Operation: Move

My employer really likes Matthew and because of this we were offered a bigger place than advertised during the interview. The place was under renovations and has been ready since the beginning of this month. However, there was no furniture, nor had the air-conditioner or internet been installed. We had been pressured to move but we were waiting until everything was set, and for a bed at the very least. Finally one arrived (the contract states I am to be provided a furnished room, and I don't personally want to go out of pocket for something I won't be able to keep), but it was much smaller. This was going to be a bit of a problem because my boss wanted us to bring the mattress from our old place to the new place. Apparently we were responsible for its transportation. The mattress we have is a king size and the bed he gave us was a double. So, it wasn't going to fit. Matthew refused to use that bed (he hates headboards), so we assembled it and left it in an empty room on the main floor; it's going to be used by my boss (if he gets a mattress for it) when he needs to stay in town overnight. My boss actually lives two cities over which is about a 1.5 hour drive. He had mentioned that he will take one of the two rooms on the main floor for himself.

Anyway, the whole process was sketch to say the least. Not that I should be surprised. The housing standards here are on the cheap side for sure. It's a fun place but the architecture is definitely not pretty. I am quite the fan of architecture (having studied it as a student of art history in university) and there is nothing worth looking at here. The cities have some buildings that aren't bad, but they are mostly office buildings. The condos are just plain hideous and boring. But, they just don't seem to care about aesthetics when it comes to anything here.

Moving to the new place was quite the workout and perhaps a little ridiculous. We had already given our new neighbours reasons to doubt us with our rooftop shenanigans and if anyone saw us this past weekend, they have even more reasons to doubt us: Matthew and I decided to carry our king size bed to our new place.

We had spent the day moving all of our personal things, and some "furniture" from the school which they don't use. Pretty much everything was at the new place except for the bed. We were exhausted but I wanted to have a good night's sleep and it wouldn't happen on tile flooring. Plus, I didn't want to have to do it after work the next day, and Matthew couldn't carry it alone. Our old place is about a 20 minute walk from our new place, but carrying our bed, which only comes in two pieces, turned into about an hour trek for each piece. It was about one in the morning when we finally got the whole bed to our new place. Assembling it was a breeze (you just place both pieces next to each other and put the mattress on top, no screws or anything). After the bed was ready, I took the most refreshing shower of my life and slept like a rock.

Now that we have a bigger place, doing things are a lot easier. I even went out and bought an oven so I can bake. I know that what Matthew misses most from back home is the bread. Bread here is almost like a cake. All of the breads are sweet and have a sponge-like texture. He also had a junk-food craving last week and couldn't find any fresh cookies (he doesn't like boxed anything). So, he was disappointed to say the least. Cookies are very simple to make (I made some the other day and they were the best peanut butter cookies I have ever made), but bread always seemed like a lot of work (without using a bread-machine), but I will try it. I can admit, it would be nice to have some toast without any sugar in it. I will let you know how it goes, if I manage to find all the ingredients that is.

Military Discipline

Most of my teaching experiences have been great and even though I have had a couple of rowdy students it, hasn't taken much to get them in line. Last Friday, however, was different. It may be because I slept horribly and had a very early morning and so I had less patience, or it may have been because so much stuff was mounting that I was ready to burst.

