My trip to boot camp!

Fortunately, I was just a guest! My colleague's younger brother was just called to 當兵, or become a soldier. Every male in Taiwan MUST serve in the military for a period of time (one or two years, can't remember at the moment). His family made a trip down to visit him a couple weekends ago, and I went with them for fun! The other soldiers and families thought it was pretty strange that a foreigner (me) was joining in the festivities, but all in all a beautiful day and memorable experience. My colleagues' baby is a cutie too!

More pictures!

Happy New Years!

Cold and rainy at the moment, I took advantage of my free afternoon today and went hit a few balls at the batting cages... haha! So much fun to bundle up and go scooter-ing around. Thought I would post a few photos of the recent weeks, since I am a slacker and haven't been keeping up with the blogging...Getting ready for the hike... already beautiful scenery! This is near 新竹.
Rare Taiwan "old-growth". Pretty big, but nothing if you've been to our N. Cali redwood groves!
The route wee took. Signs here are semi-bilingual a lot of the time, but the English is usually pretty weird...Treated to a delicious vegetarian dinner as a reward for a long days' hike! We are all so full in this picture. Is my jacket sticking out, or is my stomach really that big? You decide... ;)

Pictures of Basketball Victory

I didn't have pictures at the time, but a friend sent me these today of our basketball victory, the second one has a picture of the "coach" on the left.

I know I haven't posted very much lately, but I'm going hiking tomorrow so hopefully will have more pictures and news.

Much love to everyone for the holiday season!

More hiking!

Last weekend was fun, first on Saturday was the "運動會" which is, I don't really know how to explain-- first there was marching by the students, then they did their little dance routines they had been practicing since school started, there were speeches and introductions of all the educational "bigwigs" who made appearances that day, then the sports began. There were races, relays, tug-o-war (students, as well as community members-- who were actually really into it.)

Speaking of the community tug-o-war, I was struck by how many of the men were chewing the 檳榔 (betel nut- Taiwan's version of chewing tobacco that comes from the seed of a palm that is grown ALL OVER the island of Taiwan. It is wrapped in the leaf of a different plant and chewed for it's mildly stimulating effect). Previously, I wondered just how growing SO many of these trees everywhere (whole mountainsides are cut down and planted with the palm)-- on Saturday I realized it is because SO many people chew the stuff like it's bubble gum.

On Sunday I left early for 大雪山 (Big Snow Mountain) to do some hiking. It was a little over 2 hours on a scooter, and it was away from everything! Really quiet and peaceful, the only mild complaint is that trails in Taiwan just seem to follow the ridge up to the top, no matter how steep it happens to be. They seem to not believe in switchbacks. So they will put lots and lots of stairs the whole way, along with rope lining the trail so you don't fall. I only took a couple pictures though. Next time I go I will take more!

Another shot at my glory days...

This weekend I was invited to play in a 3 on 3 tournament, I would be playing with two other girls I had never met before. Mostly the games were easy, my teammates were pretty good, so we beat the other teams pretty easily. It was so funny though, the other players thought I was a star or something. They were almost honored to lose to us. And I had a little cheering section, every time I made a basket they all "ooh-ed" and "aww-ed". When the game was over, they all wanted to give me a high fives. It was kind of embarrassing, but not too bad ;) So we made it to the championship game, and we faced the other good team. They were all about my height (which is really tall for Taiwan) and strong, and they played pretty well too. They had one girl that was taller than me, but obviously a post player and so kind of slow. I was surprised that they chose her to guard me in the game~ I love playing against post players, because they are so slow! If I play against the quicker, littler guards I tend to struggle a bit more. So I just started to score on her pretty easily, but they also scored some points too. Finally, the score was 13 to 11, we had 13. The games are to 15 points or until time runs out, and each basket counts as 2 points. We had the ball, and I drove past the big girl and shot the ball to win the game... but missed!!! I was mad I missed so tried to steal the ball back from the tall girl but fouled her instead, and she got 2 free throws, to potentially tie the game! I was so upset with myself, but fortunately she missed both shots and time ran out. We won! 1st place! Myself and each of my teammates got a trophy, a tee-shirt, and a box of soap. Yes, soap. I guess there is logic to that, we sweat so much during the game, we can go home and take a shower using our new soap! haha. Strange prize though. Good fun!

