Hello,
We have not had much time to write, or really a whole lot of really interesting stuff to write about lately. We have been working a lot, along with all the little and big things associated with moving. We do not have internet yet (although we are somehow connected at the moment) so we havent been able to keep up with much. We have a place in Chang-Hua! It is a very nice place, if you dont take into account that we haven't figured out what all our light switches do, and some wiring does not work at all. However, we really like it and for anyone who is able to visit, you have room here! We are living in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom (western bathrooms!) apartment, with a nice little bonus Japanese room! I love that even though it is about twice the size of our place in the States, we are paying less than $400 USD a month! This is not common in Taiwan, we are just in a small city. Even in Chang-Hua standards, it seems like we got a good deal. We hope to get up pictures as soon as possible. The place was pretty gross though when we moved in so we will not be posting pictures until we have had time to properly scour the place. Hopefully we will have time this weekend to get to things, as Matt has the whole weekend off and I only teach one class on Saturday!
Although we dont have any pictures of Chang-Hua yet, we still have some really cool stuff from Taipei. We went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It is an absolutely beautiful place, and huge, although it was way too hot to explore as much as we would like when we were there. It has the main building, with a huge statue of Chiang Kai Shek inside of it, and two buildings on both sides of the central walkway. The main hall has 89 stairs leading up to it, to commemorate the 89 years of his life, or so our tour guide for the afternoon (one of our trainers) told us. So I hope you like the pictures!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Random Tidbits
So I have some random things that I feel like sharing about Taiwan. We haven’t really been able to get out much since we have been super busy with training, and then exhausted once we are done in the evening. We do about 9 to 10 hours a day, and then we have had to a few times to some lesson planning outside of class, which has taken anywhere from 2 hours to 5 hours. So we have been very busy but loving it so far!
First of all, they do not have large outdoor garbage cans like they do back in the States. Taiwan has garbage trucks that come around at regular times that play what we all think of as ice cream truck music! At the moment (Im not sure if all provinces use the same tune or if they switch it up) it is playing Beethoven’s Fur Elise. When the music starts coming, everyone brings out their garbage and throws it in the truck. I guess some foreigners get really excited the first time they hear this and run out with money hoping for a treat! They also seem to come at almost all hours of the day, or perhaps it’s more of an evening thing, because we have heard them as late as 10 at night.
Also, fireworks are a pretty big thing here! And not like, “Oh, it’s a holiday, lets shoot off some fireworks” but on random days. I heard that it is supposed to be done on days that are significant, such as births, weddings, and the like, but it is really quite shocking when you’re not expecting it. The other day on our walk to school we were walking by this guy, and he just lays out this massive roll of extremely loud fireworks right in the street! This is not a small street by any means, at least two lanes each way plus a “anything goes” shoulder. The Taiwanese are all just driving by on their scooters and such not paying any mind while a group of us foreigners just about jump out of our skins. We hear some rather hilarious anecdotes from our trainers, who have all been here several years at least, about foreigners coming from violent areas who freak out. I guess one set of girls who when they first heard the random fireworks flattened themselves on the ground thinking it was guns! Thankfully, Taiwan has an extremely low crime rate so if we hear “gunshot” type sounds, we can say pretty confidently that it is just fireworks.
Anyone who knew me, Amy, back in the States knows that I had a pretty serious caffeine addiction. While, since coming to Taiwan I have pretty much gone without it! (It was going to be a lot more entertaining to say that I had not had a caffeinated beverage since arriving in Taiwan, but unfortunately I did have one on Friday and boatloads today). Although you can get soda at 7 Eleven’s here, and coffee is abundant, it’s not a very common thing to drink. It is not very refreshing in this extremely hot weather, and if you don’t drink it really quick it will be hot in like 10 minutes. Also, Pepsi products are not common, and I have yet to see a diet coke, just coke zero. Basically, if it’s not Coke Classic, Zero, Orange or Sprite, I do not believe I have seen it here.
So I hope you enjoyed my random thoughts for the day! We will be moving out to our branch in a few days so we should hopefully have something more interesting to write about soon!
First of all, they do not have large outdoor garbage cans like they do back in the States. Taiwan has garbage trucks that come around at regular times that play what we all think of as ice cream truck music! At the moment (Im not sure if all provinces use the same tune or if they switch it up) it is playing Beethoven’s Fur Elise. When the music starts coming, everyone brings out their garbage and throws it in the truck. I guess some foreigners get really excited the first time they hear this and run out with money hoping for a treat! They also seem to come at almost all hours of the day, or perhaps it’s more of an evening thing, because we have heard them as late as 10 at night.
