Episode 1: Brah, Brah, Brah

Now that I'm in an apartment with Internet I am able to send out a bit more information. Training was pretty busy and there was a lot of adjusting going on. I made some great friends at training, but we were all sent to different branches all over the island, so it's back to square one meeting new people.

I live in Hsin Chuang City. Hsin Chuang is a southwestern suburb of Taipei City. It's about 30-40 minutes to Taipei apparently. You can see the mountains from my apartment. The suburbs are like a more cramped version of Taipei city. 

My apartment is a medium-sized studio, but it came fully furnished making things easier. It even came with a new flat screen TV and washer and dryer. Of course the washer is in Mandarin so I haven't figured out how to use it yet. I'm just getting used to living alone again.

No one really cooks in the home here, so I spend a lot of time trying to find food now. It was pretty easy to do in Taipei, but there aren't many English menus here. It was also easier when we were in big groups together. I know the characters for iced latte but that's not going to get me very far. I can also say "fried rice" in mandarin, but I'm going to need to learn some mandarin fast. The vendor across the street just talks and talks at me laughing because we both know I don't speak any mandarin. But I go there anyways and hopefully I'll be able to order something else soon. I also have a breakfast shop (Laguardia) and coffee shop (Dr. Duck) across the street. They make life easier. 

I start teaching on Thursday. The kids in the lobby just stare and whisper at me, the teachers said that they are all wondering which classes are getting the "new teacher." Most are pretty shy although I had a 5 year-old kindergartner come up to me yesterday and say " Hi Teacher Beth. My name is Eric."

I'll try to send out some emails about different aspects of Taiwan. Food is a topic unto itself. It's pretty much trial and error in terms of ordering for the new teachers right now.

Some interesting differences so far---everything can be solved with a game of "paper, scissors, stone." And the Taiwanese don't say "blah blah blah," they say "brah brah brah." So we've all adjusted to those two points at least.

This weekend I'm hoping to get into Taipei to explore. We didn't have time last week. All I managed to do was visit Taipei 101. So after I teach my Saturday class I'll jump on the bus. My Saturday class is all 15-17 year olds; I've been warned they sleep through class. So that should be interesting…. I'm going to end up with all ages anywhere from 6-17 years old.  Well I'm off to go find shoes that I can wear at the branch, (they just put in new floors). Then probably off to 711 where I can do just about anything from buying school supplies and getting food to paying my electricity and water bills. 

Future episodes will include discussions of the Garbage Truck Song and the game of never-ending fun, "What's in my dinner roll?"