Taizhong finally dips below 70 degrees!

I have been spoiled by the beautiful mild weather in Taiwan, this morning was a cool 65 degrees! I felt like it was so cold... hahaha! I think I have been "wussified" by the balmy weather here... riding my scooter to school this morning was definitely chilly to me. But, it gave me the chance to wear the shiny new Adidas jacket (a thin one) that I bought this weekend at the night market. Lookin' good... ;)

I think winter is on the way!

Obama wins!

It's really amazing to me~ the level of excitement and interest in the US presidential election. Taiwan, on the whole, are huge fans of Obama! Everyone wants to talk to me about it...

They all ask if America is a racist place... apparently, money matters more to people than race!

I feel a bit bad for the guy... he'll be inheriting a pretty horrible legacy from the Bush fiasco... what a mess to be thrown into from the start!

Traffic laws in Taiwan II

Well, remember what I said about anything goes in Taiwan?? haha- not quite-- I almost got a ticket! The whole situation happened something like this: There is an intersection on my way home where I have to turn left, but the light takes FOREVER to change, so a lot of the time, if I see that the the turn left arrow is illuminated (this is for cars only... scooters have to turn kind of right into a special area in front of the traffic going the direction you want to go) I will just pretend I am a car and turn left too. Well, one day, there was a policeman there waiting for violators like me. He waved his little wand at me to signal for me to turn over. The conversation follows:
Officer (in Chinese). "(Your driver's license please)"
Me: *blink* *blink* "Excuse me?"
Officer: "(You can't turn left at an intersection on a scooter. Your driver's license please.)"
Me: *blink* *blink* "Sorry? What?"
Officer: *exasperated sigh* "(You are on a scooter.)" He points to scooter, then draws picture of intersection for me. While drawing on paper continues to explain in Chinese what I did wrong. "(You have to turn into the scooter lane and wait for the light to change. You can't turn left on a scooter.)"
Me: "Oh, so what your saying is that I have to turn right first, then go straight across the intersection the direction I want to go?"
Officer: *nods* "(Please pay more attention.)"
Me: "Oh, OK, thank you. Bye bye!"
Officer: *motions for me to leave* "(Please pay more attention)"
Me: "Bye!"

Close one eh! Sometimes, it is nice to be a foreigner... I can pretend I don't understand Chinese... hehehe. The officer feels like it would be too much trouble to deal with me and sends me on my way. Buuut... I think I might not break so many traffic laws in the next couple weeks :)

No on Prop 8!

I sincerely wish that people won't let their personal discomfort justify marginalizing the rights of California citizens- please vote NO on Prop 8.

Dawn and dusk- Taiwan vs. California

When I first arrived in Taiwan in mid-August, I was surprised that the sun set pretty early for the summertime... around 5:45 or 6 o'clock... wasn't the sun supposed to set around 8 o'clock in the summer? It also seemed to me that dusk was strikingly shorter in length of time than in California, the sky seemed to darken very quickly after the actual sunset.

Well, finally putting two and two together, (as an earth science teacher I'm supposed to have this stuff down by now... so embarrassing...) and remembering the tilt of the planet and its influence on different latitudes, I realized that the sun here in Taiwan has a more direct path overhead than in California, (closer to the equator) so the sun lingers below the horizon for a shorter amount of time than in California, where the sun moves at more of an angle through the sky. This would also mean that there would be a less pronounced difference in daylight hours between winter and summer.