Also, fireworks are a pretty big thing here! And not like, “Oh, it’s a holiday, lets shoot off some fireworks” but on random days. I heard that it is supposed to be done on days that are significant, such as births, weddings, and the like, but it is really quite shocking when you’re not expecting it. The other day on our walk to school we were walking by this guy, and he just lays out this massive roll of extremely loud fireworks right in the street! This is not a small street by any means, at least two lanes each way plus a “anything goes” shoulder. The Taiwanese are all just driving by on their scooters and such not paying any mind while a group of us foreigners just about jump out of our skins. We hear some rather hilarious anecdotes from our trainers, who have all been here several years at least, about foreigners coming from violent areas who freak out. I guess one set of girls who when they first heard the random fireworks flattened themselves on the ground thinking it was guns! Thankfully, Taiwan has an extremely low crime rate so if we hear “gunshot” type sounds, we can say pretty confidently that it is just fireworks.
Anyone who knew me, Amy, back in the States knows that I had a pretty serious caffeine addiction. While, since coming to Taiwan I have pretty much gone without it! (It was going to be a lot more entertaining to say that I had not had a caffeinated beverage since arriving in Taiwan, but unfortunately I did have one on Friday and boatloads today). Although you can get soda at 7 Eleven’s here, and coffee is abundant, it’s not a very common thing to drink. It is not very refreshing in this extremely hot weather, and if you don’t drink it really quick it will be hot in like 10 minutes. Also, Pepsi products are not common, and I have yet to see a diet coke, just coke zero. Basically, if it’s not Coke Classic, Zero, Orange or Sprite, I do not believe I have seen it here.
So I hope you enjoyed my random thoughts for the day! We will be moving out to our branch in a few days so we should hopefully have something more interesting to write about soon!
Monday, July 26, 2010
We know where we are going!!
Hello everyone,
We have finally found out where it is we are going to be living for the next year at least. We are going to be living in Changhua City, which is in west central Taiwan. It is only about 20 minutes outside of the third largest city, Taichung. Changhua is a pretty small town, of about 230,000 people. Its not too much of a touristy town, but it does have the biggest Buddha statue on the island, and is surrounded by pretty mountains I'm told.
We will be working in the biggest branch that our company has, with around 1000 students. There will be at least seven other NST's (Native Speaking Teachers, like us!) at the school. We will be teaching all ages and skill levels. They are being really amazing, and trying to keep our working hours similar so that we are not constantly working opposite hours, like we were back in Minnesota. They are also looking around to find a couple options for apartments for us to look at when we get done with training next week, and we may be lucky enough that they find a furnished place!
On Saturday, we went to the Taipei Zoo. Two words, freakin' huge. It is about 4x the size of the San Diego Zoo, and man did our feet hurt at the end of the day. It was an absolutely fantastic place though. They had a Formosan section (Formosa is another name for Taiwan, the Portugese called it that when they "discovered" this place) which was very neat. There were some Formosan Monkeys which were highly entertaining. They were playing around on their trees/islands, which were surrounded by water, when all of a sudden a monkey did a cannonball into the water and started to swim around! Which wasn't a bad idea because it had to be at least 95 degrees outside at that point. Shortly after that, we got our first true experience with the weather we had been expecting from the start... massive amounts of rain. It poured for at least two hours. Even underneath an umbrella, we were very wet. At one point, we tried to walk through a "puddle" that turned out to be a small lake. Not exaggerating, it was at least three inches deep! On one photo you can kind of see just how hard it is raining, and if you look real close you can see a crocodile. Although we got very wet, it was an amazing day. We got to see lots of cool animals, and the actual zoo atmosphere is fantastic. The zoo was built into the mountains, and the plants and natural habit just added to the experience. Also, we found it really entertaining when walking through the "temperate zone" to see how amazed the locals were at a beaver. They also went absolutely crazy over the mountain lion. I imagine its something like us when we see a monkey in the wild, just grabbing our cameras and snapping away like crazy. We did get to see Pandas and Koalas too! Basically, it was a fabulous day and we hope you enjoy our pictures!
We have finally found out where it is we are going to be living for the next year at least. We are going to be living in Changhua City, which is in west central Taiwan. It is only about 20 minutes outside of the third largest city, Taichung. Changhua is a pretty small town, of about 230,000 people. Its not too much of a touristy town, but it does have the biggest Buddha statue on the island, and is surrounded by pretty mountains I'm told.
We will be working in the biggest branch that our company has, with around 1000 students. There will be at least seven other NST's (Native Speaking Teachers, like us!) at the school. We will be teaching all ages and skill levels. They are being really amazing, and trying to keep our working hours similar so that we are not constantly working opposite hours, like we were back in Minnesota. They are also looking around to find a couple options for apartments for us to look at when we get done with training next week, and we may be lucky enough that they find a furnished place!
