My friend Rob sent me an e-mail the other day and it made me laugh because it sounded a lot like the first one that I wrote to my cousin Nichole before coming here, LOL!
As is the situation with most of my school mates, I believe, employment prospects in Canada are pretty dreadful right now, so Rob is considering following my lead and coming to Taiwan for a stint. I told him "Believe me: there is work here for you!"
To illustrate this, I related a story to him:
Nichole's boyfriend Cory is coming to visit her for a few weeks and as soon as my boss found out that he was coming to visit, she asked Nicole if he could work!
How crazy is that? So, Cory has agreed to work for Emily's sister for two weeks! He arrives here tomorrow (Friday for us) and starts work in TAINAN on Monday ...Tainan is another city 40 minutes away!... Emily (our boss) has agreed to pay his train fare to and from Tainan everyday because he is here to visit Nicole, NOT to work in Tainan! So how desperate do YOU think they are for foreigners who's first language is English?!?
Since Rob was asking about the lifestyle and salary here, I put my thoughts on paper, as it were. I thought I would take this opportunity to reiterate what I told him.
Since I am living and working overseas, I need to take both the Canadian dollar and the Taiwanese dollar into consideration when I discuss the value of things here. To give you an idea of the money here right now, $100 Taiwan Dollars was roughly equal to $5 Canadian... at least that's the way Nichole and I calculate it.
It is actually closer to 4.50... but $5 is easier to work with, and makes the exchange pretty easy to remember! The actual exchange rate right now is about 22%. This means that if you divide your Taiwan dollars by 22, you will get their value in Canadian money (for example: $100 NT ÷ 22 = $4.54 CAD).
My salary (in Taiwanese dollars) is $53,000.00 every month. That works out to about $2,400 Canadian every month... Yes, it is less than the average monthly salary in Canada, but it works out to more take-home pay in the long run because most of the everyday things are cheaper!
Speaking strictly in Canadian dollars, my rent here is only about $250.00 Canadian every month. I add to that the utilities (another $150.00 MAYBE) and spending money of $100.00 a week (which is actually a lot if you think about it!)... and that means that if I spend about $800.00 every month, I am still earning $500.00 that I am NOT spending! ..and I can just buy a money order and mail it home to my bank in Montreal to deposit!! Also, since my bank card works at the bank machines here, if I end up getting stuck at some point, I can get money from my Canadian account.
:-)
This salary is for a 26 to 34 hour work week... and I can also do private tutoring if I want to. Private tutoring is usually frowned upon by many schools, but my boss encourages it, and will even find private students for me if I want them. These private lessons are under the table (no tax!!) and I can get between $600NT (New Taiwan dollars) and $1000NT an hour (about $30 to $50 CND) per student!
Because I am a foreigner, I have to pay a lot of tax for the first half of the fiscal year. My salary is taxed at 20% for the first half of the year, after which it drops to the standard 6% (Can you imagine 6% income tax in Canada??). The 20% sounds like a bit of a bum deal, but once you get past the 160 day mark, you are officially considered a resident foreigner for tax purposes. This means that when I file my income tax at the end of the year, I will get back all but 6% of the tax money I've paid so far.
I know... it's confusing... but there is a good book that you can buy that explains the way things work in Taiwan pretty well (except they are wrong about a lot of local customs, LOL!). The book is called "The Lonely Planet". There is an edition of the lonely planet for almost every country in the world. Both Nicole and I bought the one for Taiwan, and have really enjoyed it!
I guess since I have been here a little while, I can offer some advice to people thinking of coming over, as I did for Rob.
It took me a month to get ready and go. The most difficult thing for me was the vaccinations! I just didn't have enough time to get all the ones they recommend. The only one I was unable to get was the Hepatitis vaccine.
If you are starting to consider coming over here to work, I would suggest that you go and get your hepatitis vaccine because it takes more than a month... and it is handy to have even if you don't end up coming. I wasn't able to get that one in Canada, and it would have been a relief to me to have gotten all my shots done before coming over here.
[ED NOTE (2007): none of the recommended vaccinations were actually necessary, except the Hepatitis shot, though they did make me feel more secure about coming to a strange country.]
In Canadian dollars, the flight here cost me about $1300.00, and one night's hotel stay in Taipei, together with the taxi to the airport cost another $200.00 before I was even ready to fly out to Chiayi. Be aware of this!
