Back in Keelung

Hey everyone!

Well, I'm back home safe and sound! I had a lot of fun on my trip. We drove down the East coast, stopping wherever looked pretty. It took us 4 days to drive the East coast. Very windy (as in turning not blowing! long 'i'! haha) and hilly roads. There was a lot of traffic in some spots but all in all it was good driving. The coast is very beautiful. We spent the 4th and 5th nights in Kenting on the very southern tip of Taiwan. This is a very popular tourist destination in Taiwan. It's very warm and has nice beaches. It was so crowded there! My American friend said it was like spring break in the South in the US. A lot of people we knew from training were in Kenting so it was really cool to catch up with everyone. After Kenting, we headed North. In normal traffic we could probably have gotten back in one day but the traffic was so crazy that we had to stop in Taichung because it was getting late.

Most of the time we stayed in dodgy hotels and hostels haha. On the East coast we always spent 300NT ($10) each per night. The first night was at a sleazy hotel in Ilan that had paintings of naked women on the walls and mirrors on the walls and ceiling. The next two nights we stayed in hostels. The first one was in Tarako Gorge and was a big room with 8 bunkbeds that we shared with other people. The second one was in a cool little fishing town just below the Tropic of Cancer where the people were incredibly friendly. We couldn't find a hotel so we stopped at a pharmacy to ask. It was a family run business, and, being Chinese New Year, the whole family was there. One of the daughters is 23 years old and she could speak English. Her father took his scooter and drove around the town looking for a place for us while her mom called around on the phone. When they found one, the two daughters got on the scooter and led us there and then stayed to make sure it was okay and we got settled. The place was pretty nice but the style of the sleeping was that you get this huge room with mats and blankets and pillows and you sleep on the floor. We had the room to ourselves and it was actually pretty comfortable to sleep. The first night in Kenting was so busy that we camped with our friends from training. The next day a few of us found a hotel room. It was more expensive (1100NT each or about $33) but it wasn't as dodgy as the others. In Taichung we spent 400NT (about $13) on another dodgy hotel.

Driving was okay. I did most of it. The drivers here are pretty crazy but once you get used to it you start to drive like them haha. We got lost a few times (once in Taipei!) but we always found our way again. We had a bit of car trouble at one point. We heard this strange noise and smelled some burning so we pulled over. Within minutes there was a medium sized group of locals around us trying to help. They must have called a mechanic friend of theirs or something because a few minutes later a guy pulled up in a van with a toolbox. He jacked our car up and checked all the tires until he found the one that was giving us trouble. He had to rotate the brake pads and remove a little piece of metal that we didn't need but must have been causing the brake pads to rub against something. I clearly don't know much about cars but it did the trick.

I think that's about it. I had a lot of fun and am glad that I got to see so much of the country and experience even more of the hospitality of the people here.

I added more than 250 pictures to my photobucket page. There are pictures from my trip, a few of some kids in one of my classes, and a few from a party i went to before chinese new year. the link again is http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/lauraohearn/

Hsin nien kuai le!

Happy Year of the Pig! (I know it's early but I probably won't be posting for a while.)

I know it's been a while; I'm sorry. Time is just flying by here! I made a countdown on my calendar; my contract is up in 293 days :P

I booked my ticket to Australia in April. I'm leaving Taiwan on April 4th and returning on April 16th. I'm really looking forward to it.

Chinese New Year is quickly approaching. We have the car booked, and four of us are going. We're not really sure exactly where we're going or where we'll be sleeping but we're going to buy a tent just in case we get stuck. It will be an adventure!!

