Leavin' on a jet plane

Don't know when I'll be back again. But I will be back. Taiwan was too good to leave it forever.

The best laid plans . . .

I didn't make it to Lanyu, and I came back a day early. Here is a list of things that went wrong:

1) There were no seats available on the train. So I stood/sat on the floor for 5 hours. No biggie!
2) There were no ferries available to Lanyu until the next morning. Not really an issue, except that I was at a harbor far, far from Taidong (and the nearest hotel that I knew of).
3) After arriving at Green Island (a reasonable alternative), I discovered that the campsite I had paid for at the visitor's center did not come with a tent or a sleeping pad.
4) No one has tents available to rent after 6:00.
5) Scooters can run out of gas unexpectedly, at awkward times.
6) The sun rises very early, and the wind off the sea is cold without a sleeping bag.

However, it was still a good trip. I got to swim in one of the only two salt-water hot-springs in the world, which were conveniently open 24 hours. I made a bunch of pretty cool short-term friends to hang out with and have barbecued seafood with. The stars are AMAZING on Green Island at night. No one will bother you if you sleep on the beach (though you may be cold, and wake after only 2 hours of sleep, but if that's the case it's your own damn fault). The ocean is warm but still refreshing after the heat of the day.

I am tired, I am sunburned, and I never made it to my destination, but it was still worth it.

Winding down

Last day of work was on Friday, said goodbye to all the kids. It was a sad parting, of course, as these things tend to be, but a happy one, too. Mimi was especially sad, having been very close to me all year, and kept saying, "Today is a terrible day. I hate today!" I took her aside and told her that she'll always find days that are both happy and sad, and that it's okay to be sad, as long as you remember to be happy, too.


Saturday I went out to Danshui with Lizzy, Dianna, Hannah, and Alva, latter day friends of mine who I wish I'd met sooner. I guess that's how it will always be when I sign up to live somewhere temporarily. Saturday night was partying at Roxy and in my recently emptied apartment. We drank from milk bottles and wine glasses, lacking all other vessels. Sunday was a lot of reading, and a lot of sleeping in. And today I did my taxes, and shopped for camera lenses.

Things are winding down, but I've saved one more adventure for the time I have left: Monday morning I'll catch a train to Taidong, and from there a ferry (or perhaps a hovercraft) out to Lanyu, called Orchid Island. A few days on a tiny, quiet, tropical island sounds like a good thing right about now. One last bit of peace before I gotta figure out the next few years.

Beginning of end

I have a return date. I will leave Taipei shortly after 11:30 PM, August 30. I will arrive in San Francisco shortly after 8:00 PM the same day. TRAVEL BACK IN TIME!

I don't have a job in the States. But I have a massive family, and more friends than I think, and I miss them all quite enough to have finally decided to return.

Last call for anyone who wants neat Made in Taiwan stuff! Limited time offer! Don't let it expire!

Welp

Things fall apart, or so they say. I won't be heading out to Bali after all, and Marina won't be coming out to visit. Oh well. So it goes, right?

I haven't decided for sure whether this means I'll be returning prematurely. I'm leaning towards a short trip or two within Taiwan before flying home at the end of August to spend a couple weeks in the States visiting friends and family and generally catching up. Frankly, that sounds wonderful.

School has been going well. It's dawned on me that in a bare few weeks I will have taught Kindergarten for a year. That is, I will have been responsible for the education of 8 kids for an entire year. Unimaginable, 14 months ago. Easy, now. I could even do it again, if I had to. Hah!

Perspective shift

When things are looking bad from one point of view, take steps to move to another.

My plans for the time following my trip to Bali with Marina are in disarray. That is, I have no set plans yet. I have no job prospects, my applications seem to fall on deaf ears. I have a vague idea of where I want to live, and a pretty clear idea of what I'd like to do, but until I find someone willing to hire me, I am out of luck.

Short term, things are looking brighter than ever. My workload at school is minimal at the moment, due to relaxed expectations in the time leading up to Grad Show. It's stressful in a way, but it's also easier. Skimming stuff is both accepted and expected, and spending a few extra minutes at playtime is okay. Even better: I've been told that starting in August I'll be down to three kids, and that I'm expected to blaze through the remaining curriculum quickly in order to spend more time with them at the park, going to movies, or just generally chillin'.

