It's About Time

I haven't updated recently because of a combination of my being lazy and busy. I've also been sick for the past couple of weeks. I'm still coughing and right now my throat hurts so maybe I will go to a Taiwanese doctor.

One of the Canadian teachers at one of my school had a family emergency so she went home last week and I had to work 9am-12pm, Monday-Friday while she was gone. She was gone for about a week and a half but is back now until the last week of May so I will have to start working mornings again starting May 28th. My cousin Vincent is here now and he's trying to give the English teaching thing a try. If he doesn't find a job before I start my morning classes, I'll probably give my afternoon classes to him.

I'm might go to Thailand at the end of this month to look around, apply for a new Taiwanese visa, and visit a friend. Hopefully the Taiwanese consulate approves my visa request so I can stay in Taiwan until August. When I go, I will be missing one day of class but it should be okay if Vincent can substitute for me.

Vincent and I have been walking a lot going to different places. We've walked around Nankan (which is where we live) and we've been to Taipei a few times. I showed him Taipei 101 and Xi Men Ding. He also knows the bus schedule and the stops so now he can go to the city whenever he wants.

Today we went to the mountains and walked around. The weather was absolutely beautiful last week; it was the perfect temperature with just the right amount of breeziness. Now it is slowly starting to get more humid but today still wasn't that bad. We also went to a place called Fisherman's Wharf where we crossed the "Bridge of Lovers." Sometimes we get lonely and one thing leads to another...

Uncle Leo's Visit

We just had a four day weekend for the "tomb sweeping holiday". Tomb sweeping day was on Thursday and Friday wasn't technically a holiday but we still got the day off. However, we have to make up one day of class this coming Saturday, which is unfortunate.

Andy, the guy who owns the apartment I'm staying in, came back and we drove around Nankan and got some food at a couple restaurants. Uncle Leo also came back to Taiwan for a couple days along with my aunt, Michelle, and my four year old cousin, Celine. Celine is four years old now and Michelle has another baby in the oven and it's (don't know if it's a boy or girl yet) due in September. On Thursday night we got some traditional Taiwanese food, including frog, which I probably couldn't order by myself if I had to and afterwards went to talk and drink some tea.

On Saturday we met up again for dinner at a Thai restaurant with one of Uncle Leo's co-workers, Michael. The food there was great and I may go back someday but I feel a bit strange going to a Thai restaurant while I'm in Taiwan, haha. After dinner Michael left and Uncle Leo and I went to go get matching shoulder and foot massages while Michelle went to wash her hair with Selene. The massages were great but took a little...getting used to. Uncle Leo lucked out and get the female masseuse while I got the guy, but it wasn't that bad. The guy was telling us about all the bad things that I shouldn't be doing, all of which I do. It was pretty strange that he could tell so much about me just by touching my feet.

After that, I got dropped off at the bus stop and took the bus home. While waiting for the bus, I was talking to Uncle Leo on the phone because I forgot to get a copy of Michelle's resident certificate that I need for extending my visa. After a hung up the phone some girl came up to me and asked me if I was in line. Her name is Carol. She's around my age, Taiwanese, speaks a little English, and lives about a five minute walk from my apartment but goes to Taipei a lot. We exchanged numbers and we might meet up again and maybe I can pick up more Mandarin from her. When I got back I slept like a baby. Hopefully Uncle Leo and his family will be back before I leave because we definitely have to see each other again.

Toucheng

Today was 80 degrees and sunny so I went to the beach in Toucheng with a few other people which is about a 2 hour train ride from where I live. Waking up to go to the beach wasn't easy by I managed. I took a taxi to the train station to meet up with the other people and we all hopped on the train at 9:30am.

There are different "levels" of trains in Taiwan: local, slow, and fast (I think). The local train stops at every single station, the stow train stops at a few less stations, and the fast train doesn't stop at that many stations. However, I'm not sure which train we got. If you don't pre-order your train ticket, you may have to stand depending on how many other people buy tickets before you. The tickets all cost the same but if you pre-order, you are assigned a seat, making traveling much more comfortable. Since we bought our tickets 5 minutes before the train left, we had to stand.