On Sunday my company had a big year end banquet to celebrate the new year. It was in Taipei. Some parts were pretty boring (speeches, awards) but there were some performances that were pretty cool. There was this cool drum performance and some of the Chinese Dragons performed during it, too. Very cool. There was also a singer/guitarist who is blind and very talented. There was also a traditional Chinese orchestra. After the ceremony, we went to the dining rooms for dinner. That was interesting, too. I tried many new foods like shark fin soup, jellyfish, eel, amologna (probably spelled wrong but sounds like bologna so I spelled it similarly - it's a type of large clam) and lots of other interesting foods. most of it was yummy. There was also lots of free wine which made for an interesting night :) They ran out of wine just before dessert but after it was over, people cleared out pretty quickly and we went around collecting the half finished bottles from other tables. Waste not, want not. :) We were feeling pretty good after that! haha. Then we went to a little outdoor bar to grab some beer. There wasn't a washroom but there was one in a parkade not too far away. Problem was, there was only a men's washroom!! Someone had taken a pen and drawn a skirt on the sign as well, though haha. There were two urinals and a stall with a regular, western toilet. So, it was my first time using a men's washroom. Hey, that much wine has to come out one way or another!! We didn't stay out too late and shared cabs home. I was in bed by 1 and woke up around 7:30. All in all it was a great night haha. I have pictures on http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/lauraohearn/

Here's a creepy story:
When we were at the bus station in Keelung waiting for everyone, this woman came up to me. She had a baby strapped to her front and was smoking (practically in the baby's face) and chewing betelnut. She said "Hello" and then proceeded to talk in Chinese. Now, I'm taking Chinese lessons but I can't understand a whole lot yet. Luckily everyone else there spoke Chinese and English so they could translate. She asked me how old I am and kept saying that I'm very beautiful and how beautiful foreigners are. She asked me if I'm married or have children. Then she made me hold her baby's hand. It was almost as if I were a celebrity or something and she wanted to be able to tell her baby later on that she had met me when she was very young. It was pretty creepy.

Well, that's all that's new on this end. I probably won't write again until after Chinese New Year. So, Happy Year of the Pig! and, Happy Valentine's Day!!

play safe and have fun!

Gastroenteritis

Hello! It's been a little while since I've posted, I know. I just can't be bothered, especially since I don't think anyone reads this. I woke up vomiting yesterday morning. That quickly evolved into vomiting and diarrhea. I pulled myself together long enough to stumble to the doctor's office. He told me I have gastroenteritis. I looked it up and it's pretty much food poisoning. The website I was looking at says that symptoms don't present until 2-5 days after the consumption of contaminated food or water so I don't know what it was. The doctor gave me a buttload of pills to take (as is the Taiwan custom for every ailment) and told me to keep warm and only consume warm water. I'm feeling much better now, apart from occasional abdominal pain, and cloudy judgement that's probably from the pills.

Not much else is new. Four of us are renting a car for Chinese New Year and travelling around the island. I'm getting pretty excited for that. Finally get to explore this fantastic island. It will be a little scary driving, though. And I feel like I will be doing most of it.

Happy 2007!!

Well, new year's eve didn't turn out how I said it would but it was still a lot of fun. Not many people made it to Taoyuan so we just drank a little beer and watched some movies. Good movies, though. Matchstick Men and Intermission 911. The latter is so random but really good.

New Year's Eve we went to Taipei and met up with a bunch of people from training. Then we went to Taiwan Beer Bar. Taiwan Beer is the main local beer here and Taiwan Beer Bar is where they make it. They sell the fresh stuff at the bar and what they don't serve the day they make it, they sell to stores and other bars. It was pretty cheap, too. After that we walked to a memorial hall that had a good view of Taipei 101 and watched the fireworks. No roof-top party :( But we had a nice view and the fireworks were really cool.

Back into teaching and it's still going well :) I heart my kids.

Well have fun and play safe!!

Why do I bother writing these?

I don't know. Nobody reads them! Anyways, teaching is still going well but the kids are getting used to me now so they're more rowdy and I'll have to start 'disciplining' them. By discipline I mean take away team points on the white board haha. However, I dread my oldest class. They're so quiet. It's like pulling teeth. And the CT has hand fed them everything so if you don't go through every little detail with them, they're lost. They're one level from graduating and they follow directions more poorly than my class who's only been speaking English for 7 months!!!! Ah, well.

