Looks like I need to head down south soon

So remember that book Life of Pi? The book that inspired and filled me with the very wanderlust that led me to Taiwan? Well apparently it's being made into a movie. Guess where it's being filmed?

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2010/11/20/2003488923


In other random Taiwan news, DJPaulyD of Jersey Shore fame played a set in Taipei last night. How am I so good at missing sweet shows? First Flo Rida and Rihanna, and now this. NEVER AGAIN!

Sunday Fundays

Sunday is our only day off here at Gloria, so it's important to make the most of our day of rest. More times than not, this means a trip to the capital (Taipei). Last week, I hiked 9-5 peak outside of Taipei with a couple friends. The view wasn't spectacular since it was incredibly foggy, but what a climb! It just got steeper and steeper until finally we needed ropes to climb. Thankfully they're already in place! The mountain was full of temples and little shrines, along with the Chinese character for Buddha (佛) carved into various rocks. Taiwan is full of temples scattered about the cities, a major convenience for those that need to get their pray on. I definitely plan on making it here again, so stand by for a picture with a clear view of Taipei.

Trevor on the ropes

Today we went to Jiufen. It's a bit touristy, but it had a lot of neat little stores to check out. Small alley streets and shops selling Taiwan souvenirs among other things. It was a good chance for everybody to do some Christmas shopping and hang out with a couple folks who are leaving this week. I had my first tea house experience. We got a lesson in how to properly prepare a pot of tea, which for some reason includes pouring water ON the teapot. The building looked like it was out of a different era, almost like being taken back 100 years ago. We drank our tea outside with the lights of the city behind us. When the fog rolled in, it kinda felt like we were on a pirate ship or something. The shopping resumed after we left the tea house. 

Find of the day (aside from my newly acquired ocarina shaped like Taiwan) :

I wanna know the person who thinks this is something they just 'need' in their living room. 

The beautiful view from Jiufen

That's it for now. Who knows what next week has in store.

-迪龍 out

 

Halloween at Gloria

I can't believe I've already been here for 3 months, time is really flying by. We had Halloween parties in our class the week before last. Thursday was my favorite of the party days. These were some of my younger kids. We really didn't do that much teaching, just played games and trick or treated around other classes. The idea was simple, just go into a room, sing, and get candy. I didn't know there were additional lyrics to the trick-or-treat song:

Trick or Treat
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat
Not too big
Not too small
Just the size of a basketball

My costume was a big hit. "OH! The emperor! The emperor is coming! The emperor is coming!!!!"

I introduced the mummy wrap game in my classes, and most of them loved it. Some of the girls were confused why we were wasting so much toilet paper. The world can take a lesson from Taiwan: Teach conservation EARLY! 

These kids thought the idea was to just throw tp on someone. Still very cute and fun! The best part was picking up the tp. The kids took that as a cue to ambush my co-teacher and me.

My Friday class was great in a different way. They were older and kinda sick of doing the whole Halloween thing. So we played the part of the grumpy neighbor that hated Halloween. Whenever a class came, we just turned the lights out and yelled at them to go away. Obviously they found their way in. Classy I know, but everybody loved it.

Side note: That emperor outfit won me Best Costume!

Ta Ta for now. I got a lunch date with the coolest grandma in Taiwan.

-迪龍 out

Language fail!

I went to get the tires on my scooter replaced today. I dropped it off with the quote of 2400NT. He said he'd call me back in a half hour to say it was ready. He called back, and thinking he said my bike was ready, I said "Ok, ok". What he really said was "I'm replacing the brakes, too". 

There goes an extra 500. That's ASS for ya (the name of my shop)....

(But if something bigger is coming through, you're gonna have to move)

Pop Quiz: What is Fatboy Slim doing in heaven?

I'm too lazy to write an actual update right now, so let me tell you about my past couple weeks via a photo update.....

I purchased a scooter a couple of weeks ago. It's been amazing having the ability to get out of the city when I want to. The day after I got it, I went to the Shihmen Reservoir with a couple co-workers. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, and I had this overwhelming feeling that I've only scratched the surface on the incredible scenery Taiwan has to offer.

 I saw this on a door of one restaurant at the reservoir. I can't believe it already knows.

Yesterday was Double-Ten Day in Taiwan. For those of you who don't know, this is easily one of Taiwan's most important holidays. 99 years ago, the Wuchang uprising set in motion the inevitable demise of the Qing government, effectively ending thousands of years of Dynastic rule in China. What emerged was the ROC (Republic of China), which has since relocated to Taiwan. I celebrated the day by heading into Taipei. First up on my list of things to see? The Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall. The father of modern China himself. 

My favorite part of this visit was the DJ playing right outside of the hall. There was a huge parade underway, so there was a lot going on. Nobody told him playing Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic' might not be the best choice of tunes. As I'm walking up the stairs, I hear 'smoke weed everyday!'. Thank you, random DJ, for being completely unaware of the lyrical content. 

