milk, but my roommatementioned she had bought milk there and it was next to another container marked fruit milk. So I take a sip...and it's not milk. But this time it was a pleasant surprise! It turns out it's a yogurt drink similar to Yop (a Yplait yogurt drink available only in Europe and Canada). I was so happy that I found it!

Adjustments

I'm trying to adjust to this new schedule of teaching from 5-9, but it's harder than you'd think. Mostly because I don't have transportation yet and I need to take the bus an hour before I have to be at work. I get home around 10:30 and need to track down dinner, then either crash or prep my next two classes. I've been spending the mornings prepping and tracking down lunch or breakfast, so I haven't really had a chance to do much besides teach yet. It's making me a little crazy, but it's only the first week, so eventually I'll find a better rhythym.

Hopefully, by next payday I can find a second-hand scooter, then it will only take me 15 minutes to get to the branch and I'll be able to get around much more easily! Well, I'd better get back to grading. Ahhh, the sweet sweet weekend approacheth...

Teaching the Taiwanese

Yesterday was my first teaching day. I was too exhausted Sunday night to even look at the books I had brought home to prepare the pre-written lesson plans. Who knew that walking around town for 8 hours would tucker you out so much? So I woke up at about 7 am and started to worry. I started preparing, taking a quick break to pick up some breakfast and drop off my laundry. I had a happy moment when I realized that I was able to communicate enough to indicate that I wanted my laundry washed and dryed, and that I should come back to pick it up at 1 PM. (I had two weeks worth of clothes washed/dryed for $2.50 US--not bad) Anyway, I spent the entire morning prepping four hours worth of teaching. That's too much. I screwed up anyway and forgot entire sections of the lesson plan. I guess that's what happens when you cram 2 weeks worth of material into one day of training. Arg.

One of my favorite things about Taiwan is, oddly enough, the garbage truck. It plays music that sounds really similar to an ice cream truck. Everyone seems to be weirded out by it, but I think it's actually hilarious. Especially when I imagine what it must be like for a Taiwanese kids to move to the States and see children running, with money waving in the air, after what sounds to them like a garbage truck. :)

Ok, I have a *really* embarrassing yet hilarious story to tell. Avoid reading this if: you are planning on eating in the next 20 mins, are eating right now, have eaten recently, or are generally disgusted by poop stories.

At the end of yesterday's outing I realized (as we were about a 45 minute walk from our apt) that I needed to poop. I let Susan know and she and I headed back, leaving the others at one of the nurseries we had seen earlier in the day. As we were walking I thought maybe I was having cramps too, but when I felt the gurgle, I knew I was in for a wild ride. The traveller's diarrhea had come at last, and it had come with a vengeance. As we walked faster, I wondered what I would do if I didn't make it. The poop was emminent. We looked around for a place to go. We decided the cafe on the corner was the best bet. We reached the corner just as the light changed so we began to wait. Susan started pointing things out to help me forget what was about to happen, but I couldn't wait anymore. We darted out into the traffic, which, luckily, was pretty light, and I grabbed her hand and started to chant "I won't shit my pants, I won't shit my pants!" We ran into the restaurant and tried to explain that I needed a toilet, and finally they pointed to the back of the place. I walked/waddled back as fast as humanly possible, only to discover I would be using a squattie. Given my last squattie experience, I was a little worried about this particular splashback, so I looked for TP, pulled my pant legs tight and unleashed the storm of heaven. The smell was ungodly! I turned around to flush and there I saw it. Of course this would happen to me! I burst out laughing as I realized that in my haste, I had aimed poorly and had completely missed the squattie. Well, missed the bowl part anyway. So now, I had a predicament. Run away, never to visit that particular establishment again, or deal with my mess. So, I took a deep breath and started cleaning. I was worried when I ran out of toilet paper, but luckily this restaurant, which was quite upscale, supplied paper towels (a relatively rare thing) which I raided mercilessly until the squattie looked passable. It still smelled horrible as most of the mess was now in the garbage can (no one flushes toilet paper here, you throw it into a can next to the pot), but it was usable. I stumbled out of the ladies and scooted out as fast as my little legs would carry me and ran to find Susan. "You will never believe what just happened..."

Group Outing

We're pretty much moved into the new apartment. We're still short a refrigerator, kitchen table and chairs, and some other miscellanous stuff, but for now it works. Kristy and I cleaned the place down pretty well yesterday while Brad was teaching, so the bathrooms are usable and the cupboards are dust-free. We also stocked up on water and noodles because there's a new typhoon headed this way. Usually they go farther north, but a cold front is pushing this one south so as the pass directly over Taipei, meaning we should feel it too in Taichung. Flashlights, radio, we've got the works.