As you can tell, I didn't fall into the earth's core during that earthquake on Tuesday. However, I did feel it even though it was south of Taiwan and I'm on the very tip in the northeast!! Earthquakes are freaky.

Tomorrow night I'm going to a New Year's Eve eve party in Taoyuan! It should be fun. I'm meeting up with people from training. Then, on Sunday night, I'll be in Taipei at a roof-top party from which we will be able to see the fireworks shooting out of Taipei 101!! yay!! Sorry if I sponanteously cheer like an 8 year old. Wait a minute, I did that before I even came to Taiwan ;)

Anyways, it's bedtime! 1 month down, 11 to go!!! Take care everyone and Happy New Year!!

xoxo

Backpost # 2

I know. I'm a terrible blogger. Does anyone even read this thing?? Well, again I have to same dilemma as last time in that there's so much to write that I don't know where to begin so I'm going to start by reposting the mass emails because I'm actually good at writing those!

Settling in Keelung 02/12/06

So training went well and for our 'graduation' party we went to a function floor at the main office (very posh) for a 'wine, cheese and beer' party. After that we went to this thing called KTV.. it's very popular here. It's kind of like karaoke but you go into a private room so it's just you and your friends singing along... or drunken screaming along as it turns out :) The alcohol is apparently expensive at KTV but you can bring your own so we just got beer at 7/11 and took it in. After that we went to a nightclub that had just reopened and so cover was free. All in all it was a good night.

Keelung so far has been nice. It's much prettier and the air is much cleaner than in Taipei. Everyone at my branch is really nice and helpful. For the last three days I've been observing classes taught by other teachers. I observed my last class today and I start teaching Tuesday evening. Right now i work mondays and tuesdays 6:40pm-8:30pm, Wed, Thurs, and Fri 4:30pm-8:30pm and Saturdays 10am-11:50 am and 1:30pm-3:20pm. So, not too bad. I'll have mornings off at least until February and then I might be able to pick up some kindergarten classes. It doesn't seem like a lot but I get paid about $30-$35 CAD per class (each class is 2 hours) and the cost of living is pretty cheap (rent is 2 hundred and something and you can get big meals at street vendors for $2-$4) Speaking of street vendors, I've been eating some crazy stuff. Last night Gabriel (the South African guy who lives in my complex) and I went to the night market. The night market here is 'famous' for it's food. Anyways, we tried fried chicken feet!!! yes real chicken feet, i have pictures that you'll see later. We also had bbq'd octopus tentacles!!! They were both pretty good but I couldn't stand the concept of eating chicken feet so I only had a few bites.


Update from Keelung 13/12/06

Teaching has been pretty great so far. The kids are amazing. They're so smart and cute. A lot of kids here go to school from 7am to 9pm. They go to regular school during the day and then cram school at night for their different subjects. So, I teach at English cram school. They also go Saturday mornings/early afternoons.

I've been adjusting to life here. I was physically sick on Friday so I stayed home from work. I slept all day and when I woke up I got really homesick. So, I've been recovering physically and emotionally since. I'm getting into a routine and I still really like it here. But home is so far away both in distance and in time until I see it again. We don't usually get home until after 10pm every night because we stay at school and grade homework. So, by the time we get home all the restaurants are closed and only street vendors are open. Gabriel and I found one that we really like and so we've been going back there every night. It's pretty funny. One of the girls there speaks English so she always serves us. Tonight they'll be closed so I think we're going to go to the night market in Keelung and get some sushi. I want to try the raw fish kind. I've tried the vegetable and cooked meat kind and I like it so now I'm getting more adventurous.


