Life, In General

2009-09-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

Periodically I like to attempt being a cool uncle and I take my sister's kids out to do things. Today was one such day. I had a good time; we went to Denny's, the Red Hill, and went to watch planes land at the airport.

Vancouver, British Columbia: part 1

2009-05-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

Friday, May 08, 2009
I woke up this morning at about 3:00 to take the two hour drive to the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas for my flight to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The flight was about three hours and it went alright.

I arrived in Vancouver at about noon. The airport was packed because today was the first day of cruise season.

I met some girls from Australia in the customs line who have been traveling all over the States and made their way up into Canada.

I was met in the passenger pick up area by Karl’s driver, Vinod. He’s from India and probably one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. I felt kind of like the president, getting in this shiny black Lincoln with my super cool driver.

Vancouver bears a striking resemblance to northern Minnesotan cites like Duluth. It’s very green and not nearly as cold as I suspected. In fact, today was extremely nice out.

Vinod drove me to Karl’s office, and I have to say that walking around that place is a surreal experience. The offices double as sets for studios. So when we went to see the people from the Sports Broadcasting Department across the parking lot, we went into a place that looks like a pizza parlor, it even said “Joe’s Pizza” (or something to that effect on the front). Karl pointed out that all of the different office buildings are for different sets. There’s a court house, a bank, a New England style neighborhood street, contemporary condos, etc. It’s all really cool.

I met with some of the broadcasting people. I found out that my assignment had been moved from Cypress Mountain to the Stadium for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and other events that will take place there. I’m actually more excited about that than I was about Snowboarding and Aerials.

Karl took the rest of the day off and we walked around downtown Vancouver. I saw where the IBC (international broadcast center) will be and some other really cool stuff as well. There are alot of hippie types here, and someone is singing and playing a guitar on just about every corner. Lots of people walking, and everyone seems to be from different countries, it’s a very culturally diverse city.

We went to Stanley Park and walked around there for a bit, that place is awesome.

Then we came home. We originally planned on watching Nacho Libre, but I’m exhausted.

Saturday, May 09, 2009
Today we woke up and drove to Granville Island. It was awesome, such a rad place. While we were walking around the harbor we saw some kids playing big xylophones and stopped to watch. A group from Africa that is touring Canada was also watching and they spontanteously started performing with the kids, doing dances and drumming, it was so cool. The whole place turned into the big festival with people dancing and clapping. It put me in the best mood, it was so cool just to see all these people from different cultures and countries hanging out and dancing. It was a very moving experience. Everyone that I have met up here has been awesome and way nice.

We went to Karl’s co-worker/friend’s house tonight for dinner, and it was a nice little get together. We had grilled prawns, scallops, and salmon all as fresh as you can get them.

We also went for a hike to try and see a bear, but to no avail. However, the place we went hiking was absolutely beautiful, and it was also the place where they shot the camp scene for X-men 3, so no complaints.

Tomorrow morning we’re going deep sea fishing and crabbing, and I’m super excited for that.

Sunday, May 10, 2009
We went fishing in the ocean today! The first time I’ve ever gone in my life, and I was awesome, despite the fact that we didn’t get to bring home any fish. I did catch one fish though, it was a coho salmon. It was funny because it was the biggest fish I’ve ever caught (about 10 lbs), but it was too small to keep by law. We had a few others on the line, but we also had a damn harbor seal following us the whole day that kept snatching them from us. One thing cool about the boat that we chartered though, is that they set crab pots when we first went out. So just incase we didn’t catch and fish, we got to bring home some crab at least. Which incidently, was exactly the case. I personally thought the crabbing was awesome, and more exciting than the fishing. Also, I like crab more than I like fish.

When we got back to the dock the guide showed us how to clean and prepare the crab, and Karl got to try his hand at it. It was an awesome trip and well worth the price. I suppose it’s easier for me to say that, since Karl is the one who paid, but I’m pretty certain he would agree.
We got home at about 1 pm and we were all exhausted and took a nap and haven’t really done anything else. Couldn’t ask for a better day really.

Last Day for My Juniors

2009-01-07T00:11:00.000-08:00

My Juniors finished their finals for my classes today, so no more classes with them. They did better than I expected, so it even ended on a high note. They're good kids and I will miss them. Saturday is the last day of class for my Sophomores. It's hard to believe it's already over, but I'm excited to move on with life, and especially excited for mom to come and travel around here here before I go home. Here's some pictures from my writing and speaking classes' last day.

Influenza

2009-01-02T01:48:00.000-08:00

I have the flu. I went to the doctor today and that’s what he told me.

Going to the doctor in Taiwan is much different than going in the States.

A) It’s much cheaper. Because of Taiwan’s subsidized healthcare program, doctor’s and hospital visits are a fraction of what it costs in the States. My whole visit (injection, and take-home medication included) came out to about the equivalent of $15 USD. If I had the Taiwanese Governmental Health Insurance it would have been about $3 USD.
B) It’s a lot quicker. I showed up with out an appointment and was in and out in about 20 minutes.
C) The tools and methods. The office looked very similar to those back home, but he had some way weird tools; most of them looked like the tools you see in movies where they’re interrogating someone and the torture guy comes in and slowly unrolls his kit out on the table. The methods were also way different; the doctor stood at a distance from me and looked at me as though he was a sculptor and I was a block of clay that he was in the process of shaping. He only came in close if he had a reason to (i.e. to stick over-sized, medicated q-tips up my nose or to check my temperature). He didn’t ask a ton of questions, mainly because he didn’t speak a ton of English, but after silently looking me over for a bit he said: “OK, you have flu; you want injection?” He then told Helene that I had a pretty high fever and that he was going to give me kind of a medical cocktail that would bring it down and alleviate the aching.
That was about 6 hrs ago and although I’m not 100%, I feel much better.
I’ve become a pretty big fan of this subsidized healthcare, I think it’s something our government should really take a closer look at.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T06:12:00.000-08:00

Tonight was New Years Eve. I didn't do much, I was planning on going to Taipei, but I waited til' the last minute to make reservations and couldn't find anyplace to stay.

I did go go out to eat though. I originally set out to go by myself to a really good Japanese restaurant; However, when I got there, a couple and their friend sitting at the table next me invited me to eat with them. Say what you want about gay people, but those two guys were some of the coolest and nicest people I've met in my travels. Their friend didn't speak English very well, but she seemed nice too.

I gave my speech at the national press conference last night, it went well. I put a picture from on of the papers that covered that below. There are about 6 other papers that covered it, but I forgot to go get them until just now (10:30 pm) and this was the only paper that wasn't sold out.

This picture is funny because the caption insinuates that we're talking about somethng official, but in actuality Steve is just telling me that I need to find a date for New Year's Eve, because" only losers go out to eat on New Year's Eve alone."