Wanting confirmation and actual figures to prove my mini-enlightenment... I did a little internet research and found a very cool site:

http://www.gaisma.com/en/

where you can look at dawn, dusk, sunrise, sunset, daylight hours, etc. for a great variety of locations in the world! Complete with visuals! For example,

Táizhōng, Taiwan - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, graph

Darkness: light blue Dawn: dark blue Sunshine: yellow Dusk: pink

Compared with

Vacaville, California, United States - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, graph

Notice the thicker bands of dawn and dusk times for California! (The chopped look is not an error- it is offset for daylight savings time). There is also much greater variation between the length of day during summer and winter in California.

I thought it was so interesting!

The good things are the little things. Specifically, food.

Today, as I was finishing up my little box of fried rice from the little vegetarian place around the corner, I realized that I was starting to get the hang of chopsticks a little bit! Not that I am good, by any means, but I can eat rice dishes pretty efficiently now, I can scoop the little grains up many at a time, instead of grain by grain (very time consumning, let me tell you!)

After I made this realization, it occured to me that as the newness and shock of the experience of moving to and living in Taiwan start to fade a little, that there will be a lot of things about this place that I will really miss when I leave. Food, I have to admit, will be the formost on the list at this time. Beautiful, delicious, cheap, and all kinds of vegetarian food is everywhere! Can I even begin to talk about the fruit? Maybe it is that they have so many different kinds of fruits-- they have everything you could buy in the U.S. plus a wild assortment of tropical fruits that I have never seen before. I haven't even begun to try them all! Next time I go to the store I will take pictures I can show what I mean, words don't do justice.

I used to love the pearl milk tea, because that was the only thing available (granted, one could add an assortment of flavors to the milk tea...). Once I got to Taiwan, my goodness, the tea stands here are incredible. Fresh juice, either by itself or blended with green tea, black tea, red tea, whatever you fancy! My favorite is passionfruit with green tea (百香綠茶). So delicious! And people here are so friendly... they always want to let me try new things that we don't have in the States. Haha, people who know me know to win my heart with food, not flowers.

Traffic Laws in Taiwan

At first, when I saw people running red lights and breaking every traffic law in the book, I would shake my head... "tsk tsk.... how can they just go through the light when it's red, even if there are no cars coming the other way, it is illegal." or "my goodness! they just park their cars wherever they want! Even if it is half in the road, they think it's ok!" or "seriously, what kind of person makes a five-point u-turn on a busy two way street during rushhour?"

Then, one hot day, I was at a red light. And the traffic lights aren't like in America, there are no sensors that will recognize if there is actually traffic coming that way or not. You just have to wait the full minute and a half for the light to turn again. I felt the sun beating down on me, the sweat pouring down, and I thought... "what the heck! everyone else does it! when in Rome, right? there's no one coming the other way..." and so... I ran the red light. What a liberating experience, to be suddenly set free from years of being conditioned that I had to obey traffic rules! And now... I really quite enjoy it. It is so convenient, if you can make it, just go! If you feel like driving the wrong way down a one-way street, go for it! Everything is ok here, especially on a scooter. And you get where you want to go much faster. :)

Hualian

Hualian-- I think I found my vacation spot in Taiwan! Had a wonderful trip... here are some pictures. Fall in Taiwan is really a wonderful time of year, like a summer night in California but all the time...

All the cyclists on the road remind me of my Dad! He would love the roads and scenery... although perhaps not the humidity. Maybe later in the season would be best for cycling!




This is the view from Qiuxing's temple, looking out across the pacific (at california!)

















Me at the National Park. I know it's a bad picture but I don't have many with me in them-- too busy taking the pictures myself!






The coast- looking south. I went swimming on the far side of the cove, the water was as warm as it is in Hawaii.


This is a suspension bridge crossing a large canyon. It was quite an adrenaline rush to cross, it is several hundred feet up and as you can see very narrow... and make of rope. Good fun!



