Your startup costs when you arrive would be the purchase of a moped and some incidentals (things you forgot to bring or didn't realize you would need) which, in my case, ran for about $700 CND.
The school advanced me the money, thank goodness! From what I have heard, this is a common courtesy here with new arrivals.
YIf you come, you will want another 200 to 300 for pocket money during your first week or so... if only because you aren't used to the conversion rate between Canadian and Taiwanese money! I went through about that much because I hadn't figured out that $150 Taiwan dollars for a cup of coffee at my hotel was actually $7.00 Canadian!! YIKES!!!
Coffee is one of the few REALLY expensive things here!
As I told Rob: so far, coming here has been a fantastic experience! Besides... even if it all goes horribly pear shaped: I've been to China! :D
Thursday, December 14, 2000
Saturday, December 9, 2000
Finally Something To Say About Chiayi
Until today, there really wasn't all that much to tell you about! I have been in pretty good health most of the week. I had a bit of the "welcome To Taiwan" cold yesterday, but I am all better today! This is the cold that, apparently, all foreigners get upon arriving in Taiwan.
I have settled in nicely to my new digs, and things are going well at the school. Eva (our receptionist, clerk, manager) accompanied me to the hospital on Wednesday for all of my tests. These are the tests that are necessary in order for my boss, Emily, to apply for my Alien Residency Visa (A.R.C.).
Once I have my A.R.C., I am offcially a landed immigrant in Taiwan, and I am entitled to work and benefit from their medical coverage.
The hospitals here are amazing! They are actually fast, efficient, and friendly. This part of the system is very similar to Quebec. We get a medicare card and everything! Once we have this card, any visit to a dentist or a doctor will cost me about $100NT ($5.00 Canadian). So I did the pre-requisite tests, did an ex-ray and had a blood test.
After the testing, Eva drove me back to where I had parked my moped (we had rendez-vouzed on the main street). I went back home, grabbed a bite to eat, and then scooted over to school for my first class.
I have three classes (soon to be four). My first class of the day is at 2pm (until 4:30), and consists of nine kids (ages 7 & 8 ...and one 6 year old who is my best student). Here they are:
Top row: Anthony, Joyce, Grace, Maggie, and Willa (my 6 year old)
Bottom row: Darren, Nathan, Jack, Lily, and Judy.
My second class is from 4:40 until 6:10 and there are three 10 or 11 year old girls in the class: Jackie, Kiki, and Mary.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I also have a class from 7:30 until 9:00, and there are two kids in that class (13 years old): Sean and Maggie.
Nicole is going to start teaching Kindergarten in a couple of weeks (we currently have no Kindergarten class, it is only scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks). When Nikki starts teaching the Kindergarten, I will take over her evening class on Monday and Wednesday night (11 kids, ages 11,12 &13). The new teacher who is supposed to start in January will take Nikki's day classes and the one evening class that Nikki does on Tuesday and Thursday.
On Friday afternoons there is a market in town where there are about 50 stalls of jade merchants and antique dealers. Nikki and I went this week for a little while. It was neat! I picked up a small jade piece for a friend of mine and Pierre's. She is a fanatic for Oriental items... I know she will love it! Getting there was half the fun, actually. You have to drive down the main strip until you get to this one little side street... you go down the side street for a few meters until you see a small opening between two buildings. The small opening opens into an alley wide enough for one or two mopeds.... you follow the alley until you come to a clearing behind a Buddhist mission...and there is a giant tent where the Jade market is held every Friday from 12 to 2.
Neat, eh?
We browsed around for a bit, and then we went to work.
The way school works here, the grade school children (gardes 1 to 6) only go to school half days except on Friday when they go for a full day. So, we have classes with them in the afternoons from Monday to Thrursday because the children are not at Chinese school. On Fridays, however, Nikki and I each only have 1 class from 4 to 6 because the students are at their full day of Chinese school. Since we have the free time, we also have our weekly staff meetings on Friday at 2.
There are really only about 50 non-Chinese people in Chiayi, and there is a girl named Natacha who knows all of them, so she is the chick to meet!! Nichole and I went and met Natacha (she is very nice... which is probably WHY she knows everybody, LOL!) and we got some Papaya Milk (the only word that you will ever realy need to know in Chinese, other than "hello" and "Thank You" is "Mogwai-Neonai"... it means Papaya Milk... this stuff is really good, LOL!
We chatted for awhile, then Natacha came over to our place and met the kitten. Afterwards,
Nikki and I went for a drive over to the West side of the city.
