my english is so crap

...or the more crude version "my english is so shit" is a phrase we hear a lot here when people with English skills 100x better than our Chinese skills are apologizing for not being able to communicate something.

On another note, sorry for the long lapse in our blogging! We were bored out of our minds during Chinese New Year and got out of the habit of blogging because it didn't seem like there was too much to write about. We thought the Chinese New year would be filled with parties and parades, but aside from firecrackers going off at every hour of the day and night...CNY turned this bustling city into a ghost town. We did do a couple of fun things during that time that I can mention quickly...one being that we went to the Chaing Kai-shek memorial hall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Chiang_Kai-shek_Memorial_Hall) which is beautiful Chinese architecture. In the basement of the hall there is a Modern art museum with an Andy Warhol exhibit going on. Even though we weren't working and had all this free time during the week, we stupidly decided to visit the exhibit on a Saturday. So needless to say, it was extremely crowded and I think it ruined it for Alan. All he could talk about is how bad people smell in large groups. It was pretty amazing to see his artwork though...all of the famous pieces were there from the Marilyn Monroe's to the Campbell's soup can and the Velvet Underground banana.

After Chinese New Year, I still had one week of vacation before my job started (which happened today). We decided to take a vacation from our vacation and headed down to Kenting Beach. Kenting is the southernmost tip of the island and is a national park on the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! The one drawback is the public transportation-we are so spoiled in Taipei that we didn't think that we would need to come up with a form of transportation down there. You have to have a Taiwanese license to rent a scooter or car there (and they do enforce this law, unfortunately). So besides walking our only other real option was to take a taxi around which isn't all too expensive but they are few and far between. We stayed in a cozy and extremely nice and clean hotel run by a very sweet family. They would all eat dinner in the lobby every night and every night when we would be heading out to dinner, they would invite us to sit and eat with them. We refused their offers though because they didn't speak any English and we don't speak Chinese and so we thought it might be a little awkward. And also because I'm still a little scared of most food here and I was nervous of what they would be serving us and that I might not like it.

One thing the owners really helped us out with was setting us up on an amazing snorkeling trip. It ended up being about $12 each and Alan and I agreed that it was the best $12 we had ever spent. A guy picked us up from our hotel at 8am and brought us to a place with snorkeling gear. We wore wet suits because the water is still a little chilly this time of year. Then he brought us out to the beach and just pointed towards the ocean. We were both expecting some sort of boat to take us out to a reef but no. This wasn't a nice sandy beach either, it was a rocky beach of dead coral reef. Alan and I were both a little nervous. I had read things in my Lonely Planet book about how the current is really bad in some areas and that you shouldn't swim out too far. This guy was pointing us to swim out to a floating dock about 3o feet out. Once we got out there we were both put at ease quickly because it was very calm and there was amazing coral reef and all types of tropical fish. Alan, being the saltwater tank expert was excited to point out fish and pull me up to tell me what each of them are. It was nice to have such an informed guide!

After about an hour of snorkeling, another group of Taiwanese arrived. The guide could barely get half of them in the water so that made me feel braver than I had earlier. Once they got out in the water a boat came to pick us all up. The crazy driver took us out in the boat and then we all got on one of those hot dog looking rafts and got pulled behind. None of the guides or passengers spoke any English so we just had to go with the flow. But it was a really fun time and again--the best $12 I had ever spent.

Davis encourage Alan and I to sign up for couchsurfing.com to meet new people. We were a bit skeptical at first about the whole couchsurfing organization but I'm so glad we signed up. We went to a CS event this past Saturday and met some really great people! First the group met up for bowling, which I am horrible at but it was still a lot of fun, then we went to eat dinner in a hot pot restaurant which is popular here, then we all went to a club to watch a reggae band. Some people came for one event and most stayed for all 3 events, like us. It was really nice to go to a restaurant and have someone tell us what to order and what to do! The group was a good mix of Taiwanese, Americans, Canadians, Koreans and one guy from Singapore. All in all it was a fun night and it is nice to now have some friends to go out with! I met one girl who I really clicked with named Olivia. She is young, only 21 I think but she is the sweetest thing and offered to help me go get my haircut. I have been needing a haircut but have been afraid to go into the salons, thinking they would know no English and I wouldn't be able to communicate what I wanted them to do (Olivia told me I was right in thinking they probably didn't know English). So we're going Wednesday night to get my hair cut.

This weekend the Lantern Festival started so every night people send off lanterns into the sky with a message inside about something they want to achieve for the new year. (I think...I don't know too much about the Lantern Festival yet) Alan and I are going to try to go tomorrow night to watch the celebration. It is supposedly a sight to see.

I had my first day of work today but this blog is far too long already so I will write more about work...and the Lantern Festival soon!