This is the view from the suspension bridge. The picture doesn't do it any justice though! Definitely a cool place. I actually ran into a group of Mormans on the other side. They're everywhere! Sorry to any Mormans reading this... I'm just kidding...

Around the house...

The view of the mountains behind Taichung (from the 4th floor of the school where my office is).



This is the park I found-- two blocks from my apartment! Spent a quiet sunny afternoon reading here...

This is my room! I know it's beautiful...
small but does the job. There's another picture below.











Just a quick post-- I've had requests for some pictures of my apartment, so before I head off to Hualian for the long weekend (yeah! fun) I thought I'd put a couple pictures up. I'll take more pictures in Hualian! Should be beautiful.

They're warming up!

Today has been quite warm and humid, but not as bad as yesterday. I guess there's another typhoon headed Taiwan's way... it might be here on Sunday.

The kids are feeling much more confident in class I've noticed, which is great. I try to do activities where they have to speak themselves, and speak loudly. Like they'll do a conversation in pairs, and then I'll randomly select someone else and ask them what they just said. So the original speaker has to speak loud enough for the classmates to hear him or her. They get really competitive about this! Good times.

My Chinese basketball vocabulary is also expanding as I still play with the kids every day. They think it's great fun and try to teach them some English at the same time. They're favorite phrase is "Shoot it!" but when they say it is sounds like "Shooey!" Very cute.

Today is Teachers Day (Confucius's birthday) and every class gave me a card, and some students made their individual cards to give me as well. One class had each student make a little card then put it in an envelope, and they all wrote in Chinese because they know I understand. The principal also came into my class and gave me a rose and thanked me! Then, all the students gave a very vigorous round of applause. Too bad the U.S. doesn't have something like this! I don't know, maybe they do but I don't remember anything about it when I was in school...

Much love and peace to everyone.

Struggle to Milk!

This is a page from a student notebook.
I know there is a lot of stuff online about really strange English appearing in Asian countries... but I couldn't resist. This is just funny! I mean, come on, "Struggle to Milk"?!?! I can't even conceive of where they got this from... haha!




This is the cover of the notebook. Note the top: "Super Talanted you! I am very Ashamed."
Again, who comes up with this stuff? I was very amused.

Typhoon! 颱風!

I am having my first typhoon experience this weekend. So far it is crazy wind and rain that seems to come from every direction, it even seems to fall "up". Can't say I am a fan! But it's not too bad here in Taichung I guess, we've had around 440 mm of rain over the past three days, but on the east coast they've had over a meter of rain in the past three days! Lots of mudslides and road closures. It's a slow moving typhoon, so we'll be feeling the effects for another couple days, but it should be getting better.

For the first time I'm glad I have cable TV, haha!

Word of the day: 陡

For those of you who can't read the last word in the title of this entry, the word is 陡 (dou3 in pinyin) and it means "steep"! That is exactly what trail number two was in the Dakeng hiking area just on the outskirts of Taichung city. Let's just say that the handrails had cargo-netting and ropes to help pull yourself up the mountain-- quite an intense climb-- but fortunately not too long of a trail. I don't think I've ever sweat that much in my entire life, I was drenched in a way that I had thought was only a figurative way of speaking, haha! My Taiwanese friend Kate (on the left) and here sister Yu Jia (right) took me there on mopeds, it is about a 45 minute scooter ride away. It was good to get a good work-out in however, and the mountains are very beautiful, although because of the recent rains and humidity it was pretty hazy.

I'm settling into the role of "Teacher Kylee" ok, my co-teachers are all very helpful. But the best part of the day is at 4:00 I play basketball with a bunch of the 6th graders. They are so awesome! Plus, because we are friends now they try harder in class :) I included a picture of the 6A class.

I sure miss everyone back home though, I guess a lot has happened since I left, as recent as that is, and I feel very far away. I'm keeping everyone in my thoughts! Much love.

Whew!

