A Little Update.. Perhaps overdue.

An Explanation
So, it goes without saying that I am a terrible blogger, but I will take this opportunity...
“What opportunity!?”  I hear you cry. Well, let me get around to it, thanks!
Hmmm, this deviation from standard writing procedure might be explained by what you will read further on.
Anyway, with no internet connection at present, and no certain way to check, I’m pretty sure that my last blog was in around October. Potentially, before I even got a job, so I have a lot of writing to do.
Right, so there have been a fair few events since October, so I am going to go through them as chronologically and as in as much detail as I can in my current position.
October: So, I got a job. Hurrah! Don’t know if that was written yet, but I did. Hence why I’m not back home, I guess. Was subbing kindy during this time, but only ended up staying with that class for 3 months. I guess that’s a long time for subbing, but their actual teacher had been in a scooter accident, and she needed a while to fully recover. Anyway, during October, or at the end at least, is Halloween. We dressed up and went trick or treating. It was super fun. Bear in mind that these kids are 3 or 4 years old with very limited English. Very cute.
November: I don’t think November was a very eventful month. I think it’s when I started to actually make friends though, so I suppose it was pretty good after all.
December: So, with December comes Christmas and it was definitely very weird. Not only because it was my first Christmas away from home, but because I was in a completely different culture. Not that it’s not recognised here, but it’s not a holiday and people only really like it because it’s cute (The reindeers and snowman and stuff, not the religious symbology). But yeah, I ended up working on Christmas day due to not reading the piece of paper I’d been given properly, it was alright though. I just had to dress up as Santa and have my picture taken with my students and their siblings. After that, it was back to Mike’s for a nap, and Christmas dinner (In this case “Christmas dinner” means Ikea meatballs and a mountain of mashed potato. It was good.)  