On Saturday, we went to the Taipei Zoo. Two words, freakin' huge. It is about 4x the size of the San Diego Zoo, and man did our feet hurt at the end of the day. It was an absolutely fantastic place though. They had a Formosan section (Formosa is another name for Taiwan, the Portugese called it that when they "discovered" this place) which was very neat. There were some Formosan Monkeys which were highly entertaining. They were playing around on their trees/islands, which were surrounded by water, when all of a sudden a monkey did a cannonball into the water and started to swim around! Which wasn't a bad idea because it had to be at least 95 degrees outside at that point. Shortly after that, we got our first true experience with the weather we had been expecting from the start... massive amounts of rain. It poured for at least two hours. Even underneath an umbrella, we were very wet. At one point, we tried to walk through a "puddle" that turned out to be a small lake. Not exaggerating, it was at least three inches deep! On one photo you can kind of see just how hard it is raining, and if you look real close you can see a crocodile. Although we got very wet, it was an amazing day. We got to see lots of cool animals, and the actual zoo atmosphere is fantastic. The zoo was built into the mountains, and the plants and natural habit just added to the experience. Also, we found it really entertaining when walking through the "temperate zone" to see how amazed the locals were at a beaver. They also went absolutely crazy over the mountain lion. I imagine its something like us when we see a monkey in the wild, just grabbing our cameras and snapping away like crazy. We did get to see Pandas and Koalas too! Basically, it was a fabulous day and we hope you enjoy our pictures!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Our First Post
Hi everyone!
We have arrived, are relatively well-rested, and enjoying ourselves in Taiwan so far! The flights over were horrendously long, but Matt says he really enjoyed seeing some cool airports. I dont particularly enjoy any aspects of flying, but it got us here so thats what counts. We haven't had a lot of time yet to explore, as we have been jet-lagged and my feet got swollen on the 14 hour flight from Chicago to Seoul. However, we have gotten to explore the area where our hotel is located, had some really good food, and been able to see some of the amazing sights Taipei has to offer. This morning we went to Taipei 101, currently the second tallest building in the world, where we travelled from the 5th floor all the way up to the 89th floor in 37 seconds. It has the Guinness Record for fastest elevators in the world at 1010 m/min. It was quite a trip! Even being relatively terrified of heights, I did not get scared in the least bit (except a bit before we even got on the elevator). The view was simply spectacular! The pictures can not describe how beautiful the mountains surrounding this massive city are. Matt thinks that without a doubt it was the single most spectacular thing he has ever seen.
Also, the heat here in Taipei is terrible. It has been hot and humid every day, and unlike back home in Minnesota, the temperature does not cool off that much in the evenings, at least during the summer months. Even last night around eleven, both Matt and I got really hot walking around looking for some food to eat. 7-Elevens are nearly around every corner here, it seems like there is one on every block. We have discovered cold tea that is bottled just like soda. They taste amazing and really quench your thirst when walking down the street. We had our first experience today with the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) today. Matt has never been on a subway before, but we discovered that it is quite easy to figure out the maps and transfers and is very convenient. We got from near our hotel to Taipei 101 and back for around $2US. That's about it for now, check back frequently for updates.
We have arrived, are relatively well-rested, and enjoying ourselves in Taiwan so far! The flights over were horrendously long, but Matt says he really enjoyed seeing some cool airports. I dont particularly enjoy any aspects of flying, but it got us here so thats what counts. We haven't had a lot of time yet to explore, as we have been jet-lagged and my feet got swollen on the 14 hour flight from Chicago to Seoul. However, we have gotten to explore the area where our hotel is located, had some really good food, and been able to see some of the amazing sights Taipei has to offer. This morning we went to Taipei 101, currently the second tallest building in the world, where we travelled from the 5th floor all the way up to the 89th floor in 37 seconds. It has the Guinness Record for fastest elevators in the world at 1010 m/min. It was quite a trip! Even being relatively terrified of heights, I did not get scared in the least bit (except a bit before we even got on the elevator). The view was simply spectacular! The pictures can not describe how beautiful the mountains surrounding this massive city are. Matt thinks that without a doubt it was the single most spectacular thing he has ever seen.
Also, the heat here in Taipei is terrible. It has been hot and humid every day, and unlike back home in Minnesota, the temperature does not cool off that much in the evenings, at least during the summer months. Even last night around eleven, both Matt and I got really hot walking around looking for some food to eat. 7-Elevens are nearly around every corner here, it seems like there is one on every block. We have discovered cold tea that is bottled just like soda. They taste amazing and really quench your thirst when walking down the street. We had our first experience today with the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) today. Matt has never been on a subway before, but we discovered that it is quite easy to figure out the maps and transfers and is very convenient. We got from near our hotel to Taipei 101 and back for around $2US. That's about it for now, check back frequently for updates.
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