Nikki and I live on the Eastern edge of Chiayi: the street that runs behind out building is literally the border of Chiayi and countryside (although the "country side" looks like suburbs). On a clear day, looking West, we should be able to see the mountains that tower over the city. Unfortunately, due to the constant pollution and haze: we never see the mountains. Nikki says she's has seen them ONCE in the three months that she has been here: the amount of smoke and dust in the air is terrible!
We headed out towards the west side of town (which is where Natacha lives) and we drove up, past the Western limits of Chiayi, into the mountains. The scenery is incredible! Lush fields of sugar cane and palm trees! It's unbelieveable what a difference it is from our side of the city! ...looking out our kitchen window, we see the fields and farms (and a few buildings off in the distance) but over here on the west, it is like the Rockies (except they are green all the way to the tips!)! The mountains tower up over the city, and they are covered with thick, rich, green vegetation!! Every square inch has been touched though: there is nowhere that you dont realize that these 'forests" are manicured... but they are certainly beautiful! Also, once we got up into the mountains, I saw whole flocks of what looked like humming birds! In fact, in the entire week that I have been here, I haven't seen more than a handful of birds: which is really strange! There are absolutely NONE to be seen, except in cages, so I was really pleased to hear the sounds of nature again, and see some actual birds!
Anyway, to finish my story, we drove up into the mountain today and stopped beside a reservoir called Reni-Tan. There is a huge dam of some sort, and beside it there was a "sight seeing" area where people can park their cars and mopeds (lots of mopeds, LOL!). People often spend the afternoons there on saturday and Sunday.
Tonnes of people were, believe it or not, flying kites. There were whole families up there doing just that, LOL! In fact, we were amused to note, it was mostly the older people flying kites and the children were standing around looking bored, LOL!
There were a bunch of food vendors, so Nikki and I had snacks. The one "snack" that she and I both avoided is something that Nikki calls "stinky Tofu"... it is literally what it sounds like. It is deep fried or baked or grilled or whatever (they use it in all kinds of things) but the smell is enough to make your stomach leap out of your throat. I had smelled it a couple of times this past week without realizing that it WASN'T rotting garbage that I was smelling. Yuck.
It is indescribably stinky. I don't know what on earth ever posessed someone to think that it might actually taste good!!! In fact, I think the first person to taste it must have done it on a dare. It smells vaguely like warm dog poo on a hot spring day, mixed with rotting vegetables and cheese gone bad. How is that for horrific?
They drench the stuff in sauces and spices (and sometimes bake it into pies!?!?) but no amount of burying it in condiments will EVER make me so desperate as to actually try it!
Anyway, after we successfull avoided the stinky tofu, it was starting to get dark... it was really cool because we had a HUGE red sun hanging above the mountains, and, if we turned around we had a huge white moon hanging over the lake!!! We noticed that a lot of the mopeds were starting to leave, so we did the same. We drove back down into Chiayi and stopped for coffee at a fancy sh-mancy coffee shop on the main road (called the Pahydophadilium). Coffee here really is very expensive: in fact, we each had a Cafe Latte and they were $7.00 Canadian each! (We figured that we might as well spend the extra $2.00 because just a regular filtered coffee was $5.00!) ...so you can well understand why I've asked Pierre to mail me a couple of packages of VanHoute coffee from home, LOL!
Well, that was our big outting for today. I know it doesn't sound like we did an awful lot, but it is about a half an hour drive up to the mountains, and a half hour back, and we did spend a lot of time up by the lake! :-)
The road that takes you up to the lake is reached via a fork in the road. If you turn left you head into the lake district.... if you continue straight (Which we are planning to do either on Sunday, or next weekend) you arrive at an IMMENSE statue of the Buddah! I can't wait to see it! I'll post pictures when we get there!
Well, that's it for now! I have to get out of this internet cafe: the smoke and noise is crazy, LOL! (I have found a way to get my own back at them, though, I have accessed my MP3s on line, and I am playing music full blast **hahaha** at least it is drowning out the noise form their damn video games, LOL!)
I have settled in nicely to my new digs, and things are going well at the school. Eva (our receptionist, clerk, manager) accompanied me to the hospital on Wednesday for all of my tests. These are the tests that are necessary in order for my boss, Emily, to apply for my Alien Residency Visa (A.R.C.).
Once I have my A.R.C., I am offcially a landed immigrant in Taiwan, and I am entitled to work and benefit from their medical coverage.