When we got to Toucheng, we got some food and took a taxi to a little part of Toucheng that had a nice stretch of beach and a few good waves because one of the guys is a surfer. There is a nice little surf shop right by the beach that is owned by a few Taiwanese guys who also live there. They are incredibly nice and let my friend keep his surfboard and wet suit there and even let him shower there after he's done surfing. While he surfed, the rest of us just did beach-y things and got some sun. We eventually went back to the surf shop, cleaned up, went back to the train station, and took the train to Taipei.

In Taipei, we met up with a couple other people and got some food at Xi Men Ding. By this point it was getting late so I hopped on the MRT and took a bus home. The bus usually drops me off right in front on my apartment but today, for some reason, it took a different route and dropped me off about 10 minutes away from my apartment. No big deal...until it started POURING rain. I was going to take a shower anyway but mother nature beat me to it.

What I Do All Day

I got a bike the other day from someone who is just letting me borrow it so I can get to and from work a lot faster now. However, I'm a bit nervous that I'm going to get hit by a car or a scooter sooner or later. People here either leave their bikes unlocked or they just lock the back wheel to the frame so they back wheel can't turn. So if you wanted to, you could drive up in your car and just throw the bike in your trunk and take it off when you were at home. I'm not as trusting as the Taiwanese (I think it's because I lived in Cleveland) so I still lock my bike to poles.

I went to teach at my new kindergarten the other morning and there were a few other foreign teachers there. As it turns out, I had met them the previous weekend because they were friends of the Canadian girls. Small island...

Tutoring on Saturday morning is a very easy job even though I have to get up pretty early. I played snakes and ladders with Nelson for about 2 hours and just talked to Julia for another 2. It's very relaxed and their parents even bought me lunch. I get snacks when I'm at normal work as well so I'm always well fed.

Nelson.

All in all life is pretty easy going right now. Work doesn't really seem like work and it's just playing with kids. These pictures were taken today and it pretty much shows a normal day of "work" for me.

Jenga: Spell a word, take a brick.



Jeffrey learning about teeth (a bit ironic).



Aerial view of one of my "kindy" classes.



My six year old stalker.

Being a Tourist in Taipei

As you probably noticed by now, I got to Taipei every Saturday and this week was no different. I tutored for four hours in the morning and headed down to the city. Pictures are posted on Zooomr.

My first stop was the Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) Memorial Hall. CKS was once Taiwan's dictator and there are 89 steps leading to the top of the structure which represents his age when he died. There are two guards in the hall at all times who remain perfectly motionless until the "changing of the guards" every hour.

After that, I went to the Taipei Botanical Garden to look around. It was not too different than anything you would find in North America other than a few buildings here and there. Right next to the gardens, however, is the National Museum of History. I decided to go take a look and apparently they just started a new exhibit on Friday but it was dedicated to what kind of flower arrangement each room in the house used to have back in the old days. There were a few neat things like pottery and swords and I may have to go back if a new exhibit rolls into town. There's only one picture taken from the inside of the museum because you are not allowed to take pictures. After I took that one picture, I got yelled at and had to put my camera away. Sorry security person, but I can't read Chinese.

Next I went to Longshan Temple. The temple was built in 1738 and is probably the most noted temple in Taipei. The temple consists of three structures: on outer, middle, and inner (main) structure where the statues are. There's a giant ball that people were lining up for and what you're supposed to do is stand under it and make a prayer. The line was very long or else I would have tried it. Inside, you can see pictures of people praying in front of the statues and they're holding sticks. I'm not sure what these sticks represent (sorry Mom and Dad) but they smell like incense. You bow to the statue with them in your hand and you place a stick into the big incense burner. I was one of the only people taking pictures in the temple while everyone else was praying and I could tell they were annoyed. However, I was told by one of the workers that it was alright but that it would not be the best idea to take pictures of the statues so I didn't. I still felt a bit bad so on my way out, I got a few sticks, asked for forgiveness from the Asian statues, apologized to God for worshiping an idol, and stuck my sticks in different incense burners around the temple.

