this is just going up because I don’t want to forget how fun it was.  one of the best nights ever. so before halloween, I made some new friends, emily and lachlan. on halloween, I went to this huuuge concert with them, featuring a really famous dj named steve aoki.  it was a costume thing, and I went as data from star trek: tng.  (I made that costume out of a thrift store yellow shirt, cardboard, aluminum foil and my underarmour. hand sewed the shirts together. pretty proud of myself.)

the following are pictures from that evening.

 so yeah, post cake the makeup took a beating. not a fan of the last pictures, but i couldn't not include darth vader and rufio.

new job and classes

so my new job. long version. the place is called happy top.  I hear about it from thekla, another tpr teacher who works there on the side. apparently there’s a small class available 4 days a week, hour and a half per day.  I email a resume and meet with the lady in charge, dana, who is very nice, explains everything, asks me if I can give them a demo. I come back the next day, interrupt a class being taught by a girl named audrey, and teach vocab for twenty minutes. nothing hard.  she gives me the job. I come in and sit in on audrey’s class for an hour to watch how the pros do it, and then I start my first class later that week. 

almost simultaneously, I enroll in chinese classes.  I go on couchsurfing.com a lot just to see what people are doing, (it’s a really cool website, I recommend checking it out) and someone posted about in enrolling in really cheap chinese classes. 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, for about $150 US per month. not bad, especially compared to the fortunes the universities charge. the guy on couchsurfing was also struggling to get just 5 people to enroll, which means tiny class size. awesome! 

I go in to my first day of chinese. walk in, sit down, take inventory of the other students.  holy crap it’s audrey. the girl who I’d just spent two days in a classroom with is also in my chinese class. what are the odds.  of all the people in taipei, seriously. so that was really cool.

anyway, my chinese is improving, the class is nice, it doesn’t go too fast so if I miss a day it’s pretty easy to catch up.  the tones are still tricky and we’re memorizing more writing than I’d like, but hey, it’s not private tutoring.  man, I really don’t care about reading and writing. what a pain.

okay, back to teaching.  I have a total of three students in my class: amy, ken, and ian. very small. practically a tutoring environment. thing is, it’s not just me teaching. I have a co-teacher. so there’s  3-2 student to teacher ratio.  crazy!  anyway, we basically just go over reading, vocab, and writing. they’re a little behind for their age I think, but we’re working on it and they’re really fun.  I think the kids just need to be pushed. they resist doing work sometimes, but once I insist on stuff they do it and do it pretty quickly.  I really like teaching the class, and I think they like me too!

so basically, things are going really well here. money’s not that huge a worry now, finally starting to learn enough chinese to have terrible conversations with cab drivers and things, and the social life is doing okay!  got a few friends, mostly from work, and I really like this one new guy at happy top, he seems fun. we’re gonna go grab a beer or something later this week.  hooray new friends!

life update, getting the hang of this

so now I have a second job teaching 12 year olds at a place called happy top.  confirmed as of today. not a lot, just 6 hours a week.  but still, it’ll be worth about 4 days worth of living money per week, rent included.  every little bit helps.

one of the things it will help is fund my new chinese class, which I’m apparently taking for 10 hours per week for only 150 bucks per month.  less than 3.50 an hour.

not. bad.

pingtung pt 3

alright. so we’re on our way to waterfall 3.
there’s a path running along the river that lets you get back there, but it collapsed a little bit ago apparently. which means we get to walk up the river. there are a lot of rocks and things, so theoretically it’s possible to do it without getting wet. forget that though, I take off my shoes and leave them hidden between a couple rocks.
eventually, we make it to the waterfall. it’s reeeeally big. we take some pictures, and there’s even a place where you can go under it! it’s pretty amazing, not gonna lie. pictures!

so on to waterfall number two.
it’s smaller, but it does have rocks you can jump off of!

we played around for about half an hour, i almost died falling off a rock onto other rocks, overall, lots of fun. we go back, clean up, get ready for dinner.

overall, pretty great trip. later there was dinner and a bar and some other people and new friends and it was good. but these are the highlights.

pingtung pt 2

so the original plan was to head down on sunday.  problem is, I have class on sunday until 1 pm.  then I have to go home, pack up, head to the bus station, hop on the next bus, and arrive 5 hours later.  so at best, I’d be getting there at like 7 or 8. pretty late. I also don’t know where I’m going, staying, or getting off the bus.  also, I didn’t know how to get in touch with tessa and youming.  I tried sending them a facebook message, but didn’t have a response by the time I got back from teaching, so I settled in to wait until I heard more. after I few hours, I realized that youming’s phone number might be on his facebook, and sure enough it was.  I gave it a call and talked with tessa and decided to catch the 3 am bus to pingtung so I wouldn’t have to pay for another night’s hotel.  money was getting a little tight at that point. I went to bed at 9 so I’d have a few hours sleep.
the bus ride was uneventful, I slept through most of it, and woke up in some city. I couldn’t understand the bus driver, but I though pingtung was the last stop, so I got off with the last person.  turns out I went one or two to far, and after walking for a while I caught a cab back to where youming and tessa were staying. I got a hotel room in the same place as them, and took a nap until about 1130 when we were supposed to meet people for lunch and start the day’s activities.  after a quick shower, I met up with tessa and youming and we got some lunch by ourselves, the plans having been slightly modified while I slept. 
eventually, sam came by on his scooter to join us.  the day’s plans involved liangshan falls, a moderately well known tourist attraction that was about a half hour away by scooter. I rode with sam, tessa rode with youming. this was my first time riding a scooter farther than across half a parking lot, and I was a little nervous. where do I put my hands? not around sam, that’s for sure. that’d be awkward even if taiwanese people weren’t weird about touching.  turns out there’s a little handle thing behind where you sit, so I just hung onto that for dear life until I got more comfortable. 
liangshan falls is a series of waterfalls that turn into a little river.  the first one is used like a spring, with lots of people sitting/swimming in it. the second one is a little bit of a hike up the mountain, and has a big pool underneath it that you can swim in. the third is by far the most impressive, but people don’t see it too often because the path up collapsed during a mudslide and hasn’t been repaired.
we weren’t gonna let that stop us though, and we decided to go to the third one first and work out way back.
to be continued…

pingtung, belatedly

a few weeks ago I was feeling really bored and lonely.  there weren’t enough hours at work, I don’t have an overwhelming number of friends, I’m still bad at chinese… it was just a quick case of the blues on a gloomy rainy day.  so I decided to treat myself. I went to a relatively cheap but delicious italian restaurant and ordered a tortellini as big as my head. 

I was just getting into it, but my phone rang. which is kind of an event in and of itself, given how infrequently someone needs to get in contact with me. I picked it up, and it said “unknown number.” which ordinarily I wouldn’t pick up, because I get enough wrong numbers, just people speaking chinese on the other end and confusion for everyone, but since I was lonely and bored, any human contact sounded good.

“hello?”