My workday dragged on forever, the night before. I didn't get out of the office until almost 10pm. When I got home I had to write two lesson plans and do some homework for an orientation I had to attend early the next morning. I live in Erlin and the orientation was in Taichung, about a 1.5hour drive away; I had to be there for 9am. It's a bit annoying because they are mandatory, and I wasn't told about them prior. Not during the interview, not even once I started. I was told about them about a week prior to it's date. I'm also not paid extra for attending. Perhaps I have been spoiled or I just realize why some countries are just better, or maybe I'm just lazy and selfish. Maybe it's a bad thing. I can admit that it certainly pisses me off though. At any job back home, if you were expected to do something extra, you can certainly demand pay for that, or they would have needed to include that detail in your contract. On top of my annoyance, the orientation wasn't that useful. It would have been useful at the very beginning, before I started teaching; like the others who attended (all of which are Taiwanese teachers and none have started teaching any classses yet), but at this point it seems silly. The other annoying thing is that I was expected to get there myself and be back in time for work at 1:30pm. The orientation runs from 9am to 12pm, and the bus takes 2.5hours. Unfortunately, I am someone who has never cared about the company I have ever worked for and I certainly don't go out of my way for them. If this school expects me to attend their orientations and/or workshops without pay, I won't be going out of pocket to get myself there. I am sure I come off as a total jerk, but that's just too bad. The truth is, I am a foreign teacher and even though I have to abide by their laws and learn their culture and be respectful of it, I do not have to assimilate to them. I think they are used to hiring foreigners who come over here with a ton of debt, so they are all desperate and do whatever they're told. But I take the view that if they wanted someone to be exactly like every other Taiwanese person, they could have hired another Taiwanese teacher. Not everyone I met expects me to change; there are a lot of things I do not agree with nor will I ever.

I did get to work that day, a little late though. So, I stuffed my face full of food and ran off to teach a class. I was reminded of how many people have children who really shouldn't. Yes, I judge people. This class was an upper level class between the ages of about 8-11. This was, thus far, the worst class I have ever taught. I had never been so annoyed in my life, nor have I ever had such an urge to smack someone. It's too bad that we let just anyone breed, there should be test people have to pass. Or at least a limited number of children that certain people can have. There was only one student who was seriously pissing me off. I was having such a crappy day that I had no problem singling him out and embarrassing him in front of the class multiple times. He was arrogant, annoying and just plain rude. The thing is, if you're going to act as a smart ass, you better at least be smart. At one point I told him to shut his mouth or he'd have to come up to the front and read the whole unit to the class. He didn't understand a word I said because he's not really all that proficient in English. I was finally done teaching that class and just had to observe. I am so glad this kid isn't mine because I would have went military style ape shit on his ass. His behaviour is unacceptable. At one point he turned to the girl sitting next to him and punched her, without reason, she was sitting there writing down her homework. I remeber once when I was a kid and I punched my littled brother. My father witnessed it and socked me right back. I was really hoping someone would punch that brat. Another kid should put him in his place, because as an adult I realize there are serious consesquences.

He was just the worst kid ever, when the domestic teacher took over he constantly interrupted her class by calling her fat or ugly. This teacher is about my size, and this was coming from a kid who is actually fat himself. The experience reminded me of my time in Air Cadets, I had a few brats in my squadron who were given a choice to be there by a judge. It was, complete X amount of time in air cadets or be sentence to juvenile detention. It was their choice. Even though most of them hated it, they learned when to shut their mouths and all the other things associated with military discipline. It's not like it mattered to me, if they didn't show up, it was reported, and juvie is where they headed.

I must say that I actually do not like the education system here. There is way too much emphasis on memorization. I understand why all the students do well in math and science, they memorize absolutely everything. Unfortunately, they do that with English as well. The problem is, if I deviate from what they memorize they have no clue what I am asking. For example, they memorize the response for the question "How are you?". But, if I ask them "How are you TODAY?" They do not have a clue what I just said. I get a classroom of blank stares or a couple students who say "I don't know." I would never send my child to school here, I would take the time to homeschool him/her based on the Canadian system, or at least spend the money to send them to a private Canadian or international school here in Taiwan.

I have been giving final oral tests to some students and to be honest I have failed a few students. Not because I was being malicious. I give students ample tries, and some students more than I am supposed to, but if the student just doesn't understand, or stares at me blankly, I fail them. I also don't provide the answer or lead them to the answer as some do. I sit there and wait for an answer, I don't mouth/whisper what they should be saying nor will I. If you can't keep up than you should not advance. I certainly remember how annoyed I got in school when there were morons in my class who wasted so much time. I'm sure some of the parents here are annoyed because they spend quite a pretty penny to send their kids here.

