Living a life lost in translation

Hello there. I think I'd like to commit this post to out of the ordinary things I've seen here in Taiwan.

First of all, pretty much everyone here has a scooter or motorcycle. I plan to get a scooter once I get my ARC card. An ARC card is basically just a card saying you have a job here and place to stay. I wish I could get a yellow scooter like in FLCL. That would be awesome. Outside my building, there are about 100 scooters parked. It is pretty crazy to see. I have also seen three people on one scooter, and a baby being held on a scooter. No offense to Taiwanese people, but they are not very safe with cars and scooters. On scooters, a child will just stand where you normally place your feet, and the parent will just put their legs around them. In a car, parents often just hold their kids in their lap, in the passenger seat. No seat belt or anything. On top of all of this, people here drive like crazy people. They drive into oncoming traffic if they think they can turn in time, they rarely wear seatbelts, and don't get me started on how crazy scooters will be. All-in-all, getting around in Taiwan is a dangerous business.

There are tons of "rules" that I've discovered over the past few weeks. For instance, I often sit cross-legged on chairs. Totally inappropriate here. It's the equivalent of spreading your legs wide open on a chair. Women are expected to sit with legs completely together at all times.

Let's see... what else? Well, we take off our shoes here, just like in Japan. If you enter someone's house, you take off your shoes. At school, the kids have "inside shoes" and "outside shoes". So, we're allowed to wear shoes inside, but those shoes must never be used outside. I've noticed that these inside shoes usually get just as dirty as outside shoes, but oh well. Haha. My kids in the afternoon usually just walk around in bare feet or socks. Boy do their feet and socks get dirty. Taiwan has this weird atmosphere in which everyone thinks things are "clean" but someone in America would surely think that same room/floor is dirty. It's strange. The water here is even too dirty to drink or cook with. We bath in it though, which makes me think, are we ever really clean?

I met some new caucasian people on Thursday. Another lady that tutors at the school, Michelle, introduced me to her friends. They are all from South Africa, which is very interesting to me. I think I might be hanging out with them tonight, weather permitting. Right now the clouds are floating past my window faster than I have ever seen in my life, and it's not ever raining. We are supposed to get another typhoon soon. haha. So many typhoons here!

All right, that's all for now. I miss all of you like crazy. You have no idea.

This weekend has been odd. I think I feel very alone, and I don't quite know how to handle it. I'm not sure I'm the type of person who can just throw myself out into the open. I may be strong sometimes... for instance if I see any Caucasian (which there aren't many here) I say, "Hello!" But I think that's easy for me because I know it will not go anywhere. I don't know how to make friends from total strangers. I'm pretty sure for a very long time I have just made friends with my friends' friends. I know I have made my own friends, after all, I had friends at college... but I feel like a completely different person than then. It's not like I expect anything bad to happen. It's more like, the easiest thing would be to sit in my suite and watch English movies. I just don't know how to force myself to do things that aren't easy. I don't mean with life. I've done some really challenging things (for instance, coming here). I mean with people. I don't take risks with people. I don't even know where to begin! Even if I joined a class, I doubt there will be anyone who can speak English. I am friends with Lindsay and Brad, but I don't want to bug them when they are trying to spend our little free time together. Hmmm....

Soooo, I guess I'll have to break down and have a negative post.

The people I work for are shady. I feel naive, because I really trusted them... but it appears they are lying to me and the other teachers; about stupid things too. The biggest thing is that that my bosses have a job posting on an ESL website-- for a job that is already taken. There are three main positions at the school, and those positions are filled by the two Canadians I have come to like and by me. None of us have expressed that we plan on leaving the school... but for some reason there is a brand new post for one of our jobs. It's like... wait, what?

They lie about other things too. For instance, we asked them to change the format of our lesson plans. They said they would talk about it with their bosses. After a week, they came back and said, "We fought very hard and we got our bosses to change the format. It was very hard, but they agreed." We're thinking-- awesome! They are listening to our ideas. Then a few days later we discover an old lesson plan in Lindsay's desk that has the same format of this "new" lesson plan. Why did you tell us that you fought to change to this new lesson when that's not true at all? You just changed back to an old format... one you probably had saved on your computer.