The hospitals here are amazing! They are actually fast, efficient, and friendly. This part of the system is very similar to Quebec. We get a medicare card and everything! Once we have this card, any visit to a dentist or a doctor will cost me about $100NT ($5.00 Canadian). So I did the pre-requisite tests, did an ex-ray and had a blood test.
After the testing, Eva drove me back to where I had parked my moped (we had rendez-vouzed on the main street). I went back home, grabbed a bite to eat, and then scooted over to school for my first class.
I have three classes (soon to be four). My first class of the day is at 2pm (until 4:30), and consists of nine kids (ages 7 & 8 ...and one 6 year old who is my best student). Here they are:
Top row: Anthony, Joyce, Grace, Maggie, and Willa (my 6 year old)Bottom row: Darren, Nathan, Jack, Lily, and Judy.
My second class is from 4:40 until 6:10 and there are three 10 or 11 year old girls in the class: Jackie, Kiki, and Mary.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I also have a class from 7:30 until 9:00, and there are two kids in that class (13 years old): Sean and Maggie.
Nicole is going to start teaching Kindergarten in a couple of weeks (we currently have no Kindergarten class, it is only scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks). When Nikki starts teaching the Kindergarten, I will take over her evening class on Monday and Wednesday night (11 kids, ages 11,12 &13). The new teacher who is supposed to start in January will take Nikki's day classes and the one evening class that Nikki does on Tuesday and Thursday.
On Friday afternoons there is a market in town where there are about 50 stalls of jade merchants and antique dealers. Nikki and I went this week for a little while. It was neat! I picked up a small jade piece for a friend of mine and Pierre's. She is a fanatic for Oriental items... I know she will love it! Getting there was half the fun, actually. You have to drive down the main strip until you get to this one little side street... you go down the side street for a few meters until you see a small opening between two buildings. The small opening opens into an alley wide enough for one or two mopeds.... you follow the alley until you come to a clearing behind a Buddhist mission...and there is a giant tent where the Jade market is held every Friday from 12 to 2.
Neat, eh?
We browsed around for a bit, and then we went to work.
The way school works here, the grade school children (gardes 1 to 6) only go to school half days except on Friday when they go for a full day. So, we have classes with them in the afternoons from Monday to Thrursday because the children are not at Chinese school. On Fridays, however, Nikki and I each only have 1 class from 4 to 6 because the students are at their full day of Chinese school. Since we have the free time, we also have our weekly staff meetings on Friday at 2.
There are really only about 50 non-Chinese people in Chiayi, and there is a girl named Natacha who knows all of them, so she is the chick to meet!! Nichole and I went and met Natacha (she is very nice... which is probably WHY she knows everybody, LOL!) and we got some Papaya Milk (the only word that you will ever realy need to know in Chinese, other than "hello" and "Thank You" is "Mogwai-Neonai"... it means Papaya Milk... this stuff is really good, LOL!
We chatted for awhile, then Natacha came over to our place and met the kitten. Afterwards,
Nikki and I went for a drive over to the West side of the city.
Nikki and I live on the Eastern edge of Chiayi: the street that runs behind out building is literally the border of Chiayi and countryside (although the "country side" looks like suburbs). On a clear day, looking West, we should be able to see the mountains that tower over the city. Unfortunately, due to the constant pollution and haze: we never see the mountains. Nikki says she's has seen them ONCE in the three months that she has been here: the amount of smoke and dust in the air is terrible!
We headed out towards the west side of town (which is where Natacha lives) and we drove up, past the Western limits of Chiayi, into the mountains. The scenery is incredible! Lush fields of sugar cane and palm trees! It's unbelieveable what a difference it is from our side of the city! ...looking out our kitchen window, we see the fields and farms (and a few buildings off in the distance) but over here on the west, it is like the Rockies (except they are green all the way to the tips!)! The mountains tower up over the city, and they are covered with thick, rich, green vegetation!! Every square inch has been touched though: there is nowhere that you dont realize that these 'forests" are manicured... but they are certainly beautiful! Also, once we got up into the mountains, I saw whole flocks of what looked like humming birds! In fact, in the entire week that I have been here, I haven't seen more than a handful of birds: which is really strange! There are absolutely NONE to be seen, except in cages, so I was really pleased to hear the sounds of nature again, and see some actual birds!
