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