Hallowe'en Taiwanese Style!!

Trick or Treat! Hope you all had a fun Hallowe'en weekend, whether it was eating too much candy or drinking too much booz! This was the first time that I've ever celebrated without all my friends back home, which I'm sorry to have missed out on this year :o( But I had a great time here, and it's not over yet!
Saturday was a luxurious day for me here, because I did NOT HAVE TO WORK!! My only Saturday off this entire year! I enjoyed it by roof-top suntanning and a stroll around downtown, where I found an actual Candy Store! Complete with truffles and gum balls, I was in Heaven! Saturday night included a fabulous bottle of white and a gathering of teachers here all dressed up in their finest trickery! A couple people from the dorm came with Lee and I to our friend's house party and then later on to a bar here called Function. The bar itself was small and had no dance floor, but the music was great and everyone I know was there so it was good times! I was dressed up as Sue, one of the characters from the kids' English Textbook - I have posted a picture of her from the book for you all to see! And I finally saw my first real live fight - a group of Chinese guys beat the crap out of some dood, and I mean BEAT, it was really bad and no one stepped in to break it up, not even the security guards! Craaazy! We got home at 4am and I spent most of Sunday just chillin out and making lesson plans for the week.
Monday and Tuesday classes here continue the Hallowe'en celebration, as I have to wear my costume to school! Classes include trick or treating around the school, games and candy - not a bad job! So check here again in a day or two if you want to see extremely cute pictures of Chinese kids dressed in costume!

the world spins madly on

So it's been an extremely long time since my last blog, and I apologize! But for the first time since I got here, my life has been relatively normal :o) This past week since I got back from the Gorge, everything has been great - classes all returned to normal since the holidays, and every school is getting ready for Hallowe'en! So all the decorations are up and I have my costume ready (I'm one of the characters from their English textbook, Sue!)
This past weekend I worked Saturday all day with a group of 20 cute little kids, basically playing games and singing songs for 6 hours! Then at night a group of us went to see The Departed - one of the best movies I have seen in the past year! If you haven't seen it yet, go! Then on Sunday Lee and I spent the whole day shopping, getting clothes and our costumes :o) Don't worry, there will be tons of awesome pics up of Hallowe'en! This week includes a night of bowling and a going-away party for my friend Rahul, one of the guys in the dorm who recently returned back to Toronto :o( Other than that, nothing new except that Lee chopped all my hair off! I asked him for a trim, and watched as inches of curls floated in slow motion down to the ground! Now most of you may look at the picture above and respond with typical "it still looks long to me", however most girls will know when they've had hair running halfway down their backs, and can suddenly see their shoulders again, that it is a big deal!
Now, in class today at my high school, an intense number-guessing game was played which resulted in the losing team having to stand up and sing in front of the rest of the class! I have posted the pictures for you to laugh at, but mostly for my students to log on and see :o)
I do have one interesting story, however: today, as Lee and I were walking to class, I got hit by a scooter! I was walking with my bag over my shoulder, and out of nowhere a girl on a scooter came flying by and her handle banged right into my shoulder! She slammed into me hard, and her handle got caught on my bag and it made her swerve and lose control, causing her to spin out and fall down! It was the scariest thing, and it all happened in the flash of a second! So we stopped to help her up, make sure she was ok, and she just got right back up and drove off like la-ti-da! She looked scared of me though, like she knew it was her fault and thought I'd be mad or something! But I was just worried about her; and my shoulder was totally fine! So all in all it wasn't that bad, just really crazy!
Until next time, happy Hallowe'en!

GORGE-OUS!!

Ni hau! How are you all doin? I hope you had a great relaxing weekend and while I'm on the subject, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

This weekend, Lee and I had Saturday off (for once!!) and so we fled the city, taking a train 4 hours East to the beautiful city of Hualien, home of Taroko Gorge - Taiwan's most mountainous range and breathtaking scenery! Man oh man, it lives up to its reputation! We busted out Saturday at 8am and tried unsuccessfully to sleep for the next 4 hours, but enjoyed the view along the way immensely! Finally, we arrive and make our way to the Visitor's Centre to plan the next 2 days! We rented scooters and checked into a (nice and cheap!) hotel, then explored Downtown; the food, the shops, the rain! After hours of walking around and a bit of shopping, it began to rain so we did the only thing we could do: saw a movie! Everything we wanted to see was either not playing or not at a good time, so we took a gamble with "9/11" and it was actually good, very intense. After the movie we watched this awesome dance show put on by a group of young Taiwanese dancers, with tribal drums and throwing-sticks, and some of the moves were amazing! Then we explored the Night Market and enjoyed a night time view of the ocean, accompanied by some fireworks!