There is a night market that is right around the corner from the temple. Westerners refer to this market as "Snake Alley" but in Taipei it's called the "Taipei Hwahsi Tourist Night Market." It's called Snake Alley because they have some stores which have live snakes and sell snake meat. I also watched a demonstration (sorry, wasn't allowed to take pictures) where they had a live snake, tied it's head to the ceiling with a string, a cut it open while it was hanging in the air. The guy then pulled something out of the snake's body and cut it in half and lifted the bottom half of the snake upside down so all the blood would pour out into a cup of water. He then pulled something else out of the snake, cut it open, and green stuff came out into a separate cup of water. While he was doing all of this, he was talking into a microphone and I guess he was selling it because people actually started BUYING these drinks and drank them! I would have thought about trying it but I have no idea what he was saying and green stuff coming out of snake doesn't sound too good. I went to a little eatery while I was in Snake Alley and saw something that they were cooking that I thought looked interesting and I wanted to try it. So I pointed at their menu, which was very small, and since I didn't see any other food laying around I thought I'd get whatever they were cooking. Wrong. I got something totally different which wasn't very good so I just ate a bit and left. Moral of the story is to never point to something at a restaurant in a language you don't know and say "dzhe gu" (that one).

Pictures

My pictures will all be posted on Zooomr, which is a photo sharing website. The link is located under the picture slide show on the right. Enjoy!

My Apartment

Don't forget to turn up your sound!

St. Patty's Day

I decided to give the private tutoring thing a try yesterday so I got up early and went in. It's not so bad and all you have you have to do is read and play games. I was really tired after tutoring but I decided to go to Taipei instead of going home to sleep.

I got into Taipei and the first thing I did was go back to the little camera district where I bought a digital camera. It's a pretty nice camera that was selling for 2500NT more at other stores than the store where I found it.

While I was looking around, I saw a food stall that had a verryyy long line so I lined up not knowing what they were selling and bought a bun. These buns had some type of meat inside but were sooo good because they were cooked a special way.

For the rest of the day, I went to a couple malls and looked around. After than, I met up with AC and some other people at a pub where they were giving away FREE Guinness from 8pm-10pm. I stayed there till 10:30pm and actually caught the bus back home this time. I took a taxi to the St. Patty's Day party that those Canadians were having and ended up sleeping on their couch and ended up taking a bus home in the morning.

More Work Hours

Apparently I am a half decent teacher. I just got a call from my boss at my second school and they want to give me extra hours teaching at the school (including more Kindergarten)! The 'big boss' even wants me to come in and tutor his kids 2-on-1. The problem is that he wants me to come in every Saturday from 9am-12:30pm and that'll cut into my sight-seeing/sleeping-in time. I don't really know what to do because I don't really want to but at the same time if I say no maybe it will piss him off. My trial period at the school ends today but since I'm getting some crazy feeling that they want me to stay I'm going to try to negotiate some more money. So right now I'm working 12 hours at one school, 5 hours at a second (soon to be 7), and if you tag on the private tutoring it'll be a total of 22.5 hours a week with Tuesday off.

I got offered a full-time teaching job from a third school. They're giving me 24 hours a week (but I would have to actually work 30 in reality). I don't think I'll take it because they have two schools. One is a 5 minute walk from my apartment but the other is a good 15 minute scooter ride away. I don't really like the boss either so that makes my decision a bit easier.

I went to get some lunch today and I passed my a stall that sold buns with beef and onions inside. The guy warned me that it was hot so I let it cool down a bit before I ate it. When I took my first bite, hot beef juice squirted out and went up my nose and if anyone was watching they were probably laughing their butts off. I know I would be. I think my nose is burnt...

UPDATE: Got a raise from 600NT to 650NT per hour at the second school

Kindergarten

Today was my first day teaching kindergarten. The youngest kid was 2 1/2 years old and it was pretty fun. They learned about the human body and the different parts (head, shoulders, arms, etc) and we sang "head and shoulders, knees and toes". After that I made them draw a picture of them and their family.