Another example is one of my bosses said that the students have always been silent at lunch time, and that we really need to work on returning them to that habit. But we looked in some old meeting minutes from last year, and several times it's mentioned that the students need to be quiet at lunch. Why would you tell us that they were silent last year if that's not true?

I feel like I cannot trust these people at all. I feel like they think we're stupid. They are constantly peering into my classroom to see what I'm doing. Not coming in the room-- just looking in through the door. What the hell is that? Am I a child who needs to be supervised, or a teacher and adult? It's degrading. Lindsay and Brad tell me that in the public school system you do less work, easier work, and there's none of this bull shit going down. Also-- they get preparation periods-- something I don't have! It's insane. I work for almost 6 hours straight! If I forget to print something off-- too bad! There is no time for you to do that during the day.

I guess I just feel trapped and a little degraded. It's not cool. Okay, I'm done venting.

Let me update you on the weather in Taiwan. It's CRAZY. Right now there is a typhoon going on! 87 mph winds, rain coming at you sideways, flooding in the lobby! My boss told me, "You should just stay inside" so that's what I'm doing. The window where my air conditioner is has a couple leaks, so I've been keeping an eye on that, and I've been doing laundry. Outside my window looks like a hurricane, so I really don't even want to try going out.

Last night was very awesome though. Even though it was raining from the typhoon already the people of my building had a bbq! Right now it is Moon Fest in China and Taiwan! We are celebrating the new moon. The bbq was supposed to happen on the roof but since it was raining we just had it on the sidewalk outside our building. So when I came home, the people hosting the party asked me to stay so I had a seat and was looking around, watching the kareoke that was going on. After about five minutes a woman came up to me and asked me in English if I had someone to eat with. I said no, so she invited me to eat with her, her husband, and their friends. I made Taiwanese friends! They are about 30 and they speak a little English so we were able to talk to each other a bit. It was really fun. I ate chicken wings, rice sausages, and I even tried chicken heart! It was a bit chewy, but not bad :o)

So all-in-all, things are good here. I've had a cold all week but I'm feeling better finally. School is pretty good although I almost lost my voice on Thursday, haha. Hope everything is well in the US and I'll try and update soon! <3

So last night I ended up going out with the two teachers I work directly with: Brad and Lindsay. We met at the train station, and then walked down a couple streets until we found a bar we liked. The bar we chose was called, "The B52 Bar". It was pretty cool. They were playing 90s music the whole time we were there, and what's even crazier is they were playing all the songs on vinyl. We drank Taiwan Beer, which was very good. We each got a bottle of about 24oz, for 150NT which is about $5 American. The prices in Taiwan are interesting. Some things are very cheap, others are the same prices as the States. I think my dad was right when he said the only places that are cheap are the places that are subsidized.

Brad and Lindsey are very cool, although I don't know how long they will stick around. They just came from a job in Korea where they worked less but got paid more, so they are feeling like this job is too much. There is a lot of paperwork and very little time to do it, so I can understand where they are coming from. Anyways, I am going to go grab some coffee! Thanks to everyone who left a comment! I heart you!

I anticipate taking lots of pictures, so here is the link to my new Taiwan Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30228108@N07/

Here are my kids!

That's what I'm living in; another dimension. Everything has been turned on it's head and shaken until everything falls to the ground. I've finally gotten to the point where I have stood back up, and am collecting my things, but all of my possessions have turned into Taiwanese possessions.

Eating Chinese food has been a trip. I'm starting out slow; I've been eating a lot of cereal, fruit, and vegetables. At school everyday we eat a Chinese lunch, so the has been very helpful in telling me what I like and what I don't like.

I had a very hard time my first few days. I just felt very isolated and confused allllll the time. This is my second day in a row of feeling okay, so we'll see how things go :o)