Anyway, to finish my story, we drove up into the mountain today and stopped beside a reservoir called Reni-Tan. There is a huge dam of some sort, and beside it there was a "sight seeing" area where people can park their cars and mopeds (lots of mopeds, LOL!). People often spend the afternoons there on saturday and Sunday.
Tonnes of people were, believe it or not, flying kites. There were whole families up there doing just that, LOL! In fact, we were amused to note, it was mostly the older people flying kites and the children were standing around looking bored, LOL!
There were a bunch of food vendors, so Nikki and I had snacks. The one "snack" that she and I both avoided is something that Nikki calls "stinky Tofu"... it is literally what it sounds like. It is deep fried or baked or grilled or whatever (they use it in all kinds of things) but the smell is enough to make your stomach leap out of your throat. I had smelled it a couple of times this past week without realizing that it WASN'T rotting garbage that I was smelling. Yuck.It is indescribably stinky. I don't know what on earth ever posessed someone to think that it might actually taste good!!! In fact, I think the first person to taste it must have done it on a dare. It smells vaguely like warm dog poo on a hot spring day, mixed with rotting vegetables and cheese gone bad. How is that for horrific?
They drench the stuff in sauces and spices (and sometimes bake it into pies!?!?) but no amount of burying it in condiments will EVER make me so desperate as to actually try it!
Anyway, after we successfull avoided the stinky tofu, it was starting to get dark... it was really cool because we had a HUGE red sun hanging above the mountains, and, if we turned around we had a huge white moon hanging over the lake!!! We noticed that a lot of the mopeds were starting to leave, so we did the same. We drove back down into Chiayi and stopped for coffee at a fancy sh-mancy coffee shop on the main road (called the Pahydophadilium). Coffee here really is very expensive: in fact, we each had a Cafe Latte and they were $7.00 Canadian each! (We figured that we might as well spend the extra $2.00 because just a regular filtered coffee was $5.00!) ...so you can well understand why I've asked Pierre to mail me a couple of packages of VanHoute coffee from home, LOL!
Well, that was our big outting for today. I know it doesn't sound like we did an awful lot, but it is about a half an hour drive up to the mountains, and a half hour back, and we did spend a lot of time up by the lake! :-)
The road that takes you up to the lake is reached via a fork in the road. If you turn left you head into the lake district.... if you continue straight (Which we are planning to do either on Sunday, or next weekend) you arrive at an IMMENSE statue of the Buddah! I can't wait to see it! I'll post pictures when we get there!
Well, that's it for now! I have to get out of this internet cafe: the smoke and noise is crazy, LOL! (I have found a way to get my own back at them, though, I have accessed my MP3s on line, and I am playing music full blast **hahaha** at least it is drowning out the noise form their damn video games, LOL!)
Saturday, December 2, 2000
Arrival in Chiayi!! DAY ONE!!
Yesterday I arrived safely in Chiayi!
I stepped out of the airport in Chiayi and the smell of fresh pineapples washed over me as I stood in the warm sunshine! What a change from the slush in Montreal two days ago! It was so nice!
Emily picked me up with Nikki and dropped us off at our apartment. The apartment is unreal! I can't believe how nice it is!
There are two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a dining area, a "guest" room called a tatami room (it looks like a traditional Chinese meditation room, but we will use it for guests), two small balconies, and there are two bathrooms (with showers).
My bedroom has a separate bathroom, and the other bathroom is between the doors to our two bedrooms. The apartment is very spacious and bright during the day: at night however, it suffers from NEON lighting!! EVERYWHERE!!!
I am already desperate for a real lamp (so, apparently, is Nikki!).
The other thing my apartment has is a third roommate: Gaoshung (AKA Baby Gao).
"Gaoshung" is Nikki's little kitten... she is nine weeks old and very, very playful! She is all white except for a black patch over one eye and a black tail.
Nikki found her while she was out shopping with Emily in the city of Kaohsiung (pronounced Gao-Shung)... so she named her after the city! Nikki has taken her to the vet to check her out, and she has washed her and bathed her repeatedly (yes: she was FULL of fleas, apparently). She has been checked for worms etc.. and the vet says she is fine.
Nikki has decided that, once she returns to Canada she will take Gaoshung with her (she has looked into this, and apparently, cats are considered "carry on" luggage... and they don't need to be quarantined upon entering Canada)...
Back to my story... Yesterday, after Emily dropped us off at the apartment, I dropped off my stuff and spent the afternoon touring the city with Nikki (on the back of her moped).