Sounds like fun.

Continuing on

Two more adventures in socialized healthcare, dealing with Will's disappearance, the stress of co-directing a 45-minute musical featuring 36 3-7 year-olds, job applications, and food consultancy. Two weeks in the life abroad.

I developed a mystery rash on my leg on Saturday, and so set out for the clinic. Finding it closed, I took the MRT to the University hospital. Finding only the emergency room open I sat my butt down at the low end of triage (and felt guilty even for that). After a long chat with my neighbor, a young/old Indonesian girl here as a housekeeper (with her own fascinating story), wound up seeing a nervous young doctor who decided I'd had a bad reaction to a bugbite. 700 NT and a tube of steroids later, and I was on my way.

Today I wandered over to the other clinic after work and sat for an hour. The doctor took one look at my foot (big old blister, likely infected, totally within his domain as a general practitioner) and referred me to a dermatologist. Another half-hour wait for a five minute consulation and a prescription for a week of antibiotics. At least I got what I needed, and the wait wasn't really that bad. 200 NT, which works out to about 7 bucks, US.

Not having Will at school has had its ups and downs. Disciplining him was pretty much impossible, and he had a lot of trouble paying attention during play practice (more on this soon). He got the other kids riled up, and slowed down the class at times. He always had a smile on. He would come up to me and say, "I like you Teacher Ben!" Occasionally he'd call me Teacher Emma (my co-teacher) by mistake, and then laugh in embarrassment, hilariously. The kid was adorable, and you couldn't keep him down if you tried. I miss him in the way that I've realized means that I really valued him, which is a new kind of pain for me. It's no fun, but I'm glad to have recognized it and made its acquaintance.

Helping Celine run the grad show has been a magnificent pain in the ass. We have too few kids, too many requirements, too few costumes, too little time, and too little patience. It's the end of the year, everyone is cranky, and we're losing time from the curriculum that the kids need to have finished before they go on to grade 1. And all there is to be done is to continue on and find a way to make it tolerable for the kids.

Job applications suck. Sending out resumes and not even receiving confirmation receipts is frustrating and discouraging, and all I can do is continue on looking until I find what I need. It will all work out in the end. It's just making it to the end that's tough.

In other news, I have been advising the newly opened burrito stall in the night market on how to properly season and garnish their burritos. It has been a fun experience, and I have gotten to know the owner well enough to have been given his phone number and life story. New bullet on resume: Burrito flavor consultant, Taipei, Taiwan, 2008.

Bummer

I lost my first kid this week: Will, who used to be named Pewitt. He was a hellion in the beginning, but got much better until the end of the first semester. At the beginning of the second semester he was having a rough time, not paying attention, dozing off. In the last few weeks before he got yanked from my class he was doing tons better, finishing his work early, engaging the material.

Personality-wise, Will was probably my favorite. He never took things personally, which made him hard to discipline, but also meant that he pretty much always had a smile on his face. How can you argue with that?

He disappeared from class a week and a half ago, and we got confirmation today that his mom doesn't want him to attend our school anymore, and that's final. She's crazy, in a bad way, but there's not much we can do about it.

I miss him, and wish that I had had the chance to say goodbye. At least I'll get to say a proper farewell to the rest. Still, I feel like I got the most accomplished with Will. He really turned over a new leaf in class, after being maybe the worst behaved kid in the school for the last three years.

Oh well. What is there to be done?

Your latest news from around the globe

After a couple of months of long periods of inactivity with occasional bursts of effort, I have completed my latest model. Martin is much, much better at this than I am, but I'm still proud of what I've put together.
Now to start on the next one!

In other news, I've been thinking a lot about cultural exhaustion, lately. Maybe it's delayed-action culture shock, or maybe I'm just tired, but lately I've really been missing a lot of the comforting things I took for granted about living in the states. Being able to read the signs comes readily to mind. Understanding conversations as I walk through a city. Getting cultural references. It seems like the effort of staying mentally active in a place that encourages me to be lazy is starting to get to me.