Mountain Top for Matthew's Birthday

This past week I had a very short work week consisting of two days. I had Thursday through Saturday off for a national holiday called Tombsweeping holiday. I did not get much information regarding this holiday so I am still unsure as to its purpose. Either way, I had made big plans for the coming weekend as it was Matthew's 36th birthday. Unfortunately, I do not possess an abundance of funds, so even though I had five whole days off, I had decided that two nights would have to suffice, especially considering that most hotels drive up their prices during holidays.

The first two days of my holidays were filled with rain, rain, and more rain. I don't mind the rain too much, but it did limit us to outings we may have done. I especially love the rain at night, or thunderstorms, I find them very soothing and I always get the greatest sleep during storms. So, while Matthew struggled to sleep, I was out like a rock and fully energized for the next couple of days. A co-worker has actidentally let my big surprise slip, so Matthew had found out that I was taking him to a hot spring location for his birthday gift, but he didn't know which one. There are tons on this island!


I had made reservations and pre-paid for the hotel and everything was set, except I had no idea how we would get there. I had read online that we could take a bus there, but I didn't have a clue how often they ran, or which days, I was really just hoping for the best. It turned out to be not so bad, luckily I had written all the towns' names in Chinese characters. We took a bus from Erlin straight to Taichung, which is a pretty big city (its secretely where I had wanted to end up) and really the artistic centre now. From there we found a bus company that serves the Nantou area. Matthew still didn't know where we were headed, so I had to do all the reading myself, not that it matter much as he can't really tell the difference between Chinese characters yet. We found a shuttle bus service that would get us to the county and we would have to transfer buses there. The side of the bus read "Sun Moon Lake Shuttle Bus" so Matthew of course thought that's where we were headed, but he was wrong. We hop on the bus, and travel the distance to our transfer location in Puli. Puli is located in the geographical center of Taiwan, so that was pretty neat. Once we got there I had to figure out which bus would take us to our destination by reading the inofrmation board. At this point Matthew wanted to help and had been watching me and what symbols I was looking for, so he eventually discovered the symbols to our destinations, but since he can't read he still didn't know what it said, so I finally told him. The desk woman couldn't help and didn't seem to want to serve me at all because we didn't speak the same language. So, Matthew and I ventured around for some food and went back later. At that time there was a much friendlier cashier who even called up the tourist information help desk to get a translator. I had all my information written down in Chinese, so I thought it would be easy. The translator told me she just wanted to make sure that the 5:30pm bus would be okay, because it was a 30 minute wait. All the confusion for a bit of a wait. We got on that bus and headed up the mountain.

 

The bus driver scared me half to hell. First of all, this bus was set up more like a city bus rather than a coach. It was also long and Matthew just had to sit at the very back. The roads were narrow and curvy and the driver was driving so fast it looked like we were headed right off the cliff at every turn. I kept picturing our deaths in my mind; it wasn't the most pleasant of drives, but the views were absolutely breathtaking. Finally we get to the top and I get to touch ground. We were about 4000 ft above sea level when we finally made it, it was well worth it. There is a really neat suspension bridge that connects the town to the mountain side where most of the hotels are located and it looks wonderful at night. It's also fun to wacth people cross it because some of them get pretty nervous with the swingin motion; there were even children who had purposely swayed it to scare their mother. We checked in, and headed out for some dinner, then back to the hotel for a nice soak in the hot springs, after filling our tummies with millet wine of course!

The next day we went out exploring. After all, it was Matthew's birthday and we had better get some exercise in him; he is 36 now and he'll need to do lots of physical activity to stay young and keep up with me. We explored in the opposite direction of town and found a narrow foot path on the side of the mountain that led to a village where we ate hard boiled eggs that were cooked in the hot spring water. The views were amazing. It's wonderful to find places that are so serene. I had a coffee and Matthew had a beer, and we sat and listened to the chirping birds for a while before heading back down to explore the town. We hiked for a long time, until nightfall and then had our feet massaged by little fish. It was a very weird sensation. When its just a couple of fish it feels like a light tickling, but when you stick your whole foot in the water, all the fish come swirming and the overload of sensations feels more like that tingling feeling you get when your foot starts to fall asleep. I don't think this form of massage is very therapeutic but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. We went back to the hotel for another night of hot spring soaks and a good rest after a long day of wandering. I must have been exhausted because I fell asleep in no time, which is very unlike me. We had a rushed breakfast, checked out and headed back down the mountain, but this time the driver took his sweet time and there was no worrying of flying off cliffs from me.