“kevin, hi, it’s tessa. [nicole’s friend from her program in pingtung, we met a couple times, she’s great] I’m at the airport right now trying to get to kaohsiung [city in taiwan near pingtung], but they changed my flight and now I’m routed through taipei? can I crash at your place in like 6 hours?”

so I’m thrilled. clearly, god has looked down from on high and decided to take mercy on this poor lonely boy by sending him company from out of the country. 

“yeah, that should probably be okay, I guess. what time are you landing?”

...

later

...

tessa lands at like midnight, has to take a cab the entire 40 minute drive from the airport because the buses closed right before she got there, and shows up around maybe one am.  somehow, she has a smile on her face, despite what sounds like one of the top 5 worst travel experiences I’ve ever heard, involving cancelled planes, broken tickets, and astonishingly unhelpful “customer service.” at least they didn’t lose her luggage. 

she’s going to pingtung to visit youming, the taiwanese boy she started dating right before she had to leave taiwan. unfortunate timing.  she’ll be staying there for a little over a week, and would I want to come down and visit at some point?   hell yes I want to come visit, I need to see more of this country while I still can.  I figure I can dip out of taipei sunday afternoon and stay until maybe 2 pm tuesday. one full day.  we set up very tentative plans, went to bed, and when I went downstairs in the morning, tessa was already gone.

to be continued.

haha, oh man, asia

so i was awake a few nights ago and flippin between the english movie channels and i saw what looked like a game of starcraft. (if you don't know starcraft, you've gotta be either female, over 30, or have played some organized sport at or above the high school level. it's a computer game that some people take really seriously, and sterotypically asians are really good at it [like everything else].)

turns out it was starcraft. aparently they air tournaments here. i was bored enough to watch it, even though i understand none of the professional commentary and don't know the heartfelt stories of the competitors.  i thought maybe you'd want to see it too.

commentary/pregame

drama building...

oh my goodness!

the thrilling conclusion

anyway, i'm mostly just uploading this because i thought it was hilarious that starcraft tournaments are on tv in asia.

taiwanese people are CRAZY about lines

seriously. they see a line and just herd behavior into it. waaay more than in america. I guess it’s nice, like being part of the group? but it gets ridiculous. there’ll be no one in line for a street stall, but if it ever gets above 4 people in line, oh man, it’s gonna be 10 people long in less than a minute.

here’s an example. they just opened this store called uniqlo across from my gym.  aparently it’s like the gap of japan. they opened yesterday. this is one of the two lines out in front of the store. one of two. there’s another one.

 

people are craaazy

taiwanese healthcare

so now that the three day weekend/holiday is over, i was finally able to get to a hospital.  (they close all but the emergency room on sundays and holidays.)

i show up, find internal medicine, hunt down gastro, and tryto figure out what to do next. this super great old nurse grabs me and literally holds my hand to the registration desk. then she makes some joke and everyone laughs except me? "please do something for this poor hopeless foreigner." and everyone does! seriously, how nice is everyone here. so helpful to the dumb american.

so i meet the doctor and he’s fairly helpful, there are a couple mistranslations but his english is probably better than my spanish.  anyway, he gives me some meds for my stomach. slightly different but he recommends it. time to go pay.

edit for parents: the drug is called salazopyrine, it's got a slightly different active ingredient. they use the same mechanism but one has a sulfate group on it, it doesn't get recommended as much because some people are allergic to it. it's the same thing as in aspirin that people are allergic too, so i should be fine. also, some people apparently react suuuper well to it compared to mesalamine. so i figure this might be nice thing to try for a while what with me being in a flare right now. one rare side effect is extreme depression in young men, so if the blog gets really weepy over the next month for no reason, we'll know why lol

i get up to the payment counter and i bust out my taiwanese health insurance card that everyone working in this country gets. she rings me up: 350 nt aka less than 12 dollars. for seeing a doctor and a month of pills. in the usa, the pills alone cost 35 a month, a meeting with a doctor is like at least 30, and all of that’s with insurance that has to get paid for back home! I love this country!

here’s hoping obamacare is this good when it gets all the kinks ironed out. no complaints here.

breaking news: friend?

I made a friend today. her name is madelaine and she is from switzerland and she is here for school and we met because asian kids in a grocery store wanted to take pictures of us.

then we talked about buying cereal and yogurt. maybe we will continue to be friends? time will tell…

anyway this is my life now. I should hire people to take pictures of me with other people so they’ll be my friends. this is the lesson I learned today.

taiwanese animals

all the dogs here are waaaay better behaved than the ones in america.  the vast majority walk slightly behind their owner, whether they’re on a leash or not, and I’ve never seen two dogs out for a walk get in a fight. I don’t know if it’s because we spoil dogs back home or what, but the dogs here are great.

which makes it less terrible when they’re sitting in the kitchens at restaurants or on top of unused tables. there’s no taboo on dogs here, they can hang pretty much wherever they want. lots of stores have like, a spokesdog. maybe the owner doesn’t want to leave it at home, I dunno. but they just hang out by the register and don’t bother anyone. 

wild dogs are a pretty common thing, and cats are allll over the place.  I see like 8 cats a day when I spend a decent amount of time outside. they’re very shy, but the dogs totally just want to be your friend. I always want to pet them, but I also don’t want fleas.

so moral of the story, nobody eats dog here? taiwanese people all say that’s the koreans giving asia a bad name, but the people who visited korea say nobody did it there either. lots of finger pointing and no one eats dog?

trains

okay so people probably know that I live right next to the mrt, taipei’s subway system.  I want to have an article about trains, because I’m just still so excited about them. every day, whenever I get on a train, I just think, “wow, I’m gonna get on a train!”

I guess I was train-deprived as a child, I’m just way too into it now. standing with other people, or even better, all by yourself in an empty station, little red lights on the ground near the tracks start flashing in time with each other. there’s a rumbling noise that gets louder and higher as the train comes down the tunnel, and a huge wind just rips through the tunnel. it smells fresh, I don’t know why, I can’t imagine them putting air-fresheners in the tunnels, but it’s usually really hot, and it’s just this big refreshing relief, and then you get to ride on a train! sometimes they’re even pink and covered with cats! advertisers pay to cover the trains in cute things, how great it this country.

seriously, it’s like one of the highlights of my day every single day. 

okay that’s it for trains. I’m gonna miss trains when I leave here.

saaad day

so now everyone’s gone.  90% of the princeton review teachers, nicole, the friends I met through nicole, everyone, all in one sad weekend. admittedly, it was kind of an awesome weekend, but now that’s over and I’m left with crumbs. well not crumbs, I have jenny, thekla, jack, and angelica, but I never really hang out with jack or angelica and jenny and thekla have their own people.  we’ll probably still hang out outside of work, but probably less because there won’t be a really fun big crowd.

solution: gonna go find this group that plays ultimate frisbee, make them be my friends, and then have lots of fun with them. added bonus: I get to play ultimate again. so rolling with the punches over here. 

still don’t know about the tpr full time job, might find out by friday, but I don’t know how soon it would start.

solution: go traveling around taiwan with my savings for the couple weeks until that job starts, and if I don’t get it, call around to find something else.  odds seem somewhat in my favor right now though.