I'm tired. I'm almost (almost!) ready to go home.

Thunder

I was walking home from work a few minutes ago, and caught a BRIGHT flash in the sky. So bright and so near overhead that I jumped into the air. Before I landed, the thunder hit, loud enough to startle the hell out of me. So loud that I could physically feel it in my bones. So loud that every car alarm for a block around me went off at once.

Wow.

Woosh

Woosh is the sound of how quickly the weeks are being torn off the calendar. We practice daily at school for the grad show, and that cuts into a big part of my teaching time, meaning that each day zooms past at work.

Katherine has gone home, and I've been going out to dinner with Martin more often. It's good times, but it has meant that I've been swimming a little less regularly. Gonna have to really clamp down on that. I've also been spending more time hanging out with Ali and Kaitlin, though Kaitlin will shortly be getting busier, as she has taken a new job. All three of us are very, very ready to be done with the current school year. 12 straight months of school is fucking hard.

I've kept up writing more regularly, though an increase in output seems to have coincided with a decline in quality. Obligation versus desire, and all that good stuff. I've been taking pictures every now and then (though too lazy to edit and post to flickr). No exciting trips to speak of, besides a ho-hum trip to Fulong, a good day of surfing at Daxi, and an afternoon of dragon boat races out in Xindian. This weekend there is a pool party on Saturday, and I'm considering heading to the coast on Sunday for some more surfing. I'd like to get out of the city. We'll see if it happens.

The weather has been interesting lately. Hot and humid and cloudy, with daily thunderstorms in the afternoon. Pretty cool, though I'd rather be relaxing at home on the couch listening to the rain and thunder than teaching a crowd of unruly children. I guess that's just how it is. This morning I awoke to find ants in my laptop. A less-than-desirable side effect of all the rain.

Keep on truckin', I guess. Muddle through 'til August, when I'm done and it's travel time.

Oh, one more thing: I have an initial phone interview tomorrow morning for a job as a study coordinator at the Menlo Park VA hospital. Wish me luck!

Things in the file of WTF

Yesterday one of my kids was coloring, and I watched a fly land on his cheek. He twitched a little, I think. Other than that, no reaction. The fly crawled up his cheek until it was pretty clearly about to drink from his eye. At that point he grunted and swung his hand up, hitting himself in the face. The fly flew away, but came back minutes later. The scene was repeated.

He's not a stupid boy. I think it's just that he never sleeps. His mom refuses to set a bedtime for him, and so he stays up as late as he likes, and is frequently late to class. And then flies crawl into his eye.

Today at lunch I had a kid from purple class come in (4 years old). She was crying but alert, and able to sit down. When she was asked to start eating, she started crying harder. Soon she was making coughing noises. Then she was making gagging noises. Turns out that she gets so worked up by the sight of a bowl of food that she starts sobbing, and then forces herself to throw up. She threw up so much that, by the end, nothing more would come out. This is a four year old who is forcing herself to puke up stomach acid.

Start 'em young, I guess.

Stories from work

In the file of ridiculous things I've been told as a Foreign Teacher:

"Please teach my daughter to behave well at home. At school, her behavior is fine, in the normal range, sometimes naughty, usually nice. At home she is disrespectful to me, leaves things lying around, and won't hold a pencil in the way I deem to be correct. Please help her to learn all these things. Additionally, get her to stop chewing on her fingers, and if you could teach her that stealing is wrong, too, that'd be great. Thanks."

"Please don't remind my boy that he is late. He feels ashamed that he is late, and does not want to go into school to face his teacher who is upset when he is late every day. I know he is far behind the rest of the class, and that he needs all the help he can get (including additional, expensive tutoring) in order to catch up. Despite knowing this, I can't be bothered to wake him up on time to get him to school in the morning. Instead I allow him to stay up late and sleep late, even though he feels ashamed when he misses classes. Thanks."

"I think you don't like my little girl because she frequently comes home from school and tells me that she's had a bad day. Never mind the fact that using any tone of voice on her other than happy and cheerful frequently sends her into a sulk, and certainly never mind the fact that asking her to apologize to her friends after she insults them brings her to tears. Surely the cause of her bad days must be that her teacher does not like her. It could not possibly be that she is spoiled."