Hong Kong

2008-12-28T15:49:00.000-08:00

December 26, 2008
Well, I here at the Kaohsiung International Airport yet again. I’m off to Hong Kong for three days. I’m fairly excited about it too.
I cannot honestly say that I am all too thrilled to be sitting in an airport again, and I’m even less excited about getting on another plane, but I suppose I’ll survive.
The hotel I’m going to stay at is near or part of the YWCA on Hong Kong Island, I can’t remember which. I picked it because of the location; it’s right near the bottom of Victoria Peak, which is rated as having the best night view in the world. Unfortunately, when I read the weather forecast for Hong Kong, it said that it’s going to be cloudy and rainy all weekend. I just hope that the weather folks were wrong.
I’m sitting in the waiting area by the terminal and there is an old guy sitting next to me that is full out brushing and flossing his teeth, toothpaste and all… the people you come across in airports.

** Arrival*** 7:15 pm

I took the Airport Express to the Hong Kong Central Station (about a 25 minute trip) and then a taxi from there to the Garden View YWCA Hotel (about 5 minutes).
The hotel is much, much nicer than I expected. My room is on the 17th floor and has ceiling-to-floor windows that look out over the city. It’s got a very modern design, and unlike the place I stayed at in Macau, it’s got heat.
I walked down Garden Street to the Peak Tram and took that up to the top of Victoria Peak. I must say that it really does live up to its reputation of being the world’s best night view; pictures just cannot do it justice. I met and kind of hung out with a family on my little trip up to the Peak. The husband is from Birmingham, England, and his wife is Taiwanese, and they have a 3 year old daughter. He’s an engineer in Taichung, Taiwan. After that I walked around Central Hong Kong until about 12 and then I made my way back here, and it’s 12:45 right now.
Hong Kong is extremely westernized, everyone speaks English. Even the Chinese people here speak English to each other. Also, there are a ton of British people here, it’s like little England. Honestly, while I was downtown I’ll bet I saw almost as many British as I did Chinese.

December 27, 2008
I woke up this morning and walked through the Botanical Gardens, across the street. It’s a very pretty little spot, nothing too fancy or too exciting, but it’s a nice place to sit if your legs are tired. The Botanical Gardens has a large variety of birds, and some other animals as well (it’s like a small zoo).
Then I walked down to St. Johns Cathedral. It’s a very beautiful building, and it’s old. Sadly, it almost seems out of place now, because of al the ultra modern surrounding it. I walked around downtown again while I was down there to look at the cathedral.
Hong Kong is very hilly, so it takes a lot of energy and time to walk around. So, after I walked back up to my hotel I really didn’t feel like going anywhere for a bit.
I talked to people on Skype for a couple of hours, took a short nap, and then went back out for the evening. I walked down to the MTR station and took the train to Kowloon and went to the Temple Street Market. It was pretty crowded, I went there specifically for the fake stuff, but their fake stuff isn’t cheap. It was pretty much like every other big night market I’ve been too. Some good stuff, but mostly junk that you wouldn’t ever want to pay to lug back home.
I walked around Kowloon for a bit and ran into some senior missionaries from Snowflake, AZ.
Then I went to a big store called H&M and got a sweatshirt and a regular shirt. I walked around some more and then came back here. I’m freaking tired.
Hong Kong would be a lot cooler if I had about $1,000 spending money. Hong Kong seems to be best for shopping.

December 28, 2008
I planned on going down to the pier and taking the Star Ferry this morning, but it’s been raining all day, so I just went down and walked around downtown again and used the skyways to get from building to building. I don’t feel like it was a wasted day at all. I saw some pretty interesting things. The cable cars that go around downtown are pretty cool. They look (and move) exactly like the crazy bus on Harry Potter II. Also, the Pilipino people that live here congregate in large groups , just about wherever they can find room and set up little makeshift cardboard living rooms, and just chill there with their families, eat dinner, and play cards; very strange. At first I thought they were homeless, but after observing them for awhile, it became obvious that wasn’t the case.
I walked back up to the hotel, got my bags and took a taxi down to the airport express railway. There I fell asleep in my chair waiting for my train for about 2 hours and almost missed my flight.

2008-12-25T15:27:00.001-08:00

For the past year or so I’ve noticed that I feel guilty when I don’t write in my journal or make sure I get in my own pictures more frequently. From time to time I read my brother Manny’s account that he wrote which concerns the time just prior to, during, and after my father’s death. In the essay, he expresses regret for not taking more pictures of my father. That seems to be a common theme of concern among most people who lose a loved one. Everyone scrambles to find pictures and put together stories from that person’s life.
A lesson that I learned from the decline of my father’s health, is that memory is not something that you can always rely on, so it is imperative that you record things when they happen. I really wish I knew more about my father’s history, his adventures, his successes, his hardships. Most of all, I really would like someway to see what my dad’s thoughts were when he was fully coherent. I never really got to know him before he started to lose his grip on reality. I was too young to realize the importance of it, and probably too preoccupied with trying to grow up as fast as I could to really care.
I really want my kids to have known who their father was when I leave this world. I want them to be able to see how I made my way through life. I want them to see what my concerns and solutions were at each stage of my life, and hopefully they will be able to identify with me more.
Many times a lot of us get camera shy and avoid being in photos; what a selfish thing to do though. I wish I had more photos of my parents. I could look at those old photos that we do have all day. It’s fun to see what they dressed like and to try and imagine what their lives must have been like that long ago before I was even a thought to either of them.
So now I’m over here in Asia, a once in a lifetime opportunity, and even though I may be awkward to ask complete strangers to take pictures of me at various places while I’m traveling, and it sucks to write in my journal, I find motivation to do these things in the idea that I’m providing my unborn children with as much information as I can so as to paint the most complete picture possible of what this time in my life was like. I feel like I owe it to them, and I feel guilty when I fail to do it.

Christmas Day

2008-12-25T03:26:00.000-08:00

I had a pretty good Christmas Day. Even though I had to be at work, it was still pretty rad.

Kody took my students on a tour of his house and told them about what his family's Christmas traditions are via webcam. I got to see Kenzee and Derek's baby boy Gauge, which completely made my Christmas.

After got off the phone with them, I called the rest of the family and friends with my class. They thought it was pretty cool that my brother Karl could speak Chinese.

At about 12:30 pm I linked up with the Gardner family via webcam and got to spend Christmas Eve with them. It was really cool, I narrated Luke II while they did a little nativity deal, and watched them open their present; it was just like being there in person, that really made my holiday.

Tonight we had the most delicious Christmas dinner ever, with Joseph's math tutor as the dinner guest. It was really great.

The Night Before Christmas

2008-12-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

Well, today was Christmas Eve. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be today. It was actually ok.

Everything at school pretty much went down like any other day; except, my superiors cancelled my after school tutoring sessions so I could spend Christmas Eve at home. That was nice, I didn't feel like staying at school for 14 hours today.