other than that, been reading a book or two and sleeping late.  nothing huge going on.

more job chaos

so I’ve been talking to a recruiter over the last few days. a recruiter is a nice lady who will put me in touch with places that are hiring for teachers in exchange for about 200 usd. I interviewed with a school today, but it turns out everyone’s hiring people to start on monday, which conflicts with my tpr job and the end of my contract. also, right after I called the recruiter a couple days ago, I got an email from tpr’s hr guy saying oh hey now we are hiring for at least one full time position, you should apply!  he sent it to me and about 6 other people, 4 of whom I know, 2 who are new to me and just show up as email addresses. 

so now I don’t know what I should be doing, because tpr is the better job, but holding out for it may put me in a position where I am less able to get a worse job if I don’t get the tpr thing. which entirely depends on who applies, I know that one of the guys who got the email was a teacher in the us and I pretty much modeled my teaching personality after his, he’s great. so if I were tpr, I’d hire him before me. but this guy also just opened up a restaurant and is doing part-time law work for some us firm, so I would be pretty shocked if he applied. basically, I think I’m the best candidate who will apply, outside of people who I don’t know. 

so it’s a gambling game, go for broke with the nice job or settle for less but safe work. I think I’m gonna hold out for tpr at this point, because I’m just that guy (sorry mom, don’t freak, it’ll be fiiiine).  I was reassured by the recruiter that pretty much anywhere I apply will want me immediately because I give a good first impression and am pretty (her words), which makes me a little more confident in finding a job later. I should know by tuesday definitely, so it shouldn’t be too late to find something.

dragon boating

so this weekend I went dragon boating, which is like a big canoe I guess? there are lots of people in the boat, (people didn’t show up so we only had 5) you get one paddle, and you just keep on rowing.  I went out with connie and albert, two of my friends here, and we were invited in the first place by lynn, who programs the computers or something at tpr.  nice guy. there were also two japanese people who didn’t speak english, but I guess they were nice?

anyway, it was cool to try something new and now I’m sore all over my body and horribly sunburned. so I made a couple mistakes.

more business

okay so now i have classes, false alarm.  it's actually not classes, it's private tutoring, which pays better than teaching. 2-2.5 hours per day, 5 days a week. almost the same pay as a three hour class, so that's nice.  also, as of now they're offering several hours per week all on weekends, which is not ideal for travelling purposes and would still entail finding another job, which would basically have me working every day of the week.  but at least i'm in a better situation than yesterday =)

also, i played rugby today with connie, another tpr girl, and a whole bunch of europeans connie met to  play rugby with.  had no idea what i was doing, just kinda hoping the extra effort i put into it counted for something. it was fun, probably gonna play again on thursday. we'll see if i like it enough to turn it into a regular thing. either way, it's something new and that's always good.

summary: still gonna look for another job but i am no longer in a monetary crisis. yaaay.

exciting weekend post and house pictures to come.

*edit*
here's a link to a waaaay better blog than mine, written by tessa, a new friend who did pretty much all the same things as me this weekend! she's nicole's friend from pingtung and the tusa program, which means they're all here learning taiwanese culture and mandarin.  word of warning: once you start reading her blog it will be painful to come back to mine. you should probably just follow her instead. you'll see what i mean.

http://tessa-rose.tumblr.com/

teaching round two

okay so this is a logistics/challenge post, exciting post about my great weekend and pictures of the apartment to come today, tomorrow at latest.

there have been problems with hours going around at tpr, last round i got two classes, other people got none.  one guy still didn't get hours this round.  this just seems unconscionable, to have someone pay for a flight over here and then give them no means whatsoever to support themselves.  i understand that they want to make sure they have enough teachers to cover a high workload, but this was a horrible judgement on someone's part.  anyway, bottom line is i have no classes for the next three weeks.  the savings from my tons of hours is enough to tide me over, but this is the last round of "busy" summer classes, and after this i'll maybe get hired for more hours or not.  they've been vague about it, and given their track record with employee honesty, i'm inclined to err on the side of caution.

i'm planning on calling a recruiter in the next day or two to scope out other teaching opportunities, in the event that tpr doesn't work out as a long term opportunity.  the teaching season starts in early september, so the silver lining of not getting classes is that now i'm on the lookout for new opportunities at what is likely the best possible time.  also, tpr invested a lot of training in me and i now have what i can call "months" of teaching experience.  this has been a really good experience and a gentle introduction to teaching, which is nice. also, i have an alien resident card now, so i don't have to leave the country and they can't kick me out for a year. downside is that to get the tpr job i had to sign a non-competition agreement, so i can't work for any other sat teaching institution. probably gonna end up working with kids, which might be great, i dunno, it'll at least be a fun new change of pace. and this really is the best time to find a job, so at least the timing is great.

this may all be a moot point, if tpr offers me full time emplyment (which i now believe is highly unlikely) i'll stay with them simply because they pay 30% more than other jobs.  we'll see what happens and i'll keep you posted as developments warrant.

in other sad news, gill left. back to canada. gill was my first friend in taiwan who wasn't paid to hang out with me.  he did give me his winter coat (which i always loved), so at least i have something to remember him by. *sniff*

so new challenges await, at least life isn't boring =) i also had an AMAZING weekend with some of my favorite travelers yet, i'll write about it soon.

end of class one

so my first tl (english) class has officially ended.  the kids have moved on, i've made my money, and everything's great.  i meant to get  picture of everyone, but totally forgot for a few days and then it was too late =(

classes are going really well, sat is done on monday and they took their final diagnostics today.  i already got the grades back, there was at least a 200 point improvement for all but one student, most kids were up in the 300 range and i think my biggest improvement was almost 500. i think those are above average results, that's exciting. other than that, business as usual. they haven't told me what my schedule is looking like for the next month, if i cared about planning ahead that would really bother me, it means you have to save a lot of money because who knows how much you'll be making during the next pay period.  that should change if/when i become a regular employee.

i bought lots of things for my apartment, like a quilt, some art, throw pillows and blankets, etc.  i also bought things to make my own art because i wanted a big decoration to hang up on my wall downstairs, but that's expensive so i bought some cardboard, ikea fabric, and spray paint. how hard can art be, i majored in science.

in related news, i went to ikea! i've gotten over my whole "i want everything from ikea" kick, and have moved on to just wanting to live *in* ikea. they have food, places to sleep, fancy bathrooms, what else would i need?  work is only like a 15 minutes walk away too! it's a foolproof plan really.

other weird news: so i hadn't gone to the gym for a while. i walked past it a few days ago, and it was gutted. like nothing inside, walls torn down, even the stairs were gone, how does that even happed? turns out they moved a block closer to where i work, so that's nice.  they expanded their third floor facilities apparently. smart move, should save a lot on rent.  i should take pictures of that place one of these days.

i also think i'll upload pictures of my place soon, i rearranged all the furniture and like it more now.  i'll try to get on that this weekend if more exciting things don't happen. if they do though, i'll just write about those. win-win!

work: week 2

work is going so smoothly now! everything’s been getting easier and easier as the class builds a little bit of camaraderie and I figure out a teaching system that works for me. I’ve been on top of preparing my lessons, grading things and pretending I’m a real teacher! it’s been a really nice job so far, and everything’s going smoothly. I teach two classes this month, and we’ll see what happens in august. it’s also unclear what’s happening with the full time employment thing, but hey, I have a working visa and maybe an arc (alien resident card) soon, so that’s progress!

also, I just saw harry potter, it came out on the 14th here, so I got to see it like a day before everyone in america in addition to the 12 hour time lag they have. take that die hard fans. made a status, profile picture, and uploaded a photo album just to rub it in.  I’m not a jerk that often, but when I am it just feels so satisfying =p

my apartment is great, work is good, life is progressing nicely. people at work are cool too! making some friends, trying to be nice to people who will still be here when summer ends, potential long term friends.