Approximately a week after Christmas, as I’m sure you’re aware, is New Year’s Eve, and it was kind of a big deal here, because Taiwan turned 100. If you youtube Taipei 101 New Years Eve 2011, you can get a basic idea of what the fireworks were like. Orginally, my friends and I were supposed to be going to Taipei Country Club to see the fireworks from a distance and have a jolly ol’ time, but we got stuck in traffic about a 5 minute walk from 101, so we went there to watch the fireworks instead. They were pretty good (if you’ve taken my suggestion and looked them up, then you can see for yourself). Anyway, it was PACKED, and we couldn’t move for ages, and then we lost the boys, so us girls decided to wander around until the traffic had died down enough for us to take a taxi somewhere else. On our travels, we came across a cafe/bar on its opening night. We went in and the guy who ran the place offered us free shots and food, the music was good and the beer was cheap, so we stayed there for a while. Turns out the guy who owns this cafe (It’s called Hey! Rhea, and it’s awesome) was one of the first people Mike met when he got to Taiwan, and they were in a band together. It’s a very small world. Anyway, the rest of New Years is a big blur, but it was definitely super fun.
January: I think January was relatively uneventful, at least I can’t remember anything super exciting happening, although maybe it did, and I’ve just offended somebody or something. If I have, then sorry, but maybe you’ll forgive me in 3 paragraphs time.
February: CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!! If you hadn’t gathered by my use of block capitals and several exclamation marks, I rather enjoyed myself. It’s the biggest public holiday here in Taiwan, and that meant 4 days off from work. Hurrah! So we took advantage of this, and like many others, headed out of Taipei. We went to Kenting, a town right at the bottom of the island, surrounded by beaches and parks and a distinct lack of Taipei crappy air. We all headed down on the High Speed Rail which took an hour and a half (I think the normal train takes about 5 hours). Once we had arrived in Kaosiung, there’s no station in Kenting, we had to figure out a way to get there. There were 11 of us in total, all staying in the same room (although one the boys and his girlfriend had decided to get a separate room, which turned out to be a VERY smart move). We got there, and the hostel was awesome, and the fun times began. There was a minor hiccup in the form of my friend, Sam, falling flat on her face in the middle of a road, and needing to go to hospital. Fortunately, there was no major damage, just a few stitches (she recovered quickly) and a slightly embarrassed demeanour (took a little longer). One of the best parts of the whole time was being invited to an aboriginal new years party, where we were the only westerners. To begin with it was just kind of awkward, but as we started eating and drinking and doing our English-teacher games with the kids, we were welcomed with open arms. Everyone wanted to drink with us and it was just good fun. There were local bands playing, and they were awesome. We’d just get up and dance, and soon everybody was joining in. It was bloody brilliant.
March: Again, Not a huge amount happened in March. Wait! No! That’s a complete lie! We got an apartment. Forgot about that. Which is weird considering that’s exactly where I am now. Idiot. Yeah, moved in at the end of March, just a couple of days before Rob arrived to stay for 2 and a half weeks. Was pretty lucky actually. It’s very nice. We like it a lot =). Anyway, Rob arrived safe and sound, with the assistance of Mike who was able to pick him from the airport for me. Which I am still super grateful for. Which brings us to....
April: The first weekend in April, we were supposed to go to Spring Scream... A music festival down in Kenting. But due to a lack of organisation on our part, we didn’t actually plan how we were travelling there, but we ended up going just about as far away from it we could have without leaving the country. We ended up camping on the beach at the northernmost point of Taiwan. It was super fun. An all you can eat BBQ place with 99NT (apprx £2) all you can drink beer, you can’t really go wrong. Well... You can, but it didn’t. We had an awesome time, with beach campfires and chatting and general fun times. Sleeping, was slightly more difficult where we had 3 people in pretty much a 1 man tent. It was cosy to say the least. The next week was full of us working, and Rob telling us about his adventures in the evening. It was fun. Then Sunday 10th happened.
Due to the lack of internet in the apartment, we went to 7/11 to use the wifi there, but we sat in the park, and when I got home, I found out I had 24 mosquito bites. That was annoying. But not the worst thing.  So on Monday, I felt a little crappy, but I thought that a weekend of late nights in smoke-filled clubs was probably the cause, so I just went along with it. Tuesday I felt pretty rough, but I still went into work. I spent most of the evening coughing my lungs up, deciding that if I still felt bad on Wednesday, I would go to the doctors (something that I hadn’t yet done in Taipei, aside for the physical I had before I started working). So Wednesday morning, I felt ok so made my way to work. On my way to work, I didn’t feel great, and when I got there I felt like I was going to pass out, and my voice was going a bit, but I thought that maybe it’s because I needed to eat and drink some water. That didn’t help a great deal, but I went and taught my classes anyway. I got a cab back from work, because I couldn’t deal with public transport. On my arrival from home, I got into bed, curled up into a ball, shivering and sweating at the same time. My flatmate, Marcella, came into my room, to see if I was ok, and decided that we should go see the doctor. It was a good call. On my arrival, they took my temperature. It was 40.4˚C (104.72˚ Fahrenheit). I definitely needed to see the doctor. His English was awesome, and he wasn’t put off by the fact that I couldn’t stop myself crying. He told me that I have a very high fever and tonsillitis. And wrote out my prescription. However, I forgot to tell him that I was allergic to penicillin. When he went through what drugs I had to take and when I saw “Amoxicillin” I started crying again. I just pointed and said “Allergic”. The guy was so nice and said that he doesn’t usually prescribe it but thought it would be the best thing for me, and happily changed my prescription to something that won’t cause me more problems.
I’m now at the end of my day off that the doctor suggested I should take for rest, taking up to 20 pills a day for the next 2 days. Yay! But don’t worry, Mum. I’m ok. Don’t stress out. I didn’t tell you because I don’t want you to worry. =)

A few little things.

Well, I realise I've been a bit lax on the blog front, I apologise, but I haven't felt I've done anything worth typing about.

I've had a few interviews which I thought went well but I did not get the positions, sigh. However, there are more prospects ahead so I'm remaining positive(ish).