I taught from 1:30pm-8pm and was on my feet all day so it got pretty tiring because it was just one class after another. According to my boss I am now a very popular teacher (HAHA) and the kids like me, maybe because "I am attractive to them".........ANYways, apparently my teaching skills are improving so we'll see if I get any better.

The school that I did a demonstration at yesterday called me back and they are interested in hiring me as a full-time teacher. However, one of their branches is a 20 min car ride away from where I live but I don't have any transportation. I told them I don't want to commute to the other school and I'll be meeting with them tomorrow so we'll see what happens.

It's really funny when I try buying anything here. The person behind the register always thinks I'm a local because I'm Chinese. So when I start talking in Mandarin (or at least try to), they either realize that I'm not from around the area or that I have the mental abilities of a 4 year old, which is somewhat true.

Getting Bored

I did a demonstration today for an hour for another school to show my teaching skills and got paid 600NT so it wasn't so bad. I'm still new to the teaching game and I don't know how to teach that well so the boss at the school said I needed to teach with more energy. We'll see if I get offered a job.

Since I usually don't have to work on Tuesdays, I got kind of bored sitting at home after my demonstration so I decided to walk around for a bit. I found another night market which was a lot better than the other one I was going to. This night market sells a lot more food, clothes, and even has little carnival games. I got some food and kept walking around. Amazingly, I didn't get lost this time even though I walked for an hour or so. As I was walking, I passed by a bar with some white people but decided to keep walking instead. So I walked a bit further up the street and say a bunch of these little shops with a girl working in the front who was barely dressed. My first thought was that these little shops were brothels so I turned around before I bumped into any trouble because who knows what kind of people hang around that area. I didn't want to go home just yet so I walked back to the bar where I saw the white people and I went inside out of curiosity. I started talking to the group and a bunch of them were from Toronto so it was pretty cool and I stayed there for a while just talking about random stuff. Also, they told me that the places that I passed by weren't brothels. They were actually sort of like convenience stores and the girls barely had any clothes on because they do more business that way. Anyway, I'm obviously back home now and might go hangout with the group of people that I met later.

By the way, people here drive on the right side of the road and the steering wheel is on the left side which I thought was kind of weird because I always thought in Asia the driver sat on the right. Weird.

Getting Lost, Again

Yesterday I went to Taipei to do some exploring. I'm going to wait until it's sunny outside and until I ever get a camera before going to the temples and other outdoorsy stuff. The first thing I did was go to Xi Men Ding, which is a bunch of little shops contained within an eight-branched intersection. They sell a lot of clothes, shoes, sun glasses, food, and it also has a little alley where people were getting tattoos.

Next, I went to Taipei 101, which is a shopping mall with a bunch of higher end stores like Lacoste, Gucci, Prada, etc. Taipei 101 has a fantastic food court on the bottom level where you can pretty much order anything you want. Right next and connected to Taipei 101 is the world's tallest building and if you go to the top floor of the shopping center you can buy a ticket for the observatory and there are elevators which will take you to the top of the other building. I didn't go but might try it before I leave.

While I was at Xi Men Ding I asked someone where they knew I could get a cheap camera. They said that the cheapest cameras were around this one MRT station so I ventured there next. They really weren't kidding when they said this place had cheap cameras. The area had literally about 15 camera shops crowded around each other so there was fierce competition. I was looking around and found a 7.2 mega pixel camera that I was going to buy for 7000NT but then AC called and wanted to know if I wanted to meet up. So I decided to come back another time before I made my decision and I met up and hung out with AC and his girlfriend for a while. When I left, I got lost because I tried using a different bus stop to get back home and couldn't find it. I still don't know where it is but I'll figure it out eventually. I ended up having to take a taxi home so I guess I had to learn my lesson the hard way.

The Minimum Wage

"The government does not have a set minimum wage, but a basic wage in its Labor Standards Law serves the minimum wage function. The basic wage set per month is NT$15840, and has not been readjusted since 1997. The calculated basic hourly wage is NT$66 (US$2)." That is just ridiculous. How are people supposed to live on that when two apples cost 140NT??