I hope Matthew enjoyed his birthday weekend, because it is back to work for me and packing for our move this week.

Rooftop Shenanigans

Sunday we had decided to head over to the new place to clean it up and perhaps measure some things, to get an idea of what we might need to buy. After cleaning up the apartment, we headed up to the rooftop balcony. We had wanted to see how much space we will have for a barbecue, a vegetable garden and perhaps a sitting area. Once we got up there the wind picked up and slammed to door shut. Matthew had attempted to grab the door but was in no rush as he didn't think it would lock. He tried to open it to no avail, and I of course thought he was joking until I tried to open it myself. This metal door happens to lock itself and it also happens that no one has a key to this door (it doesn't lock from the inside, you can always turn the knob, it's just the outside part that doesn't turn). So, Matthew and I were locked outside on the roof, which is on the 5th floor of our townhouse.

So, we don't have a key for that door as there isn't one. I left my phone inside with my purse. Matthew had a phone, but it was useless as it only works with wi-fi; it doesn't work with a sim card, but the flashlight did come in handy. I waited on our balcony while Matthew went to investigate for a way down. I was hoping someone would come by the place as I knew most of our future roommates are moving in this week, and all the lights had been left on when we got there, so I had thought someone would be by. Boy was I wrong.

There are no firescapes anywhere on the building. Matthew found a doorway with a light on, but we were hestitant to enter as we had no idea where it lead. It most likely lead to the restaurant below and we didn't want to enter through the back kitchen door and not be able to explain ourselves (as we don't speak any Chinese and no one speaks much English around here, if any at all). Matthew had found an abandoned apartment, it is currently under construction. The problem? It did not connect to the ground floor. Yeah, that's right. We had seen the place from the outside and there is quite a jump from the main door to the ground, as they have dug up the yard, but it wouldn't be to dangerous. However, the inside of the house doesn't actually connect to that floor, so we would have had to jump from a floor up, which was going to be dangerous.

Instead, we stole a ladder from a neighbour. Yes that's right, we stole a ladder. We thought it would be long enough to reach the ground from the second floor balcony, problem was, we had no way of measuring it, so we just went for it. Next problem we ran into, it doesn't fit down the stairwell to the second floor. We had to pass it to each other from the outside of the third floor balcony to the second; it was quite a challenge. On top of that, it was now dark and there was an open business right in front of us while we were passing this ladder around. The ladder didn't work, it wasn't long enough after all. Matthew decided he was going to jump out onto the front street, which happens to be rather busy and had uneven ground. He started doing warm-ups and everything; he climbed onto the ledge and I think to myself that this is a horrible idea. So, I climb onto the balcony as well, haha; smart right? Next thing, the neighbour comes out for a smoke and he doesn't speak any English, and he starts panicking because two foreigners look like they want to kill themselves. His wife comes out and we try to ask if I can go through their house to get downstairs. The man goes outside thinking we can just exit through the front door, then he sees the problem, as do all the other neighbours who now think we are thieves. During this time Matthew is sneakily putting the ladder back, which happens to belong to the man who went outside. After about 4 hours of sneaking around rooftops and drawing everyone's attention, there is finally someone who speaks English and he explains the situation and we get down through the confused man's house (who we stole the ladder from) and out to ground.

