I WANT MY PINK SHIRT BACK

We got new work uniforms in blue and pink a while back and I found out this is our schedule:
Mon - blue
Tues - blue
Wed - pink
Thurs - blue
Fri - blue


One of my coworkers pointed out the irony of our schedule with, "On Wednesdays, we wear pink."
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Mean Girls!

Four for you, Glen Coco! YOU GO GLEN COCO!

simply having a wonderful christmas time

Celebrating Christmas in Taiwan is a very different experience from back home. Last year felt slightly depressing because it was my first Christmas away from Michigan. The second year hasn't been so bad; I bought a little Christmas tree for my room and decorated it. It costs 6$ so it's a bit Charlie brown.

But Potato has only eaten it a little, which is good. She eats all my garbage bags (seriously. They're pink garbage bags and she poops out shreds of pink plastic into the kitty litter. Because she wasn't weird enough with the one-eye thing and the toe sucking thing) and plants so I was nervous she'd also like to eat fake Christmas trees. But, it still remains intact! About 60% of my ornaments have stayed on the tree, which I consider a success.

I'm keeping my children in the Christmas spirit by teaching them the classic Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas is You." I choreographed (if you can call making a dance for 4-year olds choreography) a dance for both my kindergarten classes filled with macarena moves and booty shaking. It sounds super adorable, and they are stinking cute doing it, but the pressure on these poor kids is a little sad. We've been practicing our dance routine + poems/plays written by yours truly since early October. If the kids do the wrong dance, or don't sing loudly enough, they get scolded. 

Unfortunately, hearing this song multiple times every day has kind of ruined what used to be my favorite Christmas song of all time :-/

Oh well, there's still my other favorite, which can never be ruined by HESS because there are no English words. 

However, I'm regretting picking Mariah Carey when I could have done something like this:

I could have even  brought Potato in to guest star....

Speaking of, here is our oh-so-classy virtual Christmas card. Yes, I busted out her Christmas sweater.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

playing left handed badminton in german

As per usual, I've delayed writing and posting pictures of events that have happened. Last month, one of my best friends since 7th grade, Krystal, flew in from Japan to visit me. She's currently teaching English in Japan. She only stayed a few days, but we tried to pack in as much Taiwan as we could in her short trip.


I picked her up on a Wednesday and introduced her to some Taiwanese treats, like pearl milk tea.

We saw Taipei 101, which I haven't been to since I first arrived in Taiwan. Taipei 101 used to be the tallest building in the world, but got out-ranked by Dubai last year (right when I came to Taiwan, figures.)

We purchased one of those expensive, custom made Taipei 101 + green screen pictures that I believe displays our personalities quite well:

We then, of course, ate at the toilet restaurant. Krystal knew I went to a toilet themed restaurant last year, so OF COURSE we had to go again. Who could pass on eating food that looks like poo while sitting on real toilets? NOT US.

The next day, we took the MRT to the Maokong gondola, but for some reason, it closed. Plan B: the zoo!

This is a real panda. That's what zoos are like in Asia. You ride pandas and shit. 

Next up, visiting my kids. Krystal came in to my kindergarten and helped me teach my 4 year olds. That night, we checked out Long Shan Temple.

Then we paddle-boated in Xindian at night and went to a tea shop overlooking the river.

The next morning, we took a bus to Sun Moon Lake, located in the center of Taiwan. This scenic city is a hot spot for Taiwanese tourists, like families who want to take a mini-vacation in their own country. Taiwan itself, located only near China, isn't a popular tourist destination for travelers outside of the occasional western backpacker or Chinese tourist. If I see another westerner, I can guess with 90% accuracy that that person is either a student or an English teacher here. Anyway, our mini-trip was filled with 15MPH electric bike rides, left-handed German badminton, Anime-themed parks, aboriginal scenery, owl-themed everything, and getting stuck on the other side of the lake with no way back. 


Pictures of Sun Moon Lake!

life update

Here's a serious life update for you:


Some people have been asking when I will return to the United States. With almost 100% certainty, I can tell you that I will be back in Michigan sometime shortly after my contract finishes mid August, 2012. How long I will stay in Michigan, however, is another question. I'm not sure what I will be doing when my second year in Taiwan comes to an end. There is a possibility, though very small, that I would stay in Taipei and continue teaching here. Even if that does happen, I would still like to fly home for a few weeks. Two years is simply too long to be away from home.