I tried kumquat juice for the first time yesterday and was instantly hooked. There are amazing fresh fruit stands everywhere that will juice the fruit and add honey for you. The kumquat juice is almost like lemonade...almost...While on the kumquat tip the five of us (Brad, Kristy, Brian, Susan, and I) have been walking around today looking at cell phones and trying to hunt down the internet cafe. One down, one to go. On the way, we saw this really nice nursery and oohed and aahhhed at all the beautiful plants we can't quirte afford right now. They sold fruit trees and herbs too, and when the owner saw us looking, he ran over and told us to try some. Kristy tasted the mint and he pulled kumquats off the tree for us to eat. We tried to peel them, but he gestured to put the whole thing in our mouths. We paused and looked at each other to see if we should, and then took the plunge. Although *really* tart at first when the juice hit the tongue, the peel was actually sweet and it ended up being really good.

Random Embarrassing Moment: Brad, Kristy, and I stopped at a small stand behind our apartment complex that just gives you a bowl and you add whichever noodles, tea eggs, vegetables, meats, and/or tofus you want and then they fry them up with spices for you. While Brad ran off to get more crack, uh, I mean kumquat juice, we ordered our food. As I was trying to pay, I picked my wallet out from the depths of my messenger bag. Sadly, that's not all the flopped out of the bag. Through the air flew a black condom I had tucked into my bag months ago, landing on the ground next to Kristy. There was a young woman standing next to her and when I glanced down to see what had fallen, I gave a little yelp and then kicked it under the stand. I did this hoping no one had seen, of course, but since I made the noise and the quick motion, both Kristy and the woman looked over. Kristy started laughing and the woman just looked away. Luckily, it was night and not that many people were around. Phew.

Taiwanese Cold

I got my first (and hopefully last f0r a while) cold in Taipei a couple days ago. My lungs hurt really bad from all the smog and what not so I went to a doctor yesterday. My roommate Kristy had a sore throat and sinus pressure so she went too.

One of the Chinese teachers (CT's) from our branch took us to a little clinic around the corner. We waited to see the doctor in the back. We entered and he had us sit in a little dentist type chair that didn't recline. He asked us questions and typed on the computer, maybe ordering drugs while we sat there? He spoke a little English but when we had a prblem, the CT translated for us. Then he put this long metal tube in my nose and sprayed something. Rubbed a q-tip with brown stuff on it on my tongue, sprayed throat spray in my throat and then gave me a pink tablet to let dissolve on my tongue. He did the same thing to Kristy, but sucked something out of her nose with a weird device.

I have a regular cold, but she has an upper respitory infection. Now we both have to take about 7 pills three times a day for three days each and I have to take cough syrup too. It's kind of funny. The durgs come packaged in little paper sacks with cartoon charcters on them.

Good times!

Taichung Ho!

So I have finally arrived in Taichung. This is where I'll be teaching for the next twelve months and I love it so far. It's so much more beautiful than Taipei. The streets are wider, the buildings prettier, less polluted, less humid, traffic is actually managable, the streets are cleaners, and rent is CHEAP!

We are moving into our new apartment this afternoon. It's a beautiful high rise on a main road in Taichung City. It's about a 20 minute bus ride from the branch I'm teaching at and even closer once I get a scooter. We have four balconies (one is in my bedroom, that also has a private bath), an oven (which is rare in Taiwan), built in armoires, vanities, hard wood and tile floors, recessed lighting, and three amazing views. There are only two apartments on each floor, they are so big! From one side of the apartment you can see the mountains and the sun sets over the hills on the other side. The neighborhood is really close to a lot of grocery stores, bars, and expat hangouts if we get a little lonely and some of our friends from the training group are living in another building in the complex so we already have friends next door. We are meeting to buy mattresses today.

I start teaching on Monday and so far I have ten classes a week that each meet once a week. Seeing as each class has between 15-25 kids, that's a lot of names to learn, but I think I can handle it. We observed a class last night that was a little rowdy, but I think I can handle it. We'll see...Luckily, I won't be teaching any classes this month on Saturdays which is NOT a normal thing. Some people who have worked for years still have to work Saturdays, but they only had a few Saturday classes scheduled and I didn't get one. So nice weekends for me for a while!

In three weeks we all head back up to Taipei for another training session, this one only two days long. They'll put us up again, but before that I'll be going on a retreat to Kenting on the southern most tip of Taiwan. It's supposed to be beautiful there. We'll get a chance to meet a lot of the other teachers from the Taichung District there. I'm pretty pumped about that. It'll be a nice relaxing break from what I'm sure will be a very hectic few weeks of settling in and beginning to teach.