I guess I’ll leave you with some harry potter pictures!

first day of teaching

alright, so here’s what’s up.

training: during sat training, I will flatter myself and say I was one of the best teachers who wasn’t already employed by tpr. we had a few people who were already trained in mkat or toefl or lsat or whatever, and they were all really comfortable in front of a classroom and did a really good job presenting material.  outside of those 2 people, I think I was the best of the nine, which I was totally happy with. when tl training (targeted learning, aka teaching english) started, people were more comfortable, and the lines started blurring. then on day 3 of training, I got a case of the nerves and didn’t prepare as well as I should have, and gave a sub-average teachback to the class. the trainer, who was scary, and my boss like 3 levels up, was brutally honest about how it wasn’t up to my usual standard.  that naturally made me more nervous the next day, so that one wasn’t great either. finally, I told myself to chill out, I knew how to do this, and things started to get better. I ended up getting ranked 5th in tl training, and put 3rd in line for a tl level a (which mean they’re already pretty good at english). I was a backup teacher, which means right now they didn’t have enough students enrolled to give me a class, but on that last weekend they were hoping enough might signup. I would come monday morning, sit around, and teach if they needed me.  so I might get one class (sat), might get two (sat and tl). two classes get you paid twice as much, and I want that.

I show up monday, and they were so close to the limit it wasn’t even funny. I end up getting a class with 7 kids in it. it’s usually like 15.  so now I have a tl class, and it’s really small! I spend more time getting to know my kids, personalizing the class, and have fewer essays to grade! this is perfect! 

so class monday didn’t go the smoothest, I didn’t have to do sat because they al took a diagnostic instead of learning, but tl I did teach, and I was a little nervous, but it went okay. the kids were really shy, nobody wanted to talk to each other or me, it was basically me talking for three hours.  after the first day though, they warmed up and got into it, mostly after I started telling embarrassing stories, which I have like a million of.  so tl is going great!

sat classes on tuesday I just felt terrible about, I was nervous, I had the second smartest or smartest group, and all class I kept getting looks like, “what, you’re teaching us this?” they’re good at math, and don’t buy into the tricks and tips I’m teaching, which I don’t really blame them for, I didn’t either at first.  things went better yesterday (wednesday), and I’m hoping today will go even smoother. just a matter of me getting more comfortable. 

apartment, job and nicole

oh man it’s been 13 days, shame on me, this job is the biggest time suck I’ve ever seen.

okay so I moved in to the new apartment. it’s waaay bigger than I need, but really nice. the walls got painted light green/honeydew when I wasn’t looking, which I’m not crazy about, but adjusting/ to.  I’ve made a couple trips to carrefour (asian wal-mart) with some friends who helped me carry things (including nicole who has been a wonderful guest and is looking over my shoulder right now).  the basic necessities have been bought and soon will come the decorating when my schedule permits.

the job is fun, but really busy.  so far it’s been pretty rewarding. training is going well and I’m waiting for my first class (next monday).  the co-workers are fun and I officially have friends so that’s really nice.

finally, nicole tegge has come to visit me, which has just been a blast so far and she’s not even reading over my shoulder anymore.  I’m at work for a solid chunk of the day but she has another friend from her ra days who lives in taipei like 10 minutes away from my apartment and he’s showing her the sites, which is great. she’s having a really good time so far, she claims. I guess I believe her. 

so life is going on, it’s good, still having fun, love the apartment, the job should hopefully keep being good, really glad nicole’s visiting, life is great.

omg my life

awesome things just keep happening. i don't even deserve this, life is too good.  there are starving kids in africa who need this luck.

i officially am signed up for my apartment.  it is mine.  all mine.  paint still to be decided, and the move in date keeps shifting around based on the painting times. at first they were gonna paint it, then i was gonna paint it, then i got a call today saying they'd hire someone to paint it. i'm totes fine with that as long as i still get to pick the color, gonna email my landlady maggie and make sure of that tonight.

but that's all humdrum, everyday lucky. let's talk about people flying across the world to hang out with me. i will flatter myself and say that i am 100% of the reason people come here. it has nothing to do with the fact that i am in an exotic super cool country and some people may or may not have scholarships to study here. basically it's all me.  but who cares about reasons, people are coming here!  nicole tegge, my super great ex-resident from the ra days, who has since gone on to her own amazing ra career, is coming for a week staring in a mere nine days. it is going to be only the best times, there will be housewarming parties, re-exploring all the best parts of taiwan, and awesome adventures. god willing i have a place to live by then lol.  could not be more excited.

in fact, the only event that could possibly rival this for excitement is if chris dosch (awesome kid from my major i regret not getting to know 3 years earlier), eric patterson (kid i met at a conference which was one of the best weekends ever), and some other guy (chris's friend who i'm sure is awesome) were coming.  what's that, they just booked tickets and will be here in november for nine days? hell yes. make no mistake, that is going to be an epic week.

other than that, just life as usual, found a great little bar with free pool and darts right near work, took a bunch of tpr kids out there, had a blast. today was happy hour all day, so that was nice too.  fun couple hours.  i can't even handle my life right now, all i do is exciting things when i'm not taking standardized tests. which actually takes up a lot of my time haha.  oh well, totally worth it. this is a really rewarding job, it's nice to be try out working hard. and i made friends with the work hard group who hangs out after work to do more work and be a little study group, that's new for me and actually surprisingly efficient.  if only i had done this in college lol

apartment update

okay, so i didn't get to sign the papers for my place yet, but it seems like she's not waiting to give it to someone else. she's just not in a huge hurry because the place has to get painted before i can move in and why bother rushing?

everything i see now, i'm keep wondering if i could use it to decorate my place. like i'll be in restaurants and see a bamboo wall art thing, or some really cool lights, whatever.  i was really excited about how my dorm finally ended up looking at the end of senior year. i didn't take a picture of it, but it was just classy as hell. i want this place to look even better.  (joey, maybe i'll make another table lol)

i'm going over color schemes, looking at cool lights i can make myself, thinking about making my own art (how hard could it be lol), so many things. gill, who deserves a post in his own right, he's a really interesting guy, says he'll give me/sell me cheap his projector, so i could set up like a really sweet thing that could play video off my computer, which just seems like such a good idea considering it's not like i can watch tv anyway lol. i could watch archer all the time! i'm so excited to have my own place is really the moral here.

