Parents visit and Taroko Gorge!!!

Very exciting week. Mom and Dad come Friday to visit. This weekend we will visit Taroko Gorge. Taiwan was nicknamed Isla Formosa(Beautiful Island) by the Portuguese--and Taroko is one of the main reasons for this.

After Taroko, a week in Taipei with the parents and then off to Thailand. We will be visiting Bangkok, Chang Mei and Phuket. Unfortunately Alan can't come, because he has to work but I told him I will be happy to go back with him when we finish working in August!

My little boys in class are coming along very well. Sue brought them some adorable monkey stuffed animals that they love. They beg me to take them home every day.

Wade, Aaron, Sean
Sean, Aaron and Max being camera shy
Aaron
mare Aaron...
Sean hamming it up for the camera

Next photo is of my ADHD student Wade--swinging his monkey around with my camera case around his neck!

if we have any readers left....

I apologize again for my sporadic blogging! You've probably given up on us by now but if not, thanks for checking in. We are getting quite settled into Taipei and have met some really wonderful people here.
Tonight I went out to dinner with my co-workers to a hot pot restaurant. Hot pot is basically a big pot of broth cooking in the middle of the table, and you order different vegetables, meats, tofu, seafood etc etc and cook it in the broth. Normally i'm not much of a fan but this restaurant was quite good. AND they had unlimited Hagen Daz ice cream for dessert!
Sue and Micah (Alan's Mom and Sister) came last week to visit. They stayed in a hotel on the National Taipei University's campus because my very helpful and generous friend Olivia (who goes to school there) offered to book us a room. You can only book a room if you are a student and the place is much cheaper than a regular hotel. Sue and Micah's visit seemed to be doomed from the beginning with finding out before they even boarded the airplane that they weren't going to be able to go on the second portion of their trip to China because they didn't get a visa. So after canceling their trip and loosing hundreds, probably thousands of dollars, they had to book a new flight home from Taipei. Right after booking that flight they hear word that Alan's grandmother, Nana, is doing poorly so they had to buy yet another ticket home the next morning to be with her. On top of that, we were planning on going to the beach in Kenting but the trains were all sold out so we had to cancel that portion of the trip as well. Ugh! International travel is amazing but can be the most frustrating thing as well.
It is good that they got home because several days later Nana passed peacefully in her sleep. RIP Nana...you taught me how to play Mah Jong, brought some New York to the South, and were a loving- and loved woman. We will miss you dearly.

teaching, hong kong, and other things...

I am now closing in on my 5th week of teaching and I feel like I have been at it for months already. I started off teaching a class of 5-6 year olds for three weeks. Their previous teacher, Bryan, who is an American, got deported for visa issues. So I took over Bryan's class until the end of the semester and then took over Julie's class of 2-3 year olds at the beginning of the semester. Julie is a British teacher who is now moving to Egypt to teach. I will miss having her here because she has a great British sense of humor and has a funny way about just being very direct and realistic about everything. She is also the only other western female teacher in the school. My other co-teachers are Darryn (British), Matt (Australian) and Eugene (Canadian). Each teacher is matched up with a Chinese teacher for their class and I lucked out and got a sweet woman named Mia.
Last week with the little ones was quite challenging. I had already been at the school for 3 weeks so I knew the basic routine but I was starting over with a whole new group of kids and a completely different age group/level. Two of the boys (I have all boys in my class right now!) Max and Sean have been at school for over a year so their English is quite good. The other two new ones Aaron and Wade are a handful. Aaron is very much attached to our school manager and the whole first week he wouldn't leave her side. Wade is just rambunctious and will just jump on a group of children sitting nicely and cause mayhem. It is quite incredible though to see their progression because you can see improvement every day. It is also pretty incredible to teach someone their first words of a language. When they remember something I have taught them, it makes all the frustrations of crying, jumping, running away from me, etc not matter so much any more. Overall I like teaching a lot and the kids in the school are very funny. One little precious girl named Sylvia (if she goes missing you know who to look for!) is one of my favorites. I know you're not supposed to have favorites as a teacher, but she's not in my class so she can be one of my favorites. Yesterday she showed me something and I said to her "That's good sweetie" and she said "My name's not sweetie, it's Sylvia!". Too cute! I guess they don't know pet names in English yet.
If you'd like to check out Teacher Bayly in action you can go to our school's web site http://www.babyhome.com.tw/album.php?mid=240234. Click on the English tab up top right. Then click on "Album" then the Red tab in the middle. Then scroll down until you see "Blue Class" which is my class. There will be tons of pics up of the last few weeks as the Taiwanese LOVE their pictures!
Last weekend we went to Hong Kong to renew Alan's visa (pics to be posted soon!). It was a fun trip, although quick, as I had to leave after work Friday after work and had to come home on Sunday. We thought Alan had to go to the visa office and apply for a new visa since his was expiring but it turns out we just had to leave the country and come back. So he had to stay an extra day in HK and it turned out for no reason. Overall, HK was fun. You can buy cheap chinese type souveniers and the vendors are much more willing to haggle with you on the price than in Taiwan. We also went up on the 360 degree lift up to a Buddha statue. It was pretty foggy and cold up on the mountain but it was still cool to see the huge Buddha statue.

