Sorry there hasn't been a post in a few days. Alan and I have been busy and most of our free time on the internet is spent looking for jobs and tying up loose ends from back home(ie trying to figure out how to get my ATM card sent over here).
We have both been on several interviews. I am meeting with a school tomorrow and they have already told me they will be presnting me with a formal job offer. Our two main options for work are 1. working at a "Cram school" which is an after school or after work program for school aged children and some schools are for adults. The hours are typically afternoons and evenings and depending on the school sometimes Saturdays. The other option is to work at what they call a Kindergarden school but is more like pre-school. The children can range from 2-6 or so and they are basically a pre-school where English is only spoken and taught to the children. There is a Chinese teacher in each class that handles most of the "babysitting" duties (ie changing diapers) and an English teacher in each class. I will probably be working in a Kindergarden class with the little ones. I was thinking I wanted to work with older children but the little kids are so cute and the schedule is much better...Monday-Fri 9-5 with weekends off.
So enough about jobs. Alan and I had our first social outing last night! Our neighbor Anastasia invited us to come with her to "movie night" at their friends apartment nearby. One of the guys living there, Dave, has a movie projector and we watched "Brazil" a strange but funny movie from the 80's. It was a nice group of people. They were mostly all Canadians except one girl was from San Fran. It was nice to just get out and have conversation with someone besides Alan or the principal from a school. Not that I don't love conversations with Alan...but some variety is definitely a good thing!
On Sunday Alan and I visited an area called Beitou. This area is only about a 30 minute train ride outside of Taipei. There are public hot springs there for only about $1 US. There are swankier private resorts with hot springs baths right in your room. We opted for the cheaper version for now and it was great! The pools ranged in order from very cold up to some pools so hot I couldn't even put my foot in. But there were tons of people in that pool, soaking away! There was also the Taipei Folk Art museum which we hiked to. We also visited the Beitou Historical Museum where a woman who worked there just came up to us and asked if we wanted her to give us a private tour! We were amazed as something like that would never happen at home where you have to pay for almost anything "extra." Our sweet tour guide was an older woman who kept apologizing for her English which was clear and perfectly descriptive. She told us about all of the original tribes of Taiwan and their local customs and what they were known for. I loved the tribe that was famous for their intricate bead work. I guess our guide could tell because after the tour she gave me a beaded bracelet that was the style of that tribe. I was in shock at the generosity of this woman (and have been by the taiwanese people since we got here).
Besides that things are moving along well. It's amazing we haven't even been here two weeks and we already have an apartment, job offers and we have learned so much about the way of life here.
Chinese New Year is coming up next week and the streets are already filled with red and gold lanterns. From what we have heard, Chinese New Year is mostly spent with family and close friends (like Christmas/Hannukah back home). Since we don't have family or Taiwanese friends here yet we will most likely spend the New Year celebrating just us or maybe with our new friends.
We found an amazing little soup restaurant right around the corner that is super cheap! About 4$ for a big bowl. At most of the restaurants we have to go by the pictures which are on most menus here. Alan saw a picture on this particular menu that looked like chicken wings and he got excited so ordered them for us as an appetizer. Much to his dismay, along came an order of chicken feet! Alan tried to eat one and when he spit it out after just a few seconds I decided against it. Alan is much more adventurous with the foods here so my general rule is that if something is too exotic for Alan than i'm not going to like it!
Well off to the market and to buy some things for the house. One custom here is that in a home or school even you don't wear your "street shoes" inside. So I'm going to buy Alan and I some slippers and shower shoes so we can keep this tradition in our own apartment.
much love back home...and if you're on skype let's chat...i'm baylym and alan is alintaiwan.
Bayly
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