Tomb Sweeping Day

Happy Tomb Sweeping Day, everyone.

An unexpected holiday for us, so no complaints. We're gonna take it easy, cause it's cold out. Maybe have some delicious food....

Enjoy your life!

And on a funnier note, here's Danielle on Youtube....

The 'P' Party

On October 27th, Columbia held its annual Halloween Party. This year's theme was the letter 'P'. James and I were assigned the task of organizing and managing activities, including Hang 'P' Man, The 'P' Idiom Relay, The Peter Piper Prize Pick (tongue twister game), the Purple People Eater KTV (Karoke), and Pin the Pun on the Pig-u ('ass' in Chinese... snicker!).

When clients arrived, they were served a glass of punch at the door. After the 'P' activities came to a close, clients and consultants alike gorged themselves on Pizza and other 'P' snacks, and socialized in the lobby. Meanwhile, animated
++++++++++++++++++++++++Halloween shorts played in the background.

The client who won the prize for the best 'P' costume wore a most impressive handmade peacock creation! Of course, James and I coordinated our costumes -- I was dressed as Paradise and James was Purgatory!

More Teacher Appreciation

And without further ado, it is high time that we introduce our beloved student, Pover. We have not yet taken a photo of him (but I guarantee that we will, as soon as we can), however, you will find an image below of the notebook, gift box and cell phone ornament that he made for me completely by hand as belated birthday gifts (well, he made the notebook and box, but only 'assembled' the cell phone ornament).

Pover is an incredibly keen student who struggles with English but makes every effort to communicate with us as much as he can. He seems to be a very spiritual person who has experienced incredible things in his life -- such as being run over and dragged by a truck. Perhaps as his English improves, we will eventually be able to communicate more effectively with him and get to know and understand him a little better.

The next two pictures that you will see below are of a beautiful creation by Patty, the cellist (who is also a student of ours, as noted in an earlier blog). It is essentially a thank you card (or should I say, poster?) to James and myself, the captains of her Sports-Day team, the Gazelles. (By the way, if you want to see more photos of Sports Day, go to Ling's Sports-Day Photos. Ling, as you know, is yet another one of our students).

I cannot conceive of the energy and time that both Patty and Pover put into our gifts. I can say, however, that teaching can be a highly fulfilling profession when your students communicate their appreciation in such meaningful ways. Thank you, Patty and Pover!




In other news, James and I had a lovely visit with our former Columbia student, Rita, who will be leaving this week to Taipei to begin a university degree. She brought us to the Taiwan Banana New Paradise Restaurant, where we enjoyed a Dim Sum lunch in a Traditional Taiwanese atmosphere. This restaurant is, in fact, also a museum that contains many displays of Taiwanese memorabilia and antiques/artifacts. Below, you will find a couple of links that will bring you to an image of an old-style Taiwanese ticket booth, displaying Japanese movie advertisements, and to a picture of a traditional roadside shop/vendor display -- both of which can be found in the restaurant that we visited. If you want to find out more about this restaurant/mini-museum, you can also visit: www.vernaldew.com.tw


If any of you back at home, in Canada, come to visit us in Taiwan, remind us to bring you to the Taiwan Banana New Paradise Restaurant. It is a truly a historical Taiwanese experience. The restaurant focuses on a time period in Taiwan, when 'white terror' (when the government would take care of you if you were dissident) was rampant and warnings of Chinese/mainland spies were posted everywhere in the city.

Happy Birthday Nella (Part II)

Again, it is a wonderful feeling to be appreciated. Today, James and I went into work and I was greeted between classes by one of my students, Patty, who gave me an incredibly appropriate birthday gift.

Between teaching sessions earlier this month, I was discussing Jacqueline du Près, a famous, deceased cellist with Patty (Patty being a cellist, herself). Patty then headed to Canada for a family vacation and purchased a collection of Jacqueline du Près CDs, along with a little 'Russ' teddy bear keychain and gave them to me for my birthday (see photo).

She also wrote me a letter (an impressive feat for an ESL student) and personally brought the gift into Columbia today, even though she was not scheduled for any sessions. From what I understand, Patty is a fairly strong cellist herself. I will have to go see her perform this year at her music school.

I'm a bad person

It's true.

I should be posting to the blog more often. I should be taking lots of pictures. I should be documenting and taking in all of what I'm doing here in Taiwan, and then communicating it with all of you back home.

But I'm not.

Instead, I'm working tons of overtime, and eating at 7-11 too much because by the time I'm off work, everything's closed. I'm sick because of the pollution, and I have to walk in it, sucking it all in, instead of buying a scooter like everyone else, and contributing to the pollution. But at least then I can wear a helmet and pollution mask.

I don't know. Sorry. I'll try and get on the pictures soon. We FINALLY bought a fridge. A wonderfully nice client from where I work drove us out to the 'used' section of town (because I can barely read a map), and spoke for us, and read, and bartered for us, and now we have a fridge.

