The story so far...
Trip Start
Nov 17, 2006
1
19
Trip End
May 09, 2007
Neili,
Taiwan
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
So much has changed in the two months since I arrived. I've already acquired about double the amount of things I brought with me, I spend my mornings running around after 12 three or four year olds, and Chinese food no longer holds much appeal.
Suppose I should tell you something about Taiwan really - point number one, it's TaiWAN, not ThaiLAND, as lots of people thought when I said where I was going. And it's not China either, whatever Beijing tries to say. Taiwan is a small(ish) island off the coast of China, between Japan and the Philipines. As, I said, Beijing is still adamant that Taiwan is a renegade Chinese state - the Government of the Republic of China fled here in the 50s when the Commies took over in China, and hasn't really had any contact since
01 - Chiang Kai Shek Memorial
. It's really a separate country - it has it's own government, money, passports, visas, blah blah blah. It's just recognised as such as everyone is scared of pissing off the Chinese. A lot of people here (especially the older generations) do still feel that Taiwan is Chinese, but a lot of my friends take great offence if you label them Chinese instead of Taiwanese. Taiwan's a bit of a mish mash - islands are pretty easy to overrun, so it's been in Dutch, British, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese hands in the last couple of hundred years. There's a few distinct native cultures too - the big one are the Hakka, and the food is yummy! Hmm.... what else? There's the obvious 'Made in Taiwan' thing. Instead of plastic tat it's a lot of electronics now - which means that Taiwan is getting a lot more affluent. Good for me - means people can afford super expensive English kindergarden for their kids. Everyone drives a scooter - the streets are jampacked with them. It's amazing, it's almost like an art form. People manage to fit whole families onto them, or move house with them (took me two trips with my friend Anne last weekend), or take the dog out, or attach a trailer or a market stall to it. Truly amazing. And I'm bloody terrified to join in, but the time to do so is ticking ever closer. Ooh, how could I forget Taiwan's current claim to fame - Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. For about 3 months till they finish a bigger one in Dubai anyway. It really doesn't look that big - that's what the picture is on the front page. The area around it has lots of parks though, which is nice.
So, the big thing, the reason that I'm here - I'm serving as yet another foreign teacher, to trick kiddies into learning by playing endless flashcard games and singing stupid songs all day
02 - Taipei 101
. Although I doubt my worth as a teacher - really, all I do is play around and hope that they take some of it in - I am enjoying it. And as much as I hate to admit it, the kids are cute, even my afternoon classes of hyperactive 8 year olds. My school is in a backwater town called Taoyuan, about 25km from the capital Taipei, in the rainy north of the island. What a difference that 25km makes! Taipei is a nice, clean, open, green (ish...), cosmopolitan, fun city, and Taoyuan.... Well, it just isn't any of those things. So, I moved out. To a smaller town called Neili, 4 minutes away on the train. It's more open - Taoyuan is just high rise after high rise after high rise, I missed the sky. Here the buildings are a lot lower, and I live in an actual house (that's insanely rare in Taiwan) with two nice people from South Africa. The next town over is much nicer than Taoyuan - there's a couple of universities, so there' s cool places to hang out, and some interesting shops to mooch around.
My life during the week isn't too exciting - I go to work, I come home, I go to bed. Sometimes we go for a beer (or four), but nothing really noteworthy. The same daily grind as everyone all over the world. I am lucky enough to have weekends off though (most people here work Saturdays, yuckky), so I'm planning to explore as much as I can. I'll post here when I have something interesting to share - a funny story, some nice photos, or an especially excruciating day at work.
So, until then, I miss you all, take care.