The next day was incredible! We had a bite and then rode off for about 45 minutes, until we reached Taroko Gorge: miles and miles of mountains that go on forever in every direction! They were so huge and powerful and no matter how many hours we drove, they never ended! The gorge lies between, filled with rushing water and huge boulders and colourful bridges, and the mountains are dotted with little temples and waterfalls. I was speechless!

We made it back to our dorm just before 9pm Sunday night, with just enough time to unpack and make lesson plans for the upcoming week. Ohhh, I don't want to think about teaching!

Kenting!!

You just had to be there!

I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and enjoyed yourselves - I will now tell you about the mayhem that was my Moon Festival holiday! 6 of us took an over-night bus which was actually 3 buses b/c of transfers, and that in itself was an adventure! Try sleeping on a bus that has no shocks and is driving over bumps like a ride at the Ex! We arrived bleary-eyed in Kenting, the most Southerly point in Taiwan at 7am. It was already 30 and sunny out! We scoured the main strip of town with our backpacks on, looking for breakfast and a place to rent scooters. By about 10:00 we were full of coffee and scooters in towe, ready to check into our hotel! This, however, was not as easy as it sounds. It took hours of getting lost to even find the place! Along the way we accidentally came across the most beautiful look-out, the top of this mountain with a picture-perfect ocean scene in the background, it was breathtaking! But eventually we went into this beautiful, luxurious hotel to ask where we might find the O.K. Hill Hotel, and we were answered by "this is it!" We stayed in the most massive, glorious hotel; ocean-view, breakfast included, chandeliers in the lobby and a swimming pool with water park, and our room was nice and big for all of us! Unfortunately, check-in was not until 3pm so we dropped off our luggage and hit the beach! The soft, white sandy beach with clear skys and blazing sun, tons of shops and restaurants lining the streets pumping music, and nothing but time to soak it all in! So after some serious sun-tanning (I'm nice and dark now, thank you!) and a bite to eat, we hopped on our scooters to check in to our room. Lee and I arrived first with our friend Tamada and waited 20 minutes for the others to show up, before I got so worried that we sent Tamada out to try and look for them and make sure all was okay. It wasn't.

Our friend Mychal had been side-swiped by an SUV and knocked off her scooter on the side of the road. She was taken to the hospital where I met her, with fractured wrist and a serious concussion (the helmet actually saved her life). I continued to spend the next 4 hours by her side, holding her hand through physicals and castings and needles and police interrogations, all the while telling her who she is and where she was. Lee and my friend Cristin were there too, while the others were at the police station making up a report and trying to straighten out the small matter of her payment; the other driver has been placed responsible for covering all of her medical bills, at least. By 8pm we decided to finally check-in, shower and grab some dinner, but little did we know that the huge Holiday Night Market was on and that the streets were blocked off! It took Cristin and I over an hour to cab AND walk back, arriving exhausted and starving :o( But the night was salvaged by a fun paruse through the Night Market, sampling food and checking out all the stores, fighting our way through the INSANELY CROUDED streets!! All in all I bought a little hangy heart for my cell phone, a new blue purse, some red drawstring shorts and cute earrings :o) So that was our first day!

The next 2 days were filled with hours at the beach, swimming in the warrrrrm water, checking out delicious restaurants, shopping and of course visits to the hospital. Lee also went snorkling and cliff-jumping! All in all, an extremely eventful and adventurous vacation!

Another evening spent on a few buses brought us back home Tuesday at midnight, and Lee and I went to Taipei Wednesday after we were done teaching to watch the Asian Soccer finals! Taiwan got its ass kicked by Iran 2-0, it was funny to watch! Friday night is our friend Neil's birthday which will be filled with dinner and many a drink :o) Then on Saturday school is cancelled for all foreign teachers as the kids have Chinese exams, so this is our only weekend off and we are going to Hualien, Taiwan's premier scenic attraction called Taroko Gorge, supposedly the most spectacualr sight here!! So I will have another big update for you after the weekend! Everything else here is great, the weather is still sublime and the kids are great! Mychal is in the hospital here now having surgery done on her wrist, and that's all for now!