Honestly, you would not believe this place! It is really nifty... but it isn't really all that different from Montreal (except that everyone is Chinese and the stop signs actually say "STOP", LOL!).
You also would not believe the number of mopeds in this city: it is unreal! ..and they drive worse than Montrealers!! So far I have seen it with my own eyes: while driving on the right side of the street is technically the law... it seems to be only a suggestion! Cutting people off is the norm, and so is scooting through the red lights!! it's terrifying, LOL! ... it is crazy, but the school is not far. In fact, our apartment is in what is considered the Westmount of Chiayi.... it is almost the suburbs!
After a bit of driving around, we stopped for a bite to eat.
Pierre, as always, was right about something: chopsticks! Forks and knives are NOT given out anywhere!!! In fact... they don't even have forks and knives to give you if you ask for them (not that you COULD ask for them if you don't speak Chinese)!
I was rather proud of myself, though: I had a huge plate of fried noodles for lunch and I successfully figured out the chopsticks all by myself... Nikki was impressed... I think hunger must be a great motivator, LOL! I think this was really the first time I EVER got the hang of chopsticks!
It was the funniest thing too... you know how malls have food courts with tables in the center and little restaurants all around them? You can choose the meal you want then go sit at the tables provided... ? Well Nikki brought me to a food court for lunch today and the funniest thing was that EVERY SINGLE RESTAURANT was Chinese food, LOL! I swear they were all selling pretty much the same thing: rice or noodles, LOL! It was strange! I suppose back home it's the same with multiple burger places... but this was surreal... I honestly couldn't tell the difference between any of the restaurants!
Later in the afternoon, I got a "papaya milk" with Nikki. It is like a milkshake (they make it with fresh milk). They take a fresh papaya, blend it up, add a little sugar, add milk and crushed ice, then blend it some more... It is really yummy (I was surprised... it wasn't too sweet at all!).
As for jet lag... so far so good! I was fine all day yesterday and only started getting sleepy around 10:00 last night... so I was in bed by 11:00 or so... this morning, however, I woke up around 6:00 am... (that has to stop, LOL!)
I took a shower and played with the cat, made coffee and finished the last of my unpacking.... and Nikki was still asleep! Finally (around 9:30), I got dressed and went for a walk.... I am in an Internet cafe about 3 or 4 blocks from my house... it was very interesting trying to book an hour of Internet in Chinese, let me tell you, LOL!
This cafe is insane... they have about 30 computers, and there is a 9 to 13 year old boy attached to each one! The kids are all playing networked games... they are all playing dungeons and dragons (or something like it) against each other!
It looks like all of them are smoking, and the noise level is barely below "bleeding eardrums"... it's kind of fun, actually (but I now fully understand why Nikki insisted to our boss Emily that we needed an Internet connection at the apartment)! ..even though this place is cheaper than using the Internet at home, it is a little crazy (and it is certainly NOT easy to sit and write an e-mail in here, LOL!)
Here is the last bit of news... I start working tomorrow (Monday) afternoon!
Emily was all set to give me two weeks vacation before I started to work, but then Nancy (Nikki's old room mate) quit on THURSDAY! She kept it a secret from Emily until then! Can you believe it?
Columbia is a very small school (I saw it yesterday: it's really really cute!)... including Nikki and myself, there are only 4 employees.... so I understand why Emily asked me to start right away... there is literally no-one else to take over Nancy's classes! ..oh well, I might as well get the first day of classes over with! LOL!
I still can't believe that I am on the other side of the world! (even if everyone is always saying "NI-HOW" instead of hello! LOL!) ... the weather is awesome and people here are really, really friendly!
I stepped out of the airport in Chiayi and the smell of fresh pineapples washed over me as I stood in the warm sunshine! What a change from the slush in Montreal two days ago! It was so nice!
Emily picked me up with Nikki and dropped us off at our apartment. The apartment is unreal! I can't believe how nice it is!
There are two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a dining area, a "guest" room called a tatami room (it looks like a traditional Chinese meditation room, but we will use it for guests), two small balconies, and there are two bathrooms (with showers).
My bedroom has a separate bathroom, and the other bathroom is between the doors to our two bedrooms. The apartment is very spacious and bright during the day: at night however, it suffers from NEON lighting!! EVERYWHERE!!!
I am already desperate for a real lamp (so, apparently, is Nikki!).
The other thing my apartment has is a third roommate: Gaoshung (AKA Baby Gao).