I went to my other job today and the classes were a lot bigger. I have three classes in a row and they are a lot harder to control than my classes at the other school because of the size. Hopefully I can adjust.

I was exploring today and used a different exit from my apartment complex than what I usually use. I walked down the street for about a minute looking for food and saw and English school. I went inside to see if they had any jobs available and apparently they might have a full-time job available (still won't have to get up until at least 11am!) but I'm not too sure if it'll work out. I really hope so because the language center is right outside of my apartment building but I'll still be okay with my current setup.

After that I found a nice restaurant where the people were REALLY excited to meet a foreigner. I have a strange feeling they did something to my food though. They're probably bitter about the minimum wage!!

Why Asians are so Skinny

I have yet to cook anything for myself yet, partially because I don't know where anything is and also because I'm lazy. However, all the places that I've been to give you small servings! Or maybe I just eat a lot? In either case, it does the job and it keeps me full but I'm just accustomed to stuffing my face. Also, the fruit is so expensive here! I bought four oranges for 117NT and two apples for 140NT (they were big apples though). That is just robbery.

Speaking of robbery, after my interview with the new school today, the 'big boss' drove me home. He just picked up his new car today, which was a Volkswagen Touareg. In the US, the car would cost about $40,000 but he paid about 2,250,000NT for his (~$80,000). That is just ridiculous. He says it's because of taxes and I told him he should just move to America.

I've been calling up other schools for jobs but have been getting the "I'm sorry we don't hire non-whites". Ah well. So instead, I started reading up on games I could play with the kids at school I'm at now and one of the games I stumbled upon was called "Dying Fish". This is how you play the game: "Each team has a fishbowl in it. (Either real or fake). If students say correctly, add a little water to the bowl. If they say incorrectly, take some of the water out of the bowl. If all the water is gone, then the fish die, and the other team is the winner." Poor fish.

First Day of Class

I got the "Pimsleur" Mandarin series levels 1-3 today. They're supposed to be one of the best resources in helping people learn Mandarin so we'll see if it actually makes any difference and if I think I should still go to classes or not. They are a bunch of mp3 files that makes the listener repeat and understand what it just said.

I went to work today and when I got there, my boss' daughter would not stop looking/smiling at me. She apparently has a bad case of Darylitis because later she even asked me if I had a girlfriend and she kept following me around all day. Although she was REALLY cute I told her that I was sorry but I actually did have a girlfriend (you're welcome, Katie). It also didn't help that she was 6 years old. Her mom started talking about how much her daughter liked me and the daughter got very embarrassed and tried to cover her mom's mouth. hah

I taught 5 classes throughout the day and time just flies when you're teaching. We did introductions first, obviously. During my first class one kid started crying because another kid made fun of his name. I was like "Oh what did I get myself into??" but it ended up being alright. So I started teaching and when you teach, you should incorporate games so that it's not just one boring exercise after another. In a few classes I did a boys versus girls point system type game and in another class we played Jenga. It's interesting to finally be on the other side of the learning table and now I have a better understanding of what my teachers have to go through. It's also interesting to see what kind of games entertain little kids' brains. It makes you a bit nostalgic.

So anyway, after teaching the first couple of classes I sort of got into the swing of things and it was a lot easier than I thought. I negotiated for a better wage (boosted it up to 600NT/hour) and tomorrow I'm interviewing at a school down the street for a Thursday/Friday job that provides 5 hours a week.

By the way, Danica, I know what you meant! Even though I live in the center of the universe for technological goods I still don't have a digital camera. I stole that beer picture from somewhere else. It may be a while till you see any pictures of anything substantial because I am po.