"I think you don't like my little boy because you have sent home reports that detail his consistently poor behavior, as well as his utter lack of internal motivation. These reports are more detailed and more critical than the reports we received last year. I don't care that his teacher last year frequently lied by omission in his reports, the answer must be that you don't like my little boy, even though he loves you dearly and is ALWAYS happy to see you."

"Please grow a beard by Thursday of this week. You look too young to be a teacher, and in fact you are too young to teach legally in this country, so please grow a beard before your Parent Teacher Conferences. Additionally, please tactfully redirect any questions that might be hinting at your true age." (Thankfully, no longer an issue.)

"Be ready to escape through the back door at any moment. Occasionally the government sweeps schools like ours for illegal foreign teachers. Since your paperwork hasn't cleared yet, you fall into that category. If an agent comes to inspect us, I will get on the intercom and announce that 'Teacher Ben has a visitor.' That will be your cue to duck out through the kitchen."

"Oh, by the way, you're Santa now. Here is your regulation Santa Costume that doesn't fit, complete with a nylon beard that smells of 'questionable' origins."

Two worlds

There's the world up top and the world outside. What I mean is, behind the eyes there's the suspicion that I'm capable of doing anything I want, that only humble obstacles stand in my way. Outside the skin there's the reality that everything back inside is ticking and tumbling down in a very much not-endless slide. The batteries will run down, the engine will grind to a halt, and the lights behind the eyes will go out.

I don't have enough time to do it all. I can do anything, but I only have enough time to do some things.

How on Earth do I even begin to decide what's worth my time?

I suppose I should start with what brings me fulfillment. So that's my task for now: figure out what fulfills me. Perhaps I should set a deadline. Say, by the end of the year? That's a good chunk of time for me to paw through my memories and build a solid set of new experiences. In that time I'd like to lay out a foundation for the things I already find fulfilling, as well as a set of options for discovering new things.

If at the end of the year I decide that I have not had enough time, I will give myself a little more. But alas, things like grad school will not shape themselves to my own schedules. One must be accommodating of the "real" world.

Bragging rights

I swam a mile today in under 40 minutes. Not exactly Olympic speed, and I've still got my spare tire around the middle, but I feel like I'm in pretty decent shape now.

Whew!

Wow! What a whirlwind of a week! Lots of traveling, lots of sightseeing, a little bit of mood-roller-coastering, and tons of great times. Travel companions included the ever-popular Kaitlin, her brother Dean (see photo below), Ali, and Liz. A lovely time was had by many.

To wit:
On Saturday we grabbed a train at the crack of 11:30. High speed rail south at 300 kph got us to Tainan in about an hour and a half. In Tainan we found a somewhat overpriced hotel (or so we initially concluded). Checked in, sorted out rooms, then decided to go hit up the town in search of culture, enlightenment, and cream cheese. As we were leaving the hotel, we discovered that our "overpriced" hotel came with the following perks: free bicycle use (slightly ghetto bikes), free snacks, unlimited cola, unlimited ice tea, and unlimited beer. Hot damn.

So we sallied forth, we fortunate few, and we scoured the town for cream cheese to go on our bagels, eventually compromising on cheese spread from Carrefour. From there we boogied on over to a local park for a late lunch/snack. See photo below for a concise summary of the most awesome feature of the park.


After our digression, we went and saw some cultural shit, including a couple of temples and an old fort. I could bore you with more detail, but suffice to say it was all quite pretty and impressive and it led to the phrase, "the Jade Emperor has 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one."

Later in the evening we hit up Tainan's impressively large night market for snacks and small sundry purchases, and to give Dean an idea of how awesome such things are here.



After Tainan we trained our way down to Gaoxiong. We stayed in a hotel close to the train station, and spent the afternoon and evening out on Qijin Island, in the harbor, playing frisbee on the sand and chillin' on top of the old Dutch gun battery. Good times.