We went to a Japanese restaurant for Christmas Eve dinner. It was way good, it's an all you can eat restaurant, but it's not a buffet. It's just like a regular restaurant, except you pay a flat rate and you can keep ordering as much as you want. It was way, way good food. Not the traditional oyster stew, but it did the job.

Because we still have to go to school tomorrow, we just did all of the festivities and such tonight. I like how the Yangs do things as far as presents go, everyone gets two. It just made it seem like a less shallow holiday that way.

still here

2008-12-23T06:09:00.001-08:00

We had an earthquake today. It wasn't bad at all; it only shook the building a bit and knocked some stuff off my desk, but it made for an exciting 30 seconds or so.

Last night I went out to eat with some fellow teachers at a hotpot restaurant. It was nice to get out and be social.

On Friday I fly to Hong Kong for 3 days, and Tuesday of next week I have to got to Taipei to be interviewed at a press conference about my opinions of the new homestay foreign exchange program that the government is instigating. Then on New Years Eve I'm going to head up to Taipei again to watch fireworks get shot off from the top of the 101. On the 1st of January I'm heading to Tainan to hang out with a co-worker there (it's her hometown), and then it's back to Kaohsiung after that.

I had to submit about 40 different little potential slogan things for the homestay program to the national minister of education the other day. It was supposed to have as few words as possible and but be powerful enough for people take interest in Taiwan and want to come here. but my ideas ranged from: "Discover Taiwan!" to "TAIWAN≠THAILAND" to "Come to the Republic of China! (it's better than regular China)" It'll be interesting to see what they go with...

just another week

2008-12-17T20:13:00.001-08:00

Nothing much has happened for the past little while. I'm offcially getting tired of Chinese food and I go the western style restaurants quite a bit now. Last week I had to judge an English singing competition, and that was a lot like torture. These kids over here can't sing worth crap. As Steve eloquently put it when he told helene about it: "it was like going to the bathroom while being constipated, it was a painful exprience that we had no choice but to sit through."

I told some of my co-workers about how I accidentally got the quarters stuck up inside my nose on my mission, and now every where I go on campus students try and get me to stick money up my nose.

I taught some of my students the "I'm a little teapot song." And that's about it for updates. Oh, and I'm going to Hong Kong for 3 days next week.

The pictures are of Scott and I at the singing competition and of students singing I'm a little teapot.

The Christmas Season

2008-12-10T05:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the Christmas Season in Taiwan now... sort of. There are few displays of the Christmas spirit here in Kaohsiung, and the ones that do exist remind me of how important it is to just stick to what you know. Imagine if you will, businesses in St. George trying to capitalize on the kwanza season, and you could probably get a fairly accurate picture of what the Christmas season is like here. The stores that have Christmas music playing seem to have just grabbed the cheapest 4 song cd that says "christmas" on it and put in, assuming that it's what we all listen to back in the states, and the play it over and over again. One store seems to have gotten a hold of a cd made by a choir of deaf children; really that's what it sounded like. My favorite though, are the businesses who don't want to go and purchase actual christmas decor, so they just half-heartedly modify what they've got. One business has a cut out of a dude holding a tube of toothpaste out front and they just took some cotton balls and made a Santa Slaus beard for him. However, they either ran out of cotton balls or got bored, because he's only got half a beard. A guy I know said he was driving down the road and saw a store window with "Merry X" painted in the window.

Christmas is normal in the Yang house though. We have a nice tree, as you can see in the pictures. It's kind of cool, because since Steve travels around the world so much he's got Christmas decorations from all over the world.

More Random pictures from Macau

2008-12-01T04:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Macao

A scooter near the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral

A building at the entrance to Senado Square

Me infront of the Ruins

A weekend in Macau

2008-11-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

November 28, 2008
I arrived here in Macau at about 9:30 pm. The flight wasn’t bad, it only took about 1 ½ hours to get here. The Macau International Airport is small and easy to navigate through, but their passport stamps are not very cool. Thus far, the best passport stamp I have seen is actually Taiwan’s.

I feel that I should probably recant some of the negative expectations I expressed to a few people prior to coming here. From the things I had read about Macau and the pictures I had seen on the internet, I expected that it was going to be just a knock-off Asian Vegas. However, I must say that Macau is way cooler than Vegas.
Macau is a city that is similar to Hong Kong, in that it was leased by another country for a time. Though, unlike Hong Kong, which was leased by the British, Macau was leased by Portugal. It looks an awful lot like what I would expect Italy to look like. It really is a beautiful city. Driving into the city, toward my hotel, I could see the lit-up ruins of an old Spanish style church on a hill and it looked way cool, I’m going to try and visit there tomorrow.

My hotel is about as bad as I expected. It’s located kind of tucked back into a dark alley. In fact, when the taxi driver was taking me to it, I thought that he might just be taking me someplace where he could murder me and steal my stuff. The room has paper thin walls, no windows, and it’s about the size of a big walk-in closet. However, it is pretty clean (as far as budget Asian hotel rooms go), and it has its own private bathroom. The staff is a little less than cordial. When I walked in to the lobby there was no “Hello” or “Welcome to the East Asia Hotel.” Just simply, “Give me your name, passport, and 100 Macau dollars for your key deposit.” I’ve never seen a smaller elevator in my life. It says that the maximum capacity is 8 people, but really it's only about two.

I walked around a little bit to try to find something to eat, but not too far, I didn’t want to get lost in a strange, foreign city at night. Just a couple streets over is the Ponte 16 Resort and Casino. I ate dinner at the restaurant there, and it was pretty good.
It seems colder here than it is in Kaohsiung, but I’m not sure if it really is.

November 29, 2008
Morning
I woke up today around 8:00am, and set out to explore the area near my hotel. Macau seems to be a great place for exploration by walking, there’s tons of cool stuff to see.

The architecture of the buildings here greatly differs from the rest of Asia, because of the strong Portuguese influence; it’s all very European looking. Also, unlike other big Asian cities I’ve been to, Macau actually smells really good. It smelled like a bakery everywhere I went this morning.
I started out by exploring the weekend markets that are near the hotel. Stuff is more expensive here than in Taiwan, and I’m not sure if it’s because of the economy or because they know they can get more out of tourists.

It’s fairly easy to navigate through the city, because all of the signs have Portuguese written below the Chinese. I don’t speak Portuguese, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to decipher than Chinese characters. Also, another thing that made it easier is that on about every corner, in addition to the road signs, they also have a post with signs that point to popular sight seeing destinations in Chinese and English.
The first thing I saw was the Church of Santo Domingo; it’s right at the end of Senado Square (which I am told is a popular entertainment/ shopping spot). It’s a pretty, yellow, Spanish mission style church with a “treasure” museum inside of it, but that wasn’t open when I stopped there.