Day two of teaching... fun but tiring. I had 5 classes today-- to 3rd grade classes, 2 2nd grade classes, and a 6th period class. The second graders were actually a lot of fun, especially the morning class (They were all awake) but the other class was right after lunch so a lot were sleepy and seemed a bit annoyed that I interrupted their nap. (In Taiwan, lunch is an hour and a half long, and the students nap at their desks for the last 45 minutes or so-- it's required!)

The names of some of the students are so funny!! For example there was a kid named "Denzell", there was also "Yo-Yo" "Latie" "Greek" "Yuva" (huh?) "Latin" and "Kai". So cute. Tomorrow I have two 4th grade classes and that's it. I'll bring my Chinese so I can study :)

First day of school!

Things are off to a smooth start at Tai An Elementary, everyone is very kind and welcoming, and a lot feel comfortable speaking to me because I understand their Chinese... they don't feel the pressure to use English. If they can't find the words, they just use Chinese and I understand, which is pretty cool.

There was an assembly this morning, it is so different to an American school! The students had to stand in very straight lines in exact rows, and the teachers walked around correcting students posture as commands were being barked at them like "attention!", "at ease!", "kneel", and "sit!". So interesting. But the students didn't make a peep, no one had to tell them to quiet down, it was truly amazing! The principal introduced all the teachers to the students, and last but not least was me, the "young, beautiful, intelligent foreigner". She also told all the students I could speak Chinese. Oh well, now they know.

Lunch was cool, they have vegetarian food for us, and then the woman who really reminds me of 淨媽媽, I don't know what she does, I think some kind of secretary, but her size, shape, tone of voice, and talking speed are so similar, it is really amazing.

Most my classes were canceled today as it is the first day, but I djd have one 6th grade class. I was warned that the levels were varied, but I didn't think they would be SO varied. Some students were great! They understood everything I said with no help or translation at all, whereas others didn't understand a word, they even could not remember their English names! One little boy was really cute though. He forgot his name and I brought over a name list for him to look at. He picked the name "Roy" because it was only three letters. I really feel this name suits him so well! I saw him later on in the hallway, and I said, "Roy, don't forget your name!" and he looked at me blankly. Then he yells something at me in Taiwanese, none of which I understood except for the last two words which were "Tia bo!" which means "don't understand". So I walked back and said in Chinese, "Remember you English name, ok!" and he was so shocked that I knew what he said. He asked, "Do you understand Taiwanese?" I just smiled and said "A little". Such a cute kid, I'm sure I'll have a lot of "Roy" stories by the time this is over...

Another thing in class was that I had the students work in groups to come up with questions they wanted to ask me. Sure enough, one group asked, "do you have a boyfriend?" I repeated the question louder and asked if everyone understood the question. The giggling told me they understood. Then I asked everyone who thought I had a boyfriend to raise their hands. Every single kid raised their hand, it was so funny! I asked everyone who thought I didn't have a boyfriend to raise their hands... not one. When I finally told them I had no boyfriend they seemed disappointed... "not even in America?" they asked me. I might let them ask a few more questions next period :)

Deepest sympathies

I woke up this morning and checked my email to find a disturbing email from my Dad, that Kelly had tried to get ahold of me as her niece Adyson had been in a terrible accident. Later, at the office, I checked myspace and was deeply shocked and saddened to find out that Adyson had not survived, and passed away at 23 months of age. She was a bright and beautiful little girl, and my thoughts and prayers go to her and her family in this tragic time.

Scooters and AC

Life is good when you have air-conditioning! Mine busted a couple days ago, so have been sweltering--fortunately I had an electric fan to get me through the nights. But came back from the office today on my borrowed scooter (SO fun!) and I have a brand-new perfectly-working air-conditioner.