The next morning we took a bus down to Donggang, and then a ferry out to Liuqiu Island. We camped overnight at the same campground I visited last time, and it was fantastic. The five of us worked our way through a fifth of vodka and then some and had a grand old time playing drunken frisbee in the fields above the cliffs we were camped beside. This is not as stupid as it sounds, re-reading it: the cliffs were a good distance from the fields.

We spent the next morning at the beach, enjoying the warm, clear water, before taking the ferry back to Donggang, and then a bus down to Kenting. We spent three nights in Kenting, and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, Liz bailed on us after the first night so that she could go "work", but I guess that's "understandable". We saw many a cool sight, including but not limited to endlessly burning natural gas fires, giant sand dunes, paradisaical beaches, and signs warning us about snakes.





After that it was a harsh, harsh bus ride back to Gaoxiong, a brief but delicious dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, and then a much longer (but much more comfortable) bus ride back to Taipei.

And that, as they say, was that.

Hittin' the road

Tomorrow is the first day of my week of paid vacation. I'll be taking the High Speed Rail (woooooooooo!) south to Tainan with Kaitlin, Dean (Kaitlin's brother), and Ali. We'll chill there for a day, checking out temples and history, before continuing south to Gaoxiong via Express Train (not quite HSR, but still pretty zippy). In Gaoxiong we'll look for the magnificent water park that's supposed to be somewhere around there. We'll also catch a sunset from beautiful Cijin Island. The next day we'll bus to Donggang, from which we'll ferry to Liuqiu Island. Spend a night there, ferry back to Donggang, bus to Kenting. Spend a night (or two) in Sail Rock, bus back to Fangliao, train to Taidong, ferry to Lanyu (Orchid Island). A night or two there, and then it's back to Taipei.

Whirlwinds are us! Pictures and reports to come post facto. Godspeed and tallyho!

Dullness

Well, yeah, it's mid-April (happy belated, Chris!), and things continue on about the same as ever. Swimming when I can (3-5 times a week), hanging out with friends, building robots, playing video games. Lots of these things, and not much of anything else. Very little exploration, very little "excitement", per se.

It's cool, though. I captured a giant fucking spider last night in our "catch and release and not die in the process" program. It was epic. Katherine took video. It all went down with to strains of the truly excellent new Flogging Molly album, Float. We'll see if it shows up on flickr or YouTube sometime.

This is my last week of work before spring break. The plan for spring break is to take the high speed train south, hit up a couple of islands, a couple of beaches, a city or two. Spend a week kicking around with Liz and Kaitlin and Kaitlin's brother Dean and maybe Ali too. Write some run ons. Take some pictures. The usual awesome fare.

Two final notes: I got new glasses, and they're funky; the weather lately has been lovely: thunderstorms, blustery days, gnarly cloudscapes. Good times.

Sad math

Hours per day: 24

Hours per day spent working: 9
Hours per day spent sleeping: 8
Hours per day spent eating: 2 (not counting lunch, which I often work through)
Hours per day spent walking to and from work: .5
Hours per day spent dressing/undressing for work: .5

Free hours remaining: 4

Number of hours I would like to spend . . . (each day)
Writing: 1.5
Swimming: 2 (including travel to and from pool)
Building robots: .5
Playing video games: 1
Chatting online/surfing the internet: 1
Hanging out with friends/watching anime with Martin and Katherine: 2

Free hours remaining: -4

Conclusion: I need a 28 hour day.

Rain

No news is good news, right? I swim, I build robots, I go out from time to time, I stay in from time to time. I write lots and lots, and that's good. I'm learning all sorts of good things that I don't know how to put into words. It's raining out now, after a day of dark skies and heavy air. It was hard to breathe, and tense. The rain snaps and patters on the tin awnings of the nearest building. This city is very relaxing in its way. Maybe I'll go for a walk.

No news is good news!

Very little to report recently, with two exceptions. First, I have begun swimming regularly at a local pool. It's cheap-ish (about 2.60 US, each time), and offers 50 meters of not terribly crowded lanes at a variety of speeds. Plus, it's got a steam room, a dry sauna, massage showers, and an ice-water bath. And archery facilities on the roof. Bonus!

Second, today marks the first day of the second half of my time here. I arrived 25 August, 2007, and will likely leave around the same day next year. Six months gone, six months left, and they're beginning to feel genuinely manageable. Now, if only the weather would turn sunny again!

