I don't think my recent arrival is a coincidence.
I'm such a diplomat.
May 29, 2008
May 25, 2008
17 Lucky Students
Congratulations to the students of class NA1-107: David, Tom, Ray, Wendy, Lily, Kevin, Tim, Ashley, Betty, Jonathan, Terry, Jenny, Winnie, Lester, John, Doris, and Sherri.
You have just gone down in history as the first students I taught in Taiwan. Their reward, besides having such an awesome teacher, is the privilege to give me a Chinese name. We'll see what they come up with next Saturday.
More to come about this and my other classes but we're off to a good start.
You have just gone down in history as the first students I taught in Taiwan. Their reward, besides having such an awesome teacher, is the privilege to give me a Chinese name. We'll see what they come up with next Saturday.
More to come about this and my other classes but we're off to a good start.
Ahhh!!!
So it was a long week of training and observing classes. I had my first class on Saturday afternoon and I thought it went quite well. I was so excited to come home and enjoy my Saturday night and Sunday.
Then I checked my email and found out my apartment situation has fallen through. WTF!?!? I was not pleased when I read it. So now, instead of relaxing and perhaps doing some sight seeing, I need to start my apartment search over again.
Hopefully this means that I find an even better apartment. But at this point, I just want an apartment period.
Then I checked my email and found out my apartment situation has fallen through. WTF!?!? I was not pleased when I read it. So now, instead of relaxing and perhaps doing some sight seeing, I need to start my apartment search over again.
Hopefully this means that I find an even better apartment. But at this point, I just want an apartment period.
May 23, 2008
Professor Jefe
This is it. I teach my first class tomorrow.
I apologize in advance to my students if I suck. I'm not trying to make you dumber. Honest!
I apologize in advance to my students if I suck. I'm not trying to make you dumber. Honest!
Deep Thoughts, By Tai Jefe
So I've been here for 10 days now and here are some initial and random thoughts about anything and everything I've experienced in Taiwan:
- The public transportation system is awesome. The MRT (their version of the El) is easy to use, fast, cheap, clean, and gets you most places in the city. Anywhere it doesn't go, a bus certainly goes. However, there seem to be hundreds of routes and its a bit more complicated to figure out. Soon enough I'll have that down too.
- Car and bus drivers seem to operate as expected. They stop on red, they yield to pedestrians, and they don't drive on the sidewalk. On the other hand, scooters do not follow any of the above mentioned rules and make up about 50% of the automobiles used. I've learned to look both ways multiple times when crossing a street.
- The food is solid. I haven't tried a whole lot though for a couple reasons: I've been very busy and many places only have menus in Mandarin so if there aren't any pictures I'm screwed. But so far, the fish, bakeries, and fruit jump out at me. The fish is fresh, the bakeries have delicious bread and pastries, and the fruit is amazing.
- 7-11 stores are everywhere! They have everything you'd expect in the states: drinks, snack food, essential bath needs, and even Slurpees (I have to try mango flavor). But 7-11 is so much more here. It has a lot of dinner food (some solid quick noodle meals I might add). Its where you buy a cell phone number and then buy additional minutes for it. And its even where you pay all your utility bills. Huh??? I can't wait to walk in to 7-11 and get a mango Slurpee and pay my water bill. Thank you, come again!
- They love fashion here. It seems like all they buy is clothes. I needed a towel and had to go to 5 department stores before I found one that sold anything other than clothes and shoes.
- The beer of choice here is Taiwan Beer. Seriously, that's what its called. It isn't bad. Similar in taste to other Asian beers I've had. And the can says "Gold Medal" so you know its good. I should note that its the only Taiwanese beer I've found so maybe that's why it won the gold.
- Besides other Asian beers (including Essential Beer, its Korean and I can't wait to try it), I've seen Heineken, Guiness, Stella, Budweiser, Coors Light, Miller High Life (champagne!), and Busch. The Busch four pack is the best. Not only does the can have the Busch logo once in English and once in Mandarin, but the plastic casing has a guy enjoying a Busch and hanging out with a couple of attractive ladies in bikinis. I don't recall ever having that much fun while drinking Busch back in college.