I love you all and miss you very much!

Vacation!!

Oh, how sweet it is! How glorious! Words cannot describe how wonderful it felt to walk out of class lastnight, and know that it was my last one for the next 5 days! Most of my dorm-mates and I went to the Canadian Bistro, our home-away-from-home, and celebrated with drinks and yummy food, and I finally had my wine! Then early Friday morning Lee and I got up and booked it to the train station for an almost 3-hour ride to Fulong Beach, a preview of what's to come this holiday! The train ride in itself was an adventure, hopping seats and then eventually standing it out until we arrived in what can only be described as a picturesque Taiwanese setting. Everything I imagined before coming here has been different from actuality, until today. The clear, breezy air and the crashing waves of the ocean on golden-coloured sand was a sight to see, with an emaculate temple towering in the background and green mountains off in the distance! We walked along the water's edge for hours, from one end to the other, over bridges and stopping to watch wave-surfers in action. It wasn't even that sunny out, but the day was perfect. Lee and I barely caught both connecting trains on the way home and then tomorrow we're off! 2 nights and 3 days in sunny, tropical Kenting, the Southern tip of Taiwan where I will lay in the sun and do nothing until someone roles me over :o) Happy Thanksgiving, Shana Tova and Happy Mid-Autums Festival, everyone!

One Whole Month!!

It has been one month today since I landed in Taiwan and my whole life changed! Ever day feels so long, every week feels like an eternity, but then all of a sudden a month feels like the blink on an eye! Is that normal?
Today Lee and I had the morning off, not working until 5, so we hopped on our scooter at 9am and met our Canadian touching-stone Neil for a day of exploring the mountains! Off to an interesting start, Neil landed a flat tire before we even left the main road, so that set us back only an hour to get fixed! Then we were off for a beautiful scenic drive, through our city out to the country up North, about an hour and a half away until you get to the base of the mountains. Instantly, we could feel and smell the difference in the air! There were trees and lakes and it smelled green instead of like a smoggy city, it was glorious! The whole day was perfect, 28 and sunny, Lee got a bit of a sunburn :o) We stopped along the way to visit temples and explore the little side streets full of shops and food, and we got fresh home-made fried rice and mushroom skewers for lunch, mmmm!! The whole lunch for the 3 of us was $4 Canadian!! And then we continued to drive up the winding roads into the mountains where the view just got bigger and more spectacular, until it got too late and we had to turn around and come back :o( Work was good, I've been giving tests all week which is super easy for me and makes the time fly by! Tonight Lee and I will join everyone else for another night of bowling, and then Thursday is our last day before the holidays! Woo-hoo!!

finding the right words

Have you ever had so much to say, too much to say, that you are actually speechless? Because there aren't enough words to accurately describe what you want to share? That's how I feel. I am so disconnected from my home life, from the world I am used to that it feels isolating; but then here I am on another level apart from everyone else, that is so exciting and eye-opening all on its own, that no one else can understand!

This week has been very, very long! Everyday in itself is new and brings the unexpected. School is becoming less Work and more Fun, and I no longer dedicate every free moment to lesson plans and talking about school :o) I have a life, outside of the job! Do you know how cool that feels, to move to another country and actually create a new lifestyle there? Where you fill it with new people, people that you care about, and activities that you never even knew existed! Lee and I have been going out almost every night, trying new restaurants or exploring new parts of the city. I have treated myself to a few luxury items: new sandals, and a georgous leopard LeSportsac purse! On Wednesday night, Lee and I joined many of the other Canadian/American teachers here for a night of bowling! It was so much fun to chill with people outside of work, and of course, Lee was the star of the night - bowling a 200 on his first game out!