i don't know if i mentioned earlier, but a girl named nicole, one of my old residents and then a fellow ra and a friend, got a scholarship to study in a university in southern taiwan. she's coming a week earlier than her program starts and she'll be staying with me! i'm super psyched about it, i am planning so many options for things to do. i've found good restaurants, i'm buying extra towels and things, whatever i can do now when i still don't have a place to live. she comes in 12 days, so hopefully i move in pretty quickly.  i might be helping paint because i don't know how long this process will take if it's just her. we can talk about it when we're signing contracts. i'm gonna have to bring one of my new tpr (the princeton review) friends as a translator.  it's really embarrassing, everyone who just got here speaks better chinese than me, either they're an abc (american born chinese, apparently it's a big acronym here, hope it's not offensive? i heard other people using it. what if it's one of those things where they can use it but not me?) or like double majored in chinese and something else.  it's a good reason to work harder at it i guess lol.

i take back the april fools’ thing

so does everyone remember the april fools’ day post where i lied about finding a super great job and an apartment that cost maybe a little more than I wanted to spend but it was amazing and I was super glad I got it?

well all that actually happened so just ignore that whole joke thing.

I’m a week into my job, and it’s exactly what I wanted, it’s structured, challenging, it demands everyone’s focus and best effort, and it pays really well. also I’m good at it. apparently I’m a fun and engaging teacher, and I just need to make sure I prep my boardwork and express the main points of the page clearly, which is an easy fix. the fundamentals are all there, or so I’m told. I recorded myself and thought it looked pretty good, and the feedback from other teachers and the instructors is positive.

and bonus, i buckled down when the job started and looked at apartments farther away than I originally wanted (at ice’s suggestion), and found that if you looked in a certain area (ice’s suggestion), everything was 5000 NT a month (almost $200) less than they would where I had been looking before!

bad things: 1)  it’s about 12000 nt ($400) per month, which was close to the upper end of what I wanted to spend, but really, assuming i actually get enough hours and then get full time employment at the end of the summer, it’s well within my means. it’ll hopefully be about a sixth of my salary every month, which should give me a lot of savings. maybe enough to make a quick tour of southeast asia at the end of my trip, and even live the dream and do the kung-fu-school-in-the-mountains-of-china thing. 2) it’s not really the clean, sleek, western looking place I originally wanted. you can tell it’s been lived in. little things, like baby mickey mouse stickers all over the bathroom walls. things like that. I assume I can get those down.  3) it’s like 7 mrt stops away from my job, which means it’s about an 18 minute train ride to work. original goal was walking distance.

good things: 1) it’s huge. when you first walk in, you see just a huge room with couches and a nice little tv, a fridge, some tables, and a mini kitchen.  that huge room is 12 ping, a ping is a measure that’s the size of 2 tatami mats, or 6’x6’. most of the other places I looked at were like 7 ping  which leads to 2) there’s a second floor! there’s a whole separate bedroom in my loft. 3) it’s getting painted whatever color I want! I’m trying to come up with a nice color scheme now, but it’s tricky because I don’t know what color the new furniture they’re giving me is going to be. 4) when I walk out my door, I see the mrt station. it is literally 20 yards away and there’s no street light between me and it. I’m 30 seconds away from a train at any time.  5) it’s near lots of really really cheap food places. admittedly they’re all traditional chinese places, but hey that’ll just get me used to the cuisine I came here for.

so anyway, here's my new place (it better be my new place, we’re supposed to be signing papers on sunday).

tpr day one

so i started my job today! the day was basically training and by training i mean we actually take the sat class and at the end of each lesson we ask questions about how to teach. it seems like tpr has a vision of an ideal teacher and everyone is supposed to mold themselves into it. not a lot of freedom, but i guess that makes sense, they’ve got to provide a consistent experience for the hundreds of kids coming through. teacher is lisa, she’s peppy and nice, and does a good job of keeping you awake by asking questions literally every 15 seconds.  “never say what you can ask,” rule one. right now i’m planning the teachback i have for tomorrow, which means she gave everyone 2 lessons out of the 3 we learned today and you make a lesson plan. gotta plan the whole thing but you only end up teaching like 1/4 of each section and you don’t know which section, no shortcuts.  I figure i write down the boardwork I want to do, study that and then I’ll always know what I’m supposed to be talking about without having to check out a book, at least during the teachback tomorrow, during class who cares. this is where they judge my ability and decide how many classes I get, which will deeply impact my standard of living and if i save a ton of money or next to nothing.  gotta impress tomorrow, no pressure.

also tomorrow: we initiate project: social.

new permanent friends?

job starts in two days! thought i’d try meeting some of the people before the job starts, get a jump start on the social scene, so i stole everyone’s email from a message the boss sent out and set up a dinner/drinks thing with the other trainees that were already here.  a few people came out, we got some japanese food and went out walking and wandered into a club later, it was a really fun night.  i was a little disappointed at the turnout, but the people that came were really nice and probably more fun than the average tpr folk since they all responded and came out.  then again, a near-anonymous email inviting people out is kind of a weird thing to get, so hey, can’t blame em for not coming. 

still psyched about the job, hope everyone’s as cool as the people i already met.

new friends again

so there were some kids who came to the hostel a little while ago and we hung out for a few days. quick summary of what happened:

went out to what must be the only alternative gothy bar in the city. it was amazing, imagine you took hot topic, put in alcohol, and then made everyone inside asian and gave them anime hair. after that was a karaoke bar where you had to do it in public, luckily it was mostly empty and no one actually cared.  I sang cake. and was backup for alanis morisette.  it’s hilarious watching people. try to sing the cake cover of I will survive when they’re used to the gloria gaynor version, if you don’t know what I mean try singing along with this. not easy right?

so the people were really cool. jess, matt, yu-shin, and kaylee. spent more time with matt and jess, but everyone was super nice and fun to hang with. later adventures include going to a real hot spring, all you can eat hot pot (yu-shin is like a 100 pound tiny girl but damn, she can put it away, she had like 3 times as much as me), a loungy bar place, and finally just walked around the city for a bit.  they’re gone now, but that was a really enjoyable diversion.  nice to have something fun before the job starts.