Bayly

officially employed! and wide awake at home

So I decided to be responsible and stay in while Alan went out to Dub Reggae night at a local club. Here it is now midnight and i'm wide awake. My reason for being responsible is that i GOT A JOB! and i have to go in tomorrow morning at 8:45 to see the morning routine. The school is called Jump Start. After the Chinese New Year I will start on Feb 9. First I will be subbing for a teacher that is getting deported (long story) for three weeks in a class of 5-6 year olds. After that I will get my own class of lovely little 2-3 year olds. Right now there are only three boys in the class so it should be a piece of cake! Working with the little ones with fill the void in my life that is my little Binderman girls!
Alan and I went to the Shilin Night market last night and went on a fun shopping spree. Mainly we bought gifts for friends. It's a little frustrating shopping there for clothes as most of the clothes are made to fit a 16 year old girls body, although that is the size of most girls/women here no matter the age. NO boobs, no butts, no hips! Maybe it will be incentive to drop a few lbs. And the Taiwanese store owners are not afraid to tell you the clothes in their stores aren't going to fit you. The first time it happened to me I was almost in tears but now i am used to it as it is socially acceptable I am finding. We are so sensitive about weight back home that you would never have someone in a store tell you that the clothes in their store aren't going to fit you, but they're not afraid here.
OK going to lay down and try to make myself fall asleep.
goodnight! bayly

Lions, Tigers and a Bear of a Commute

A little over anxious to find a job I decided to go on an interview a little further out on the MRT (subway). There is a red,blue,green,orange, and brown line all going to different parts of the city. We live on the green. So I took the green line to the red, and switched to the blue, and then switched to the brown; already 30+ minutes into my trip. I was going to the Taipei Zoo stop on the brown line which is also the last stop. The train has to slow down as it twists and curves around mountains; only one tunnel through (I guess that was a labor nightmare). Over and hour later I arrive about 5 minutes late and call the school I am interviewing with; they are kind and offer to come pick me up from the station. 30 minutes later they show up... I am thinking to myself, "I don't care about the school, where the h-e-double hockey sticks am I?" So the car ride is only about 5 minutes, and that was a small victory. The school was nice the kids were nice, but I'm not sure I'm into the two hours and 8 sub-way switches. So it was a nasty rainy day or I might have walked around the zoo for a bit. The shining bright spot on this mini adventure was meeting the teacher's own child when they short bus came to pick me up from the MRT station. First the child was very cute, as most the children are here, and then he offered me something to eat...does this kid have instincts or what...he read me like a book. What he offered appeared to be beef jerky, and I'm always game for some jerky at 10am; who isn't? This jerky was not beef, and it was sweet and tasted more like a fruit roll-up, although it was clearly meat of some sort; oh well tasty treat non the less. To up the anti, this school that was practically in another city. To my surprise they had a single cup coffee machine that ground the coffee and drip brewed a fresh cup. Well I know most of you aren't excited, but to let you know if its not Starbucks here you are getting watered down espresso. So the school was nice, the people were nice, the coffee was great, but the commute was just a bear!

Did you know that DVD players on computers have region codes...me neither. So we found a great DVD rental store. It only took 3 trips there to figure out that it had a downstairs with most of the movies. We thought, okay its just a small rental store so they only have like 3 bookcases of new release and TV series....the down stairs hold most of the movies. The movie stores here focus on animated cartoons; about 60 (YES 60) bookshelves top to bottom are filled with animated cartoons. They don't stack them front ways like we do, these are on the shelves like books and are crammed into every bit of available space. I'm sure I could get into the cartoons, but Bayly probably wouldn't care as much. So DVDs have this regional code; America's is region 1 (of course); Southeast Asia is region 3 (FYI). I've located the regional code area on my computer, and changed it to 3...NOTHING happened. So most of the DVDs we were renting where not playing. Our neighbor was really cool and spent like an hour downloading this VLC movie player for us and told us that it should play most if not all the movies...nope. We've also been introduced to bit torrent so now I think we can cancel our ghetto blockbuster membership. I'm still not perfectly sure I have the region code or VLC player figured out...knock knock neighbor...you should have never given this mouse a cookie. =]

Stay tuned as I am starting to look at scooters....don't tell Bay!

ALinTaiwan

jobs jobs jobs and other stuff...

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

Far away but closer then ever.

So moving far away from home hasn't weakened my contact. What I am finding is that I have more time to reconnect with people I haven't spoken with in a long time. That's cool. I'm having new experiences and remembering many from my past.

I've recently been informed that a friend of a friend lives here in Taiwan and has for quite some time. My potentially new friend has a Taiwanese wife and family and I'm excited to meet them and gain some much needed insight about our new home. More to come...

