KTV for Matthew's Goodbye

All good things must come to and end, and Matthew's time in Taiwan is no different. His final visa is finally almost up and he has decided to take leave and visit his friends in China. Of course, we had to celebrate and hang out with our friends one last time. Some of my co-workers had decided that hitting up the KTV (karaoke) bar in Erlin was just what he needed, especially considering we had never been to one in Taiwan before; apparently it is a must do.

Erlin has a few karaoke bars, but one of them is bigger and more popular than the rest. Matthew had been to one in Ottawa before, and I had been to one in Malaysia before. Neither of us had experience something quite like this. It has a small entrance but that is deceiving, it's a huge complex with door after door of private rooms. Inside the private rooms, there are plush seating and we even had our own private bathroom. There's a huge projector screen and massive speakers. There is a touch screen computer where you select your songs and you can even call for a waiter to come take your order for food and drinks. Matthew was playing around with the screen and accidentally called the poor boy. All of the command buttons are listed in Chinese, but they had a pretty decent selection of English songs as well. Considering the size of little old Erlin, this place was quite impressive.

We didn't all get there at the same time, Matthew and I were a bit late. We walked through the doors and were instantly lost. We saw room #509, 515, etc. We had no idea which room our friends were in, and no one was answering their phone. A few minutes later another friend comes through the entrance and she tells us to go into one of the rooms in front of us. As soon as we walked in, I thought we had to wrong room, no one was there and three people had said they were in the room waiting for us. Our friend, Fiona, just starts eating all the food on the table and about ten minutes later another friend shows up, also having arrived late. She suddenly tells us we're in the wrong room and I couldn't contain myself, I just could't stop laughing. I had asked Fiona if she was sure this was the right room, because maybe she shouldn't eat the food on the table. It turns out, it wasn't the right room and she had eaten the leftover food of a group that had left or had gone off for a break. I won't lie, I was pretty disgusted by that. But in the end, we found the right room.

There were some problems with song selection as my co-workers tend to know more Chinese songs and we obviously only knew the English songs, and Matthew doesn't know many songs period, but he tried his best.

 Our friends had stopped at local street vendors to pick up a ton of snacks for the night of KTV.

It was a good night that ended with a sore throat and pounding ears. We wouldn't be seeing them again together as the Chinese New Year holiday was around the corner and most people would be going home to spend time with their families, Matthew would soon be leaving for China, and my mother was about to arrive for her visit to Taiwan.

Relaxing in Some Hot Springs

Matthew's time in Taiwan is quickly coming to an end. His visa is up at the beginning of February, so his tutor employers wanted to bring us to some hot springs for some relaxation, they even paid for the hotel. I took the Saturday off so we could leave early and drive to Xihu to meet the family and drive up to the hot springs area together. The area we went to reminded me a lot of Lushan (where I took Matthew for his birthday). It's a small mountain town with plenty of natural springs and rivers.

Once we got to the hotel we basically split up. We stayed in rooms next door to each other, but we didn't see them much, only for dinner. We went to the rooftop where there are private hot spring baths that each room gets to use for one hour. The hotel workers thought we were nuts as we went to the rooftop in our bathing suits and towels, without our clothes. It's mostly because it was very cold outside, but you're only outside for a mere moment, from the rooftop lobby until your private bath room (outdoors), Once you're inside your own little bath room it's very warm from the hot spring, and it's in an enclosed area. The only bad thing was that the jets made so much noise it was impossible to have a conversation and if your ears happened to be near one of the openings, you might be forced to
use something to cover it up.

After the private soak, we met up with the family for dinner. It was your typical Asian buffet. We later tried out the other hot spring soaks, the sauna, and the steam room but never ran into the family again. The next morning was a lazy sleep in kind of day, then down for breakfast and later we all checked out of the hotel and went to pick strawberries. Most things are quite a bit cheaper in Taiwan than in Canada, but strawberries are about the same price, whether you buy them from the store or pick them yourself.

After strawberry picking we headed back towards Changhua for dinner at a restaurant that we had previously dined with them at, for their clinic's Chinese New Year party. After dinner, we said our goodbyes and headed home, back to Erlin. It was the last time we would be seeing Matthew's tutor family before our departure.

Holiday?...What Holiday?

So being from Canada, all the family wants to Skype for Christmas and New Year's. They all want to know what are your big plans. The truth is...nothing. Christmas is not a thing here. All the foreign teachers either take the day off and are forces to look for a substitute teacher (so they can have the day off). It's really just a regular day. So regular, that in fact I had forgotten it was Christmas. I went into work and a student came up to me and  said "Merry Christmas" and ran off. I had given Matthew his Christmas gift early, a pair of hand knitted slippers, so I had forgotten the real day.

I did have yesterday, January 1st off. I went to work like any normal day on December 31st. The big cities throw big concerts but we had no idea. No one had mentioned we'd have the day off until the night before. No one had any real big plans either. All my co-workers had the same plan: buy lots of food, turn on the TV and watch the countdown, then go to bed. Some people left the office earlier than usual but I stayed until 9:30pm. I figured that if I finished writing my lesson plans for the next few days, I could have a real day off on new year's day.

Matthew and I don't have a TV and I looked for a live stream of a Taiwan countdown but couldn't find any. I found one that kept advertising as a "live stream on youtube", but it wasn't live. It even said in small font "on a one-hour delay". I don't know what the word "live" even means in that case. So, I found a world clock and stared at that for the last minute of 2013. Then I did some knitting, watched my own silly television show and went to bed. The next day Matthew and I went out to eat, bought some groceries and I practiced some more motorcycle driving skills.

I can now walk the bike around quite comfortably, but going backwards is still a bit awkward. I can also start the motorcycle and drive it in both first and second gear. My top speed thus far has been 13km/h. I have also stalled it on numerous ocassions while shifting into new gears. Perhaps when I return to Canada I won't bother getting another car but maybe a motorcycle instead. I think this has been the most boring post thus far, but I just wanted you to understand how irrelevant the Christmas holidays are in some countries. I hope everyone back home enjoyed theirs.