Having wandered

So here's the breakdown of my trip around Taiwan:
Tuesday, 5 Feb 2008: Left Taipei and arrived in Tainan
Wednesday, 6 Feb: Left Tainan and arrived in Kaohsiung
Thursday, 7 Feb: Left Kaohsiung and arrived in Donggang
Thursday: Left Donggang and arrived on Liuqiu Island
Friday, 8 Feb: Left Liuqiu Island and arrived in Fangliao
Friday: Left Fangliao and arrived in Kenting National Park
Sunday, 10 Feb: Left Kenting and arrived in Taidong
Monday, 11 Feb: Left Taidong and arrived in Hualien
Tuesday, 12 Feb: Left Hualien and returned to Taipei

That's the short version, anyway. If I knew more HTML I'd make each day a link to my description of it below, but alas, I am lame. So here's a day by day of what I did on my way around the island. For photographic evidence (150 or so photos), go see flickr.

Tuesday:

I started a day later than I intended to, but it was okay, because it meant getting an earlier start than I otherwise might have. I hopped on the train for the four hour journey south to Tainan, arriving a little after 4 in the afternoon. I checked into a hotel near the train station, grabbed my guidebook and my camera, and took off to see some sights. I saw several interesting temples and got a quick crash course in modern Taiwanese religious practice.

Wednesday:

Woke up early to get a look at several more temples. Tainan has the highest density of Qing-dynasty era buildings (especially temples) of any city in Taiwan. The architecture is generally beautiful, and the astonishing opulence of some of the temples reflects the fervor of their patrons. Caught an early afternoon train south to Gaoxiong.

Upon arrival in Gaoxiong I hunted down a hotel and dropped my stuff off before catching a bus to the ferry pier. I took the ferry across Gaoxiong harbor to Cijin Island, just off the coast. Gaoxiong is one of the biggest container ports in the world, given how much stuff Taiwan produces for export, and it was fairly busy while I was there. Cijin island protects the harbor from storm damage, and plays host to a lighthouse and a gun battery in addition to a residential neighborhood. Both the lighthouse and the gun battery were constructed by the Dutch to protect their interests way back when. The lighthouse is still operational, but the gun battery has been turned into a publicly accessible point of historical interest. I spent a good couple of hours exploring it and taking pictures of its well-preserved remains before returning to Gaoxiong proper for dinner and sleep.



Thursday: I took a morning train from Gaoxiong to Donggang, a small fishing town on the southwest coast of Taiwan known for its annual tuna haul. Donggang is also known for having a big old temple dedicated to one of the ocean gods, two whom a boat full of goods is dedicated and burnt every 9 years. The gateway to the temple courtyard is enormous, and is plated nearly entirely in gold.



After checking out the temple scene (very busy thanks to Chinese New Year celebrations), I caught a 40-minute ferry to Liuqiu Island, a small coral islet off the southwest coast. Liuqiu is a lovely place, and I plan on returning. The whole island (~13 kilometers in circumference) is made of coral, and there are tons of neat caves and grottoes and cliffs all the way around it. Beautiful scenery. I spent the night there camping in a rented tent on the North cliffs at one of the better campgrounds in Taiwan (apparently).



Friday: Spent a little more time scootering around Liuqiu, checking things out before catching a noon ferry back to Donggang. From Donggang I caught a bus to Kenting town, which is at the center of Kenting National Park, which in turn covers most of the peninsula dangling off the southern tip of Taiwan. Kenting town is a crowded tourist burg that I found rather repulsive, so after obtaining a scooter I rode a few kilometers down the road to Sail Rock, a small strip of hotels and restaurants much quieter than Kenting town itself. Sail Rock is so named for a big coral boulder sitting just offshore of the town that is said to resemble the sail of a Chinese Junk. I found that it more closely resembled a profile view of Richard Nixon's head. So many people have noted the resemblance that the official sign describing the rock (at the roadside parking lot) has including it in the description.

Friday night was spent watching fireworks explode and drinking beer by the seaside. Lovely.