We were both sweaty and full of dust and exhausted, it was quite the experience. However, I am not so sure I want to move there anymore. I am certain they thought we were up to no good. We even had to prove to them that we actually lived (or had a key) at one of the complexes. They followed us to our place, which was about a block down from where we ended up, and watched us as we opened the door. We haven't gone to the new place since then, and I am putting off the move for as long as possible. Unforunately we know that the neighbours won't forget our faces as we stand out, especially Matthew. I am quite happy to have a long holiday this week (5 days off) and I am leaving town, maybe I'll work on my tan so that I am not recognizeable to anyone by the time I get back.

Can you believe that no one ended up calling the cops? Lucky us.

Venturing Around Nearby Places

Last weekend Matthew and I decided to try and fix up some old bicycles that have been abandonned at our place. We got them cleaned up and in working condition, well, as long as you don't want to change any gears that is. We cycled around Erlin, and mostly ventured in the direction away from the downtown core. We came across a lot of green. I was actually a bit surprised at how many farms there are, and how many different types of crops people seem to grow. Some of the stuff I could not identify, but they each had some pretty intricate looking irrigation systems. I am sure there was a bit of trespassing on our part, but I feel like no one really cares too much about that here. I do not know what kind of plant this is, it's not very tall, I was crouching down when I took the picture, but there were quite a few farms with these crops. You wouldn't be able to tell that there are so many farms from our place. We live pretty close to the downtown core (and within a week or two will be in the downtown core), but a 5 minute bike ride will get you to farmland. It's as if someone decided that the apartments and townhouses would stop at a certain pointt, and behind them would be farms. It's a bit odd. We get the noise associated with city life, yet, a bike ride 5 minutes away will get you the peaceful sound of nothing. We didn't see any cows or big animals. Most of them seem to only have crops and a couple had some chickens. We did find one farm that specialized in raising duck and one for frogs, but other than that we didn't see any traditional farm animals, so the smell of poop wasn't really a factor, excluding the chicken ones.

We continued to venture towards the outskirts of the township and we found a cute little temple but it was closed. I am not sure if it is still in service, it was located in the middle of nowhere right beside a river. It wasn't too far from a deer farm we found. The deer farm was depressing though. Essentially, it's a place where they raise a lot of deer, pen them up in tiny cages; they don't have enough room to move, just stand there in the same position all day, and then kill them. They kill them for meat but they also make some kind of drink from the deer as well. I have no idea what kind of drink or whether it is alcoholic or not. It is of a light brown colour and is sold in bottles that resemble wine bottles. We didn't stay long there, just long enough to realize what the place was about.

Our bicycle ride came to a halt when people were stopping traffic and loud music was playing. We thought it was parade, so we figured we'd wait and watch it. It wasn't very long, but there were big drums, costumes, fireworks, the whole nine yards. At one point we thought perhaps it was a funeral because of some of the traditional things they were doing, like burning paper money. When someone dies, or when you visit their grave, you bring offerings so they can have these things in heaven. For example, you would leave some fresh fruit at the grave, or you can buy this paper money that you burn so the deceased person will have money to spend in heaven. During this parade, they made a big pile of this money in the middle of the intersection, and then they set it on fire and left it there! The only thing that made us doubt the funeral idea was that everyone looked too happy. We watched it all until they turned down an alley, and then we continued onwards. We came across a huge space of rice fields and when we were almost home we found a temple that looked fairly new. It is very small and hidden between small traditional houses along narrow roads. The sun was starting to set so we decided to head home and Matthew was very unsure how much longer his bicycle would last; we almost didn't make it.


The next day we headed to the nearby city of Changhua. I had wanted to see the big Buddha, also known as the Buddha of Baguashan; it is 100 feet tall and you can walk inside of it, climb to the top and get a beautiful view from the eyes and ears of the statue. We took a bus to Changhua, and walked to the buddha, there was a little hike involved as it is located atop Mount Bagua. I got quite the exercise that day as well as a ton of mosquito bites. I do not understand how I can be that much tastier than Matthew, he seems to have gotten none. There were a couple of temples to see and a great view of the city. The weather was nice, it was a little overcast, but no rain. The buddha was huge and within it were some gods you can pray to, as well as some statues depicting some scenes of Buddha's life. We kept climbing narrow staircase after narrow staircase as I had told Matthew that we are supposed to be able to get a breathtaking view of the city from the head, as according to National Geographic. We were both surely disappointed as the top floor was closed off. No view from the eyes and ears for us that day.