I can honestly say that in most aspects of my life here in Taiwan, I am very content. I like my job, especially my kindergartners that I care about deeply. I make enough money that I can live comfortably and still make my immense student loan payments each month. I'm able to explore and learn about a different culture that I knew little about before coming here, in addition to being close to other countries I can vacation to. Since I've been here, I've visited Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ghana and in a few months, I will add Thailand and hopefully Cambodia to that list. Additionally, I hope to visit my friend Krystal in Japan before both of our contracts are finished. I love my independence and in my free time, I've been pursuing new hobbies and hobbies that I once loved, but couldn't do due to my time restraints in my university. As of today, I've read 65 of the 72 books I set as a goal for me to read in 2011. I'm taking salsa dance lessons. I actually started a project I've been meaning to do for a long time - writing a novel. I'm taking part in NaNoWriMo and have 68 single-spaced pages of my first book written in a word document. All this and much more has given me a lot of things to appreciate and be grateful for in my time in Taiwan.


However, this is definitely not a permanent place for me at all. Though I really love Taiwan and think I picked well in my choice here, it is no longer new and exciting for me. I'm not taking advantage of my time to study Chinese like I thought I would, so there isn't a solid reason for me to stay. I thrive in new places and situations and I'm interested to start a new chapter in my life in a new location. My degree is in education and all my experience is in teaching, so there's a big chance I'll try teaching abroad elsewhere. Many people have told me to try Korea, so I might look into teaching in Seoul (I refuse to live anywhere that isn't a big city or close to a big city.) I have also started to look into teaching in other sections of the world, such as the Middle East. I'd ideally love to teach somewhere Spanish speaking, but the chances of finding a good paying job there are slim.


I'm not entirely ruling out staying in the States either. I've considered joining Americorps and locating myself somewhere in a bigger city down south and redirecting my career into something geared toward Non-Profit organizations. Or, I could find a teaching job back home. I've even considered joining Teach For America. I probably wouldn't stay in Michigan though. I don't like the weather, the conservatism of west Michigan, or the lack of big cities, so I can't see myself staying there, at least not for an extended period of time.


Going back to school is another option, though that's one I'm hoping to do in the far future, when my undergraduate loans are paid off. As I've mentioned before, I don't know if teaching is what I want to do the rest of my life. For now, I'm content with my job. But doing this for another 10 years? Probably not. But who knows? If you told my in my final year of university that I'd live in Taiwan for two years, I would have thought you were crazy. As I continue to grow as a person, my interests and life plans change and develop in completely different ways than originally expected.


There's a lot to think about and decide in the next year, and I can't really answer what will happen because I really have no idea. All I know is that I will follow my heart and hope it doesn't lead me astray.

Much love for all!

New apartment!

I now officially live in Taipei!!

As of October, I've been living in a new apartment. It's a bit bigger than my last one and in a way better location. Before, I was living in LuZhou, which is not technically in Taipei, but "Taipei New City." Meaning, I lived far away from the excitement of the city. LuZhou is nice and all, but it was definitely time for a change.

Here are a few pictures I snapped. It's nothing too fancy, so don't get too excited.

And I have a PINK TOILET. Yes. You read that correctly. The toilet basically sold me on the apartment.

Never has taking a poo been so much fun!

Even Potato seems to like this apartment. I know because she hasn't shat on the floor in protest yet like she did when I moved into my last apartment.


I live by a night market, hotels, restaurants, and a ridiculous amount of pubs. I tried them out last night and found them to be either very creepy or very empty. One that my friend and I tried to get in was called "Charlie Brown" and they sold us a can of Taiwan Beer for 200 NT. Seriously? I can go to 7-11 and drink a can of Taiwan beer on the street for a quarter of that price. 


Regardless, my new apartment's area > old apartment's area.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Here's how I spent my last few weeks celebrating Halloween:

First up: homemade dumplings and carving mini-pumpkins/squash.

Result? EXTREME DELICIOUSNESS!

Next up, pumpkin carving. Or, because pumpkins aren't grown here, squash carving. Though I'm pretty sure my pumpkin was legit, just a midget pumpkin.

Super cute, right?

Most adorable pumpkin ever? I think so.

Most hideous pumpkin ever? Yes.

The final products

And lastly, actual Halloween. Halloween is a big deal at our kindergartens. I took both my classes out trick'or'treating on the Friday before Halloween and thought I needed a costume worthy of extreme awesomeness. And I think I nailed it.

I'm a fucking pineapple!!