Saturday:

Saturday was a big day of exploration, as I saw pretty much the entirety of Kenting National Park by way of scooter. Amazing cliffs, sweeping views of mountains, ocean, rice paddies, and rolling grasslands, hundred-foot-tall sand dunes: I saw it all. As the afternoon wore on I paused at South point, at the very "bottom" of Taiwan, and watched the waves pound away at the coral. In the evening I crashed my scooter, dealt with it, and then rode out to Chuhuo (meaning, literally, "fire comes out"), a bunch of natural gas fires just kinda sitting around, burning by the side of the road. Very popular, lots of people crowding around with sparklers and popcorn. Kinda bizarre.

Sunday:

A lazy morning, finally. Slept in, returned my scooter, caught a bus to Fangliao, a lovely, sleepy little railway town just south of Pingdong. Ate lunch by the seaside while waiting for my train and just generally felt good about it. Took the train through some lovely mountain and coastal scenery all the way to Taidong. In Taidong I met up with my friend Niki, whose parents live there, and her friend and cousin. The four of us rode bikes through some of Taidong's numerous and beautiful parks, dipped our feet in the ocean, ate stinky tofu, and then went to the hot springs at Zhiben.

Monday: Woke up early, met up with Niki, and scootered over to the National Museum of Prehistory, where I learned more about the geological processes by which Taiwan was formed, human evolution in general, and some of the ins and outs of indigenous Taiwanese culture, both modern and prehistoric. A very good museum, with well-presented information and engaging exhibits.



After the museum, Niki dropped me off at the train station and I caught a train to Hualien. Again, I went through some absolutely amazing countryside: the Eastern Rift Valley is full of cliffs and volcanic mountains. Very rugged landscapes collapsing into rice paddies and small townships.



Once in Hualien I arranged a scooter and then promptly got lost, just like the last time I was in Hualien. The city must be built on a burial ground or something. It just throws my navigational mojo for a loop. I finally managed to get my bearings, after riding around in the cold rain for about an hour, and set up a night's lodging at a truly excellent hostel. Crashed after chatting with some other travelers for a while.

Tuesday: woke up early with a sweet goal in mind: scooter over to Taroko gorge, which I visited with Judith back in September, and take a dip in the hot springs there. The springs are supposed to be really amazing, welling up in the middle of a river with baths carved out of marble. Free and open to the public. Alas, after my hour and a half, freezing cold scooter ride, I discovered that the trails were closed due to landslide. Somewhat frustrated, I further bundled up, rode back to Hualien, and grabbed the next train back to Taipei.

So them's the facts, more or less. There are boundless details about my stay in each city, but I won't bore myself by recounting them in their mundane entirety unless asked specifically about one place or another. Check out the photos up on flickr for more of a sense of where I was and what I saw. It was a lovely trip!

On the road

Checking in from Sail Rock, 2 km south of Kenting. It's been a good trip so far. I've seen some amazing things, checked out some really cool places, and only had one scooter incident. And I've taken HUNDREDS of awesome pictures, which I'll work on putting online when I get back to Taipei sometime next week.

Halfway there!

On the eve of adventure

The goal for tomorrow is to catch a train to Taichung. I have yet to finish cleaning or even packing, so I suppose it'll be an afternoon train. After Taichung will come Tainan, followed by Gaoxiong, Pingdong, Taidong, Hualien, Yilan, and finally the triumphant return to Taipei. At the very most I'll spend 13 days traveling, returning home with one day remaining of my vacation.

Aside from the opportunity to see beautiful countryside, travel in a foreign country, and see new things, the best part is that it's a paid vacation. Rock!

I'm sure I'll take a million pictures, and maybe I'll even update while I'm on the road. Wish me luck!

Photos!

Some photos from my walk this evening have been posted on flickr. They aren't terribly good, as photos go, but they do a good job of giving a sense of my neighborhood. See them!

Competence

Ingrid (the new manager) has observed my classes three times now, as I recall. Could be four, but I think it's been three. The first few times she had some good feedback for me, so I took her advice and made the changes she recommended. Things got easier. I made additional changes that seemed like good ideas to me on my own. Later feedback indicated that they made sense to her too. Things got easier again.