I then followed the signs along the road until I came to the Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral (about a 5 minute walk from Santo Domingo’s Church). I have to say, this was pretty cool, definitely my favorite spot of the morning excursion. All that’s left of it is the façade and the stairs. I met a group of elementary school kids here, who wanted me to participate in a survey about what things I like about Macau. They were cute kids, so I consented.
On the eastern side (at least I’m pretty sure it’s the eastern side) of the ruins is the Monte Fortress, which was pretty cool to see. Not much to describe about it, It’s made of stone, and it’s got a lot of old cannons (some of which are now pointing at big hotels; it looks pretty funny). Also, from the top of the fortress is a pretty impressive view of the city in almost every direction. I then walked back down the street, stopped and talked with a few people from different countries and went to some traditional shops and looked around for a bit.

It’s a beautiful day today, the sun’s out and it’s not too cold. However, it’s definitely jacket weather. You could get by without one, but it wouldn’t be very comfortable. I’m going to take an hour nap and then go out for the rest of the day. As a side note, as poor quality as this hotel is, it’s hard to beat the location.

Afternoon
It is considerably more crowded and busy here in the afternoon than it is in the morning. I went back to the Senado Square, and it looks like a completely different place than it did in the morning. More shops opened and more stands with people selling just about anything you can imagine, and about 4x the amount of walking traffic. So as for sightseeing advice: go and see the monuments and such in the morning, before noon. For shopping: go in the afternoon, and I’m willing to bet that just like the rest of Asia, in the evening there are probably even more little shops that open, but I guess I’ll have to see.

I went to the Macau Cathedral, which I thought was going to be a cool museum type place, but it’s actually a fully operational Catholic church. Lonely Planet said that it had really cool stained glass, but I saw nothing that great about it. It looks like every other Catholic church I’ve seen; it is pretty but nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, after seeing it, I’m not too sure what constitutes a cathedral. Because this one is actually pretty small, and I’ve always been under the impression that cathedrals are supposed to be rather large.

I underestimated just how much money it would take to get me through the weekend. I was gauging what my expenses would be like by how much I needed for Thailand, but I failed to remember that the transportation and food was already included in the tour fare on my trip to Thailand. Also, Thailand is a lot cheaper than Macau. It’s about 7.56 Macau Pataccas to the US Dollar here. In Thailand and Taiwan it’s about $33 to the US Dollar.

The big money saver in Thailand and Taiwan is food; it costs next to nothing in those places. $30 TWD (less than one US dollar) can get you a full meal in Taiwan. Here in Macau, the cost of food is only a little less than the States, it might be cheaper if I could find a food market but there are none in the vicinity and taxis here expensive.

I brought the equivalent of about $100 USD with me here thinking that it would be more than enough, seeing as I barely spend that in month in Taiwan. The taxi from the airport to the hotel was about $13 USD, I got to the hotel and had to put another $13 down as a key deposit. I haven’t seen any recognizable food establishments and so I’m forced to eat at nearby resorts’ buffets. The one last night was about $24 USD, I’m still used to converting from Taiwanese dollars, so at the time it seemed like $187 was an ok deal. For some reason my debit card will not withdraw from the ATMs here, I’m not sure why, because it’s supposed be valid thru this month, and it worked about 2 hours before I left Taiwan. At any rate, there’s probably not going to be any souvenirs this trip, I’m just hoping I can make it home. Next time I will be smarter.

Evening
I went to dinner at a buffet and walked all around downtown. I am pleased to say that I only ran into one prostitute that tried to seduce me on this trip, and unlike Thailand she didn’t jump on me, so that was nice. I guess there’s a brothel about 2 blocks from my hotel; I wouldn’t even have noticed it was there if the girl hadn’t banged on the window to get my attention. She called me over across the street like it was an emergency and then when I got across, she started kissing the glass and yelling “we give very good massage.” Needless to say, I didn’t stick around to find out how good it really was.

I walked back up to the ruins and the Senado Square to see what it looked like at night, and it was pretty cool.

It’s been a pretty good trip, and Macau is a great place to visit, but I really think that a weekend is enough to see what there is, that is worth seeing.
Oh yeah, and I found out that most of the ATMs are down because of a recent typhoon.

November 30, 2008
I started out this morning by going to the Macau Tower. All I really have to say about it is that it’s vastly overrated, and is not an essential destination when visiting Macau. This ticket to the top was $85 MOP (about $11.30 USD); way too expensive for an elevator ride and a view of the city through smudged, fingerprinted glass. On the taxi ride back to my hotel, I spotted the church that I saw on top of the hill when I was coming into Macau, so I had him take me there. It’s called The Church of Our Lady of Penha, and it was pretty cool. There wasn’t any one thing that stood out to make this a really cool place to visit. There architecture of the building itself was nothing particularly breathtaking and neither were the grounds, but when you put them together and combine them with the location perched on top of a hill that overlooks the city, it really is a cool place to be. Because of there not being any one thing that really stood out, it was rather difficult to express the atmosphere there through photography. So, I just took a picture of the church as kind of a “prove I was here” type of thing.

From there, I wandered my way through side streets, in what I guessed to be the general direction of my hotel. I had no intention of walking all the way there, mainly because it was about 3 miles from the church, and not to mention I didn’t actually know the way. However, after about 2 ½ hours of zigzagging through small neighborhoods, I came through a narrow alley that put me across the street from Senado Square. I went around there for a bit and watched them set up the gigantic nativity scene that is at the entrance to the square; that looks like it’s going to be pretty cool.

I went to an underground fish/meat market while I was there, that I had never noticed the other times I had been there. I took the escalator down and there where little stalls set up with boxes and cages in front of them, filled with various live sea creatures and fowls, which they would slaughter and prepare for you on the spot. I got a couple pictures of them and I wish that I could have purchased some of that stuff, because they had some odd looking creatures that they had pulled up on their fishing lines.

After the market I just walked the 5 blocks or so back to the hotel, picked up my bags, and caught a taxi the Macau International Airport, where I have been sitting for the past 3 hours. You see, I misread my departure time (it’s all in military time) and I arrived here 4 hours before I can even check in for my flight (as a side note, check in time for international flights is two hours prior to departure. Assuming that my flight leaves on time, I will have spent a grand total of 6 hours by myself in this airport, four of which were completely unnecessary. Well, I guess this concludes my adventure. As for some final remarks: the thought occurred to me today as I was walking through the unfamiliar backstreets on my way from the church to my hotel, that I have never felt unsafe during my travels. Even when I’m walking through dark alleys at night, I don’t feel like I’m in danger at all.