Ok, well, since my last blog I have been out and about a little more, including an adventure to Taipei 101. It's huge. I went in the evening and all around the outside are trees covered in lights that reminded me of the South Bank in winter. It was very pretty and made me a little homesick, not that I live in or particularly like London, but it made me think of home nonetheless. I didn't venture to the top, I think that's something for another day, so there's still plenty more to look forward to.

Last night I suffered my first bout of illness. We can't really figure out what happened, but we were walking around Blockbuster one minute, and the next my stomach felt like it was going to explode, so I ran home and was pretty sick. I don't know if it was something I ate or anything, Mike suggested (only half-jokingly, I suspect) that my body had had enough of the humidity and wanted to make sure I realised that. Maybe that's true, I don't know. Anyway, I'm feeling much better now.

I've also made the vaguest hint of a start at possibly learning Chinese. I've decided to do it baby-style, ie. the way that children here learn the language. This starts with learning the bopomofo, which is like a simplified version of the characters so I can get pronounciation right. Maybe I'll be a whizz by the time I'm home! My other option was PinYin which is the romanized version of the language. However, because in my head the letters I recognise are associated with sounds I know, I don't think I'll be pronouncing things properly and so I'm throwing myself in the deep end, hopefully I'll swim.

Vincent is very cute at the moment he keeps saying "uh-oh" whenever something goes wrong, or something is dropped or knocked over. However, he's now taken to saying it whenever he likes. This means that if he throws something or hides something or anything along those lines he will say "uh-oh". Hmm. It's really quite funny. The other thing he's started doing is "ready, steady, go". Although he can't say it exactly you can definitely tell it's that, it's kind of an "eddy, eddy, ooooo". Very funny.

Will try to write more regularly in the future. Brownies Honour.

Tiny update.

Well, not so much an update as a notice to say that I've uploaded pictures to flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53340153@N07/

There should also be the signs I posted in my last blog as well as some from the Shilin official residence and Taipei Zoo.

Huzzah!

A little while later...

Well, I've now been here for a whole week and thought I should probably give you all a little update.

I'm now pretty able to find my way around the local area and through introduction to the bus sytem I feel relatively confident in being able to get to places and (more importantly) find my way home. It's pretty complicated though as I don't really know any characters yet and as such can't really read the signs to find my way around, so I have to keep an eye out for memorable landmarks (weird buildings, even weirder signs) to know where I'm going. I'm definitely getting there though!

Ok, well where did we last leave off.... Hmm. I think I'll start with Danshui. It's a town to the north of Taipei which is pretty touristy. After getting off the train, we decided to have a wander around. The first thing Mike and I both were kind of bemused by was a sign for a food place that said this..

Neither of us were sure what "saporous" was, or even it was a real word. Apparently it is, which makes this considerably less amusing, but we found it funny until we decided to look it up!

We then turned a corner as directed by Vincent

It was cool to see and try a lot of local delicacies like these weird boiled eggs that were sold everywhere. I'm not really sure how they were made, but they were kind of black and chewy on the outside and that bit tasted a bit like bbq glaze. Very odd. Hmm, anyway...

*Continues writing after about a week of avoiding it*

Where was I... Ah, Danshui. Lovely place by the sea, home of fresh seafood, beautiful river views and hilarious signage. Due to numerous requests (well, one) I shall post some of my favourite...

Pretty straight-forward

An international view of the Irish

Not so much a mis-translation, but I found it bloody funny

And now, because I've left it so bloody long, I can't remember what else I was going to write....

Oh wait, yes I do. (Sorry for lying) We also went to investigate one of the local night markets. For those who don't know about them, they're partially what Taiwan is famous for. They are exactly as they sound - ie. markets, at night.We mostly just wandered around but I had the chance to try the delightfully named "stinky tofu" which smells like a combination of, "Smelly socks, No- drains. Imagine a drain full of smelly socks." (Mike Hanson, 2010). Sounds horrendous, right? It wasn't too bad, actually, but it definitely isn't my first choice.