- Besides 7-11, the other easily found US establishments are McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway. I've also seen KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, a three storied Long John Silver's, and Chili's. But the early winner of the Huh?? They Really Have That Here? Award is...Lush. That's right, the beauty/lotion/whatever store on Armitage near Bancroft's place and my old place. I've seen two locations! I didn't even realize they had multiple locations in Chicago. Maybe the lady readers (hello ladies!) are thinking "duh Jeff" but I didn't know.
- Speaking of the ladies, let's end with the Taiwanese chicas. They don't like to wear a lot of clothes and it upsets me. Why can't their shorts and skirts be of a more reasonable length? Oh well, I'll make due.
- The public transportation system is awesome. The MRT (their version of the El) is easy to use, fast, cheap, clean, and gets you most places in the city. Anywhere it doesn't go, a bus certainly goes. However, there seem to be hundreds of routes and its a bit more complicated to figure out. Soon enough I'll have that down too.
- Car and bus drivers seem to operate as expected. They stop on red, they yield to pedestrians, and they don't drive on the sidewalk. On the other hand, scooters do not follow any of the above mentioned rules and make up about 50% of the automobiles used. I've learned to look both ways multiple times when crossing a street.
- The food is solid. I haven't tried a whole lot though for a couple reasons: I've been very busy and many places only have menus in Mandarin so if there aren't any pictures I'm screwed. But so far, the fish, bakeries, and fruit jump out at me. The fish is fresh, the bakeries have delicious bread and pastries, and the fruit is amazing.
- 7-11 stores are everywhere! They have everything you'd expect in the states: drinks, snack food, essential bath needs, and even Slurpees (I have to try mango flavor). But 7-11 is so much more here. It has a lot of dinner food (some solid quick noodle meals I might add). Its where you buy a cell phone number and then buy additional minutes for it. And its even where you pay all your utility bills. Huh??? I can't wait to walk in to 7-11 and get a mango Slurpee and pay my water bill. Thank you, come again!
- They love fashion here. It seems like all they buy is clothes. I needed a towel and had to go to 5 department stores before I found one that sold anything other than clothes and shoes.
- The beer of choice here is Taiwan Beer. Seriously, that's what its called. It isn't bad. Similar in taste to other Asian beers I've had. And the can says "Gold Medal" so you know its good. I should note that its the only Taiwanese beer I've found so maybe that's why it won the gold.
- Besides other Asian beers (including Essential Beer, its Korean and I can't wait to try it), I've seen Heineken, Guiness, Stella, Budweiser, Coors Light, Miller High Life (champagne!), and Busch. The Busch four pack is the best. Not only does the can have the Busch logo once in English and once in Mandarin, but the plastic casing has a guy enjoying a Busch and hanging out with a couple of attractive ladies in bikinis. I don't recall ever having that much fun while drinking Busch back in college.
- Besides 7-11, the other easily found US establishments are McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway. I've also seen KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, a three storied Long John Silver's, and Chili's. But the early winner of the Huh?? They Really Have That Here? Award is...Lush. That's right, the beauty/lotion/whatever store on Armitage near Bancroft's place and my old place. I've seen two locations! I didn't even realize they had multiple locations in Chicago. Maybe the lady readers (hello ladies!) are thinking "duh Jeff" but I didn't know.
- Speaking of the ladies, let's end with the Taiwanese chicas. They don't like to wear a lot of clothes and it upsets me. Why can't their shorts and skirts be of a more reasonable length? Oh well, I'll make due.
May 21, 2008
I Have An Apartment!
That's right, my intense search over the last week has paid off. Now I can finally relax a bit.
I'll be moving into a 6 bedroom, 3 bathroom split level with 5 other guys, 4 Canadians and 1 American. I met them tonight and they seem cool and laid back.
Its got everything I was looking for and more: A/C, washer and dryer (driers in apartments are rare here), cable, wireless, trash sorting service (I'll have to blog about that, the trash system here is nuts but I won't have to deal with it), weekly maid service, several balconies, and a private rooftop. It'll only take me 20 minutes to get to work and its cheap.
My room is the smallest of the 6 but its still fine. Bed, desk, wardrobe, and bookshelf. And with everyone having different durations of stay (there's no lease like we're used to because foreigners are always coming and going), I might be upgrading to one of the bigger rooms in a few months when one or two of the other guys are leaving.