Just for shits and giggles, I wore my costume on the way to work, meaning walking outside in the middle of Taipei, getting on the subway, and then walking from the subway from work. Here's proof I did it: me on the MRT.

I got a few funny reactions, but overall I didn't get stared at that much more than I usually do. Apparently wearing a giant pineapple costume isn't that much weirder than being a foreigner in Taipei.

My kids loved my costume, as did they love trick or treating. Again, can't post pictures of them up here, but just trust me that they looked ADORABLE. One of my 4 year olds dressed as Harry Potter and another like a dinosaur, aka GODZIRRRRA! 

Unfortunately, the pineapple costume was just a rental, so I cannot include it in my daily walks to the subway anymore. I did manage to send out some facebook videos while in my costume. And I promise, I was something normal for spending Halloween with my friends.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM TAIPEI!

Prince Love Princess Fairy Food Restaurant

I'm a lucky, lucky girl - one of my friends from back home flew to Taiwan to work for the same company I do! He works outside of Taipei and I haven't seen him nearly as much as I should - *hint hint Abe, get your ass to Taipei!*


I met him one weekend and we wandered around Ximen before hitting a party later on that night. We walked and walked, trying to figure out where we should eat, until suddenly I saw a sign saying "Prince Love Princess Fairy Food Restaurant." We instantly knew where we'd be eating that night."

The inside decoration was not quite as fairy-filled as you would expect, but was still so cutesy I wanted to puke.

The waitresses and waiters (yes, there were male workers there) were terrified of us, surprisingly. Ximen located right in Taipei and there are many English speaking foreigners so rarely do I hesitate to speak English when eating in a nice restaurant there. However, I doubt ANY foreigner would ever go to a restaurant named "Prince Love Princess Fairy Food Restaurant", except as a joke, like us.

We then decided to order an "Under Water Bomb", which as you can see from the picture, is Taiwan Beer and Vodka.

 It was disgusting, if you were wondering. The food was okay. All in all, you aren't missing out by not going to the fairy restaurant.

Cheers-ing duck hearts in Kenting

After returning back from my Ghana/Hong Kong trip, stuff has been a bit different. I started year two in my contract with Hess. This means a few things: I'm working more hours (with a higher pay, yay!) and I changed schools. I now work only at kindergartens, no more buxiban (cram school) classes for me. I am still teaching my small class kindergarten, which has now become middle class (age 4-5). In addition, I picked up another kindergarten class at a different kindergarten - big class (age 5-6). I kept my Treehouse class, which were my 1st graders who are now 2nd graders. I now have 31 teaching hours minimum, which doesn't sound like much, but that's actually A LOT. If you think about a teacher back home who teaches 4 one hour 20 minute classes (and one prep class) each day x 4, that's about 26 hours a week of actual teaching time. So yes, 31 is a lot! We don't, unfortunately, get paid for grading, prepping, meetings, etc. But that's pretty standard for English teachers in Taiwan.

Anyway, my new schedule rocks and I'm liking this year much better.

To top it off, right away we got a 4 day weekend (I don't work Saturdays anymore so I can actually have a 4 day weekend!!) which a few friends and I decided to go down to Kenting.

Because everyone in Taiwan had the same idea as us, we almost didn't get bus tickets. After some talking from my Taiwanese friend the bus driver let us stay in ... the luggage compartment. I'm serious.

 We made little beds down there and played cards. It was actually kind of cool. But being the only foreigners on the bus, the people on the bus made a huge deal and kept coming down to see if we were okay and volunteering to take our place and letting us take their seat. I can only imagine what they told the people on the bus, "WHITE PEOPLE IN THE LUGGAGE! WHITE PEOPLE IN THE LUGGAGE!"


We got to Kenting at about 6 in the morning (we took the night bus) and set up our tents on the camping ground.

Then walked over to the beach.

Beer at 8 am. Classy as always.

Perfection.

We then went go-karting, which I have not done in over a decade, but it was fun regardless.

I laughed so hard at this guy. How embarrassing.

One of the nights we went out to dinner at "Duck Baby" where you pick raw food and throw it in a bucket.

I picked this. I didn't think it would be too much, right?

WRONG WRONG WRONG SO WRONG. This meal could feed a small country. This is the before picture.

This is the after picture. Hardly any different.

Here's a picture of us cheers-ing with our duck hearts. Totally normal, right?

 

 In conclusion to an awesome trip, here is a picture I found in a bathroom on a pit stop on the way back (where we still had to sleep in the luggage compartment).