I just finished my second day of teaching and I will be heading out shortly into Beitou, a local region famous for food and hot springs.
The day went well. I had the same three classes today and my assessment of them remains the same. The second class was pretty fun; they are less afraid to make mistakes. The others are coming. At one point I had a pen and paper in my hands and took the pen cap off with my mouth so I could write and the class DIED laughing. It carried on for quite a while and I didn’t catch on until I did it again (they wouldn’t tell me). Eventually one said “yeaaaaah, we don’t do that here”. It’s the little things.
Today’s lunch was super unappealing and it turns out that every Wednesday is vegetarian dishes only. I’m ok with that if they change things up. The rice was the only thing we could confidently identify and what I tried was either just ok or bitter. We did have a new fruit (to me) called dragon eyes which were really good, though. They have very little fruit for the effort you need to put in to get to them though haha. A teacher came up to us and told us to watch out for “little animals” in them!
Here are some neat little notes on things we’ve seen/experienced/heard:
The day went well. I had the same three classes today and my assessment of them remains the same. The second class was pretty fun; they are less afraid to make mistakes. The others are coming. At one point I had a pen and paper in my hands and took the pen cap off with my mouth so I could write and the class DIED laughing. It carried on for quite a while and I didn’t catch on until I did it again (they wouldn’t tell me). Eventually one said “yeaaaaah, we don’t do that here”. It’s the little things.
Today’s lunch was super unappealing and it turns out that every Wednesday is vegetarian dishes only. I’m ok with that if they change things up. The rice was the only thing we could confidently identify and what I tried was either just ok or bitter. We did have a new fruit (to me) called dragon eyes which were really good, though. They have very little fruit for the effort you need to put in to get to them though haha. A teacher came up to us and told us to watch out for “little animals” in them!
Here are some neat little notes on things we’ve seen/experienced/heard:
- All teachers in the country have the same salary regardless of experience. Hmmm…I’m not sure how I’d feel about that. Apparently (as you may expect), it leads to unmotivated teachers.
- This may sound insensitive but people here aren’t all as thin as on the mainland. One of the subconscious culture shocks I experienced in China how few people were overweight (I especially noticed it when I landed back in Canada). Here, that is not quite the case. While there are very very few very overweight people, there is definitely a biggest spread.
- I expected mopeds to be extremely common (and they are) but I didn’t expect bicycles to be as abundant as they are! I see dozens of cyclists a day riding VERY expensive bikes and they are always decked out in the nicest gear! I thought that was pretty neat.
- Once, when Mom, Dad, Neil, Cullen and I were in Mexico, Dad came up to me wide eyed and excited and was like “Shoneth – we’re in the WIIIIILD” in reference to the cool sounds all around us. Well, that was pretty wild, but this is another level. I’m assuming we have a cicada infestation in the trees or something because there is ALWAYS a loud hum/chirping/noise surrounding the building. According to Apple, the lizards also make loud noises. On top of the noise, Taiwan is INCREDIBLY lush. Between the deep, dense greenery, the tarzan-like vines hanging from the trees, the loud noise and the overwhelming damp heat, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more in the wild (and I’m in an urban setting AND I’ve been to South Africa)!
- Our shower deserves its own note here. First, our bathroom light takes several minutes to turn on and at first I didn’t mind peeing in the dark but now that we’ve seen spider-zilla, I’m less inclined to do so. So I often turn on the light, come back to my room and then go back (at night, anyway). The shower, on the other hand, has no problem turning on – to full on heat that is! Even on the lowest setting, it’s hotter than I can get some showers to be in Canada. It’s nuts! AND the showerhead is almost too low on the wall for little ‘ol me! AND, like in Qingpu, it floods the bathroom every time you shower. There is no curtain or curb to stop it. Luckily the bathroom came equipped with a floor squeegee so we don’t have to fully track every time we pee or brush our teeth (would it really be so hard to make a little curb of sorts?!