Next week I give my first tests, and then we have 5 glorious days off! Mid-Autumn Festival replaces Thanksgiving here, and our trip down South to the beaches is booked and highly anticipated! This weekend has been great; Friday night Lee and I went to our hangout (the Canadian Bistro) for dessert; Saturday I worked 6 hours at a special program I'm doing for the next 4 Saturdays, where I basically play songs and games with a large group of 10-year-olds! And then at night we went to a delicious Thai restaurant (finally!! yum!!) and then shopped around the streets where I temporarily lost my helmet :o( I put it down in a store, and didn't realize for about 20 minutes that I had left it there, only to go back and find the store closed!! But lucky for me, Lee and I drove back Sunday morning and retrieved it, and then used our one relaxing day off to go grocery shopping and make a trip to Ikea :o) The internet is down at our dorm right now, and won't be fixed for about 2 weeks (incase some of you are wondering why I haven't been on MSN or E-mailing)!

This Tuesday, before work, Lee and I are joining a friend on a trip to the mountains! I am sooo excited and will tell you all about it afterwards! But for now I'm going to BREAK THE FAST!! Happy Yom Kippur, g'mar hatimah tova (may you be sealed in the book of life) and I will talk to you soon! xox

A New Year, A New Woman!

Greetings, ni hau, and happy new year! How are you all? Just a reminder to please write me back; think of these blogs as e-mails to you, I'm constantly telling you what I'm up to, you need to do the same!! Deal?

Many stories to share! To begin with, I have finally attached pics of the scooter!! She's about 9 years old but definitely still has a lot of spunk in her (we hope!!). It has been about a week and I will now attempt to drive it - on my own - so please send me your happy thoughts!!

On Sunday, Lee and I went downtown to shop for cell phones: MY FIRST CELL PHONE!! Me, the queen of anti-cells! But it is a necessity here, for Lee and I to contact each other let alone allow my friends and family to reach me (I'm now one of those people I hate on buses that text messages!!) It's a beatuful, tiny, red Nokia and I love it! As Jess pointed out to me, with the cell phone and the scooter, I am no longer the same Thornhill girl I once was!

To end with a funky story, while Lee and I were outside setting up our cells, a group of young girls came up to us and said, "You are beautiful! Can we take your picture?" which Lee willingly agreed to while I nodded, confused as to why they wanted my picture!? We took photo after photo, each girl taking a turn posing with us! Then when they left, another group of girls did the same thing!! Straaaange!!

Shana Tova from Taiwan!

So many things to share, so little time!! Where do I even begin? Well first of all, shana tova to you and yours! I wish you all a happy healthy New Year, and may you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

Being away from home for a whole year means missing every holiday with your family, which is a really big loss. It's hard to accept, and made even harder by the teensy weensy Jewish population here in Taiwan: all 100 of us! In the whole country, with one synagogue! Conveniently located in Taipei, I plan on going next Sunday for Yom Kippur. For those of you who don't know, Rosh Hashanah is the first of the New Year and a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year. Typically, I get together with family for a big dinner celebration, but this is no longer possible! :o( However, Lee and I went out to dinner here to a deelish Italian restaurant for some super cheap and yummy pasta! Afterwards, we scooted to a nearby river and threw bread crumbs in, to symbolize the disposing of our past years' sins. Then we came back to our dorm and dipped apple slices in honey, to symbolize the sweet new year to come! (pictures seen above) Our dorm-mates also joined us :o)

After a rough week, I welcomed the weekend with arms wide open! Laundry, actual meals, playing pool and scooting around the city, talking to people about things OTHER than class is all a really weird and wonderful change! Tomorrow Lee and I might even get cell phones, aaah! Other than that, I welcome you all to the exciting world of the Betel Nut Girls!! Betelnut Girls are the craze here; sexy skanked out chicks standing in glass booths selling disgusting fruit known as betelnut! It is eaten similarly to chewing tobacco, only it spits out a deep dark red so the sidewalks look like they're been spotted with blood! I welcome you all to check out the link above, for a closer look :o)

And last but not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORRIS!! Enjoy being a dirty old man!

WE GOT A SCOOTER!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, congrats are in order! Lee and I are now officially the proud owners of a beautiful blue scooter, previously loved by a fellow Canadian! So we know she's in good shape :o) Her name is Neeha, and tomorrow we are going to get new shocks, an oil change, and the breaks tightened. Don't worry: we already bought new helmets too! Pics to come soon, I promise! But in the mean time, here's a shot of one of my students bustin' a move, just to keep you entertained!