5 days ahhhhh so excited.

thoughts

been a while since the last post, life has been slow. most exciting thing in the last week or two is i went to look at a gym that i’ll probably join, it’s right next to work, it’s really nice, it’s cheap compared to america, it’s perfect. the plan is to go in before work for like 30 minutes, and they have really nice showers there. just bring a change of clothes. easy.  we’ll see how long that keeps up.

so here’s some stream of consciousness instead of a blog.

one of the things i never thought about before leaving is there’s no one to tell stupid crap to. example: i have 6 perfectly symmetrical bug bites on my body right now, ankles, shins, and that flap of skin between my pointer and thumb. what are the odds of that? 20 things like this happen every week and it kills me that there’s nobody to talk to about it. 

the job starts in exactly a week. could. not. be. more. excited. a man can only look at apartments, watch the wire, try to learn chinese, and beat old ds games for so long before ennui sets in. it’ll be realllly nice to have purpose again. this long with no real reason to hop outta bed in the morning is makin life boring. 

kevin’s free time

today we’re talking about I do when I’m not off on adventures.

if i’m chilling out at the hostel, i can usually be found in the kitchen or in bed, watching the wire while looking at one of a billion apartments.  i’m into season 2 now, so far it seems good. mcnulty’s still an asshole, crimes are still happening, i guess that’s all that matters. so i look at apartments and watch some tv, when that gets old i go talk to ice and explore the city or look for new restaurants.  Speaking of, i’m writing this at mary jane’s pizza, home of the dopest pizza, drinking a corona and waiting for a pepperoni and green pepper pizza to come out.  i have high hopes for this place. actually as of right now this is going to be a review of mj’s pizza.

note: taking out a camera and taking pictures of food while wearing nice clothes immediately gets you better service if someone sees it.

oh my god, this is better than most of the pizza I’ve had in america. ugh it’s crispy, fresh, the pepperoni is spicy, the cheese isn’t stringy, everything’s amazing, especially compared to the pizza i’ve had in this country. and it’s even big, most pizzas here are tiny and overpriced, this was only like 7 bucks and filling.

meal was so good I’m getting dessert. round two, panna cotta:

okay, seems like flan with a caramel coating, i don’t actually know what panna cotta is but i do know I like it. it’s creamy, sweet, and really light. melts in your mouth. all this for only 2 dollars. i love this country and mary jane’s pizza, this joined my list of 3 other places that are the best at what they do in taiwan.

life update

inspired by katie doyle and like 4 other people’s facebook statuses. see video for insight into my life.

ever have one of those days where everything is just perfect? you can do no wrong and everything breaks your way? even the bad decisions you make luck out? that has been my last 3 weeks.  if something awful doesn't happen soon i might start gettin a little cocky.  i guess i could learn to deal with that.

back in taiwan

okay apartment hunting is giving me problems. i called like 4 people today to go see places I’m kind of interested in, and not a single person speaks more than a dozen words of english. this might be a challenge.  edit: i was talking to joey today and it reminded me of the wus (his relatives that i stayed with for a few days), i’m probably going to call them to ask if they can give me a hand with this. 

It’s been nice to be back, everyone I know here was in the hostel when i got home, so it was easy to catch up with people.  and ice even put me in a slightly nicer room, isn’t she great.  but yeah, back in taiwan, looking for apartments, setting up job stuff, startin my life.  second meal back was mcdonalds. it’s as good as i remember it being lol.

singapore summary

best trip of my life.  I had more fun in a new place over the last couple weeks than on any other solo trip.  certainly vegas and cruises and things like that were amazing, but what made this special was that i didn’t know anyone well when i came out and still had a great time.  for anyone who will get the reference about, this was like “the best weekend ever.” it’s like meeting new family you never knew you knew.  i sincerely hope to keep in touch with everyone i met this week.  so much gratitude to angel and sophia  for being amazing hosts and to jimmy for bummin around with me, havin good talks, and getting me in with so many great people.  I’m really glad this all worked out.

one of the most interesting things about this trip for me was that it challenged my preconceptions about people in the finance industry.  i had opinions, based mostly on movies I’ve seen (which obviously makes me an expert), and this just shot those all to hell. i would now consider a career in that field knowing that it’s completely possible to keep your integrity and personal beliefs. 

from a not sissy-girly-feelings standpoint, it was also a really fun trip where I got to try things I’ve never tried before and still would not have tried if it weren’t for the generosity of others. amazing meals, fun touristy things, seeing clubs and places i wouldn’t normally visit, etc.  everything i wanted to see in singapore got done. little india, china town, arab street, sentosa island, the view from the marina bay sands hotel, the night safari, the shopping plazas, and even toured around a few fancy lookin buildings.  it was a super cool island, i don’t know any place like it. there’s a ton of diversity, a really interesting society and a novel government policy. the fact that it’s gotten where it is now in like 60 years is amazing. the weather’s nice too. very hot days, but you get used to it and it’s like a constant reminder you are in a ridiculous tropical paradise.

okay so conclusion, awesome trip, thank you one final time to everyone involved in this trip, hope to see you soon. bonus thanks to i think kathleen who let jimmy know I was headed out there, way to get the ball rolling.

singapore food

that was an amazing week.  amazing. one of the nicest times i’ve ever had with some of the nicest people i’ve ever met.  my last night there was a relaxing one, jim, angel, sophia and i went out to dinner at a little place that used to be british barracks. it was literally the best dinner of my life.  3 courses, of i believe beef brischutto (that’s probably wrong, i’ll look it up when I’m not on an airplane), followed by rack of lamb, and finished with crème broule. which is also probably spelled wrong. if it wouldn’t have been tacky and bourgeois jie, i totally would have taken pictures of every course, it was like art.

and now you guys get an in depth summary of every course so i remember it when I’m old and wrinkled and hungry.  sit down. round of champagne. amazing champagne.  sittin and chatting, very nice.  bread comes out, little croissant looking rolls served with oil and vinegar. the breads all crispy on the outside and just flaky and soft and amazing inside, and the vinegar was really good. appetizer: like a layer of pepperoni lookin beef served with a garlic paste garnish and a small salad with sweet tangy dressing. the beef was salty and then sweet afterwards, and it had some parmesan on it that just made it even better. and the salad was great. this was paired with a light white wine that I don’t have the vocab to describe, but it tasted great and what else matters.  main course: rack of lamb with strips of roasted eggplant and a cauliflower kind of bread, it looked like something made of potatoes, almost like a little cake. the lamb came on three bones, and just almost fell off. it was extremely tender, seasoned fantastically, cooked to a bright pink center, and made me regret not eating lamb every day for the last 23 years.  with the eggplant and cauliflower cake the consistency was even better, and the salty meat was less overpowering. was paired with a red wine that was also perfect. dessert: crème broule with a side of lychee sorbet.  the crème broule had a soft shell and just melted in your mouth with a creamy sweetness that I’ve never experienced, it was hot and comforting and filling and when you followed it up with the cold sorbet (which was also great, how have I not had lychee either) it was refreshing and sweet and light.  there was dessert/post-dinner drinks of sambuca with 3 coffee beans, which was amazing, especially if you actually like licorice like me. i didn’t even want to drink it it smelled so good. sigh… amazing.  gonna be tough to go back to mcdonalds and street food. not that that doesn’t have its own charms. but they don’t have rack of lamb at burger king.

chintzy tourist stuff

so the last couple days have been really nice, during the day me and jimmy have gone out into the city checking out the chintzy tourist stuff.  we hit up everything, sentosa island, arab street, orchard street, a mall or two or thirty, all the big things. then at night it’s dinner and drinks with angel and maybe sophia down at a nice restaurant, and sometimes other chintzy tourist stuff like the night safari, which was really cool. i’ll anecdote that one, it was a good time. get ready.