OK better get back to work...I'm in the middle of my bi-weekly reports. One of the less fun things that goes along with teaching...all of the side paperwork!

Water's Edge -7M3

Imagine, night has just fallen; many people standing near water’s edge with little paper lanterns. The hand crafted lanterns lifted into the sky with candles inside to light their way. The candles seem to reflect on the water's surface; the reflection speaks of an older time, ages ago, when the ancestors of the lanterns did the same thing. As the lanterns lift into the crisp night air they take with them sadness, happiness, and memories of a year’s passing...We tried to go to Yilan for the last day of the lantern festival, but when we got to the train station we found out that our group left early; we did RSVP late. The lantern festival in Yilan is supposed to be breath taking and we missed it...DOH! Well not to worry. We decided to go to Yilan, but this trip was for the beach. The train ride take about 1.5 hrs, not to bad for a day basking the warm sunlight on soft sand. The landscape was beautiful and we passed through a lot of little towns. I'm not sure if the train stations were created because people lived there or did the people build little villages around where the train company decided to put stops...either way. At many of the stops, villagers stand at the open doors and peddle sack/box lunches. An old man sitting next to me got one, and it looked good; rice meat, some veggies. He ate it and enjoyed, although I'm not sure how he chewed with two teeth on opposite sides of his mouth. We got to the beach station and walked into a quite world, not much going on there for a beach town; ohh yeah it is winter here. So it was about 10 minute walk to the beach. We walked down an alley with a brigade on our left to stop typhoon waves, and cute houses on our right. The houses all had gardens in front of them with irrigation. You walk down like 10 stairs to the garden and backup them to the house, this was another form of protection should the water of the ocean get over the 15 ft wall of concrete. None the less each house had a small garden with mostly cabbage, bokchoy, lettuce and other winter greens, I guess. We walked through the yard of a school; a very beautiful school. From the front is was a concrete building, but it was U shaped with an open court yard in the rear with an ocean view, a large green field and a basketball court with 9.5 ft rims...hehehe made me feel good to jump up and grab it. We walked though an area of of buildings; some were restaurants, some were surf board rental stores, but they all were closed. When we got to the beach it was rocky. Correction, the beach was rocks, but there was about 20 feet of pebble sand. One of our group members was going to surf but decided not to as the waves were smallish. We walked back through the school, past the station, and into a small village to find lunch. Thank goodness we had a Taiwanese friend with us, because there was one restaurant, not menu's and no English. She ordered for us, we shared dishes in a family style and had a wonderful lunch. Went back to the rocks, ahem I mean beach for a little while and just appreciated the fresh air. Taipei is wonderful, but 1 in 5 people wear a smog mask, and its not just a fashion statement. All in all, this trip was a nice get away and cost next to nothing. BTW...we found out we got off one stop to early and the actual beach was just around the jetty and we never knew it! An excuse to go back! The title of this post is a good song by 7mary3.

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