We headed back out the buddha and looked at the nearby temples. Matthew tried to set up a picture with us standing at each of the elephant statues located near at the entrance. He didn't want to ask someone to take the picture for him, so he set up his tripod and everything. He shoots with film, so we never know if the picture was a good one or not. He put the camera so far away, because he wanted to get the whole temple, that he had to run like mad in order to be next to the statue before the shutter went. He tripped on the first attempt and totally botched that picture; the locals got quite a good laugh out of that. And so we had to try a couple more times, as we didn't hear the shutter click the next time. Eventually we got it. After exploring the temple, we found a koi pond, and in case you didn't know, I seriously enjoy feeding fish. It's kind of weird, but I always have lots of fun feeding them; so simple.


After I had my fill of fish we headed back down to the city and went for Teppanyaki; you sit down and they cook in front of you. It is considered Japanese fast food here and it's pretty cheap. Matthew is obsessed with it and he hasn't found a place in our town, so anytime we our elsewhere we have Teppanyaki. After being stuffed with chicken, beef, cabbage and beer, we hopped on the bus and headed home.

Coming to the End of Training

The first two weeks of work are over, which is almost all of my training. This week I've begun teaching with an assistant and I must admit, I've been a little nervous. It's not that I get nervous talking in front of people, because that doesn't really bother me; it's more about the students. It has been a weird experience being here as there seems to be mix responses about me, everyone seems to know that I'm a foreigner, but a lot of them are constantly asking me if I speak any Chinese. The only time I am mistaken for a Taiwanese is when I am standing next to Matthew; maybe it's my eyes. The school is interesting. The classrooms are for the most part small, but then again, there doesn't tend to be too many students to a class; I think 15 has been the maximum number I have seen yet.

I always thought I would prefer to teach older students as they would be less trouble; it would be easier because they would already have the basics down so I wouldn't have as much of a language barrier problem. This is untrue. I have taught two classes of teenaged students and they were not easy. It's not that they are mouthy or unruly or anything like that. They are very well behaved and they are very outgoing with their Chinese/domestic teacher, but when I take over they become very quiet and reserved. At first I wondered if my accent makes them nervous or maybe they don't understand me. The last foreign teacher was from South Africa so he certainly did not have the same accent. I've come to realize that they fear not being good enough with their English abilities only around me. When I was finished with my lesson I sat in and observed the rest of that class, and when their Chinese teacher took over they were back to being social. I should tell you that when I say their Chinese teacher, I mean a Taiwanese person takes over but they teach the students in English, so they are always speaking in English, not in Chinese. The students seem to do fine when communicating in English with the domestic teachers, but not me.

The younger students are actually amazing! They are so enthusiastic and they are not yet afraid of making mistakes so they try and participate in class. This is very good news for me, because I am unable to see how much or how well each student is doing if they refuse to say anything. The younger ones are a bit exhausting though because I have to play so many games with them, they love to stand and run around, but the rooms are so small we have injuries on a daily basis. It's okay though, they're young and bounce back quickly.