I went exploring around town a little bit after the speaker ended for the day. I was told there was a cool bookstore called Caves that had a lot of English books, so I thought I would check it out. I only got a little lost on my way there, but found it in the end and it does have a pretty good selection of mostly bestsellers. To say learning English it popular here would be an understatement... they have an entire floor of books devoted to learning English at all different levels. Quite amazing really! Even more exciting is that when I get my teacher's ID I can get a 20% discount card. Sweet!

I have had a request for pictures of my apartment, but actually apartment may be a bit of an overstatement. It is more like a hotel room with a large mini-fridge and sink. But it has a double bed, two desks, a TV with cable, and a wardrobe. Pretty comfortable really. Anyways I'm not quite finished setting up, but when I get all situated I will take a picture, I promise!

I will be meeting my colleagues on Thursday... how exciting. I hope I will be a good English teacher.

In the apartment

Temple in Alishan












Well, all moved in! Yesterday Qiuxing (秋杏) came down on the bus from Xinzhu and took me to get bedding and towels, then we did some sightseeing on her nephew's scooter. It was quite entertaining because she was driving me, and I'm this huge white person, legs practically dragging along the street, being driven by a mid-forties aged small asian woman. We turned a few heads, that's for sure! As far as the place I live, there is a supermarket two blocks down which is awesome. It has a lot of Western food there. There is also a vegetarian restaurant a few blocks down so everything is pretty convenient here.

I should meet the people at my school on Thursday, but I'm told they will love you because the teacher at their school last year was a bit crazy, and wore see-through mini skirts to teach and whatnot. So I imagine it will go well :) Today, off to explore the area around my apartment.

Finding an apartment!

At Chiang Kai Shiek's Mausoleum (蔣介石)

Antique bed I used at Qiuman's (秋滿) house

Hi All~

Well the last blog I posted is actually a little outdated, I have gone to Alishan and back, and have been in Taizhong for a few days already. But I wrote that post before I could hook my computer up to the internet, and decided to put it up anyways. I have been attending the “new teacher orientation” which has been somewhat helpful but a lot of wasted time, oh well I’m getting paid. I’ve been staying with another English teacher from another school here in Taizhong named Sheryl, she’s in her late 50’s (I’m guessing—didn’t actually ask that question) from Texas, and quite a character. She has taken it upon herself to correct the Taiwanese whenever they transgress American cultural norms. Her only words of Chinese are “thank you” and “you’re welcome”. She also says 沒有 sometimes but it sounds like she is saying mayo. 很好笑! Entertaining to say the least. I think I’ve found my own place at last, not too far from the school I’ll be teaching at. 15-20 minute bicycle ride I think, but I’ll check that out this weekend I think. The important things were that it has a mini-fridge and TV, plus it is pretty good sized one-room place. At least it is bigger than the room I’ve been living in at CTTB.

On the whole, I've been very well looked after by everyone. I have nothing but good things to say about Dewey Recruiting too, they have been so helpful from the beginning. I've see some scary things on the internet about recruiters, but I relaxed when I got here, they are all great. They drive me to see apartments, take me shopping, everything. If you're thinking about coming to Taiwan, definitely check them out it is worth it.

I miss my friends and family though. Much love going out to everyone!

Sightseeing

What a great start to Taiwan! Got through customs no problem, and 秋滿 (Qiuman),秋杏 (Qiuxing), and 秋滿’s husband were waiting at the other side of customs with a little sign that said “Kylee Bennett”~~ how cute :D As soon as I stepped outside I was hit with the beautiful warm (85 degree) and humid air of Taiwan. Feels just like Hawaii! (aww, Annie!) We went and got breakfast- sandwiches and tea- the sandwich for me was bread, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, and… PEANUT BUTTER! That’s right… peanut butter and tomatoes. It tasted good though. Next, we went to Chiang Kai Sheiks’ Mausoleum, it was a beautiful park dedicated to the leader of the Nationalist Party who had fled to Taiwan in the 1940’s. (He was the guy who was fighting Mao ZeDong- leader of the Communists). What was interesting was that they had collected all the statues of him throughout the island of Taiwan and displayed them there- because now there is a huge rivalry in Taiwan between the Nationalist Party (who Chiang Kai Sheik was the founder- they want “unification” with China) and the Democratic Party (who want Taiwan to be an independent country separate from China) so members of the DP were vandalizing the statues. So in a big park there are around 140 statues of him. It’s really interesting. They also had a changing of the guard ceremony that reminded me of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington DC.