I was then introduced to a drink (I have no idea what the Chinese characters are) called jen ju nai cha or 'black balls milk tea' as Mike sang to me to get the right tones when I was ordering it, causing mass hysterics for the both of us. It's sweet, cold, milky tea with these weird chewy ball things in. I really like it. It looks a little like this...

It's kind of weird having to chew your drink, but it's very nice, yum yum, and is one of the very few things I can order in confidence at drinks places. Huzzah!

I am very sorry but because I left it so long that's all I can remember for now. More updates to come soon.

I promise!

Numero Uno

Right.

Ok, well, as some of you know I encountered some problems with my suitcase before I left; ie, I locked all of my stuff in the case which has somehow set itself to an unknown code. Useful. So that caused a MASSIVE freak-out pre-airport. I don't know why I was quite so panicked, but it was probably the thought that I had no idea whether I was going to be able to access my stuff when I got to the other side, so that was fun to think about for however long! (story continues later*.. what mystery).

The next big ol' pile of fun happened at check-in, when there was another panic re: visa. Managed to work it out though, and they let me through, where I had to bum around the departure lounge for ages contemplating spending money I knew damn well I shouldn't touch! (PS, Mum - I was sensible). The flight was then delayed a little while and blah blah blah, but overall it was ok. I don't know if it felt like 14 hours as I was trying to get my head around the different timezones and stuff before I arrived. It was fine though, no screaming babies until landing, which is fine because my ears hurt, too, and if it were socially acceptable to do the same then I would have.

So, yeah. Flight was good and then stepping off the plane I was hit in the face by the heat. Woop! Customs and whatnot was all fine after wondering if baked beans needed to be declared or not (turns out, no in case you were wondering) and I was let into the country fine. Huzzah! Uncle Mike was waiting for me on the other side and I was introduced to a drink called 'Pocari Sweat'. Sounds kind of gross but it looks like water, tastes like powerade, is good for rehydration and is fast becoming my new favourite thing. We then hit the bus and ventured to Lu-Jou/ Lujhou City (home of Uncle Mike, I-Yin and Vincent). Lovely.

On arrival to the building, I was shown how to get in, there are a million different keys (well, three) and had a lovely warm welcome from Yogurt (the cat) and a tour of the apartment. It's very nice and my room is lovely and white and I have my own air-con and fan. Yum yum. The difference it makes is insane: I will go out of my door and into the living room and the heat is very *BAM* in your face. HOT. I was then treated to the lovely traditional, Taiwanese classic of Dominos Pizza. Hehe. This was not my choice, but Mike's but was very welcome! Out here, what we'd call an american base is known as "puffy pizza". Hehe, I love it! It's all very exciting. Vincent was a little apprehensive towards me, but hopefully will be less so soon.

*(Part 2 of the suitcase dilemma) After being sent instructions about how to pick the combination lock, neither me or Mike could do it. Hmmm. I was adamant that the first number in the combination was 2, so I literally sat spinning through the numbers, attempting to open it when suddenly *click* and the lock released, setting all of my belongings, and the presents I had brought free! I was so relieved that I didn't have to take the bloody thing to a locksmith to prise open. Phew. Access to my own belongings! I had to work for it though.

Day 2 was spent wandering around the local area, and now I have my own keys! We then went to look around Kid Castle (The school where Mike works) and meeting the staff there. It's SO fancy inside, very modern and lovely. Stopping in a shop to get a drink, a girl in the queue behind me said "You are very tall" and her and all her friends laughed. I didn't quite know how to react, so I smiled and nodded and said "Umm, yes." Eloquent! Then some time to laugh at translations on signs before jumping on the number 14 bus to head into Taipei. We didn't have very long there, but we looked around Taipei Main Station and the went to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall to see the changing of the guards. It was awesome. The building was incredible, and the guards' control, timing and sychronicity was brilliant (drama perspective..). Lots of spinning rifles and stamping. Lovely. We then ventured back via the MRT which is like the tube, but a lot cleaner, shinier and modern. The trains are so swish! And then back to Lu-Jou. That's all I can think of so far. I will get to photos at a later date.

Plenty more exciting things to come. =)

I hope this wasn't too dull!