"Gaoshung" is Nikki's little kitten... she is nine weeks old and very, very playful! She is all white except for a black patch over one eye and a black tail.
Nikki found her while she was out shopping with Emily in the city of Kaohsiung (pronounced Gao-Shung)... so she named her after the city! Nikki has taken her to the vet to check her out, and she has washed her and bathed her repeatedly (yes: she was FULL of fleas, apparently). She has been checked for worms etc.. and the vet says she is fine.
Nikki has decided that, once she returns to Canada she will take Gaoshung with her (she has looked into this, and apparently, cats are considered "carry on" luggage... and they don't need to be quarantined upon entering Canada)...
Back to my story... Yesterday, after Emily dropped us off at the apartment, I dropped off my stuff and spent the afternoon touring the city with Nikki (on the back of her moped).
Honestly, you would not believe this place! It is really nifty... but it isn't really all that different from Montreal (except that everyone is Chinese and the stop signs actually say "STOP", LOL!).
You also would not believe the number of mopeds in this city: it is unreal! ..and they drive worse than Montrealers!! So far I have seen it with my own eyes: while driving on the right side of the street is technically the law... it seems to be only a suggestion! Cutting people off is the norm, and so is scooting through the red lights!! it's terrifying, LOL! ... it is crazy, but the school is not far. In fact, our apartment is in what is considered the Westmount of Chiayi.... it is almost the suburbs!
After a bit of driving around, we stopped for a bite to eat.
Pierre, as always, was right about something: chopsticks! Forks and knives are NOT given out anywhere!!! In fact... they don't even have forks and knives to give you if you ask for them (not that you COULD ask for them if you don't speak Chinese)!
I was rather proud of myself, though: I had a huge plate of fried noodles for lunch and I successfully figured out the chopsticks all by myself... Nikki was impressed... I think hunger must be a great motivator, LOL! I think this was really the first time I EVER got the hang of chopsticks!
It was the funniest thing too... you know how malls have food courts with tables in the center and little restaurants all around them? You can choose the meal you want then go sit at the tables provided... ? Well Nikki brought me to a food court for lunch today and the funniest thing was that EVERY SINGLE RESTAURANT was Chinese food, LOL! I swear they were all selling pretty much the same thing: rice or noodles, LOL! It was strange! I suppose back home it's the same with multiple burger places... but this was surreal... I honestly couldn't tell the difference between any of the restaurants!
Later in the afternoon, I got a "papaya milk" with Nikki. It is like a milkshake (they make it with fresh milk). They take a fresh papaya, blend it up, add a little sugar, add milk and crushed ice, then blend it some more... It is really yummy (I was surprised... it wasn't too sweet at all!).
As for jet lag... so far so good! I was fine all day yesterday and only started getting sleepy around 10:00 last night... so I was in bed by 11:00 or so... this morning, however, I woke up around 6:00 am... (that has to stop, LOL!)
I took a shower and played with the cat, made coffee and finished the last of my unpacking.... and Nikki was still asleep! Finally (around 9:30), I got dressed and went for a walk.... I am in an Internet cafe about 3 or 4 blocks from my house... it was very interesting trying to book an hour of Internet in Chinese, let me tell you, LOL!
This cafe is insane... they have about 30 computers, and there is a 9 to 13 year old boy attached to each one! The kids are all playing networked games... they are all playing dungeons and dragons (or something like it) against each other!
It looks like all of them are smoking, and the noise level is barely below "bleeding eardrums"... it's kind of fun, actually (but I now fully understand why Nikki insisted to our boss Emily that we needed an Internet connection at the apartment)! ..even though this place is cheaper than using the Internet at home, it is a little crazy (and it is certainly NOT easy to sit and write an e-mail in here, LOL!)
Here is the last bit of news... I start working tomorrow (Monday) afternoon!
Emily was all set to give me two weeks vacation before I started to work, but then Nancy (Nikki's old room mate) quit on THURSDAY! She kept it a secret from Emily until then! Can you believe it?
Columbia is a very small school (I saw it yesterday: it's really really cute!)... including Nikki and myself, there are only 4 employees.... so I understand why Emily asked me to start right away... there is literally no-one else to take over Nancy's classes! ..oh well, I might as well get the first day of classes over with! LOL!
I still can't believe that I am on the other side of the world! (even if everyone is always saying "NI-HOW" instead of hello! LOL!) ... the weather is awesome and people here are really, really friendly!
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