Contact and Pictures! 17/12/06

*Not posting contact info on here so contact me for my phone number and address*

I also made an online photo album with all my pictures. There's 170 of them so make sure you look at them when you've got a lot of time :) The address is

http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/lauraohearn/ If you click on a pic it will get bigger and you can see my captions... you can also go to the navigate to other pictures from there so you don't have to keep going back and forth.

Merry Christmas to all!! 25/12/06

Merry Christmas!! Santa found me at 10am this morning. He must have gotten confused when he went to Prospect and I wasn't there. He brought me a shiny new air conditioner (yes, it's bizarre this time of year but it acts as a dehumidifier so it's a good thing to have here any time of year) He also brought me a shiny new internet connection!!!! Just what I wanted. And it also came with a home telephone line.

So, Saturday night I went to my work Christmas party. It was fun. We went to a nice restaurant and had secret Santa. The funny part is that I bought the same present for my 'angel' as i got from my 'Santa'. They were gift boxes from the body shop with shower gel and stuff like that. Then a few of us went bowling again and got a little drunk hehe. Yesterday all of the girls went and got our hair done. I didn't know what I wanted so I just told her to do whatever she felt like. Well that was interesting. She straightened the front bit of my hair and kind of swept it across my forehead and pinned it to the right side of my head. Then, she took the end of that piece and wrapped it around into a circle and pinned it down. then she pinned the rest so it was half up and then she teased it a little. I felt like I should have been on the Jetsons hahaha. I have some pictures so I'll put them on photobucket when I get a chance. We went to the Outback Steakhouse in Taipei for dinner. We were there for 3 hours!! The service was crap and the food wasn't that great. We waited for an hour after we ate just to get the bill!! One girl waited almost 2 hours for her meal only to send it back to be cooked more. I spent a lot on the dinner, too. At my house we have lobster for Christmas dinner so I felt I had to get it last night. It was 'Maine Lobster'. Naturally it wasn't as good as at home but it was okay. Then we went to a chill little bar for a few drinks so that was fun.

Today some people from my training group called and wanted to meet for lunch, so I went to Taipei again. We went to Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world: the CN Tower is the tallest structure so don't get defensive you Canadians out there.) It was nice we only ate at the food court but we did some shopping too and it was nice to see my friends again, and get out of the apartment to save me from missing home too much.

So, I think that pretty much brings you up to date. I'm liking Taiwan more and more. It really is a great country and I love teaching my kids. I'm also going to start learning Mandarin in January so that will come in useful. Well, take care everyone and enjoy the season!!

Backpost!

Hey everyone

Well things are winding down at training. We did our test today and our graduation party is tonight. Tomorrow we're going to our branches and so I'll be settling into my apartment. That's right, I have an apartment. Okay so I don't really know where to begin with updates so I think I'm just gonna repost the emails I've been sending and maybe supplement them a bit.

19/11/06

Well I *finally* made it to Taiwan!! My flights were pretty seamless but very long, and I still haven't slept so forgive me if I make little sense. I arrived in Taiwan around 6:30am Sunday, Nov 19. That's 6:30pm Saturday in Nova Scotia - there's a 12 hour time difference. I was a little scared at the LA and Taipei airports because I kind of had to lie about why I'm here and when I'm leaving. It seems kind of sketchy but I guess it's normal that we enter as a visitor and get our working papers later. So, I had to pretend that I am just here on holiday. Also, I was supposed to have a return ticket but instead I have an itinerary from my travel agent saying that I have a ticket home when I actually don't. When I gave the itinerary to the guy at the airport I thought for sure he was going to find me out. He said he needed to make a copy of it and took it into a back room. He was there for a while and then a different guy came out with my itinerary and talked to a woman who took it out of sight. I thought they were investigating it or something but the first guy came back and said that their copier was broken so they had to take it upstairs.

