Once again, I am riding on very little sleep and I’m not sure why. Somehow Jen is experiencing the exact same thing. Perhaps it’s the jet lag, perhaps it’s the heat. I fall asleep at a reasonable temperature but wake in a serious sweat. The fact that I need to wear an eye mask (the sun comes right in from 5am on) doesn’t help. That thing is pretty thick! Hopefully in the next few days we’ll get into a more reasonable sleep pattern.
Yesterday Jen and I took a bus then MRT (subway) with Maggie and Apple (another wonderful teacher and fantastic English speaker who did her Maters in the States) to meet up with the school’s principal and two other teachers for dinner. Before we left the school, we had a mini-tour. We were briefly shown our classrooms (which are in that incredibly cool traditional-looking building) and we met the oldest worker on the campus. He is (no joke) over ONE HUNDRED years old. He has approx. two teeth and is always smiling. This is very atypical for Taiwan where most retire around 65.
At dinner, we had our own personal dining room in a place called Cha for Tea. I think every single dish had tea in it; the chicken, the wonton soup, the cabbage, the rice, the dessert, etc. The chicken dish was fantastic and I really missed wonton soup! As per the theme of this trip/experience, Jen and I were sweating profusely and the plastic-cushioned chairs did NOT help. It was pretty gross when we needed to get up but at least we weren’t alone!
At dinner we got a better sense of the school and the Sacred Heart network in general. We also discussed – you guessed it – the weather! Turns out Taiwan has been experiencing incredibly severe weather in the past few years. The winds are high, the rains are heavier and the sun is hotter. It also turns out that we are living at the base of a dormant volcano! Since getting back home, I’ve checked the weather and we may experience a typhoon next weekend! Two days are scheduled to have over 40mm of rain.
After dinner, Jen, Apple, Maggie and I went to one of Taipei’s famous Night Markets! I somehow forgot how overwhelming the smells of such places can be. Some enjoy it but I actually help my breath at some moments. The market was not quite what I expected in it’s layout but every bit what I expected when it came to people! It was PACKED (it was Friday night) and hard to move. Instead of booths/stalls, however, a large percentage of the market was actual stores. Most were local businesses but there was The Body Shop, Nike, Coleman (camping), Adidas, Under Armour, etc. (which reminds me, I saw a Petro Canada from the bus). There were also the typical vendors with carts selling food like pigeon eggs, frog eggs, chicken feet, snails, etc. and vendors with their wares spread out on blankets on the ground. The whole place certainly had more of a western feel to it than the mainland and I actually loved the style! There was far less high heels and sparkle than you would see on the mainland. It was unlike China in that you cannot haggle down to less than half the price as well (maybe a few dollars in the difference instead) and there wasn’t the quantity of knock-off products that you would see elsewhere. There were also some carnival like games (we won a pillow for Maggie by throwing darts at balloons and I tried a chance based Mahjong-style bingo game) and men selling scratch tickets. Apparently there is a law in Taiwan that only people with registered handicaps can sell scratch tickets.
After wandering for a while, playing the games and sampling fruit, we headed home and to bed.
One last note-worthy, amusing tidbit I forgot to mention in my last blog post was about a road construction site. At night, when workers retire for the night, they erect a fake person with waving arms holding orange flags so people can see what’s coming up. That’s it. Fake people, construction hard hats and all, continuously waving flags throughout the night. Jen and I got a kick out if it.
Bye bye for now!
P.S. Oh, did I mention it was 28 degrees at 10:30 last night?
Yesterday Jen and I took a bus then MRT (subway) with Maggie and Apple (another wonderful teacher and fantastic English speaker who did her Maters in the States) to meet up with the school’s principal and two other teachers for dinner. Before we left the school, we had a mini-tour. We were briefly shown our classrooms (which are in that incredibly cool traditional-looking building) and we met the oldest worker on the campus. He is (no joke) over ONE HUNDRED years old. He has approx. two teeth and is always smiling. This is very atypical for Taiwan where most retire around 65.
At dinner, we had our own personal dining room in a place called Cha for Tea. I think every single dish had tea in it; the chicken, the wonton soup, the cabbage, the rice, the dessert, etc. The chicken dish was fantastic and I really missed wonton soup! As per the theme of this trip/experience, Jen and I were sweating profusely and the plastic-cushioned chairs did NOT help. It was pretty gross when we needed to get up but at least we weren’t alone!
At dinner we got a better sense of the school and the Sacred Heart network in general. We also discussed – you guessed it – the weather! Turns out Taiwan has been experiencing incredibly severe weather in the past few years. The winds are high, the rains are heavier and the sun is hotter. It also turns out that we are living at the base of a dormant volcano! Since getting back home, I’ve checked the weather and we may experience a typhoon next weekend! Two days are scheduled to have over 40mm of rain.
After dinner, Jen, Apple, Maggie and I went to one of Taipei’s famous Night Markets! I somehow forgot how overwhelming the smells of such places can be. Some enjoy it but I actually help my breath at some moments. The market was not quite what I expected in it’s layout but every bit what I expected when it came to people! It was PACKED (it was Friday night) and hard to move. Instead of booths/stalls, however, a large percentage of the market was actual stores. Most were local businesses but there was The Body Shop, Nike, Coleman (camping), Adidas, Under Armour, etc. (which reminds me, I saw a Petro Canada from the bus). There were also the typical vendors with carts selling food like pigeon eggs, frog eggs, chicken feet, snails, etc. and vendors with their wares spread out on blankets on the ground. The whole place certainly had more of a western feel to it than the mainland and I actually loved the style! There was far less high heels and sparkle than you would see on the mainland. It was unlike China in that you cannot haggle down to less than half the price as well (maybe a few dollars in the difference instead) and there wasn’t the quantity of knock-off products that you would see elsewhere. There were also some carnival like games (we won a pillow for Maggie by throwing darts at balloons and I tried a chance based Mahjong-style bingo game) and men selling scratch tickets. Apparently there is a law in Taiwan that only people with registered handicaps can sell scratch tickets.
After wandering for a while, playing the games and sampling fruit, we headed home and to bed.
One last note-worthy, amusing tidbit I forgot to mention in my last blog post was about a road construction site. At night, when workers retire for the night, they erect a fake person with waving arms holding orange flags so people can see what’s coming up. That’s it. Fake people, construction hard hats and all, continuously waving flags throughout the night. Jen and I got a kick out if it.
Bye bye for now!
P.S. Oh, did I mention it was 28 degrees at 10:30 last night?