It was cute, too, when I was walking along with my hosts, we walked past a little girl who looks at me and shouts, “外國人!” which means “Foreigner!” We all started laughing and then 秋杏 said, “you should get used to that!” I thought I was a minority in CTTB—but I didn’t see another white person there the whole time.

We went and ate at a vegetarian restaurant, it was delicious! The food is fresh and tastes great. After going home for a quick nap we went to 新竹 (Xingzhu) to walk along a beach trail and watch the sunset. There were hundreds of people on bikes doing the same thing. Then we went and ate at another vegetarian restaurant- again very delicious. I guess there are a lot of vegetarian options in Taiwan because so many people are Buddhist! Awesome!

Tomorrow we are going to 阿里山 (Alishan) in the mountains; it is famous for its beautiful sunrises. Getting to see some sights before heading to 台中 (Taizhong) to start work. I’ve posted some pictures for you all to look at!

two days to go

Sorry all my friends I didn't get a chance to see before I take off to Taiwan... hope you all forgive me!

I just read my last blog-- how boring, sorry it is so systematic but I guess I've just been putting one foot in front of the other, don't think too much or my brain will explode. Tomorrow morning I'm making my last trip to the City-but I can't think about that too much or I will be sad.

I realized yesterday I have never been out of California for this long before. When I was in NZ it was only half a year. But these last couple days I have been strangely excited. It will be such a different experience.

I will take a lot with me, wonderful memories and experiences-- treasures I will always have.
Thanks and gratitude to all those who have been positive people in my life- you know who you are ;)

Preparation

Well, I'm heading to Taiwan a year earlier than I had originally planned, so I've been rushing to get things ready for the trip. I am a bit nervous-- I've never taught English as a second language before, although through the Sonoma State Credential program I have supposedly received "training" in this area...

My first step was to prepare a resume and cover letter, it wasn't too hard as I had begun this process for my Sonoma class. Then I googled teaching in Taiwan and started looking for advertised jobs. I found several agents that immediately offered to help me find work. The first was "Footprints" based out of Canada, they even conducted a phone interview with me. However, they haven't been in too much contact. Mirela Ploesteanu from International Avenue in Taichung/Taizhong/台中 who has been really helpful so far. (I really don't like the old-style romanization of Taiwan cities... it just sounds wrong to me.)Then there is Mickey Ho from ESL Dewey- also in 台中 who says he can help me get a public school job... even though I have a BS in soil science when I've heard I need a BEd. He assures me I just need the teaching credential and I'm cool. We'll see. Andrew Liu from the same agency helped me find a place in 宜蘭 but it is a 補習班 and I was thinking I would try out teaching at a proper school (private or, if possible, public) first. Anyways, can't commit one way or the other until I get there, so I just have to be patient I guess.

Did the CPR class then hand delivered my stuff to the credential office at SSU (working against the clock! i need that paper! why oh why did i put this off for so many months?!) Took several sets of passport photos, got another official diploma from HSU (my original is framed) went to the Taiwan Visitor's Center in SF and got a visa. So looks like everything is going to work out ok, 近育師的妹妹 will come pick me up from the airport and help me get set up. I also have had 近育師 record some things for me to say, like "Thanks for coming to the airport to pick me up, I hope I am not too much trouble." and "Could you help me take a picture?" Haha, I'm gonna die.

Just kidding, things will be fine. I have so much help from good people. Two weeks to go!

I hope I am doing the best thing.