What a day in Taipei!

How can so much happen in just 24 hours!? Lee and I left Saturday at around 6, after our classes were over, for the train ride to Taipei - a 40 minute ride, the equivalent of going from Thornhill to downtown Toronto via public transit. Only we went to another city!! Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, and it's awesome! We got out of the train station downtown which is right in the heart of it all, only to be greeted by an overwhelming rally!! There was a mass public protest going on, of the citizens protesting their corrupt President, and it was madness!! People chanting and marching and throwing petitions in our faces, when all we wanted was directions to our hostel! So I finally decided that good old trusty Starbucks must have some English speaking people, they won't let us down! Low and behold, there was actually a group of 3 WHITE kids sitting and drinking coffee!! Forgetting all manners and common etiquette, I ran up to them yelling "thank G-d!!" and practically kissed them all for existing - don't worry, Lee remembered to introduce us and act normal :o) So these 3 kids were from the States and Hungary, all on high school exchange programs and knew their way around fairly well, so we asked them to join us on our journey to the famous Shihlan Night Market, the biggest in the city! It's impossible to describe if you've never been to one before, but it was so huge that we walked around (in the rain) for 2 hours and didn't even cover half of it! The loudest, dirtiest, smelliest, most crouded place I've ever been in my life, just buzzing with people all trying to sell you something, from clothes to food to electronics to jewellery to complete junk!

After the Night Market we parted ways from our fellow anglophones and set off to find the Happy Family hostel. Ohhh boy!! After managing to get our address translated into Chinese, and find a cab, we spent the next half hour circling around the neighbourhood to find a seemingly non-existent address. Lee and I finally just said thanks and got out, determined to find it on foot (in the rain) but this took another solid 20 minutes only to discover a broken door hidden in a sketchy alley with a hand-written sign reading "Happy Family"!! We went up the broken staircase to wake the manager and ask for a room, where he proceeded to tell us that boys and girls sleep separately here!! So we left to find another Happy Family Two, yet again placed down a dark and creepy alley; hooray! At this point it was almost 1am and we were exhausted, willing to sleep anywhere - this desparation came in handy when we saw the closet-like room with bunk beds and a broken window! So we upped the price and got a semi normal room and the manager was super sweet, so we were happy (even though the washroom was STD-infested and dripped something nasty from the ceiling!) we managed to get a decent night's sleep.

Sunday morning we set off to see Taipei 101, the world's tallest building also containing the world's fastest elevators! It was really cool to see the whole city from the top, but it would have been cooler if the air wasn't thick and grey from al the smog! We then enjoyed exotic lunches in the cafeteria downstairs: Lee had noodles, bbq pork, tea, corn and watermelon while I ventured for noodles and an omelette with muscles! Deelish! We broused around the shopping centre inside, home to Louie Vitton, Coach, Sony, Playboy and other such high-end stores before checking out Longshan Temple. This beautiful building is traditional in its architectire of red brick and beautfiully coloured and detailed dragon rooftops, while inside holds a pretty waterfall and Buddhist statues, rooms of gold pillars and candles everywhere; Lee and I lit incense along with the others and watched as everyone prayed and bowed.

Our next site was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, surrounded by the cultural centre of town - the opera house and concert halls, theatre stadiums, all big and beautiful! We weren't actually allowed to enter any of these places, but we took pictures before going to see the actual Memorial Hall itself: a 60 ft statue of the first Prime Minister, centered in an archway atop the longest case of stairs I've ever had to climb! There are two armed guards standing completely still beside the statue, and they never move a muscle all day long!

This brought a near-end to our trip, as we headed back to the main train station and shopped around the "mall" until our train departed - by mall I mean giant arcade with little shops of random knick-knacks and the occasional store. We FINALLY got to rest our feet on the ride home, where we enjoyed luxury showers, toilets (I hate squatters!!) with toilet paper, sinks with soap and other such commodities we take for granted!

Monday has been fabulous so far, with one class being cancelled thus extending my lunch period to two hours long! I am now off to teach another 4 hours for the evening. This week on schedule: grocery shopping, dinner with Canadian friends, a night of bowling and hopefully buying our scooter!!