the night safari is basically a zoo at night.  i was a little concerned the whole thing waas going to turn out to be a scam and just be lions tigers and bears asleep haha thanks for the 40 bucks, but it turned out most everything was awake and doing exciting stuff.  highlights include the servit, the prettiest cat ever, and the fishing cat, who looks just like an ocelot but hangs out by his little river full of fish and coils up to spring at anything that comes vlose but nothing ever does because there has been a fishing cat on that side of the river for years, we’ll stay over here thanks. we watched that stupid cat for like 10 minutes waiting to see him actually jump, and the whole time it’s just sit, get excited, no wait nothing, jk guys. as exciting as real fishing.

there was also a bat house, with just bats flyin all over everything missing you by inches. sophia does not like bats, she was a champ though, and made it through like 3/4 of the exhibit, and then a bat swooped right in front of her and they were in the trees all around us and she just had to bolt out. i wouldn’t have such grace in the “here let spiders crawl on you” exhibit.  then it turns out there are 18 inch tall giant fox bats all over the ceiling, we only found them because one of them relieved itself right next to me. it was like a horror movie; weird noise, jump, turn, see something on the floor, everyone’s gazes slowly go up, omg there are like 50 of them all around you and you’re not getting out of here because they know you’re here and they’re just waiting for you to try to run.

anyway most of it wasn’t horrifying and it’s been a really good time every day here. it’s an exciting change of pace from taiwan, which is fairly consistent.  surprises everyday here.

anyway, no pictures from the night safari, you can probably guess why. they actually got really mad at people for taking any kind of picture involving light, once there was a tapir right by the bus and one guy snapped a pic, they stopped the tram and sent back people to find him. i still don’t know what happened to him.

hangin out in singapore

so i’ve been here a few days, i’ve met up with jimmy, things are going really well.  I was invited to stay with a friend he used to work with, angel, and his wife, sophia.  i could not have asked to meet nicer, better people in my limited time here.  i’m having a great time, everyone is being incredibly nice.  definitely gotta pay this karma forward.  just a quick update, everything’s going great.

also every single part of singapore is malls.  it never stops. you leave a mall, there’s a mall across the street. walk all the way through that mall, come out the other end, you’re looking at a mall. it’s crazy. i’ve started taking pictures of every mall i see.  i’m at about a dozen over the course of a day.

anecdote:

there’s a pool here. morning of day one. wake up, maybe 9 am. sleep in a bit, start the day nice. now what? well geez there’s that pool right down there, seems a shame to put it to waste. just chill in the pool, no rush, hang out for a half hour. showers, throw on some clothes, head on out and run a couple errands.  lunch: down by boat key. except they spell it boat quay, what’s up with that, why they gotta make things hard. we’re full, life is good, let’s wander around.  we stop by the american embassy so jim can get some more pages in his passport. the american embassy is a beast. it’s in the middle of the british and the australian embassy, and i just feel bad for them.  ours is made out of solid gray granite, is two stories taller than the others, and is one of the most intimidating pieces of architecture i’ve ever seen. they wouldn’t let me inside. i didn’t have business there. I also may not have had my passport, but it was intimidating.  the line for u.s. visa applications is outside. not american? you don’t get air conditioning. we left you a fan though, you’re welcome.

then we just walked for a while. been a good couple days. tonight we’re going on a night safari. should be good.

singapore update

okay sorry, I’m back. hostel number one was called wow hostel, don’t have pictures but I hope to be back there sometime, I had to leave after 2 days because they ran out of room, and now I’m in this place called footprints.

wow was right by/in little chinatown, so that was comforting. little changes. food was good, oh and there was a free breakfast every day, all the toast and strawberry jam you could eat, yum.  people were nice, made friends with some cool kids from switzerland, but they left today for indonesia =(

getting ahead of myself, let’s back up. first day: slept in airport until 7. went to hostel, found it with a minimum of lost.  dropped off my bag, couldn’t stay inside until noon. so I took the mrt to city hall, got out and walked around.  it was malls. malls in every direction as far as the eye could see. shops everywhere, all selling things I’m too poor to buy.  fun to walk around in though, and it was air conditioned, which was nice because it’s about 90 degrees and 85% humid. it’s like being home.  oh and everyone speaks english, so that’s nice too.  after looking around the malls for a while, I just walked.  found lots of interesting things, I basically walked around for about 12 hours.  I think singapore actually started when the city had a contest to see who could make the coolest modern building.  there’s also the world’s biggest ferris wheel and the world’s biggest fountain. haven’t seen the fountain yet though. 

first impressions:

people seem taller here. there are 3 kinds of people: regular asians, really dark asians which is like pacific islander or something maybe, and indians.  there are probably more, but I haven’t been to the little muslim/arab part of town, you’re welcome mom.  everything is too expensive.  this was a poor choice of places to visit when I’m still waiting for my first paycheck.  I’m getting really good at finding little hole in the wall local places to eat though, you can find a good meal here for like $5 if you look hard enough.  but just to give you an idea of the price discrepancy between here and taiwan, I’m paying twice as much for a hostel and a beer in a 7-11 is 8 dollars. how is that possible, drinking would be ridiculous here. 

back on point: everything’s in english which is an amazing change of pace.  there are a lot more white people here.  but the weirdest thing when I got to new hostel was I didn’t notice how few white people there were, I was overwhelmed by the lack of asians, I’m so used to being tightly packed in a crowd of asian people that anything else feels weird.

and now pictures!

singapore

okay, plane didn’t crash, everything’s great.  i landed at about 2 am, and rather than pay like 20 bucks for a taxi to the hostel where there was one bed in an 8 bed room where i’d pay another 18 dollars, i slept in the airport for 5 hours. apparently this is common, i joined a group of like 4 other people sleeping in the little kid play area, it had a rubbery soft floor, almost as nice as the plywood with foam topper i normally sleep on.

so at 7, i got on the mrt, took it to my hostel, dropped of my bag, and started exploring.  i’m in starbucks now where there’s wifi, everything’s fine. things seem a little more expensive here than in taiwan, maybe like 20% more, so looks like i’ll be living cheap for a little while.  i’m here until the 15th, so i’ve got two weeks to look around.  i had to stay that long because when i go back to taiwan, princeton review training starts on the 6th and is every weekday so i’d have to make a visa run either on the 3rd or on the 10th, and i definitely want to make as few visa runs as possible on my own dime. princeton review will pay for a trip to hong kong when you need it, and i’ll be working for them then, so i’m hoping if i can get them to like me they’ll reimburse me for the next trip, I already bought the ticket.  so i had to leave here after the 11th or 12th, and the flight on the 15th was about 150 dollars cheaper.  worth it even if singaore’s a little more expensive.  this is probably more detail than you care about, just wanted to articulate it for myself.

jimmy should be here on thursday the 5th, so i’ll probably see him the 6th or something, it’ll work out. 

haven’t really seen a lot of the hostel yet, better description to come.