I found that ordering food from pictures is "more then meets the eye". I've gambled more on food then I have even gabled in a casino. Really i wouldn't mind if I ordered roulette style. I put my money on the chicken soup, but where the ball lands and what actually comes out of the kitchen are up to fate. Think to your self chicken soup....yummy. Wait, don't let your drool pool yet, because whats in the bowl is a little different that what you are thinking of. Most of the chicken is on the bone, so often you will receive a drumstick that is soggy from sitting in soup, and personally I'm not big on soggy chicken. Ohh, but wait, then you see what seems to be a cherry, and when you bite in you find a surprise, a seed, and it wasn't a cherry it tasted more like a fig. We'll the broth was good and its just lunch right. What better way to finish off lunch, but with a tasty pastry....right. Many of the "tasty" pastries are filled with mushy beans....not a fan. So of course the next time you go out...you roll the dice, spin the wheel, take a hit on 16, and hope you don't get snake eyes, land on red, or bust. With all this said, everything is label and the people are happy to explain what is in the soup...in Chinese. So as another stupid American who speaks no Chinese, I say as Jim Carey in Dumb and Dumber, "Whats the soup de jour?", assuredly FLO replies, "The soup of the day." and I happily say, "Emm, that sounds good, I'll have that".
I'm speaking of the times were you don't get what you want, but mostly you get more then your expect. I keep an open mind, and I have had some really good food and some really embarrassing moments asking what something is on a menu.

Another minor blunder is when your pre-paid cell phone cuts out and you have to find a cell phone store to recharge your card. A re-charge is like $10 for 100 minutes. No big deal, but the re-charge card needs to be entered...and guess what, the recording is in Mandarin. Again, my lack of language attempts to stop me from chatting on the phone, but another really nice and helpful Taiwanese person swoops down from the sky, changes into the tights and cape and saves me by calling the number and following the steps to re-charge me phone. Seriously, we couldn't find our way and we stopped at a Patagonia store and this lady called 411 and helped us, then a guy a 7-11 helped us figure out how to buy a calling card, and many other people are stop and ask us if we need help when we are standing on the side walk looking like we need help. Thank you to the Taiwanese people and the culture of acceptance and helpfulness.

I found a sigh that has a girl and a guy in a basketball gym and looks like a league. I'm pumped about taking my skills across the ocean. I'll be happy to rebound, pass, and be a token for any team. I'm sure my JCC scoring average of about 5 pts a game will translate into stardom here. I can't order soup so I hope they don't expect me to understand the coach telling me not to shoot or to play better defense. Maybe if I bring gator aid bottles and watermelon slices after the game they will forgive me.

The huge dork in me finally found a comic book store with American stuff. Voice of comic Simpson's comic book man, "Finally I am understood and appreciated". I think they are into war craft here, which is not for me, but it is still cool to see geeky stuff from home.

NO SPORTSCENTER IS STARTING TO HURT. I wake up at night in cold sweats hugging my pillow and praying for just one, "back back back back back" that I shunned as old and out of date. I miss all my friends at ESPN, and I wish I could be like Stuart Scott, "as cool as the other side of the pillow" about the lack of American sports, but I can't and I miss it! ESPN.com is great, but I need my 30 minutes of love. So if anyone wants to tape sports center and send me the file I will promise to download it and watch it everyday. Does anyone know how i can watch the current sports center online? Maybe a lil PTI, i don't wanna get greedy, but i need to know before the NBA playoffs start.

Please stay tuned as Bayly and I are really becoming more adjusted to the time schedule and will surely explore more cool and exciting places, but for now Taipei is a must see. If you need a vacation, Taiwan has it all.

Much love to my peeps.

photos

Ok if I did everything right there should be a slideshow of photos on the top right corner. You can go to our flickr page to see the photos upclose by clicking on the slideshow or by going to www.flickr.com/photos/ramblingmandarin/

Getting settled

So here were are almost a week in Taipei and it feels like in a way we just got here and also like we've been here for months. Everything you do here you have to think about and plan out, by the end of the day we're both mentally and physically exhausted. We settled into our new apartment which is near the Shida University. It's a very young, hip area with tons of restaurants, cool shops and at night the streets turn into a "night market" which are very popular here and all over town.

Our landlord "Joseph" is about as nice as we could have asked for. Joseph is from a smaller town south of here called Tainan but lived in Texas and went to undergrad and grad school so he speaks perfect English. He is a funny little man but so helpful and I know if we were ever in a bind we could call him for help. After meeting with Joseph and signing the lease, he showed us where a store we could buy sheets and blankets. I was very excited about decorating our new Asian apartment until I saw the selection we had to go with...bright pink Snoopy blanket or baby blue with grandma looking roses all over it. We opted for the blue rose print but flipped it over so it's just light blue. It was the Asian decorating motif I was imagining but it will do.

As soon as we got settled into the apartment, Alan got in Alan mode and immediately started rearranging furniture and making lists of things we need to buy. I curled up in our rock hard bed and yelled out my two-cents.

Now that we have a more stable living situation we are looking for teaching jobs. We are in a time crunch to find jobs before the Chinese New Year which starts in a couple of weeks. From what we have heard the whole island just sort of shuts down and there are festivals and parades and parties etc. A new session at the schools starts after the new year so we hope to have something secure by then.

I'm new to the whole blogging thing so be patient...still trying to figure out how to post all of our pictures. We also created a flickr account under the same name Rambling Mandarin. I'm not sure how to like over to that yet but I think you can look us up under that name on http://www.flickr.com/.