I'm completely illiterate. I can't read or write. I can't speak the language. I can't take care of myself here. I can't buy food, let alone a fridge! I guess everyone should experience illiteracy at least once in their life, but I've got to get off my ass and figure this shit out now!

Truth is, Danielle and I have been working at our Chinese as well as our 10-hour workdays will allow. I'm beginning to understand the written aspects, and Danielle the oral aspects, of Chinese. We joke that together, we make one Taiwanese person....Truth also is that most expats here never bother to learn Chinese at all. One guy we bought a few household things off of has a Taiwanese girlfriend and has been here 5 years, but is unable to say "He's coming" in Chinese. That says so much about foreigners' own arrogance and insensitivity. Because Danielle and I can say "bichon lu cha" (passionfruit green tea) and "gee pai" (chicken chop, a type of 'boxed lunch'), we're considered "hardcore" at Ben's restaurant.

Actually, all of a sudden, Danielle can say and ask all sorts of things. It happened overnight. She can ask questions about when or where the bus is going, and how much something costs, and she usually understands the answer! I'm in awe. Just don't tell her!!

NEways, enjoy your many days, and pray for rain here. It keeps the pollution down and temperatures low.

It's Nice to be Appreciated...

Here's a quick post of some pictures from Ling, one of our clients. She's a sweetheart with a great sense of humor, and she really reminds me of my mom....

The typhoon turned out to be a dud. Too bad. Maybe we'll get to see one, but Taichung is very safe because of the mountain range.

Also, something cool happened. Danielle was rewarded for all her hard work. She was ranked second at work, and we both got bonuses (red envelopes of money). Further, she received a free day off (after the busy season), gift certificates to the fancy department store SOGO (it's Japanese) and some passes to the movies. Gotta love private business.

Danielle, as wonderful as she is, promptly gave the passes to Ben. Remember him? He's the guy from the tea house that we eat at EVERY DAY. We called his place "Luke's" after Luke from Gilmore Girls. Now we know his name is Ben, so it's "Ben's" now! Anyways, his photo is below. He gives us free food and great service, so he's more than earned them (not to mention he's taught us pretty much all the Chinese we know so far).

Well, that's about it for now. We're just working and waiting to get paid so we can buy a fridge!!

A Quick Update (before a long one)

Hey everyone,

Sorry about the delay in writing, but we've been busy. Started working, and put in some long hours to get upto speed. Days off are Friday and Saturday, so we work Sunday (a quiet day). We work in one of the tallest buildings in Taiwan, on the very top floor (42nd). Job is good and pretty easy, so we like it.

Hopefully we've found an apartment (we see it on the 6th). But since we won't see our first full pay until Aug 10, we've really got to count our beans so we can afford to move in. It's in the area we want, and it's very nice, and it's cheap, so we don't want to pass it up.

It's funny. It's very hot here, and so I'm really drained at the end of the day. Our 15 minute walk to work leaves us totally drenched in sweat, so we leave for work an extra half-hour early, and change at work. Umbrellas help a lot in keeping you cool, so many people here use umbrellas in the sun, as well as the rain. I just never thought I'd see the day when I'm setting the A/C to 27 or 28 C to keep cool and refreshed!

We spent a day taking photos of various things, and they should be posted this weekend, so keep your eyes open....

I know who Essie is! (and I'm graduating again)

Does anybody know how much it costs to live in Japan (researching that right now).

Essie is my dear aunt, Sheila! Yeah...mistery solved (actually it was solved awhile ago, but I was too lazy, or slothful, to post a blog about it). Glad she's getting to see the dark side of the family. And yes, the freak is Alyson--it's a Hunter S. Thompson reference.

Nella and I are trying to decide on Korea, Taiwan, or Japan. The thought is that Korea is cleaner and more modern, and generally pays better (free housing, free flight) but according to web chatter and our new Korean friend Bo, much more dishonest. Taiwan is more Chinese, so it's more traditional, but also dirty, and doesn't pay as well. Japan is like Mecca, but pay is lowest of all (much like Canada) and we won't be able to save. Culturally, spiritually, we want to go to Japan the most, by far. But it may not be feasible.

I think we're gonna hit Dave's ESL Cafe, the de-facto site for ESL overseas teaching, to find out some more....

Misc Ramblings

"My brother and I used to say that drowning in beer was like heaven, eh. Now he's not here, and I've got two soakers. This isn't heaven--this sucks!" - Bob McKenzie

So, New Mexico is poised to ban the artificial sweetener, aspartame. Oddly enough, it was introduced to the consuming public by our good friend, Donald Rumsfeld.

So, for those of you paying attention. Danielle has opted out of teaching a brutally bad course schedule at Widdifield. It's sad the way the education system works, and the way in which they tried to dupe her into taking the position. We're just both feeling good, that though our choices, and our discipline, she was able to refuse the position without too much sacrifice on our part.

Given our restrained financial situation, we're moving, and liquidating many of our possessions. Longer-term, everyone around is (you know who you are, people!) are supporting us in going to teach overseas. Taiwan looks like the locale of choice (and I was just starting to get comfortable with the Japanese language!). We'll see how long this takes....