Settling in...

I just moved into my new apartment yesterday and things are going pretty well. I begin my teaching tomorrow, so I am pretty nervous for that but I have the lesson plans all ready to go! I'll be teaching 23 hours a week (so 23 classroom hours) for 12 different classes. Sounds like a lot, but that seems to be the norm around here and I think once I get the hang of it it shouldn't be too bad. Our school structures it so that kids come once a week with the foreign teachers (ie: me) and once a week with the Chinese teachers. I've observed 3 classes now of all different ages and English levels. On Monday night I observed a class I will be taking over this coming Monday. They are 7-9 years old and, at that point, had been learning English for about 10 days. Their current teacher had them all come up and introduce themselves to me; they're so cute! Pretty much all they could say was "Hi, my name is..." and I said nice to meet you, but I'm not even sure they understood what that meant. They seem to be catching on pretty fast and are very enthusiastic. Luckily for that class (as well as many of the lower levels I'll be teaching) there is a Chinese teacher's assistant in the classroom with me, so I will be able to get them to translate, if needed. I'll be working mostly from about 5-9 pm during the week and then Saturday mornings.

So one funny story I was too embarrassed to write about and only told a few choice people last week was the tale of my first meeting with my academic director at my school. Well, I went into the little store next to school grab a bottle of cold water before I met with her last Friday. I was wondering why the water wasn't in the fridges being kept cold like in all other stores, but I was in a rush so I didn't think about it, and assumed it was water because it was in a plastic deer park-like bottle and stacked pretty high like water would be in a U.S. store. Anyway, I didn't take a sip until a break in the conversation with my AD and with one wiff I knew this was NOT water...it was rice wine. (I think I can hear you laughing from all the way across the Pacific.) Anyway, I said to her "This is rice wine, isn't it? Not water." (I'd tasted it in Vietnam, so I knew just what it was!) Luckily she just laughed at/with me and I handed it right to her to throw away. And I was trying SO hard not to look like them dumb American :(

In other news...I had my first motorbike ride on Monday. My landlord picked me up from the MRT station to go get my keys made, and I just assumed when she said she was driving that she was driving a car. I have no idea why I thought that because everyone drives scooters here! So that was a fun surprise! Today I learned how to take out the trash in my neighborhood. The trash truck comes 6 days a week at 1 and 7 pm. They circle around the block and play songs just like the ice cream truck which is very amusing, and everyone comes out to throw their trash in the truck. My roommate and I went out to it today and almost missed it so we had to practically run it down to get our bags in. Luckily I had him with me or I would have had NO idea what to do! I am currently waiting out a torrential downpour and thunderstorm in order to walk to the western style grocery store about 10 min away. I'm really excited for that! (Especially excited because today when I opened what I thought was cereal that I'd gotten the other day...it was "oatmeal" that my roommate and I are guessing I have to put in hot water and actually cook.)...Me cook? I don't think so!

My apartment is great and I was SOO lucky to find a place so near my school (literally about a 4 min. walk). Many teachers I've met travel far to their schools (like 30 min to 1 hour) on the MRT or bus. It's four bedrooms, mine is right off the kitchen. The building's front door opens to a small alley, and just up the alley people are cooking food for sale in little stalls all day long. So it's a very authentic Taiwanese neighborhood without a lot of other Westerners around it seems. We have washer and dryer (a dryer is not a guarantee in Taipei), wireless internet, etc. I share a bathroom with 2 of the others. The bathroom has no tub, it's just a shower head with the floor (Shannon, Colleen,& Mark--think our hotel in Siem Reap). The water drains easily and it's not really a problem. My roommates are Liz (from Kansas,just graduated from Rice Univ, and is deferring Med school at Tulane for one year to teach here) and James (from Minnesota, also a teacher). The other guy is leaving in a few days, and I think a girl from the Dominican Republic is going to be moving in. She is studying Chinese full time. I met her the other night and she seems just as nice as the others. (Maybe I can practice some Spanish again?) So I really am happy with this apartment. I got some bedding at Ikea (I even have a double bed for the first time ever!) I was able to buy the ikea bed, lamp and mini fridge from the previous resident for VERY cheap--just under $100. It also has a dresser, bookshelf, desk and nightstand. I will post some pictures soon (or more like have Charlie post them because I am technically inept at such things). Tonight I'm off to a new comedy club with Liz, so that should be interesting! I'll try to post this weekend to let you all know how my classes have gone!

An Update: I made it to the western style grocery store. I've never been so excited to see a regular grocery store! Of course, everything was still Chinese style and the packaging was in Chinese, but they had some things I recognized like bread, cranberry juice, & pasta! Also, a couple of random things I forgot to mention in my past posts: 1. an old man in an MRT station the other night motioned w/ his phone that he wanted to take a picture of me with it. I shook my head NO. Awkward! It wouldn't surprise me in a far out place, but in a city like this it did surprise me. I see maybe one to two other westerners around per day, but still. And 2. When I was getting my cell phone set up I had the English speaking customer service guy translate the contract I was signing into English. Most of it was very simple and straightforward. It was funny, though, when he came to the part about it being illegal to call sex lines. I didn't understand what he said at first, so I asked him to explain further. He said "You know, like when you call a number to get a friend." Oh man...I really had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. I'm probably not doing the story justice, but it was quite funny at the time. Ok, well I think that's it for now!