Taipei

So today I wanted to check out a school (Taipei Language Institute aka TLI) that I read about that was supposedly really good and teaching Mandarin but it was in Taipei, which is maybe the biggest city in Taiwan. So not knowing where I was going in Taipei, I hopped on the bus and tried to improvise. The bus ride to the city took about an hour and while we were on the highway I saw a bunch of rice paddies which made me chuckle. So we got to Taipei but the bus had multiple stops and since, like I said, I had no idea where I was going, I got off at the first stop and started walking around. One of my friends told me that TLI was right by the National Taiwan University (NTU) so I asked someone if they knew where it was. It was far away. They told me to take the MRT, which is the subway.

I went to the MRT station and asked the guy at the booth how to get to the university and he told me to get off at so and so station. Okay, this is good. I got onto the subway and saw another white guy whose name was AC. We talked for a bit and he told me that he was getting off at the station for NTU and I could just follow him. The station was different from the what the worker at the MRT booth told me but I figured he didn't know what I was talking about and gave me the wrong directions. AC and I got off the subway and walked over to the school but it ended up being NTNU and not NTU. Whatever, I made a new friend and we might meet up for drinks this weekend.

At NTNU I asked some people if they knew where NTU was and it was pretty close by so I just walked in the direction that they pointed to. Once I got there, I didn't see TLI and I didn't write down the address (stupid) so I just asked all the foreigners that I saw. There were a lot of them and I figured one of them would have taken a Chinese class there. Some of them told me one way while others told me another. So while I was walking around trying to find this place it started raining and I didn't have an umbrella. I was walking around back on forth for maybe a couple hours since I remembered the street it was on but not the actual address. Since I still couldn't find it, I stopped into a YMCA and asked them if they knew where it was. They didn't but they had access to the internet and looked it up for me and gave me the address.

I eventually found the place and met with the director of the school and she went over the times they had available. I wanted a morning class but they were pretty much booked during the mornings but they had 7:30am or 8:30am available along with scattered times throughout the afternoon. I think I'm going to try to schedule 1 on 1 lessons 10 hours a week for a couple hours each day. However, if I want to be able to pay for it I'll have to find a full-time job first. I'm going to find one in Taipei because schools are a lot easier to get to because of the subway system and there are a lot more options.

So by the time I left the TLI it was getting dark so I figured I would head back home just in case I got lost, which I did. I had a map of the bus line that was supposed to take me back to my house. So I got onto the subway and headed to the station I was supposed to get off at. I asked around if anyone knew where the bus stop was and once again, people pointed in different directions or they didn't know. So I walked around for about an hour and a half and eventually found the stop. When I got on, the guy didn't make me pay. Apparently you're supposed to pay when you get off. I got to my house and asked the driver how much it cost and the woman behind me who was also trying to get off was like "this much" and grabbed some change from my hand. She said 60NT, but totally grabbed an extra 50NT while she was "trying to help me." I don't know how to yell at people in Mandarin yet so I just let it go. C'est la vie.

Now that I know my way to and around Taipei, I can start looking for a job there. Even after I get a job, I'll keep living where I'm living, at least long enough for me to save up enough money to move closer because I don't want to spend 2-3 hours a day commuting.

Instead of going home right away I went to the night market and got some dinner. The night market is essentially just a group of little shops that sell cooked or uncooked food. I also stopped by a store that only sold fruit and picked up some bananas. Since I was cold, wet and hungry I thought I deserved a beer and got one from the convenience store. It's a 24 ouncer and boy is it delicious!

"Get a Job" Day

I remembered where the schools that I saw yesterday were and started walking around, which is kinda difficult since everyone and their mother has a scooter with no regard for pedestrians. I learned how to order noodles so I did that first to get my energy up. I got to one school but there was a guard at the door so I just called the number on the sign instead of dealing with the dude. "Wai? (Hello?)" "Hi, I'm wondering if you're looking for English teachers?" "Click." Sweet.

I tried two more schools and left my number but I don't know if those will work out. As I was walking to the last school that I knew about I saw a white guy and got kind of excited and asked him if he spoke English. Turns out he did and he was an English teacher (go figure). I walked with him to his school, which was where I was headed anyway to see if they had any openings. It turns out that they didn't. However, the guy that I met, whose name is (Ben) was pretty laid back and I got his number and I might meet up with him and his girlfriend later. I asked him if he knew of any other schools around and he told me that there was one around the corner that I didn't know about.