Holiday Plans

2008-11-22T03:22:00.000-08:00

Next Friday I have to go to Macau for my visa renewal. I'm not that excited, it's basically just the Asian Vegas. On the 26th of December I have to leave again, but this time for Hong Kong. A 3-day, 2-night trip to Hong Kong (airfare and 3 star hotel) is somewhere around $12,000 NT which comes out to about $360 USD. Not bad at all, but not that great either when I only make about $600 USD a month and I'm trying to save money for when I get back to the States. Also, It's not going to be that fun of a trip, because I'll be going again with mom less than a month later (which will be way more fun).
I like to see new places, and I'm greatful for this opportunity to travel, but it's almost a torture to go to some of these cool places alone; just because I know that I will never find the right words to describe how cool they are, or take a picture that will do them justice.

School Anniversary

2008-11-20T02:32:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of the school anniversary that was a couple weeks ago.

Weekend in Taipei

2008-11-16T21:42:00.001-08:00

I went to Taipei this weekend. It was probably the best time that I’ve had since I arrived in Taiwan. I went with a guy from my work named Andy. He’s a dual citizen of Taiwan and Australia because his parents sent him to Sydney when he was a kid to learn to speak English better. When he grew up there, he was put in charge of his parents cosmetics factory. I failed to comprehend how much money was floating around in this guy’s family until this trip.
When we got there his brother picked us up at a night market near the high speed railway and took us out to eat. We went to a really nice Mongolion hot pot place and met some friends there. I think one of the things I liked most about this trip is that everyone I met (with the exception of Andy’s parents) spoke English extremely well. Anyway, his brother owns two adidas factories in mainland China and also helps out with the cosmetics stuff when he can. Very cool people, they were all very nice and fun to talk with. To tell the truth though, after 3 months of only being able to have a fluent conversation with about 3 other people, I would probably think just about anyone is cool that can speak fluent English.
After dinner we went to Andy’s parents house, which is basically a marble palace. It’s a 5 story apartment that is perched on the side of a mountain. You can see all of Taipei from the top balcony.
He introduced me to his parents, and they are pretty cool people. Typical Taiwanese, very polite and hospitible. They don’t speak English though, so communication was kind of difficult.
In the morning we went to the National Palace Museum, which incidently has much of mainland China’s most vaulauble treasures. A fact that has become somewhat of a sore spot between the Chinese and the Taiwanese. It was pretty cool, some of the stuff was pretty weird though. Two of the most valuable things on exhibit at piece of stone that have been carved to like like food. One is a jade bacchoi cabbage, and the other is a composite rock that has been carved to look exactly like a piece of boiled pork.
After the Museum went to a place called Forkers (an american burger place) with Andy’s sister, her husband, and her friend, all of whom speak perfect English. It was really fun, His sister’s friend is going to come to Kaohsiung in a week and we’re going to go hiking.
After lunch we went to the world’s tallest building, the Tapei 101. Pictures really can’t do this building justice, it’s freaking huge. It also contains the world’s fastest elevator, which goes about 60kph. It goes to the observation deck in 43 seconds. I never considered myself afraid of heights until I went there. When I looked over the edge, I couldn’t move, I had to slowly back away.
After the 101, we went to eat at the macaroni grille, and then went home. It was a way good trip and I made some cool friends.
Taipei is a lot different than Kaohsiung. The air is cleaner and it’s a more stylish and diverse city. It’s more foreigner friendly as well. There’s a ton of people and tons of things to do, no matter what time it is. I hope I can get back there soon again.

students singing happy birthday to me

2008-10-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

2008-10-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

more thailand

2008-10-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Even MORE Thailand Pictures

2008-10-30T06:35:00.001-07:00

More Thailand Pictures

2008-10-30T06:32:00.001-07:00

Thailand Pictures Continued...

2008-10-30T06:29:00.001-07:00

Thailand

2008-10-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

The more I travel, the greater understanding I have of the way things really are. There are excellent lessons to be learned from seeing the world, one of the lessons is that home really isn't so boring or bad. Home is like what I view marriage as; it's what you choose to make of it. In my recent travels I have found that there really isn't any perfect place that you can just pack up and go to and always be content and satisfied. That place disappeared with Eden. Man must now live by the sweat of his brow. In my opinion, It is therein that true satisfaction is found. As I said before, home is like a marraige. I do not believe that there is one perfect person that is predestined for each and everyone of us. Now, in this field I am by no means an expert, but my opinion is that you should find someone who is most compatable and work at becoming the "perfect" person for eachother, work to become eachother's one and only someone. Even so, I don't believe it's necissary scower the earth looking for that place with the perfect climate, with the perfect culture and people, at the perfect price. As I mentioned before, I do not believe such a place just naturally exists. I believe that with the right amount of work, patience and sacrifice, that a person can create that where ever he/ she may live at the present time. I do not mean to discourage travel by any means, if it is done for the right reasons (ie cultural immersion, a new experience, etc.). However, if the reason is to find that perfect paradise, I expect you could travel to every country and come home disappointed.

I've wanted to go to Thailand since I was just a boy, and I thought for sure it was going to be a flawless paradise. Thailand is dirty, and there are hookers everywhere. Much of the traditional culture in the cities has been swallowed up by the adult entertainment scene and greedy tourist ripper offers ( for lack of a better description). I was at first disappointed, but then I realized that no place I have yet been to has been as cool as the pictures, but that doesn't mean there's NOTHING cool about them. The visits that we took to rural Thailand were amazingly breathtaking, and the elephant tours were awesome. We went to a traditional play at a massive theatre in Bangkok, at that was one of the coolest productions I've ever seen. All in all, I'd say it was a worthwhile trip, it had it's ups and downs but it was good. If I were to make recommendations about what to see while there I would recommend the following:

The Floating Market in Bangkok

The Siam Nyramit Performance

Elephant Trail Tours

Chang Mei (North Thailand), I didn't go but I heard from a girl that it's vastly less populated and is more geared toward the nature experience of Thailand. Plus, the big elephant sanctuary is there.

STAY AWAY FROM PATTAYA

Pictures:

1. Thai Ronald

2. Girl at the floating market

3. Boats at the floating market

4. Lady cooking @ the floating market

5. Old woman at the floating market

Kenting pictures continued...