I walked around Taipei for some time before going to see Fatboy Slim. Coincidence is a funny thing. 'You've Come a Long Way, Baby' is one of the first albums I ever owned. I've been wanting to see Fatboy Slim since I was 13. So go figure he shows up in Taiwan while I'm here. Matt expected Christopher Walken to come flying over the crowd. I think his expectations were a tad to high, but he did show up in plenty of the video..

It was a great show, but I can't say it was worth all the hype/money. Still though, it was a fun way to end my weekend. 

I'll leave you now with some pictures that got me weird looks as I couldn't control my laughter. 

I found this at a Carrefour near my house. As Americans, we take pride in our ability to refrain from gossip. 

One of my favorite things about the English here is that it makes sense, but it's just phrased in an awkward way. Another of my favorites is a billboard with a kid jumping up with a caption below that reads 'I wish to fly'.

A danger I never thought I would face in my lifetime.

You'll be glad to know the Rescue Rangers are alive and well here. Aside from diapers, I see them on scooters everywhere.

So apparently all I need to do to get back to the US is to hop on the MRT.

-迪龍 out

The song is catchy

But the video is so damn WEIRD!

Life in a Cartoon


Thank you, KTV!

I've learned a few things since my iPod ate it..... 

One: When you don't have your own tunes in Taiwan, you're basically stuck listening to Lady GaGa, Justin Bieber,  The Wonder Girls, and the occasional garbage truck. 

Two: I've stared to become more annoyed that my iPhone was taken. Although I've become increasingly anti-smartphone (only because, like all other electronics I've ever had (see: my first Mac Performa), I get glued to it), having the music player would've been great.

Three: It's amazing how fast money can come and go here. Maybe it's just that I've been here for a couple months, but it seems like there's always something forcing me to dip into the money I'm supposed to be saving. 

Four: People are 10 times more likely to yell random English at me when I'm not wearing the headphones. "Hello! Hello! Banana!" But as I discovered the other day in Taipei, sometimes they still talk to me when the headphones are on.

No more 'Urban Combat' mix to remind me just how awesome college was. All the music I grabbed from people with the iPod? Gone. I'd like to thank the lovely people at Apple for not allowing an iPod to computer transfer. Top notch! 

I'm now off to a 6 hour KTV party (For those of you who don't know, KTV= Karaoke).

-迪龍 out

Maybe it's that I'm getting my IKEA mattress delivered tomorrow, but I finally feel settled in my new surroundings. I've been getting more classes, so I have a full work week (full being 21 hours a week), and all of my co-teachers are really friendly and helpful. Yesterday I was working on some phonics with one of my beginner classes, and we were teaching 'R'. The example animal was a raccoon. We have to teach them gestures for basically everything. The next 10 minutes was full of children confusedly trying to turn their hands around and make rings around their eyes. 

The typhoon that was supposed to come through my city on Sunday decided to take a turn south, and I was able to spend my day at IKEA. It's basically exactly the same here. I was kinda surprised at how little I managed to walk out with. This mattress is gonna be a breath of fresh air from this rock hard one I've been using. 


These past couple days have been pretty great. We had a day off for the Moon festival, so a bunch of my co-workers and I went to see our roommate play at an open mic night. The bar was an old church and owned by some people who work at Gloria. There were little kids there! I'm pretty sure one of their parents worked there or something. I used my Chinese skillz to chat it up with a 6 year old girl in the billiards room. It's amazing how much kids light up when you speak a couple words in Chinese. 


Today I used my day off to make a visit to Taipei. I was gonna go to the art museum, but I guess everyone else in Taiwan wanted to go there too. There's an impressionist exhibit going on until Sunday, and the lines were about an hour. I need to make sure I get there Sunday morning and beat the rush. Instead, I met up with some friends who were all getting some sweet tats. I'm still tat free since '86. The parlour was in the middle of a huge outdoor shopping center. I spent most of the time walking around searching for shirts/hats/etc... and the market didn't disappoint.

This is actually a restaurant, and kind of an expensive one. 

That's all for now, but not before I show you the shirt I bought today....

-迪龍 out

Swum is indeed a word

I'm learning new things about the English language every day. I had a debate with my co-teacher the other day about the usage of that word in front of my class. It might be a word, but when does anybody ever use it?

So I've been here for a month now. Time goes by fast. Classes are getting handed to me pretty fast. I have about 10 now, including one class outside of Gloria. I can't believe how well my students speak English in the outside class. It's like I'm teaching native English speakers. Normally I'm repeating passages and teaching the same Q&A for about 25 minutes. Not there. I spent 2 hours talking about South America. I get to ask them about their weekends, things they learned in school, who their favorite singers are (it's Justin Bieber btw), etc... I just wish lesson plans weren't so hard to come up with. Still though, nothing beats a day with my kindie students. They love the 'bum bum' dance. Basically when a team loses a game, they have to shake their butts to the letters in a word that the other team gives them. Some of the students in the winning team come up to do it also.