I left and checked that place out and BAM, I'm employed off the street with no experience or anything. Good deal. They gave me some books to go over and I'll start teaching 3-5 and 10-11 year olds in separate classes, 2:30pm-8pm Mondays and Wednesdays. My first day is this Wednesday and right now it's only part-time at 11 hours/week but if I can get a scooter and commute to their other location that's 20 mins from my place then I can work full-time at M-F 2:30pm-8pm which is about 26 hours/week at 550NT/hour. Not too shabby considering the "free" housing and 80NT lunches. Although not having to go to work till 2:30pm everyday would be nice, I might try to find some morning Mandarin classes to expedite my learning process. So now all I need is a scooter...

When I got home I had emails waiting for me about other job opportunities in my area. I called back and met with a couple schools but didn't really like what I saw because I got a really good vibe from the place that I originally found and the people there were really nice and the kids were very energetic. Also, the places that I interviewed at were only offering 14 hrs a week working 4 days a week and 16 hrs a week working 5 days a week so I figure getting 11 hrs a week working 2 days a week is a pretty good deal and will help me balance making a little money and trying to learn Mandarin.

Getting My Feet Wet

Today I got up, pooped (they was square toilet paper which are kinda like Kleenex), showered, ate instant noodles for breakfast (yum) and started walking aimlessly outside just to see what the area was like. It was 80 degress and sunny so it got kinda hot. I tried to find a map but all of them were in some foreign language for some weird reason so I gave up on that. I got hungry and tried to order some noodles but didn't know how so I went into the first bakery I saw and got a Chinese bun instead. I was still hungry.

I called up my aunt's friend (who doesn't speak much English, btw) to see where I could get a legible map. They told me they'd drop one off for me at my apartment but I wasn't there and had to head back. Now, the problem was I had no idea where I was and I had no map. Time to bust out my piece of paper with the address on it and ask random people. I eventually got home and got the map. They also drove me around where I live and showed me a bank, the mall, some schools, the supermarket, and some good places to eat. We stopped by one of the places and they got me some noodles cause ya know, they know how to order it and all. We also went to the supermarket where I got normal people toilet paper and some cleaning supplies for the condo. They dropped me off at home and left. I napped for a bit, woke up, tried to find jobs on the Internet, and am now going back to sleep.

My Arrival

So I always thought blogs were kinda nerdy but I guess if you're thousands of miles away from home and don't know anyone who knows what you're saying, it's a good way to kill time. Let me say there are better ways to spend your time on the Internet besides reading this so continue at your own risk.

I got into today around 9:30pm and needed a taxi to get to where I was going. There were signs at the airport pointing to the direction of where the taxis were supposed to pick people up and when I walked over there, some guy came up to me and asked if I needed a taxi. "Yeah." However, I needed to tell the taxi driver where I was going and obviously I don't know any Mandarin so he knew right away that I wasn't from the area. I busted out my piece of paper with the address on it and showed it to him and asked him how much. "600NT." ($1US = 33NT) "Okay, let's go." So this dude starts walking in the opposite direction of where the taxi sign was pointing and I was like wait a minute...this is kinda sketchy, he might either rob/kill me, or make it a lot easier for me to poop. So I was like PEACE and went to where the sign was pointing and found a cab that only cost me 350NT. I read about people trying swindle you if you were a "foreigner" but I figured I'd be okay as long as I didn't say too much since I'm Asian but I guess I was wrong. Crazy Asians...

When I got out of the taxi I met up with my aunt's friend who hooked me up with a cellphone, some cash, and the keys to a condo. I got some instant noodles and water at the 7/11 and I was good to go. I got to my condo and a dog ran up to me and I was about to play dead or something but it was all good cause I think all it wanted was some food. There are a lot of stray dogs here. The condo is pretty nice but it was a bit dirty since no one has lived there for a while It's a 3 bedroom/2 bath and has cable and internet already hooked up and I'm living there by myself. Time to sleep.