Oh and probably the coolest part: one of the guys has a dog! Her name is Dodo and she seems very friendly and playful.
The only downside is the guy I'm taking over for isn't leaving until early June so I need to stay at the crappy temporary apartment a few more weeks but I'll deal with it.
So I'm happy to say the least. After a solid two months of living out of a suitcase, I'll FINALLY be able to unpack. What a feeling...
I'll be moving into a 6 bedroom, 3 bathroom split level with 5 other guys, 4 Canadians and 1 American. I met them tonight and they seem cool and laid back.
Its got everything I was looking for and more: A/C, washer and dryer (driers in apartments are rare here), cable, wireless, trash sorting service (I'll have to blog about that, the trash system here is nuts but I won't have to deal with it), weekly maid service, several balconies, and a private rooftop. It'll only take me 20 minutes to get to work and its cheap.
My room is the smallest of the 6 but its still fine. Bed, desk, wardrobe, and bookshelf. And with everyone having different durations of stay (there's no lease like we're used to because foreigners are always coming and going), I might be upgrading to one of the bigger rooms in a few months when one or two of the other guys are leaving.
Oh and probably the coolest part: one of the guys has a dog! Her name is Dodo and she seems very friendly and playful.
The only downside is the guy I'm taking over for isn't leaving until early June so I need to stay at the crappy temporary apartment a few more weeks but I'll deal with it.
So I'm happy to say the least. After a solid two months of living out of a suitcase, I'll FINALLY be able to unpack. What a feeling...
May 18, 2008
May 17, 2008
Hola?
So, obviously, there are a lot of people here who do not speak English and I only know a few Mandarin words. What's funny is I've caught myself trying to speak Spanish to them if they don't understand my English. One of my roommate's said he's been doing the same thing. I guess my few international experiences have mostly been to Spanish speaking countries so I'm doing the only thing I know when someone doesn't know English.
Perhaps in due time I'll learn some Mandarin and stop slipping out a few Spanish words. Or maybe I'm starting a trend and before you know it my request for "agua" will be understood.
Perhaps in due time I'll learn some Mandarin and stop slipping out a few Spanish words. Or maybe I'm starting a trend and before you know it my request for "agua" will be understood.
May 16, 2008
Ni hao!
Greetings from Taiwan!
2 hours at O'Hare, 4 hours on a plane to LAX, 3 hours at LAX, 14 hours on a plane to TPE, 1 hour waiting for luggage that didn't arrive in full, and a 1 hour car ride later and here I am...living in Taipei!!!
My temporary apartment is, well, its temporary. I have a private room and internet so I can't complain. And my two roommates (one English, one American) are both cool so that's a good start.
I met with folks at the main office for my school yesterday and found out which of the 14 schools in the greater Taipei area I'll be teaching at. I'll be at School #1, obviously. Would I have it any other way?
DG crowd - they have a Chili's here! Lol, no joke. Its in the part of town referred to as "foreigner town." We're totally going before seeing Indiana Jones.
More to come later as I'm headed to my school to meet the Academic Director and other teachers. How exciting.
Adios!
Tai Jefe
2 hours at O'Hare, 4 hours on a plane to LAX, 3 hours at LAX, 14 hours on a plane to TPE, 1 hour waiting for luggage that didn't arrive in full, and a 1 hour car ride later and here I am...living in Taipei!!!
My temporary apartment is, well, its temporary. I have a private room and internet so I can't complain. And my two roommates (one English, one American) are both cool so that's a good start.
I met with folks at the main office for my school yesterday and found out which of the 14 schools in the greater Taipei area I'll be teaching at. I'll be at School #1, obviously. Would I have it any other way?
DG crowd - they have a Chili's here! Lol, no joke. Its in the part of town referred to as "foreigner town." We're totally going before seeing Indiana Jones.
More to come later as I'm headed to my school to meet the Academic Director and other teachers. How exciting.
Adios!
Tai Jefe
May 14, 2008
AYJ has Left the Building
Actually he left the country. I'm sure a telephone number preceded by a "+" and an address that can't be googled will follow soon enough.
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