Student quote of the week:

This is from one of my roommate's classes when he asked the students to write down a question about the story....

Q: What are Sandy and Sue doing?
A: Sandy and Sue are doing a puppet.

Aside from class I haven't been up to much. I'm starting to realize the direct connection between me owning a scooter to how much fun I get to have in Zhongli. My days are pretty much waking up, eating, and having about an hour before I have to make an hour-hour and a half commute to work. Not to say I haven't had a great time so far. I went to the other night market in town last week and discovered some new desserts and a place to get movies for about 3 USD a piece (buy 4 get 1 free!). I also now know where to get snake soup if I'm feeling that adventurous.

We went to Sun Moon lake yesterday. It was gorgeous! Clear blue skies for the most part. It rained pretty heavily for about 20 minutes. Most of the people in the dorms participated in the mass swim, which consisted of about 27,000 people from all over the world. I came to Taiwan after the registration was over. But that didn't stop me from having a good time. A few of us walked around the lake to find a good spot to swim. The police came pretty quick to kick us out. Apparently you have to be registered for the event to be IN the lake. Too bad. It was hot. So we continued to break the law.

This was my view in the morning

The walk around the lake was not without excitement. I made a new friend along the way.

I've never seen a cooler arachnid in my life. I made him my photo subject for the trip and took about 20 pictures of it every time I passed by. It made the whole trip worth it. 

I'm off to sleep now, but I'll leave you with my favorite Taiwan find of the week......

-迪龍 out

I found this on a box of ice cream bars...

The summer day is surprised

Yogurt & fresh fruit juice take you to the fine ice cream heaven
Stimulates the frantic desire which is unable to resist and that is the
extreme achievement of elegant tasty ice cream.
The vision needs some colors to make it inviting.
A color party becomes a game that keeps rolling and rolling.
It is a cool and dazzling taste, making you full of blast.
The taste of Yogurt makes the fruit fragrance copious.

Dear Taiwan:

Your Justin Bieber obsession is starting to bother me a little bit. I can't go into a club without hearing him in the first 5 minutes. His whole album is played while I'm trying to eat my BBQ, and my students sing his music all the time. He's great and all, I'm just sayin you might wanna tone it down a bit with the Bieb.

Kindly yours, 

A concerned friend

I finally did it

So here I am. I've finally made it to Taiwan. Today marks 3 weeks since I arrived. Life is definitely a little different from good ol' Eugene.

Discoveries in Taiwan:

-There is an epidemic of stray dogs. It's sad how many people here just leave their dogs behind when they move. Domesticated strays are super friendly though. 

-People are incredibly nice and helpful here. There have been a couple times now where I've gone into a restaurant to get food to go, but instead get invited to sit down with a big group of people and eat/drink/chat for an hour. I end up walking out with a full stomach and new friends. 

-There is not as much Chinglish as I thought there would be. People here actually have a decent grasp on the English language, emphasis on decent.....

-Recycling is huge here, even more so than in Oregon. You can get a hefty fine for not sorting out your garbage. Oregon could take a lesson from Taiwan. Also, the garbage trucks play a jingle when they are near, much like an ice cream truck. 

-All you can eat BBQ for about $8 US is my new favorite place. 

I've done a lot in the past 3 weeks, so I'm gonna try and recap as much as I can. 

The second night I was here, Barbie and I went to a Boyz II Men concert. Apparently Chinese Valentine's day was the following Monday, so there were a ton of couples. Only 3 of the Boyz were there though, and they made sure to edit the 4th out of the videos they played. Motownphilly was performed twice. 

I've been to a couple beaches in the north so far, and I can't stop thinking about how beautiful they are. I've been able to see the sun set on them both times now. Taiwan has the beauty of Oregon with warmer water. I went to Fulong beach this past Sunday and we got rained out after a few hours. But we found shelter and waited it out. It was worth it. 

After a couple weeks of work, I'm finally starting to adjust. It's weird to have a job that I get excited about going to (No offense, Pony people!). The kids are so sweet and fun to teach. The younger ones get attached really fast. One little girl followed me around after class to show me a Hello Kitty eraser she had just bought. A couple students found out my name sounds a lot like the Chinese word for 'stupid' and have definitely been taking advantage of it. I brought my recently purchased Polaroid camera into a class and the kids went NUTS. It really opened them up to me. 

I'm hoping to start doing some traveling around the island soon. There is great SCUBA diving in the south that I really wanna check out in the next couple weeks. I've been to Taipei a couple of times now, and I got to check out White Wabbit Records. Easily one of Taiwan's most hipster record shops/best kept secrets.

That's all for now, I gotta start planning some lessons. If anyone has good ideas for games to play in my classes, let me know.

-迪龍 out