2008-10-18T23:40:00.000-07:00

Pictures:

Snorkeling near the marina

the east coast of Taiwan

The road my hotel was on

The road that goes around Taiwan

the view from my room

Weekend in Kenting

2008-10-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

October 17-19, 2008

Day 1

I left school at 12:00 today to head down to Kenting National Park on the far southern end of Taiwan.
The trip did not begin on the happiest note. As I was walking into the bus depot, I watched a guy on a scooter get nailed by a truck, he flew pretty far. I don’t know if he lived, but if he did I’m guessing it will be a long time before he walks again. When I got on the bus, I drifted off to sleep for a minute and had a nightmare that I was that guy on the scooter and I woke up abruptly and flailed my arms, almost smacking the guy sitting next to me in the face.
I arrived in Kenting at about 4:30 pm. It was really easy to find a scooter rental place. When I got off the bus a little old lady was waiting there and said, “You need scoota? you need hotel? I the man for you!” Needless to say, she got my business. Not only was it a perfect sales pitch, but I had no idea where else I was going to find a scooter rental. I got on the back of her scooter and she took me to the main office down the street to fill out the paper work and get my scooter. The paper work was pretty simple, I just wrote my name and how long I was going to take the scooter. I rented the “deluxe scooter,” I didn’t know what that was at the time but it was the premium deal, and I didn’t want to be stuck with some crappy scooter that wouldn’t start or go up hills, plus it was only $800 NT for two days (about $25 USD). I was pretty stoked when they brought it out, it’s a 200 cc scooter and goes about 75- 80 mph, not that I’d go that fast anyway, it’s just nice to know it’s got that capability.
I drove my scooter down the main road to find my hotel. Steve told me to stop when I saw the big rock in the water that looks like Richard Nixon’s head, and the hotel I had reservations at would be right across the street with an address plate that said 600. When I saw the rock I started looking for my hotel and immediately a lady came out to the side of the road and greeted me and took me into a hotel. I told her thank you for waiting out front for me because I would’ve had a hard time finding which was the right hotel, but she didn’t speak English. She took me to a room that looked nothing the one on the website and I started to panic. I asked her about the one I reserved and she just kind of blankly stared at me. Then she went and got her friend next door that speaks English. I asked her friend what this address was and she said 598. The lady that called me into the hotel wasn’t waiting for me, she was just waiting for anyone that needed a room.
I went next door and the man at the counter instantly knew who I was and he took me up to my room. Steve knows this guy very well and got me a deal on a beach view suite for one night and a standard room for the second all for 2500 NT (about 78 USD).
This is a really cool hotel. It’s like a big house with contemporary beach décor, it’s beautiful, and the view from my room is amazing.

Day 2
I woke up early this morning and drove around to familiarize myself with the area. It’s beautiful here and the temperature is perfect; however, there’s not a whole lot in the way of food (i.e. markets or anything).
I drove to a place called Baisha at lunch today. Baisha has a really pretty beach. When I got there I bought a snorkeling set and did that for much of the afternoon. While snorkeling I met some exchange students from Spain who were snorkeling as well, so we hung out for a bit. One of them showed me some of the sting marks he’d gotten from jellyfish on the eastside of Taiwan.
I just got back from snorkeling with a tour group near the marina, it was freaking amazing. We went around in some fairly shallow water for a bit and then they took us out to where there’s a drop off and that was awesome, there are some massive fish out there. It made me excited to go scuba diving in Thailand. I also saw another scooter wreck, but this one wasn’t nearly as bad.

Day 3
It’s about 7 am right now and in about 4 hours I have to head back up to Kaohsiung. I have to say that even though I have seen an done some way cool stuff while here, I’ll be glad to get back. This has really been an eye opener for me.
On this little trip I’ve realized how lucky I am to have Steve and his family to live with, and also how hard it would be to live here without someone I knew that speaks my language. It makes it a little harder to fully enjoy yourself when you’re stressing out about important things that are getting lost in translation, like road signs or prices for things that are written in Chinese numbers. Even yesterday when I went with the snorkeling tour group, I signed for something that I didn’t know about. I thought we were just going to go snorkeling, but it included water skiing and banana boats and tubing. That would’ve been a great plus if I didn’t hate those things.
Last night I gained a great appreciation for my home country. I went to a restaurant called Smokey Joe’s on the beach. It’s a Tex Mex steakhouse place, very nice, high priced by Taiwanese standards, average for U.S. It also happens to be run by Americans and everyone speaks English, it was like an oasis in my social desert. When I went in I saw white people everywhere. On the TV was ESPEN (in English), and the music playing was Hawaiian style, and all of the conversations were being spoken in English.
Since I had arrived here in Taiwan I had never really noticed how out of place I was until I went to that place where I could remember how it feels to be in an environment where everyone else looks like me, I can understand everything that’s going on, and I knew exactly what I was ordering. It even smelled like an American restaurant.
When it was time to leave, as I was walking down the long plank walkway that led from the restaurant to the road, it was like a decent from a dream to reality. The Hawaiian music began to fade, the smell of Taiwan (which can be very potent at times) gradually began to replace the scent of the restaurant, and by the time I reached my scooter across the street no one was speaking English. It was a pretty somber drive back to my hotel. I feel much better this morning though.
I’m home now. I finally was able to drive around to the eastside of Taiwan this morning, I couldn’t before because it was always to stormy on that side to drive my scooter. It was awesome, way more pretty than the west side, and the west side is pretty beautiful.

Pictures:

Baisha
A car on the road that goes around the southern part of Taiwan
Me in my room
Me in my mirror
me on the east coast

another saturday

2008-10-05T04:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday October 5, 2008

I went to the Soushan Zoo yesterday, not very cool. it was pretty boring, except that the fence around the zebra cage is only like 3 feet high so you can get just hop over and get really close. while i was walking around looking at the animal exhibits I noticed that most of them were monkeys. I started wondering why i paid to walk around and look at monkeys in cages When I can walk on the trail behind the zoo, see them in their real habitat, and play with them and feed them for free.

After the zoo, I went down to the harbor on my scooter and got on a scooter ferry and went to Cijin Island again. It's way more fun over there when you have a scooter to get around on.

Monkey Mountain Pictures Continued...

2008-09-27T00:50:00.000-07:00

The two people are the people who drove me up the mountain on their scooter. People here are so freaking nice.

Monkey Mountain

2008-09-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Monkey Mountain.

I started out at around 6:30 am. I went to the train station that's near our house and I took it down to the harbor (about a 30 minute ride). I knew that Monkey Mountain is near the harbor but I didn't know how to get to the place where all the trails are, so I had Steve's son Joseph write the name of the place in chinese on a card that I could show to people.

When I got out at the harbor, I went to a nearby street market and showed the first couple I saw the card and asked how to get there. The man pointed up the street and so I started walking in that direction. After walking for about 6 blocks some people on a scooter started honking at me and yelling "HELLOOO!" When I looked over to say hi back, I noticed it was the man and his wife again and they were motioning for me to come to them. The man patted the back of his scooter seat and said, "Take you, we take you." So I got on the back and his wife crouched down in the leg area, and we all drove up the mountain on a little scooter. It's a lucky thing they came and picked me up because there's no way I would've been able to find that place by myself. Even if I did know where it was it would've taken me at least and hour and a half to walk there.