I was met at the airport by a driver for the school, driving a mercedes benz!! it was great. My first impression of Taiwan is that it's very polluted but the people seem very nice and curious. Everyone stares at foreigners here haha. the only english people i've met are the ones working at my organization. i arrived at the hotel at 8am but check in isn't until 2pm. it's 12pm now. there was no one here when i got here so i wandered around for a bit but eventually just decided to come back and wait in the air conditioned lobby. when i came back there was a group of english speaking people all from my school. anyways i have a lot more to say but my battery's dying so i'll write again after i check in. take care!!!!

20/11/06 (from an email to my parents)

Yesterday I just waited around the hotel with some other people until I could check in and then I had a shower and we went out to eat. The rooms are fairly nice but I think I have one of the better ones. I have a roommate but the way it's set up we each have our own bedrooms. I was here first so I got the nice big one :) Anyways dinner was really good. We went to a place across the street; the menus had english but no one there spoke any. Thankfully there's a guy from LA who's family is from Taiwan so he speaks fluent Mandarin. I wish he could follow me around everywhere and communicate for me haha. I had Chicken and Noodles, which came as a noodle soup and chicken on the side. Another girl at my table had just ordered fried chicken and so when the chicken came separately we thought it was hers and it took a while for us to figure out that there was chicken for each of us. Anyways, the soup was really good but a little different than what we're used to. You could tell the noodles are fresh. They only had chopsticks and a soup spoon and the noodles were really long like in Mr Noodle so it was a challenge just to eat it haha.

21/11/06

So far Taiwan has been amazing. Everything is so different and so cool. I'm meeting lost of people from all over the world at training and everyone's super nice. The food is really good and unlike anything I've every tried. I'm even learning to use chopsticks. A lot of things are very very different and hardly anyone here speaks English. I love it now that I'm in this bubble with Hess (my school) but am scared for when I get out on my own and have to try to communicate with locals without any help. Last night I had my first taste of Taiwan alcohol. We went out for dinner and got a free shot of whiskey as a promotion. I don't like whiskey to begin with but it was good - it really woke me up haha. I have a lot of pics and when I get a chance I'll upload them for you. My Branch Director phoned me last night to talk about getting an apartment and my schedule. She's really nice: we have Saturday off so she's coming to Taipei and will take me to Keelung to go apartment hunting so hopefully I'll have it all set up but the time I'm finished training.

27/11/06

I know it's been a few days since I last wrote. I've been really busy with training and sight-seeing. On Saturday I went to Keelung where I'll be living. My Branch Director took me and a South African guy who'll be at my branch apartment hunting. It was nice to see the city and look at potential apartments. We saw a few but I settled on one that is smaller than I was looking for. It's a "studio" apartment. However, it's not just one big room. The bedroom is private but there's no door. The "doorway" is about two regular door sizes do if i really want to i can hang a curtain or something. It has a *small* kitchen with a *small* fridge, and cupboards and sink and a counter but no stove. This is normal because most chinese/taiwanese cooking is done with a wok. So I will just be a wok and/or hotplate and microwave. My place comes with cable tv (tv incl) and a coffee table and couch and bed and a few other things. So that's good that I don't have to buy that stuff. I also have a washing machine. What sold me on the place was the amenities in the "community". This place is called "Barcelona" but it's just a group of high rise apartments with a big garden in the middle with ponds and fountains. There's also a decent sized pool, sauna and a small crappy gym. Yay!! My rent is $6500 NT plus $500 NT maintanence fee so it works out to be about $230-$280 per month. Not bad :)

I'll still have room for anyone that wants to visit so don't worry about that :) So training has been going well. It's almost over!! I'm going to miss my bubble but I think I can handle it. Oh yeah, the South African guy is not only staying in "Barcelona" as well but he's even in the same building so I'll have come company close by. So tonight we're going to unwind by going to the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, and to the night market. And maybe grabbing some beer along the way; you can drink beer on the street here :)


Well those are the emails and now i have to get ready for the party so i'll write again soon and add pics. byee!