This week looks to be my last week of training but my schedule looks like I will be the busiest teacher there. Unlike the others who have specific classes they teach and they always have the same students, I jump around everywhere. Some teachers even stay within a certain age range, so they only ever teach the young ones or maybe only the older ones who are preparing for college. I however, move around all over the place. I only ever teach new vocabulary, and maybe some dialogue or grammar. I never teach the K.K. which is what they call the pronunciation or the sounds certain letters make. I teach all levels of classes all over the place. Some teachers have maybe three classes a day (and that's a lot for them) but then the next day they don't have any and just hold office hours. If my training schedule is anything like my teaching schedule, I will have a minimum of two classes a day. Unlike the domestic teacher, when I make a lesson plan, I have to consult with the domestic teacher to make sure I will not teach something she (they are all women) wants to teach. I am supposed to have 25 teaching hours a week and hold 12 office hours a week, so having a meeting with the co-teacher (domestic) is probably the most difficult task. They are pretty busy themselves and after school hours, they want to get out of there, but I have something to do or at least be somewhere at every minute of the day, so planning a meeting with them tends to happen between something or at the end of the school day. On average I have been leaving work about an hour to an hour and a half after school closing time. I am hoping that things slow down or I may have to get used to a very hectic schedule. At least I only work 5 days a week!

The Move

I had a subbing gig on my birthday in Hsinchu. That was quite the experience. I taught three different classes, all of which had a vast difference in student behaviours even though they were all roughly the same age. It went pretty well though, and it was really nice to make some cash. I must say that some schools here make it very easy to teach. This place had a manual that broke down everything and told me what to do. And I mean EVERYTHING. Like, step one: teach them a basic meaning of the following words and go through spelling as they will have a speeling quiz next Wednesday. Step two: blah blah blah. Step 3: Play a game with them: Pick two students and have one close their eyes and the other describe a student sitting, and have the student with their eyes closed guess which student is being described (that's right, it even said exactly what kind of game to play with instructions). It was so simple. I'm pretty sure absolutely anyone could teach at some schools here. After I got paid, in cash which is super convenient, we went out to dinner. We hit up a proper Japanese restaurant where we sat on the floor and it was damned delicious! In case you didn't know, I really like Japanese food and could probably eat sashimi every day of the week. However, this was definitely a splurge kind of meal as that bill alone was significantly more than what we had spent on that whole week's worth of food (but it was worth it)!

The next day we decided to try the lantern festival again. Yet again we did not get to see any lanterns get released into the sky, but we did get to see the massive lanterns that had been submitted to the national contest. Some of them were ridiculously large. I have no idea how long some of these must have taken to construct, like this Gundam Wing character. It was still a pretty interesting night nonetheless.

Sunday afternoon we decided we needed to head back to Taipei to get the rest of our stuff. We stayed at the lovely hostel near Taipei Main Station that we had been to a few weeks prior. All I can say, we spent are night restlessly trying to kill mosquitoes who had woken us from our slumber. Although we killed many, with blood smears on the wall as proof, we still got eaten alive. I have a disgusting amount of red bumps and I also have this terrible habit of scratching them until my skin is raw. After that fiasco, it was time to catch the local train to Yuanlin. The train ride was just under three hours, but it was certainly worth it; beautiful views and the prospect of a job, visa and free accommodations for a year is great. Matthew seems to be in love with Taipei, perhaps because it is the largest city on the island, or perhaps it is because his old high school mate lives there. I, however, must disagree. Everytime we travel south, I like the more southern area better. Erlin is located in Changhua County, just south west of the city with the same name. It's about a 2hours and 45min drive south of Taipei, and a 2hours and 50mins drive to the southern most city. So, we are pretty close to half way on the west coast. The weather has been beautiful since arriving here, nothing under 22 degrees celcius thus far. And this is winter and apparently one of the coldest months; there hasn't been any rain here either (unlike Taipei).

On Monday we got aquainted with our "temporary" dorm room. It was occupied by the last foreign teacher and I swear it had never been cleaned. We also found out that the showerhead was clogged and the water leaked from the bathroom into the bedroom. But don't despair! We got a new room, one floor above it! Matthew spent the day cleaning it but it looks great, and the last tenant (a female) kept it clean and had even bought some things for it, like a wardrobe and a new showerhead. This apartment may also be a temporary one as a newer building will be available on April 1st. It is currently under renovations. I am hoping that it is nicer or at least bigger as this room will probably get to be a tight fit with two people living here. I anticipate we will get in each other's space within the month. This week I have been in training at my job and so far so good. People are pretty chill and super friendly and are always willing to help others in any way.