Basically, work is much more doable now, and I feel like an honestly competent teacher. After today's observation Ingrid showed me her notes, which basically said, "Ben is a competent teacher with a well-disciplined class and a powerful classroom personality. I won't need to observe again for the foreseeable future." This made me happy.

In less fun news, my knee is giving me trouble for some reason. It's got an aching pain that's occasionally a stabbing pain deep inside, on the back side of the knee. I bought a brace tonight that I'll start wearing to work (lots of standing around) and when I exercise. Hopefully it'll get better on its own. If it's still giving me hell in two weeks, I'll see a doctor.

Flip floppin'

So I made my boss' and my coworkers' collective day yesterday when I told my (new and improved!) boss that I would be staying at Jumpstart, rather than quitting at the semester. I have to go over to the main office after work today to sign papers in order to confirm. The head teacher (my immediate supervisor) was very happy, and Ingrid (the new manager) literally jumped for joy. I'm not staying for them, particularly (likable as they are), but it was still a nice side effect to make other people so happy. It's a good feeling when decisions have added benefits.

Things have gotten better since the old manager was replaced. So much better that Celine's pep talk about how we're already halfway through the year (and past the most difficult part) was really effective. I'm not super excited to be staying here for another six months, but I probably won't be miserable either, and if I work at it, odds are good that I'll really enjoy it.

1 more hour today, and then two more days until the weekend. I'm going surfing again!

Computer parts and smog: like being back home

Martin's laptop's hard drive gave up the ghost the other day, so after booting it into target mode and stripping it of all the data we could, we decided that a trip to the electronics store was in order. Last night we walked the short distance to the nearest store, where we encountered an utterly mystified salesman who tried to sell us an external drive that we could take apart in order to get at the internal. We decided there was nothing here for us, and that we would have to look elsewhere.

I, being naive, suggested that perhaps there was another similar store nearby. It was at this point that Martin mentioned the electronics market area. Things get kinda hazy for a little while, but at some point I must have convinced him (and Katherine) that we HAD to go there. So we took the MRT, got a little turned around, but eventually wound up in the right place: a whole broad street lined with electronics store after electronics store. Big superstores (useless for our needs) all the way down to little, hole-in-the-wall places where you can bargain for the price of your component (just what we wanted).

We found a hard drive for Martin at the second store we went to, and for a good deal cheaper than we would have paid over the internet. Awesome. So we decided to walk back to the other nearby MRT stop, through the market.

I made it through the market without breaking my bank account. I restrained myself to one purchase: a USB skype phone. I can now speak reasonably into a handset instead of shouting at my laptop. More phone calls in the near future, as soon as I recharge my skype account.

The thing is, after we made it through the market, the MRT was nowhere in sight. So we started walking. We weren't completely lost, just pretty severely turned around. So we kept walking. An hour later, after marching through two districts, we made it home. It was a lovely walk: the temperature was great, there was no rain. The smog is so thick right now that all the lights had lovely little halos! In fact, when I got up today, it had thickened to the point of nearly being fog. No visibility.

Just like back home!

Christmas Show Pics

40-some-odd pages of photos of the Christmas show and the party preceding it. Highlights are my kids, dressed as dinosaurs, performing "Santa Bring Me a Dinosaur", me dressed as Santa for the party (redneck Santa, I'll have you know, complete with accent and bare feet), and the nursery class wearing the most adorable berets ever devised.

Pictures are here.

Bali and changes at work

Bali was a good trip. I got to see some beautiful beaches, temples, forests, and classic terraced hillsides. I met some really cool people. I got to hang out with folks I now consider to be good friends. There was sunshine, there was rain. I even got to surf and boogie-board. I got to face down a storm, I fell off a bicycle (three times). I returned to a very cold (comparatively, anyway), very grey city that, in some ways, I missed quite a bit.

Also, my awful, incompetent manager got fired, and has been replaced by someone who seems to be genuinely good at her job. I'm hoping that this will make the last two months of my time at Jumpstart much more pleasant and agreeable.

Now I just need to start looking for a new way to pay the bills.

Pictures from Bali will be up on flickr soon, if all goes as planned.