The mountain is the by far the coolest place I have ever been in my life. I've never seen so much green before. For about the first 1/4 mile the trail was paved, and there was no real wildlife to speak of. I was worried that I got on the wrong trail, but the pavement ended and after a little while of more rugged trail I climbed over a rock and there was a big monkey sitting with his back to me about 3 feet away. He casually looked back over his shoulder at me and gave me a kind of bored look, and then went right back to eating his leaves. I stayed with him there for a little bit, and took a bunch of pictures of him. He didn't seem to mind me being there until I tried to pet him. It was too close for his comfort, and he made a weird barking sound at me, so I left him alone.

I hit the mother load of monkeys about 30 yards further up the mountain, a huge group of them. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen.

I took a bus from the from the trailhead back down to the harbor train station. On the way home I stopped at a big street market by Formosa Boulevard to get some lunch. While I was at this little meat on stick stand, trying to figure out what kind of meat it was, the old woman who owned the stand came and gave me some beef on a stick. Then she gave me $30twd. Needless to say, I was a little confused. I just kind of stood there, a little puzzled about what just happened, and the lady said "No money, ma?"

I told her "Oh, no I actually have money."

And her friend laughed excitedly and said "Yes, Yes now you have money. We give you money!"

I tried explaining that I already have money, but they weren't getting it. So, I thanked them for the change and the free beef and went and got back on the train.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Office Fun

2008-09-23T23:23:00.001-07:00

1. Me helping kids with their English homework in the office

2. Sarah is always making copies, so I dubbed her the copy queen, made her a crown, and we had a coronation ceremony.

3. Amberlee, Yvonne, and Steve at our "Darts for Pizza" competetion.

4. More darts stuff

Saturday Excoursion

2008-09-23T00:48:00.000-07:00

Things are still going great here.

On Saturday I did an all-day excoursion around Kaohsiung. I went downtown, to the harbor, Chi Ching Island, and the Cultural Center. It was awesome, but I did get way sunburned.

Downtown really wasn't that cool, it's just a bunch of stores, but The harbor and Chi Ching Island are awesome.

Chi Ching, is a little island that is just off the coast of Taiwan, it takes about 5 mnutes to get there by ferry. It's kind of a touristy place, but not American tourist, just other Taiwanese tourists. It's now the only place in Taiwan that has rigshaws too. This is the premiere spot for seafood in the country, you can get justabout anything you can think of, in just about any way you can think of. Boiled, fried, barbecued, you name it they've got it.

First I went to the beach. I liked this beach because it's not crowded at all, and the sand is really dark colored.

Then I winded my way through the roads up to the lighthouse on the north end of the island, stopping briefly to watch the little old people fish by the dock. Climbing to the top of the lighthouse was more difficult that expected, but when i finally did get to the top, it was worth it. From the lighthouse I could see over the whole harbor. I took a couple pictures and that's when my camera started going on the fritz.

I went back across the harbor and took the train up to the cultural center in the center of Kaohsiung. The cultural center was way cool, they had a local art exhibit there and it was pretty impessive. Due to my camera's malfunction, i only got a few good pictures though.

I got a new camera last night, and I'm excited to use it on my excoursion this week. I'm going to go to Monkey Mountain, which is down by the harbor. It has a large popluation of Formosan Rock Monkeys, and I'm pretty stoked to photograph them.

1. Kaohsiung Cultural Center

2 Lion Head

3. Cultural Center Rocks

4. Chi Ching Island

5. Kaohsiung Harbor

Pictures from family home evening

2008-09-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from our family home evening trip to the little island off the coast of Kaohsiung. It's a cool little island with tons and tons of seafood stands. There aren't many cars and there's a lot of cool little shops and temples all around.

1. Me on the ferry at Kaohsiung Harbor.

2. Octopus at the barbued seafood stand on the island.

3. Barbecued octopus on a stick

4. Cargo ships in the harbor

Typhoon Blues

2008-09-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

The weekend has come and gone. That’s one thing that really sucks about weekends… They end.
This weekend was particularly a bummer because a typhoon hit and we ended up spending most of it indoors. It was extremely windy and rainy for the most part, more so than I’ve ever seen before, but still not a much as I would’ve expected to see from a storm that has been dubbed a typhoon. I had plans to roam around Kaohsiung this weekend, but all of that was kind of shot down, so that sucked.
It was kind of a historic weekend though. The Kaohsiung Stake Presidency was reorganized. After 10 years of service, Steve Yang (the man I live with) was released as 1st counselor and sustained as stake president. Here’s to another 10 years! It was kind of brutally ironic, because all last week he was telling me how excited he was that he had his last stake presidency meeting and that it’s “church policy” that you don’t serve over 10 years in a stake presidency. Then, on Saturday, he came to my room with a scowl on his face and said, “I got a phone call.” I asked him what they said, and he told me the area presidency just said to meet them at the stake center in 30 minutes and that was it. As he was putting his tie on and walking out the door he started humming, “I’ll go where you want me to go.”
At the general session of stake conference, the Kaohsiung Stake Youth Choir performed. A lot of the kids are in my seminary class and they did very well, I’m so proud of those kids. They work so hard at everything they do.
Kids here work like crazy at school, because there are so many people and so few colleges and universities, it’s extremely competitive. Kids who plan on persuing high education usually go to school from about 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. They go from 8:00 to 4:30 of regular school and then 5:00 to 9:00 of what is called “cram school.” Cram school is usually taught in English, because learning English is very stressed in schools here, even though not many speak it. Nowadays, in order to get into a good school here you must speak it pretty well, because your interviews to get into the university are all done in English. They have no real social activities at school to speak of at high schools. No dances, no big parties, or anything like that. The closest thing that you could call a school party would be the Opening Ceremonies and that’s pretty much just an hour long parade. I admire these kids’ determination to get a good education, it’s commendable.

2008-09-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went as a ward to Taipei as a ward for a temple trip. We took a charter bus up, and it took about 4 to 4 ½ hours to get there and the same to get back.
We made 3 stops on the way up and on the way back. The only place that we stopped that I know the name of is Taichung. It’s a pretty sizable city in the middle of the country. We only stopped there for about 20 minutes, so I didn’t really get much of a chance to look around.
Taipei is pretty cool, I noticed that there are a lot more white people in Taipei than there are here in Kaohsiung. There are some of the beautiful places I have ever seen in my life on the drive from Kaohsiung to Taipei. One big difference that I noticed about Taipei as opposed to Kaohsiung is sidewalks, Kaohsiung has no sidewalks and Taipei has a lot.
We pretty much just stayed in the vicinity of the temple while we were there. There is a road that Steve’s oldest son Joseph calls “Restaurant Road.” It’s a little road that has about 17 restaurants on it. We had some really good noodles there.
The temple is a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures.
On Friday my scooter’s battery died at the 7/11 at the end of the road that the school is on, it sucked. And just like the movies it immediately started raining cats and dogs just long enough for me to get good and drenched while walking back to my office. When I got inside, the rain stopped.
Andy, the Taiwanese/Australian guy with the desk next to me, came to church with me the other day. He has been before, and he seems to like it.
There’s a new guy who sits in the desk on the other side of me who is from Dublin, his name is Keith, and he only comes on Fridays. He’s lived here for about 11 years, and he seems like a pretty cool guy.
I bought a way cool helmet tonight, I’m excited to wear it tomorrow.

