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!