first singpore impressions:

oh my god, there are plants here, i’ve missed plants so much and i didn’t even realize it, also the air is cleaner here.  there are definitely more westerners here.  also more indian people? i don’t know they might not be indian, just like pacific islander or something. it’s pretty hot here, high of 90 like every day while i’m here, so assumedly it’s sunny, which would make for darker people? i don’t know, i really haven’t done a lot of research on this place yet.  wanted to make my own first impression.  my hostel’s in kind of a shabby looking area, but around city hall and once you get into the downtown area things look really nice.  haven’t seen a lot, only been exploring for like an hour, so this is a very general impression.

okay i’m out

singapore travel adventures

i’m waiting at my gate to go to singapore.  i am here over an hour early. this is due to a combination of luck and planning in vastly unequal amounts.

i originally misread the departure time, 21:00, as 11 pm. whoops. saw that this morning. then nearly missed a bus to go to the airport because i got held up in the hostel with packing other little last minute things. then i got to the airport and discovered that apparently i’m awful at researching on the singapore government immigration site because they won’t let you in without a return ticket, which i have not purchased. luckily, i was able to use the airport internet to buy a plane ticket using my debit card, after my credit card got declined twice, even though i am not nearly maxed out and i used it yesterday.  got a pretty good deal too. but now i’m here, and nothing else can go wrong except that i’m really hungry and there are no restaurants on this side of customs, what were these airport planners thinking, every store here sells basically only booze and ipod chargers.  there is a soda machine, and a coke costs $30. i have $28 in change and a $500 bill, which the machine will not accept. =(

so overall everything went swimmingly, even though this was by far the worst planned trip ever. thank goodness. i have learned a valuable lesson today. maybe two. the second one can be that i should also carry smaller denominations of money.

cold

oh my god, all i do in this country is get sick, seriously what’s wrong with this place, now i get why everyone wears the masks

singapore

alright, going to singapore, leavin on the 1st at apparently 1130 pm. so i’ll be getting in a little bit late.  hope cabs aren’t that expensive because i do not plan on walkin around then on my first night with my big suitcase.  might only bring the small suitcase actually, i can cram stuff in there.  anyway, not a lot to write about.  psyched to see jimmy. i think one of the gales mentioned i was going there to him, thanks for making things happen cousins!

ahhhhhhh

i got my dream job ahhhhhh

wow, i might even make over $30,000 a year, who needs engineering anyway.  also, i might be seeing my cousin jimmy in singapore, small world, super excited. today was a pretty darn good day. now I need an apartment. things are lookin up.

recovered

alright let’s get back into this. 

not sick anymore, feelin good, back at like 85% maybe. just in time for my visa to expire. so I’m making a run to singapore for maybe like 12 days, pretty excited. buying a ticket today or tomorrow, probably leaving in 6 days. 

I finished all 3 rounds of interviews for the princeton review, I hear there are 5 people applying for 2 jobs, hope I get one. it would end up paying about 30000 more than I’d dreamed, which would be awesooome. I’ve been waiting to hear back for like 3 days, the suspense is killing me.  I sent a thank you letter to the people I interviewed with and all that stuff, at least I can rest easy knowing I did everything right and as well as I could.

gonna go talk to the immigration office about if I can get my 2 month visa renewed or if I have to leave the country every month until I get a job. I’ll keep the world posted on stuff now, blog recommenced.

siiickkkk 2

warning this one gets pretty personal

okay so the fever's over, but the throat's still murdering me.  of most concern is that being sick has made my immune system into a beast, and it decided to attack my large intestine. (ulcerative colitis flare up)

this is the worst it's been since i was diagnosed, maybe i should have seen this coming with the stress of moving here and new diseases and different foods, all of which might be triggers for a flare.  i've had to go to the bathroom almost a dozen times today, i think i'm gonna call a gastro doctor tomorrow, if this doesn't sort itself out real quick i might have to go back on steroids, which would suck because you swell up like a balloon, get covered in tiny zits like all over your body and just feel like crap all the time.  i looked up this other thing called vsl#3 that i want to try, but i don't think they ship to taiwan hooraaaay

this is just a lot to deal with right now

siiickkkk

see title, i am feverish and in bed, better updates later

semester at sea, part 2

alright so quick recap. people came to taipei and stayed in my room and the room next to me, they came from the us and canada, they live on an ex-cruise ship that now takes kids all overt he world while teaching them college classes. “semester at sea.” costs like $24000 or something but it includes a semester of classes, a four month cruise, stops in at least ten countries in majorish cities, food, all that. and the boats full of college kids. how did i never do this. regrets.

anyway, they’re in my room and the room across the hall, i invite myself along with them to fun things on the first night, karaoke, clubbing, exploring, etc. see last post for pictures.

next day way too early in the morning, everyone wakes up, walks around, eats in an “american style” restaurant, we decide i can go hangliding the next day in keelung, i run and grab stuff from my hostel, we all go to a park, yada yada details later, i’m tired, here are pictures from the next day when we went to keelung.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037428&id=1096890440&saved

you should be able to see them even if you’re not on facebook. if not I’ll put them up here tomorrow.

temporary friends!

okay, so quick on the heels of me asking everyone in taipei to be my friend, a bunch of americans came to the hostel took care of it. we went out to luxy, the first club i ever went to here, and i brought my camera this time. bad news, it was waaaay less crowded than the first time, so pretend it’s so full you couldn’t walk and stuff.
more later, got to go, come back in a bit, there’ll captions and things will be prettier.


























edit – going to keelung don’t know how to spell it, out of contact for a day or two. expect good updates when I get back. this is the most fun i've had in my time here.

time for a change of pace

so i’m still having a lovely time here, but it feels like my life here is starting to stagnate. still doing fun stuff, exploring, going around and looking for jobs and things, but it’s starting to get repetitive, i’m falling into a pattern. so today i have taken dramatic action. i have written a letter to everyone in taipei asking them to be my friend.

here is the text of that letter.

Hello!
I got to Taipei a little while ago and am having an AMAZING time here so far, but unfortunately, most of the exciting things I've been doing have been done alone. I've met fewer people here than I thought I would, and my life is starting to get repetitive.
In addition to this, I'm currently staying in a 6 person dorm in a hostel, and someone has moved in who has very little sense of personal hygiene and manners. Point is, it seems like couchsurfing for a couple days would solve ALL of my problems!
I am very tidy and sociable, and will of course be happy to bring a bottle of wine, case of beer, or treat for a dinner of your choice in exchange for an evening of your time. I'll do my very best not to make it boring =)
I'm currently looking for a job teaching english, so if anyone is currently doing that or has any tips, that would be ideal, but please don't let a lack of that qualification stop you from responding! I would still love to meet you!
Thank you in advance, have a great day!

i posted it to the taipei group on couchsurfing, a super-cool website you can read more about HERE. there are 1820 people in this group, and if not a single one of them wants to be my friend, i am coming home because i am clearly a lost cause who will never be loved. the nice thing is that if it works out, i can spend the money i would have spent on a hotel room buying a nice gift for whoever i stay with!

anyway, i’ll keep the world posted on if i’m staying with people, and don’t worry, people don’t die from staying with complete stranger very often. i don’t know the exact figures, but i’m pretty sure it’s like single digits.