I’ve been put in charge as the diction coach for the National English Drama Competition Team, it's kind of cool. They're doing an oriental rendition of "The Emporer's New Clothes."

2008-09-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

2008-09-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

2008-09-03T17:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the School Year Opening Ceremonies for the Chung Shan Industrial Private School, and it was quite the spectacle. They had the big Taiko drums, dragon dancers, and a parade, it was pretty awesome. It’s a military style school, so all of the students marched and lined up in formation in the courtyard. My camera is a piece of crap so it didn’t really do it justice.
I taught my writing class yesterday, I was really nervous about that, mainly because it’s actually a pretty intense course to teach for someone who does not have a degree in teaching. Looking at the curriculum, it’s basically English 0990 at the college. I was nervous, but I found that I think I’m going to like teaching that class more than any other class. It’s easier to grade.
I also started teaching an English drama class, I hate this one. It’s hard to understand what they want me to do, and I don’t really want to talk to the homeroom teacher (who asked me to teach it) at any great lengths about it, because the day before yesterday Steve tried (very awkwardly) to set me up on a date with her. The scenario went something like this: I was talking to her and Steve about the class and he and she started to speak to each other in Chinese, so I went and sat back at my desk. A couple minutes later she came over to my desk and said, “You’re so cute, when do you want to go? You just tell me the day and time and we can go to dinner anywhere. And next time don’t have to be so shy, you can just ask me, I’m very friendly.” I kept glancing at Steve in horror as he hid behind his monitor trying not to laugh as I stumbled to find my words.
I now teach at the Kaohsiung Municipal Junior High as well after I’m done here at the private school. It’s a more relaxed class, in fact it’s not really a class at all, it’s an English club. We play games and just practice speaking.
When the MRT train is finished on the 12th I’m going to move out here to Daliao, where the school is. Then I can just walk the half block to the school and it’s safer to drive my scooter, because it’s a small town and does not have as many cars on the roads. But If I want to go into the city, I can just hop on the train and not have to risk my life dealing with the traffic on my scooter.
I don’t have any classes today or tomorrow this week, but I have a crap load of lesson plans to write.

First Full Day

2008-09-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

So I completed my first day of school yesterday, and it went pretty well. I like all of the people that I work with, so that's a plus too.
I teach two "Level IV Listening & Speech" classes, a Level II "Effective Academic Writing" class, a Level I Listening & Speech class, and a Level I Writing class. And just recently Steve volunteered me to teach the English Drama class Also, on Wednesdays I have been asked to be an English Club Advisor/ Instructor for 2 hrs after school. It sounds like quite the load, but when it boils down, I realy still only have about 12 hrs a week.
The school is kind of in the countryside, I don't really know what the town is called but it's a pretty neat little place. The school is called the Chung Shan Industrial School, and their school buses are the nicest charter buses I've ever seen in my life.
Most of the people I work with in the IA office are Mormons. We have Steve who is the first counsellor in the stake presidency, Scott Huang who is the bishop in the 7th ward, Amberlee Green who is the young women's presidency in the 7th ward (she's an American from Sandy) , Mark (something Canadian) who is in my ward, and I don't know the other Mormon girl's name for sure, I don't think she speaks much English.
I got refunded for my plane ticket yesterday. Steve just refunded me out of the ATM, so I was walking around all day with $38,000 NT cash in my wallet, I couldn't even close it.
I went to a noodle shop with Andy, the guy who's desk is next to mine and who is my soon to be roommate. He took me down to the "town center" which is very small, and halfway through the meal he had to run back to the school to prepare for his next class. I've never felt so alone in my lfe. The restaurant lady kept trying to ask me questions in Chinese, she just didn't get it. I managed to find my way back though, it wasn't too hard, considering that It's just a straight road back to the school.
I braved the streets of Feng Shan alone last night to walk the 6 blocks to 7/11 to get a Sprite. I was a little nervous, mainly cause I almost got hit by crazy scooterists about 4 times, but I made it there and back in one piece, so I was pretty proud of myself.
The price for things here is not much different from the States. it's either about the same or more expensive because it's been imported. The only thing that is way cheap is food, you can get a full big dinner from the little carts and stands for the equivolent of about $1.50- $2.50 USD. There isn't a lot of counterfeit stuff here like there is in Mainland China, most of the stuff I've seen (actually everything I've seen) is legit. a bus ride is ony about 40 cents USD, which I can tell you it's not worth much more than that.
I like it here a lot now that I have stuff to do to keep me busy, and different people to interact with.
I like teaching my seminary class a lot... but then again it's only been one day.
Today, Scott takes me out to drive my scooter around town to make sure I'm not going to die. I hope I don't.

first day of school

2008-08-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today is my first day at work. I'm just getting settled at my desk

2008-08-30T23:46:00.000-07:00

2008-08-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

2008-08-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

I got here on Thursday after about 16 hours of flying time, that part sucked. Taiwan, obviously, is quite a bit different from the USA. Culture shock is really setting in now, I don't understand what anyone is saying, but everyone is friendly.
I live with Steven and Helene and their two boys and it's working out pretty good so far. We live in Fengshan, which is a city that borders Kaohsiung. The apartment we live in is actually two apartments combined (they bought the one next door and knocked the wall down) so it's a lot more roomy than I expected.
Friday, Steven walked with me around the neighborhood, and I quickly realized that getting around here is going to be considerabley more difficult than I had anticipated. I got lost pretty quick. I also noticed quickly that most people have a kind of mild neglect for traffic laws here, red lights are more of a suggestion than a command.
Joseph (Steve's oldest boy) took me out Friday night down into Kaohsiung to the mall and we had dinner there. The food was really good (I had beef noodles).
Yesterday (Saturday) we went on a ward activity to the old sugar processing plant on the north end of the city, it was freaking hot and humid, more so than i had ever been in my life. I met about 40 members and a few of them spoke english
Today we went to church. Steven's family spoke, and everyone seemed to like it.
Steve told me that I will be teaching release time seminary at the school that I work at. Of all the people in the world to be a seminary teacher. I have 25 kids in my seminary class, and they're all in Honors English, so they speak very fluently.
Last night we went to a Thai place and it was really good. As we were walking into the restaurant I noticed a billboard of a new musical production that's based on the music of Sting and the Police, (it's a cop/action play), the English headline for it reads: "Sting: the musical 'Every breath you death!'"
Tomorrow is my first day at work, I'm excited. They're giving me a scooter, but I think I'm too scared to ride it with the freaking crazy drivers here. I really love how they can fit an entire family on a scooter.